People Before Profit blog

Genocide, dispossession, and creating a human and sustainable community

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 15:36:00 +0000

December 29 was the 125^th anniversary of the slaughter of hundreds of defenseless Native People - men, women, and children - at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890.

While this atrocity was the work of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, its genesis lies in the policy of genocide and dispossession practiced by European colonial powers from the day of their arrival in the Americas four centuries earlier. Moreover, these practices were sanctioned by racist ideology and acquired extraordinary force and tempo as they evolved and maturated in the "whirlpool," to use Marx's word, of an emerging and expanding capitalist economy.

If I had forgotten about this horrific episode and era of history, I have Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to thank for recalling it for me. Her new book, "An Indigenous People's History of the United States," is a vivid, incisive, passionate, and unforgiving accounting of the nation-building practices of the European settlers and the heroic resistance of indigenous peoples at Wounded Knee and in countless other encounters, across the continent and the centuries. Page after page the author shows how the voracious appetite for land, natural resources, and political and cultural dominance of the settlers was coupled with a ruthless determination and superior weaponry to crush the far older civilizations that had occupied the land long before them.

At any rate, the Wounded Knee commemoration (as well as Dunbar-Ortiz's book) should remind us not only of a far more complicated historical narrative - actually counter narrative - about our nation's origins, shaped as it turns out in the cauldron of systematic dispossession and genocide of indigenous people, not to mention the more widely acknowledged brutal system of slavery and ferocious class exploitation. It should also cause us to extend a hand of solidarity to indigenous people in their present-day struggles for justice, equality, sovereignty, sacred sites, and land rights.

But we should do so not only out of a new moral clarity too long obscured and sense of justice too long denied, compelling as they undeniably are. Such solidarity should also spring from an understanding that a sustained struggle against genocide, dispossession, and oppression of Native peoples in particular - and racial and gender inequality in general - is at the core of a people's, working class-based alliance that is durable and muscular enough to confront our foes and create a livable and peaceful future for all. In other words, our common future depends on the readiness of each of us to join the struggle to undo (to the extent possible) the crimes of the past - genocide, dispossession, and slavery - and the racial and gender inequalities of the present.

One final word: earlier this year, Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of "Between the World and Me," wrote an essay in The Atlantic making a persuasive case for reparations to compensate for the horrors and long-term impact of slavery on African Americans. It seems to me that a similar though not identical case, which Dunbar-Ortiz does, can be made for reparations for indigenous peoples, who have almost miraculously survived and yet continue to face a denial of their rights to economic security, equality, full sovereignty, and dignity.

Reparations cannot make up for hundreds of years of genocide and dispossession any more than they can compensate for slavery, but they would begin to undo some of the injustices of the past and present and are necessary if our imperfect union is to become a more perfect one and our country to measure up to its proclaimed ideals.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

2015 Recipient of the American Book Award

2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature

Available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions

Movie Review: "Star Wars 7" The Farce Awakens

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 02:38:00 +0000

I saw the new Star Wars movie: Meh

SPOILER ALERT!

Do NOT continue if you have not already seen this movie!

I'll start with a rundown of the impressions the characters left on me.

Protagonists: mostly pretty OK.

Rey: She's OK, basically carries this albatross of a movie. Without her, the movie would be of the "we want our money back!" caliber. She does commit a horrible violation of etiquette right at the end when she offers Luke her lightsaber with the dangerous end pointed right at him!

Finn: He's OK too. A sanitation worker promoted to Stormtrooper who has a change of heart when ordered to slaughter unarmed civilians. Perhaps some of our own military and police forces could follow his example?

The hotshot pilot guy: sorta OK

BB droid: OK

Han Solo: eh, can you say Space Geezer? Or Suicidal Insane Idiot?

The Wookie, Chewbacca: OK

The thousand-year-old bartender: OK

Leia Organa: sorta OK. A waste of Carrie Fisher's talent. On the plus side, she shrewdly sends her idiot husband to certain death.

C3PO: truly a disgrace to three "C"s and a "P"

Sleeping Beauty R2D2: Aw, c'mon. A droid decides to sleep for years and everyone just leaves it alone? Wouldn't leaving a broken droid in the control center get in the way? Maybe arouse suspicion, like why is that broken R2 so important, and maybe we should check it for hidden maps or some such? Oh, wait, they can't because R2D2 is only partly a mechanical construct and is mostly some strange embodiment of The Farce. The final map scene was annoying, made more so by The Golden One jabbering senselessly.

The Resistance leadership generally? They're doomed! Pure "deer staring at headlights." Even the halfhearted, bumbling Kylo Ren could mop up this rabble.

Luke Skywalker: He ran away because of a mistake? Oh please! Now if he did this to "draw out" the Dark side or whatever else, maybe he could pull it off. Fortunately, he kept his mouth shut! So, Luke was either great or really horrible, depending on what transpires on the next episode.

Antagonists (Villains)

Kylo Ren: Truly pathetic! Even the perpetually shallow, dimwitted and gullible Darth Vader beats this sap.

Get this -- After ineptly leaving the droid containing the secret map behind because he managed to catch Rey, who has seen the map fragment displayed for at least several seconds, he accidentally teaches her how to use "The Old Jedi Mind Trick" while interrogating her! DUH! (Being one of the few competent characters in this movie, she promptly uses this to escape)

He starts chopping up his own ship with his lightsaber during frequent tantrums, speaking of which looks like it's badly out of adjustment, with a beam that sparks, wobbles and flickers. Is this the best the Dark Side can do? I hope he survived, because he certainly needs to "complete his training." Villains should provoke fear, hatred, disgust or contempt, not pity!

Various Stormtroopers and command personnel: OK. Most of these seem competent, particularly General Hux.

Fin's commanding officer, Captain Phasma: eh. I hope she got eaten by the garbage monster.

Han Solo's business associates / monster food: Not bad. Big, icky and very angry monsters held captive by an idiotic Han Solo were pretty good, as Big Icky Monsters go. How can you not like a monster that tries to chew the windshield off of a starship?

The replacement for the Evil Emperor, what's-his-name, Snoke? Not bad, only because he mostly keeps his mouth shut while Kylo Ren and Hux stick their feet in theirs! Perhaps he is a competent villain after all.

The plot:

Plausible, but badly executed with a severe case of déjà vu. Is it really necessary to have people fall down a bottomless chasm with a slender bridge across it in every film?

Supposedly, there is an extra-galactic menace out there that is immune to the light side, and can only be defeated by the dark side. No mention is made of this, which could be a motivation for the otherwise inept Kylo.

One big hole in the plot: One commander of stormtroopers, Captain Phasma, having the required permissions to shut down the entire shield defense by herself? Oh, please! What kind of imbeciles could allow that?

A bigger hole: In previous episodes, it takes The Empire, at the peak of its power, a couple of decades to construct the original Death Star from pre- existing plans, and years to partially complete its replacement, which was probably under construction anyway. So now, the shattered remains of The Empire manage to design and construct a far larger and more powerful version right under the noses of a resurgent Galactic Republic? What kind of suicidal idiots are running this Republic?

So this new star killer sucks a star into oblivion, (unbelievably draining billions of years of energy in a matter of minutes!) then uses the energy to attack distant worlds, while hapless victims pathetically jabber in disbelief. Couldn't they at least try scrambling to safety?

Presumably it destroyed its own sun the first time it was used, so where did they find the second star? Or perhaps the sun is only temporarily exhausted? Where does it find new stars to power itself? It's a planet! Stars tend to be light-years apart. Planets are not known for faster-than-light travel. Stone crusts and magma cores are not likely to travel well.

The original Death Star is plausible, so far as fictional death machines go. This star-sucking planet is not. Extracting all of the energy of a sun in minutes, or even days and storing it in a planet largely made of stone? Or even a hollowed out planet with a Jumbo Death Star inside? Ridiculous! Have they no sense of scale? Stars are very much larger than planets! Oh, and they're full of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei too.

Star Wars already had its own unique mysticism in the guise of "The Force," set against a splendid background of highly advanced rationality. It did not need to be "Tolkhein-ized" to the point of holy artifacts like the sacred melted remains of Darth Vader's Helmet. Even Anakin Skywalker's Lightsaber has begun to communicate as well as make decisions on its own! it will probably have children next...

All in all, the movie left me cold, bored and irritated. Phooey.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Directed by J.J. Abrams

Written by Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt

135 minutes, PG-13

Staring: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

Photo from the official website.

Quintessential Quentin: "The Hateful Eight" reviewed

Fri, 25 Dec 2015 01:23:00 +0000

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight comes hard on the heels of the boffo box office performance of his last two features: 2009's World War II-era Inglorious Basterds and 2012's Django Unchained, set in the antebellum South. Nothing succeeds like success - especially in La-La-Land, where money doesn't just talk, it shouts. There is a hallowed Hollywood tradition that allows filmmakers on a winning streak to be given carte blanche on a project, in terms of not only subject matter, but occasionally these rarified talents have bestowed upon them by the studio powers that be the elusive (gasp!) final cut.

And so it seems to be with The Hateful Eight. The movie is quintessential Quentin, with plenty of witty, edgy, trenchant dialogue and lots of bloody violence flashily helmed and cut. But with cost apparently being no object and the Weinstein Company picking up the tab, Tarantino is unchained. Unrestrained by budgetary constraints, Tarantino has unleashed an almost three hour movie, complete with an overture and intermission, to be rolled out in old fashioned roadshow style.

The 70 mm movie and roadshow

Even more, riding on a wave of box office hits, the auteur got a nostalgic notion into his noggin and prevailed upon those footing the bills to have Hateful shot in 70 mm in the same motion picture process usually used to shoot larger-than-life epics such as 1962's Lawrence of Arabia. Indeed, Tarantino says that Hateful was shot with literally the same exact lenses that haven't been used since Khartoum - that 1966 big screen big battle pic starring Charlton Heston and Sir Laurence Olivier (as a zealous Muslim nationalist) - was shot, in part, at Egypt in the Ultra Panavision 70 process. The similarly overzealous Tarantino conned - uh, I mean, prevailed upon - the Weinstein Company to buy up, retrofit and outfit 100 U.S. and Canadian cinemas with 70 mm projectors.

Much has been made of this, with Tarantino babbling to the press about how he is reviving the 70 mm movie and roadshows. But what has he actually done with this technique in his Western? While most 70 mm productions were set and shot in the great out of doors - 1958's South Pacific was gloriously lensed on location in Kauai, with aerial shots of Fiji; 1956's Around the World in Eighty Days was filmed at numerous actual locations, including Bangladesh, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Spain - where does Quentin's camera do its 70 mm thang? It's true there are a few grand exterior scenes in this Wild West flick but, rather head scratchingly, most of the 70 mm footage quite capriciously doesn't take advantage of Colorado's spectacular scenery. Indeed, about 80 percent or more of this movie was shot inside of large log cabin type of building (or set).

At a private screening Tarantino said that this interior use of 70 mm was intended to bestow a sense of "intimacy" on the eight-plus characters who are facing off - but claustrophobia is more like it. What a wasted opportunity! While there are some outdoor scenes that reveal and revel in Western grandeur, they are few and far between (and mostly in the portion prior to the intermission). The film completely squanders the big screen process that helped make, for instance, the chariot race in 1959's Ben-Hur such an eye-popping spectacle. Like much of Hateful's blabbering this 70 mm ballyhooing is much ado about nothing.

Part I and Part II: dialogue and ultra-violence

And speaking of Part I of Hateful: It is mostly a two-hour or so blabfest (as if you need a big screen process in order to enhance dialogue - which when not lensed in the confines of a cabin often take place inside of an even more cramped stagecoach!). There is also dialogue than can be interpreted as anti-Latino and homophobic.

Act II is full of the murder and mayhem delivered with cinematic panache and punch, which is one of Tarantino's trademarks. The other is the writer/director's dialogue, which is often witty and sounds like lines written by somebody with his ear sharply tuned to how people talk and what they talk about in real life. I still recall the opening dialogue of hoods sitting inside of a restaurant discussing the efficacy of tipping - how much, whether to or not to - in the opening of 1992's Reservoir Dogs, while 1997's Jackie Brown likewise has excellent dialogue. Christoph Waltz's harrowing words in the lengthy beginning of Inglourious Basterds are likewise "glourious" and helped score that Austrian thespian his Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

I've always enjoyed Tarantino's dialogue but deplored his ultra-violence, as well as his abusive treatment of women in his movies (with Pam Grier in Jackie Brown being a notable - and welcome - exception to this sadistic rule). As the prisoner Daisy Domergue, Jennifer Jason Leigh (the latest thespian Quentin has rescued from obscurity, as he did John Travolta with 1994's Pulp Fiction) and all of the other ladies in Hateful are abominably abused - and the mistreatment mightily meted out to Leigh is meant to be knee slappers.

Because his flicks have been so blood-soaked I've avoided many, although I enjoyed Basterds and Django, wherein he cleverly made his bloodthirsty bent "socially acceptable" by making the objects of the violence Nazis and slave masters. I mean, would even the most adamant pacifist really complain at Hitler and his entourage being burned to cinders in a movie theater?

About racism

Having said all of the above, what bestows a socially redeeming value on Hateful and makes it worth seeing for more politically aware members of the audience is that much of its yakking is about racism. Although the film is set in the post-Civil War era in the West, one strongly suspects that Quentin is also referring to contemporary America.

Samuel L. Jackson's character Major Marquis Warren is a Civil War hero and bounty hunter who claims to have a letter personally written to him from his alleged pen pal President Abraham Lincoln, which bestows much street cred upon Warren. As usual for a Tarantino flick, the "N" word is slung around by the gunslingers as frequently as their six shooters and rifles open fire. (Ironically, Spike Lee - who took Tarantino to task for its frequent use in Django - likewise hurls this slur around with wild abandon in Chi-Raq.)

Warren's relationship with former Johnny Reb Chris Mannix (Walter Goggins, who was so great as Boyd Crowder in the FX TV series Justified), who joins the stagecoach because he is the new sheriff in the town that is the coach's destination, is, perhaps, the crux of the film. When the going gets tough, will this Southerner sell Warren down the proverbial river or stick with him and perform his duty as a lawman? At a private screening attended by Hateful's co-stars, including Leigh, Jackson, Demian Bichir (as a rather stereotypical Mexican bandito caricature), Kurt Russell (as a hangman), Tim Roth (as the little man) and the great Bruce Dern (as the Confederate), Goggins stated that the interrelationship between Mannix and Warren represents "the next evolution in race relations."

This "evolution" seems to be much on Tarantino's mind these days, and it is these racial ruminations that make Hateful, especially the first act, more than just a talk-a-thon. Evidence of this was Quentin's rather heroic participation in an October anti-police brutality rally in New York and the filmmaker's admirably defiant refusal to back down after the cops threatened to boycott Hateful and, methinks, refusal to provide his crews with security during subsequent shoots. This is what Tarantino had the audacity to briefly say from the demo's podium before, as I recall, actually ceding the bulk of his time to the loved one of a victim of police terror:

"I am a human being with a conscience, and when I see murder, I cannot stand by, and I have to call the murdered the murdered, and I have to call the murderers the murderers." Although much - and inaccurately - paraphrased, that's what he said onstage and it got the cops and their sycophants in a blithering dither.

Well, good on you Mr. Tarantino. I applaud you and am rather pleasantly surprised that a purveyor of willy-nilly - albeit artful - screen violence, which I suspect contributes to America's violent gun culture, actually does think he has a conscience and daringly took a public stand on this pressing issue. Welcome to the light side of the force, Quentin! We toss fragrant laurels upon thy brow and give thee hardy handshakes.

The firestorm this short statement set off is a curious barometer regarding where free speech currently stands in the land of the free. Cops guilty of widespread brutal repression can't stand to be verbally criticized, so desperate to be "respected" and feared that they don badges and uniforms! Woe is thee - but not for Michael "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" Brown, Laquan "16 Shots!" McDonald, Eric "Can't Breathe!" Garner, et al, and their loved ones!

While Tarantino strangely squanders 70 mm's big screen promise by limiting most of his mise-en-scene to the confines of cabin or stagecoach interiors, depicts onscreen violence and brutality against women, besides diehard Tarantino fans, The Hateful Eight is worth seeing by socially conscious viewers because of its scorching onscreen examination of racism - then and now. There is also some good music that is good, bad and ugly by the one and only Ennio Morricone, plus worthwhile acting. It's refreshing to see that Tarantino alum, Samuel L. Jackson actually return to acting per se in The Hateful Eight, which opens Dec. 25 in L.A. and N.Y. (but not at the Cinerama Dome, which is screening the latest Star Wars sequel - much to Tarantino's noisy consternation) and goes wide Dec. 31 .

L.A.-based reviewer/film historian Ed Rampell appears in an episode of the Asylum Entertainment series "Demons in the City of Angels," about blacklisted screenwriter Bobby Lees, expected to air Jan. 9, 2016 on the Reelz Network. Rampell co-authored "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book" (see: http://hawaiimtvbook.weebly.com/).

Photo: Samuel L. Jackson twcpublicity.com

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" tackles racism, misogyny, men’s “daddy issues”

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 15:37:00 +0000

*Minor spoiler alert ahead*

During what was arguably the most awaited film of the year, fans lined up hours before show time to catch the recently released sequel to the original Star Wars franchise. The Force Awakens follows Return of The Jedi, 30 years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire.

Though I do have a basic grasp of the series, I don't claim to be a Star Wars fanatic. Nevertheless, this film surpassed my wildest expectations. Directors always run a risk when they revive a trilogy as massively successful as the original Star Wars. The 1999 prequel left even the most devoted cult followers underwhelmed and heartbroken. The Force Awakens, however, counters that failure with a refreshing breath of action packed hilarity.

Director J.J. Abrams takes an entirely original approach in his casting, presenting a generation to fresh faces, one reflective of our diversely modern culture. The two leads, Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) are versatile, witty, and captivating. While Finn's casting caused controversy earlier in the year due to racist backlash against having a black male lead, Boyega silenced critics with his charismatic interpretation of a conflicted Stormtrooper who defies the Empire. Boyega shatters all the stereotypes of the often over-masculinized paradigms of black men we often see presented in pop culture.

He depicts a range of emotions, displaying fear of the Empire and resentment in the violence they've inflicted throughout the galaxy. Boyega successfully translates this anxiety to the audience in both his mannerism and intense gaze. Though he is bold, Finn is often times endearingly naive, at one point confessing to Han Solo that he worked in the sanitation department but hoped to bring down the evil empire by using 'the force." Han promptly responds "That's not how the force works!"

Ridley's character, on the other hand, may be the single most empowering female lead of the year. Tough, independent, and cunning, Ray is a scavenger who fights her way through Empire foot soldiers and eventually comes face to face in an epic battle with Commander Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). There was not a single scene where she required any rescuing - even beating Finn, Chewy, and Han Solo to the punch in escaping her own capturer. Ridley is reminiscent of Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean; she exerts both masculine and feminine qualities that challenge gender binaries.

She also sets a standard for upcoming Star Wars films, as it has been historically noted that women played minimal roles in the original trilogy. The New York Magazine recently published a YouTube video titled Women Don't Talk Much in Star Wars, which showed the total number of times females (with the exception of Princess Leia) spoke in the original films. While there were 386 minutes of run time for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi - the few side characters actually played by women were only given 63 seconds of airtime.

WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!

There is also something to be said about the semi-recycled storyline involving Kylo Ren, who is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Ren turns to the dark side after initially training with his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, after rejecting Skywalker's teachings he is seduced by the Empire's supreme leader, Snoke, and ends up as a Commander of the First Order. For most Star War fans there is a deja-vu quality to the plot, as it strongly resembles that of a New Hope. Ren idolizes his grandfather's power, thus explaining an eerie monologue with the burnt Darth Vader mask.

There is no doubt that susceptibility to the 'dark side' runs in the family, but it seems as though the galaxy is always on the brink of extinction because the men who run the Galactic Empire feel abandoned by their fathers. Neither Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, nor Kylo Ren could quite seem to work past the therapeutic stages of their daddy issues. Nevertheless, it's an interesting perspective to examine the dynamics of father-son relationships and the affects it has on fascism in the Star Wars universe.

All in all the film was an entertaining cinematic experience, if not for the action and humor alone. The script is full of delightful easter eggs and throwback references for some of the more hardcore Star War fanatics. Whether you are just jumping aboard the Star Wars bandwagon, or you have been a fan for ages, The Force Awakens brings a contemporary twist to the beloved classic series.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

PG-13, 135 mins.

Directed by J. J. Abrams

John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver

Photo: official image

Page to screen: 10 books that should be TV shows

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:16:00 +0000

To date, some of the most successful television series - The Walking Dead, Arrow, Game of Thrones - are based on novels or comics. As I've already encouraged some end-of-the-year reading in a previous article, it seems like a good time to take some of the ideas that literature inspires and translate it to the small screen. As some of us take that holiday break and delve fully into pop culture, here's something to make you think: the top 10 books that ought to be on TV.

10. Northlanders

by Brian Wood, 2008-2012

We all know how popular old world pagan culture is right now, especially if you've been keeping up with Vikings on the History Channel. And now with The Last Kingdom having debuted on BBC and a Beowulf adaptation in the works, it seems that the time is ripe to bring many exciting Norse epics to TV. Northlanders was a DC Comics series composed of multiple arcs, each of which focused on different characters during different historical periods, from the days of the Byzantine Varangian Guard to the battle with the Norse-Irish alliance in 1014. Due to its time-jumping nature, Northlanders has the potential to be an excellent Viking anthology series, with a continuous influx of new characters and storylines to keep it fresh.

9. Global Frequency

by Warren Ellis, 2002-2004

Speaking of anthologies, Global Frequency could apply the same template to the science fiction genre. Another DC Comics series, this one featured a covert intelligence organization that employed over 1,000 experts in various fields (scientists, detectives, athletes, etc.), any of which could be immediately "activated" with mobile technology and called upon to rescue the world from dangerous threats, including everything from rogue military operations and political turmoil to terrorist attacks and religious cults. Bringing this one to TV is a no-brainer, and with a rotating cast and an X-Files-style monster-of-the-week format, it would appeal to a similar audience.

8. The Gate of Time

by Philip José Farmer, 1966

An alternate history novel focusing on indigenous peoples, The Gate of Time features Roger Two Hawks, an Iroquois serving as a combat pilot during World War II. When his plane is shot down in Romania, he parachutes to safety, only to find that he has descended into an alternate timeline in which the American continents never rose from the sea, and the American Indians remained in Asia and Europe, on a planet caught up in a war of its own, with Two Hawks caught in the middle. It would be refreshing to not only watch such an interesting story unfold, but to actually have a prominent Native American lead character on a series.

7. Gormenghast

by Mervyn Peake, 1946-1959

A series of five books (one published posthumously), Gormenghast is, to put it frankly, what the Addams Family might be like if it were a dark, brooding drama. A show has already been attempted once, but at only four episodes long, it seems like this could be remade as an ongoing series. A little bit Dark Shadows, a little bit similar to family spat reality shows like The Royals, the books were Gothic literature focusing on Gormenghast castle and the noble Groan family that lives within its walls. Filled with betrayal, mystery, murder, and melodrama, the novels depicted the family's life as they live reclusively, situated in rugged mountains, far removed from the rest of the world, where medieval ideas and ritualistic behavior persist. If this could somehow be taken into the modern era, highlighting the dichotomy of ancient values in a modern world, things could get pretty interesting.

6. Magic, Inc.

by Robert A. Heinlein, 1940

A long forgotten and virtually unknown novella, this was, fittingly enough, originally published in a magazine titled Unknown Fantasy. In the story, magic has been corporatized; it is a commonplace profession used by successful businessmen. An example of the fantasy genre making interesting social commentary, it focuses on a small business owner who fights an attempt to force his magic under the control of a ruthless company called Magic, Inc. This world of magical businesses alone would provide an excellent backdrop for an ongoing serial, and its heightened relevance now, in an increasingly corporatized, anti-small business America, is too great to ignore.

5. John Silence

by Algernon Blackwood, 1908

Essentially a dark, supernatural Sherlock Holmes, the stories of John Silence were published from 1908 onward, featuring an occult detective who investigates paranormal occurrences. Sure, we already have John Constantine over in the world of comics, but the John Silence novels were very pulpy, very noir; it's a tone that could really give such a series a visceral edge as a TV drama. I could definitely see this on AMC or FX, and the occult material a show like this could pull from is virtually endless.

4. The Space Merchants

by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1952

Recently, older sci-fi novels have been getting picked up by television networks. Childhood's End, based on the story by Arthur C. Clarke, and The Expanse, based on the series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, are both coming to the SyFy Channel, and I see no reason why this underrated and excellent work by Pohl and Kornbluth couldn't be next. A fascinating critique of commodification and consumerism, The Space Merchants is set in the future, where transnational corporations have taken the place of government entirely, and hold all political power; they delude the populace through advertising and viral marketing that life has become better through constant consumption and fossil fuels. The planet Venus has been settled by humankind, and, wouldn't you know it, the rich are set to travel there and set up intergalactic corporations. Hey, at least it's - unfortunately enough - realistic.

3. Black Science

by Rick Remender, 2013

This is a pretty exciting comic series focusing on a group of scientists, called "dimensionauts," who have invented technology that allows them to travel between universes. They have abused this power, leaping across the multiverse at will, taking anything they want for the sole benefit of their own planet. When a member of the team sabotages the "pillar" device used for traveling, it begins to force them to jump to random places at random times, coming into contact with strange and bizarre realities as they struggle to find their way back home. Admittedly, this is very similar in concept to Sliders, a sci-fi series that debuted during the 90's. But Black Science puts its own spin on things, and seems to be developing its own mythology.

2. Odds Against Tomorrow

by Nathaniel Rich, 2014

In the not-too-distant future, the world is ravaged by climate change - and capitalism has exploited even that. A gifted mathematician is hired by a shady consulting firm in New York. Asked to calculate worst case environmental scenarios, his schemes are sold to corporations, who invent the technologies necessary to protect themselves and the rich from such disasters. When an actual worst case scenario affects Manhattan, the mathematician realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit from it, but questions doing so, when his loved ones and New York itself could pay the price. There's some interesting and very timely commentary here, and though this was merely one novel, it seems like this anti-corporate, pro-climate narrative could easily be expanded into a multi-season series.

1. Ghost in the Shell

by Masamune Shirow, 1989

This classic science fiction cyberpunk manga series is already set to become a film, but it would do so much better on the smaller screen. If you don't already know, Ghost in the Shell is set in the mid-21st century and revolves around the counter-cyberterrorist organization known as Public Security Section 9, led by protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi, who is an augmented cybernetik human. Society has "advanced" to the point where people's biological brains have been interfaced with computer networks. It's a world in which minds can be uploaded to computer systems, memories can be removed and placed in storage, and in which human beings can literally be hacked and controlled by remote sources. A U.S. adaptation of this has real potential, but it ought to be the sci-fi-police procedural/Matrix-esque drama that the source material naturally lends itself to, not a flashy big screen affair with big-name white actors in Asian roles. Ghost in the Shell is held in high regard by manga and cyberpunk fans; its translation to TV is merely a matter of the right networks paying attention.

Photo: Two of the "Gormenghast" novels. | Peake Studies

Best webseries of 2015: The top 10 shows not on TV

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 12:57:00 +0000

The world of television is changing - by bringing series to various online platforms. At the forefront of this movement are companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, with YouTube, of course, serving as the means by which average people can create and upload their own original content. This all began a while ago, of course, but with big name actors and studios beginning to utilize these alternatives, a new precedent is being set, and gathering in front of the small screen in the living room may become a thing of the past.

The holidays are a busy time, and not necessarily conducive to long periods of binge-watching. And yet, with the ability to go mobile and essentially pull any show from your pocket, it seems prudent to provide for readers a comprehensive end-of-the-year list of the best programs to check out. So here are the top 10 best webseries of 2015.

10. SOS: Save Our Skins

A darkly humorous take on the typical post-apocalyptic story, two hapless sci-fi fans wake up in New York City to find that the entire human race has vanished. However, as creatures from the annals of sci-fi and horror begin to emerge, they realize they're not exactly alone. Featuring an interesting plot that tells us more as the show goes on, it's the "show for geeks from the perspective of geeks" formula that's really appealing.

9. Between Two Ferns

It seems like Zach Galifianakis should really stick to Internet-based comedy skits, which are much funnier than anything I've seen him do on the big screen. In this series that originated on Funny or Die, Galifianakis conducts awkward celebrity interviews while sitting between two potted ferns. He maintains an antagonistic demeanor toward his guests, asking inappropriate questions mixed with offhand non-sequiturs. Some of the best episodes have included guests like Michael Cera and Steve Carell, but even President Obama has been a guest on the show, in which he plugged Obamacare, and made a few jokes himself. When asked, if presidents could serve for three terms, whether he would do so, Obama cracked, "No. It would be kind of like The Hangover Part III. Didn't really work out so good, did it?"

8. H+

It's sort of ironic when a series using the Internet as its lifeblood goes ahead and critiques our extreme dependency on social media and technology. But H+ makes a strong point, nonetheless. It's set in a future where most people have computer implants that connect them to the Internet 24/7. Things go awry when a virus begins to infect the implants, causing people's brains to go haywire. Composed of about 48 micro-episodes (so far), the series is rather unique in that it continuously time jumps to before, during, and after the viral outbreak, and tells the story through multiple character viewpoints. H+ is a great example of how to be truly innovative with a webseries.

7. Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462

A spinoff of a spinoff, Flight 462 could be seen as yet another shameless cash-in on The Walking Dead franchise, and to some extent, it is. Reactions to Fear the Walking Dead have been mixed, and Flight 462 has been both criticized and ignored by many viewers. However, in depicting an outbreak of the undead on an airplane flight (let the "Zombies on a Plane" jokes commence . . . ), it plays upon real American fears of flying (for various reasons) while doing something different with the Walking Dead backstory. It's a 16-part series composed of micro-episodes, so it can be watched without eating up (no pun intended) too much of your time.

6. Elders React

This is one of numerous "react" series on YouTube by online producers the Fine Bros., who also do other webseries (one of which is also on this list). In the "react" videos, people (kids, teens, adults, elders, or YouTube celebrities, depending on the series) are shown a particular video or group of videos, whether something viral, strange, funny, or a film trailer, and the audience watches their reactions. Elders React is particularly hilarious, often because of their unfamiliarity with modern pop culture or trends, or else their confusion in the face of modern Internet humor. Some of the best entries have shown elders reacting to heavy metal music videos, Vine compilations, Mortal Kombat fatalities, Grand Theft Auto, and Epic Rap Battles of History.

5. MyMusic

Another Fine Bros. production, MyMusic is a YouTube-based mockumentary sitcom following the daily lives of a group of coworkers employed by a music production company. Rather than using real names, the staff members go by the various music genres with which they associate, essentially becoming walking stereotypes of their music. Members include Indie (a hipster), Metal (a metalhead), Scene (a scene girl), Dubstep (a raver), and Country (self-explanatory). If you're really into music, no matter which genre, this proves to be a laugh riot. I'm particularly fond of the webisode that guest-starred Felicia Day (Supernatural, The Guild), who played a grim, face-painted Norwegian black metaller named Gorgol.

4. Daredevil

After dominating movie theaters with films like Iron Man, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios went over to television with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But the success of that show has been debatable, leading fans to question whether the comics giant could pull off a truly compelling episodic story. It turns out Netflix is the perfect platform for Marvel, as demonstrated in their - so far - powerful lineup of online series. One of these is Daredevil, a reboot of the failed 2003 film and the second onscreen adaptation of the 1964 comic series. They finally got it right, and while there is still another Marvel show that is better than this one, the intriguing characters, snark, and grit of this one has left fans clamoring for Season 2, which is coming very soon.

3. The Man in the High Castle

Prior to this year, Amazon (yes, the anti-labor online store) has done rather poorly with original online content. In particular, a flop of an embarrassing attempt to turn the Zombieland film into a webseries comes to mind. But this adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name has changed that. Based on an alternate history story in which the Axis powers won World War II, The Man in the High Castle shows us an America that has become a Nazi puppet state. It follows the resistance movements as they try and change things, and to collect newsreels, for reasons not yet known, that depict events that happened in multiple timelines, introducing a science fiction element into the show. The series has received critical acclaim, and, frighteningly enough, draws some bold allusions to the current political climate in America.

2. Black Mirror

Though it began on television, this British sci-fi anthology series has since been moved to Netflix, where it has more room to breathe and to flourish. And don't let its removal from the small screen worry you; it's been critically praised, including by Stephen King, and Robert Downey Jr. has optioned one of its episodes to be made into a film. The series features dark and satirical themes that examine society and especially obsessions with modern technology, along with their unintended consequences. Unfortunately, an American remake is in the works, but I highly recommend checking out the original.

1. Jessica Jones

This is Marvel's other Netflix series, based on the comic series AKA Jessica Jones. It focuses on a former female superhero who now works as a private investigator, and it's brilliant. It has a fast-paced, multi-faceted, intelligent story that takes the right cues from the right detective fiction, and uses a noir tone that feels natural and organic. The acting, in particular David Tennant as antagonist Kilgrave, is fantastic and award-worthy, and the series has been praised for its depictions of LGBT characters and its conscientious handling of topics like rape and post-traumatic stress disorder. The 13-episode first season debuted this year, and after the highly positive reaction, Marvel would be foolish not to greenlight a second.

Photo: Jessica Jones Facebook page

The top 10 unique fantasy novels: A holiday reading list

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:02:00 +0000

Let's face it: many of the traditions of the holiday season, whether you celebrate it as Christmas or something other, are rooted in fantasy. It's a time for inspiration and wonder. It's also a time when working class people get together with one another, spending time with family and friends. And, if you live in certain parts of the world, and especially if you live in most of the U.S., the holidays are cold.

This all amounts to an ideal opportunity to sit by a fireplace and get lost in a long, epic work of fantasy. But if you're a major consumer of the genre, you're doubtlessly familiar with all the tropes and narrative motifs. It's understandable that you might therefore want something with an influx of originality. And so, without further ado, here are, in this writer's opinion, the top 10 most unique works of fantasy. Happy reading!

10. On Stranger Tides

by Tim Powers, 1987

By far the best pirate novel I've read, it also happens to be an interesting - and delightfully non-medieval - fantasy. Set in the early 1700s, it follows a French puppeteer who sails to Jamaica to confront his uncle, who has stolen a fortune that belonged to his father. Along the way, he becomes inveigled with pirates who are working with Caribbean magic, and who have allied themselves with Blackbeard in order to find the Fountain of Youth. With a straightforward plot, On Stranger Tides is a page-turner, nevertheless, and it was also the inspiration behind some of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

9. Imaro

by Charles R. Saunders, 1981

This is yet another entry in the sword-and-sorcery subgenre, but it's not at all the trite, repetitive affair you might expect. The first novel written in this subgenre by an African-American author, Imaro is a collection of six stories featuring the eponymous black hero in the fictional and African-inspired world of Nyumbani. It follows Imaro as he leaves his family tribe of warrior-herdsmen after breaking a taboo, and must embark on a quest to find acceptance and identity, making allies and enemies alike along the way and encountering dangerous beasts and demons. Though it takes cues from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, Imaro is truly unique in that its cultural foundations are not European, and this opens the door for many new possibilities, which continue to be explored in the next three books in this ongoing series.

8. Age of Witches

by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, 1997

The next unique novel on our list certainly is European, but of a decidely more Slavonic influence. Written by a Ukrainian couple from Kiev, the book is one of many such works by them. This one focuses on the unlikely alliance of a witch on the run from those persecuting her, and an executioner ordered to carry out an anti-witch inquisition. Dealing with themes of prejudice and promiscuity, with underlying critiques of nuclear energy, divorce from nature and countryside, and blind hatred, Age of Witches is a book far different from any witchcraft-based work you may have read before. It is also heavily based on Slavic mythology and folklore - an area that the fantasy genre rarely tackles.

7. A Wizard of Earthsea

by Ursula K. LeGuin, 1968

Before Harry Potter, there was another series focusing on young wizards that, by and large, flew under the radar, though it is just as deserving of praise as anything written by J. K. Rowling. Set on an archipelago named Earthsea, it focuses on a young mage named Ged who attends a school of wizardry. LeGuin said it was a direct response to the - at the time - cliché of wizards being old, wise, and benevolent; this was the first to depict young wizards who were unpracticed and uncertain of themselves, and this would very much serve as the prototype for later works like Harry Potter. LeGuin is also very supportive of environmentalism, progressive politics, and racial equality; all of these elements are readily apparent in this novel and her other works.

6. Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down

by Ishmael Reed, 1969

Another overlooked and underrated treasure, this was written not only as atypical fantasy, but as satire of the traditional western. It follows the story of the Loop Garoo Kid, an African-American cowboy who practices the religion of Neohoodooism. It deals largely with his struggles against major established religions and cultural oppression. From criticizing the Catholic Church to protesting capitalism, this novel was rather progressive for its time, and registers just as much so today. It was also regarded by several sources as one of the top 100 books of the 20th century; considering it shares a list with The Grapes of Wrath, The Call of the Wild, and Dune, that's quite a designation.

5. The Mists of Avalon

by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1983

If you're a frequent reader of fantasy, chances are you're quite familiar with Arthurian fantasy. If you've read Tolkien, I'm sure you've also read The Once and Future King and King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Bradley's novel, however, tells the Arthurian legend largely from the perspective of female characters. In doing so, it also takes on an entirely new direction. Its protagonist is Morgaine, a priestess fighting to save her Celtic culture from an impending patriarchal Christianity, which threatens to destroy her pagan way of life. Here, King Arthur and his knights serve as supporting characters, existing on the periphery of the narrative while Morgaine and other women lead the charge. A feminine interpretation of a previously male-centered legend, The Mists of Avalon is far from a retelling; it's an entirely new story that builds upon an established mythos.

4. American Gods

by Neil Gaiman, 2001

There's not much high fantasy out there that blends elements of Americana with the myths and gods of old. American Gods, however, does just that, and with tongue planted firmly in cheek, to boot. The basic premise of the story is that all the old gods existed because people believed in them, and many immigrants, through their cultures, brought many of these deities with them to the United States. However, the power of the gods has diminished over the centuries as people's belief in religion faded, and new ones have arisen, reflecting Americans' infatuations with media, celebrity, technology, and drugs. Full of brilliant social commentary and an exciting story, this is definitely one to read if you haven't done so already. Gaiman is already planning to write a sequel, and the book will be adapted as a television series in 2016.

3. Servant of the Underworld

by Aliette de Bodard, 2010

The first entry in the Obsidian & Blood series, Servant of the Underworld is an Aztec fantasy written by a French-Vietnamese author. It focuses on the ancient Aztec empire, only here, the gods are real, and their wrath and the ensuing end of the world is kept at bay only by human sacrifice. When the priestess responsible for these rituals vanishes, Acatl, the High Priest of the Dead must find her in order to avert worldwide disaster. Combining high fantasy with elements of a locked room mystery, this is the beginning of an excellent dark and gritty series.

2. Words of Radiance

by Brandon Sanderson, 2014

This is actually the second and most recent entry in the epic fantasy series The Stormlight Archive, but I feature this one because it is even more creative and intriguing than the first. Set in a world in which the very landscape and weather are bizarre and innovative, it continues the stories of several characters who are struggling to prevent civil war, while also fighting to prevent the return of the Voidbringers - all-powerful entities that will usher in a devastating cataclysmic event called the Desolation. Each of these books seems to focus on a different character, with this one heavily featuring Shallan, a young woman who is a skilled artist with a photographic memory, and who is a type of magic-user called a Soulcaster. Sanderson has managed to write a very interesting and empathetic female character here, and I think that is the true reason why this book, in particular, is so much more powerful than the one that preceded it. With its compelling saga and atypical magic system, The Stormlight Archive could become the next Game of Thrones. And like Game of Thrones, each of these books are 1,000+ pages, so if you like long books, give this one a read.

1. The Green Child

by Herbert Read, 1934

A completely forgotten classic, the story is based somewhat on the real 12th century legend of two green children who mysteriously appeared in the English village of Woolpit, speaking an unknown language. Read's work has a certain philosophical quality to it, with the overall theme of the book being the search for the meaning of life. It also contains autobiographical elements of Read's experiences in the British Army during World War I. It focuses on the former leader of a South American country who returns to his native England. There he encounters and saves the life of a strange, green-skinned young girl, and together they embark on a journey into strange and mesmerizing realms. Summarizing the plot simply does not do the book justice, and this is a highly offbeat but nonetheless captivating must-read. It's also the only novel written by Read, who devoted the rest of his time to poetry, anarchism, and literary criticism.

Photo: "The Mists of Avalon" | Wikipedia (CC)

"Word Warrior" a good book on democratic media

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 12:09:00 +0000

In a world of 24 hour news, instantaneous information, social media, and Twitter, it is imperative that we slow down and learn about pioneering progressive media personalities, their histories, struggles, and the context of their times - especially, if we hope to help create, sustain and grow a democratic media, a diverse media, a grassroots peoples' media.

Richard Durham is one of those pioneering media personalities and Sonja D. Williams' Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, And Freedom is a remarkable contribution to the historical narrative, to our understanding of the long civil rights revolution.

Williams, a professor of media, journalism, and film at Howard University, isn't simply an academic observer, writing about Durham from a distance. She is the winner of three George Foster Peabody Awards as a radio producer for NPR and PRI; her credits include the radio series Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions and Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was, among others.

Williams' hands-on experience as an African American woman in a white male-dominated industry undoubtedly adds nuance and depth to Durham's remarkable story. Durham's struggle as an African American man fighting against racism - within the confines of a profit driven corporate media structure - is not only articulated as a tangible, concrete individual career goal, but also as a peoples' aspiration, as part of the long struggle for African American equality and civil rights.

Durham, born in 1917 Mississippi, spent his formative years in Chicago. By his late teens and early twenties, he had begun to view literature, poetry and radio - the most important, most popular media of the times - as a potentially liberating force.

Influenced by the Chicago South Side Writers Group, a lose network of about twenty young writers lead by then-Communist Party, USA member Richard Wright, Durham would eventually join the CPUSA and write for Party-influenced publications, like New Masses, the Chicago Defender and Chicago Star. Ever an industrious go-getter, Durham wrote his favorite poet, Langston Hughes, seeking his advice and eventually forging a longstanding friendship.

By the late 1930's, Durham began working for the Works Progress Administration- funded Illinois Writers' Project where he authored the chapter "Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" in The Negro Press in Chicago, an examination of the city's past and present 34 Black newspapers and 11 magazines.

As Williams' notes, "Durham had to be excited about focusing on the interconnectivity between race, economics, and media for his first IWP assignment." Further, during this time Durham "likely found" the Communist Party's "aggressive attempts to stop housing evictions, organize workers, and integrate labor unions to be what historian Mary Helen Washington called 'beacons of light' for Chicago's struggling black population."

Durham undoubtedly weaved a tapestry of interconnected struggles and saw the CPUSA, media in general and radio in particular, as a connective tissue with the potential to help forge a Black-white alliance and tear down racial barriers. By the early 1940's Durham had become active in the Communist Party-led National Negro Congress, which "boldly campaigned against lynching, voting restrictions, and employment inequalities," where he met his future wife, Clarice.

The writer-activist wrote his first radio script, dated June 23, 1940, for WAAF's Legends of Illinois series. By 1944, Durham was working full-time as a reporter for the Chicago Defender, whose national editor was a former CPUSA member, Ben Burns, described by one historian as "the best kept and strangest secret in the history of interracial American radicalism."

Durham's "first major assignment" for the Defender was in the segregated South. Sent to Memphis, Tenn., Durham interviewed Memphis' one-term mayor, Edward R. Crump, who had never before granted an interview "to a Negro reporter..." Known as "the Southern dictator," Crump was grilled on his views of civil rights, the poll tax, etc. Durham would also cover the "All-Nations Conference in San Francisco," a "historic gathering [that] served as the launching pad for a new organization called the United Nations...," among others.

By 1946 the Defender had decided to launch a 15-minute local radio drama series, called Democracy USA, which Durham and another writer were initially tasked with scripting. However, before the first episode was complete Durham was fired by the owner, John Sengstacke, supposedly for supporting a political candidate Sengstacke opposed.

According to Williams, "Durham's firing had a lot more to do with his in-house activism...[He] had stubbornly lobbied for better working conditions and more equitable pay for the Defender's writing staff through the American Newspaper Guild. Durham became an active ANG member and pushed the Defender to honor union policies and increase wages." Burns, who had also been organizing with the ANG, was fired too due to union activity.

Shortly after his firing, Durham started working for the progressive newspaper the Chicago Star (which the FBI claimed was "dominated and controlled" by the CPUSA), where he contributed articles about housing disparities, labor issues and workers' rights. The Star did include well know communists on its editorial board, including William Sennett, Carl Hirsh and Frank Marshall Davis, mentor of future president Barak Obama. Soon, Durham would return to scripting Democracy USA, which would become a huge success.

In 1947 the National Negro Congress published a damning study of African Americans in the media. It found that Durham "might have been the only Negro writer working full time in radio." Further, the study claimed, "Of radio's 30,000 white-collar jobs - the medium's largest employment block - Negroes held no more than two hundred positions."

By 1948, Durham was leading two more radio shows Here Comes Tomorrow, "the first authentic radio serial of an American Negro family," and Destination Freedom, a half-hour drama "about the lives and contributions of prominent Negro History makers - freedom fighters all..." Destination Freedom episodes included segments in notable African American pioneers like Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vesey, Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth, among others - all in the late 1940's, a decade before the emergence of the civil rights movement.

By the early 1950's, Durham would change careers and begin a short stint with the United Packing House Workers of America, serving as the union's Anti-Discrimination Department coordinator. He would also author a 21 page union booklet titled Action against Jim Crow: UPWA's Fight for Equal Rights. Later, Durham would be removed from his union position for supporting a failed change in leadership.

Richard Durham is an amazing figure, a media pioneer who fought for equality, workers' rights and socialism; it is impossible to tell his full story within the confines of a short review. Sonja Williams has accomplished a tremendous task by authoring his biography. Word Warrior is highly recommended to everyone interested in African American, labor and media history.

Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, And Freedom

By Sonja D. Williams

University of Illinois Press, 2015, 264 pages

Where there's a Weill, there's a way; Julia Migenes review

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:25:00 +0000

In Julia Migenes Sings Kurt Weill the eponymous mezzo-soprano performs songs by the eponymous composer. Kurt Weill, of course, had quite a stage career, including at least two musicals with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who wrote the books and lyrics for 1928's The Threepenny Opera and 1930's The City of Mahagonny. After emigrating to America to escape the Nazis, Weill worked with the fabled Group Theatre, as well as on 1941's Lady in the Dark with lyricist Ira Gershwin and 1943's One Touch of Venus with lyricist Ogden Nash.

In her one-woman show, Migenes performs numbers from all of the above. She, too, is no slouch when it comes to stage and screen credits. In the 1960s Migenes starred on Broadway with Zero Mostel as Hodel in the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof. She has also appeared in various operas opposite Placido Domingo and as a soloist for Metropolitan Opera productions of La Boheme and Pagliacci. Migenes co-starred with Raul Julia and Richard Harris as Jenny Diver in a 1989 movie adaptation of The Threepenny Opera, plus Francesco Rosi's 1984 film version of Carmen.

Indeed, Migenes opens and closes her show with renditions of what is not only Threepenny's best known song, but the most famous tune in the entire repertoire of both Weill and Brecht: "Mack the Knife." However, unlike Bobby Darin, Migenes - a New Yorker who has performed widely throughout Europe - doesn't deign to do so in English. She seems to do so in perfectly pronounced German (she has sung at Vienna's Volksoper), and most of her ditties are rendered in Weill and Brecht's native tongue. There is a French song or two too, although there are a few numbers sung in English. For most American audiences who are not very multi-lingual this may be an issue, especially considering that there are no supertitles as at, say, L.A. Opera.

However, the chanteuse does set up each tune up with some verbal explanatory notes. And Migenes then not only sings but acts the songs out with evocative movements, gestures and facial expressions that bestow meaning. During her 20 song set, which is delivered sans intermission in about 90 minutes, Migenes also discusses Brecht and Weill in-between warbling. To her credit the appropriately redheaded Migenes stresses the political character of Brecht's lyrics, stressing that the class struggle against what we now deride as "the 1%" continues.

Each number is unerringly accompanied by pianist Mitsuko Morikawa. Besides her piano the stage is mostly bare, although there's a ladder and some stools Migenes uses to good effect as props. There are some spare spotlights provided by Bosco Flanagan, too. The production is directed by Peter Medak, who was Oscar-nommed for helming the great 1972 Peter O'Toole movie The Ruling Class.

Migenes gives a full throated recital and is clearly in command of her subject matter, whether romping like "Pirate Jenny" from Threepenny or as a male sailor wherein she rather expertly spoofs machismo in the superbly rendered "Happy End" ("Sailor's Song").

Fun Facts of the Review: Kurt Weill married femme fatale Lotte Lenya - twice! Lenya not only starred in the original Threepenny Opera in Berlin but as the Russian agent Rosa Klebb who tried to kill Sean Connery as James Bond with blades in her shoes at the end of 1963's From Russia with Love!

This kind of show is an acquired taste and will be best appreciated by those with a sophisticated aural palate. Fans of Weill and cabaret-style music who won't trip over the language barrier are likely to enjoy Migenes' bravura performance that is keeping alive a vital part of European culture. There appears to be lots of L.A aficionados of her and this distinctive type of music as the production has been extended to Jan. 16. This only serves to prove that where there's a Weill, there's a way.

Julia Migenes Sings Kurt Weill plays Wednesdays at 8 p.m.: Dec. 2, 9, 16; Jan. 6, 13 (dark Dec. 23 and Dec. 30) Saturdays at 8 p.m.: Dec 5, 12, 19; Jan. 9, 16 (dark Dec. 26 and Jan. 2) through January 16 at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. For more info: (323)477-2055, ext. 2; www.OdysseyTheatre.com.

Photo: Singer Julia Migenes and accompanist Mitsuko Morikawa. Enci Box.

Today in history: Remembering composer Aaron Copland

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 13:49:00 +0000

On December 2, 1990, 25 years ago, the "dean of American composers" Aaron Copland died at the age of 90. His symphonies, ballet and film scores, songs and choral works became the apotheosis of the American classical style in his lifetime, combining his profound formal studies of music with popular American genres such as folk and jazz.

Although initially drawn to the beaux arts tradition of "art for art's sake," he found with the Great Depression that audiences were dwindling and financial support for concert music was in short supply. In the mid-1930s he shifted toward music that could be used, serving a utilitarian as well as artistic purpose. This approach encompassed two trends: first, music that students could easily learn, and second, music which would have wider appeal, such as incidental music for plays, movies, radio, dance, and political expression. Such works included piano pieces ("The Young Pioneers") and a teaching opera along somewhat Brechtian lines, The Second Hurricane.

Copland never enrolled as a member of any political party, but he espoused a general progressive view and had strong ties with numerous Communist colleagues and friends in the Popular Front period. Copland supported the Communist Party ticket during the 1936 presidential election, at the height of his involvement with the left-wing Group Theater, and remained a committed opponent of militarism and the Cold War, which he regarded as having been instigated by the United States. He helped start the post-war American-Soviet Music Society to encourage performances of American works in the USSR and Soviet works in the U.S. He was a strong supporter of the 1948 presidential candidacy of Henry A. Wallace on the Progressive Party ticket. He appeared on a panel of the 1949 Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City, in an attempt by leading intellectuals to stave off the Cold War.

Copland was investigated by the FBI during the Red Scare of the 1950s and found himself blacklisted. On June 22, 1950, he was labeled as a Communist sympathizer along with other such renowned musicians and performers such as Leonard Bernstein, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Artie Shaw, in the infamous publication "Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television." In the McCarthy witch-hunt era, being labeled a Communist or Communist sympathizer was a career-killer.

Because of the political climate of that era, his famous composition "A Lincoln Portrait" was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower, and his works were banned from performance at U.S. embassies and cultural sponsorship abroad. That same year, Copland was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he was asked to explain his seemingly large involvement in explicitly communist and communist-leaning organizations. Copland denied any serious involvement with a list of political/cultural organizations identified as subversive by HUAC.

Outraged by the accusations, many members of the musical community held up Copland's music, much of it based on American themes, as a banner of his patriotism. The investigations ceased in 1955 and were closed in 1975. Though taxing of his time, energy, and emotional state, the McCarthy probes did not seriously affect Copland's career and international artistic reputation. Copeland also decried a lack of artistic freedom in the Soviet Union, especially for his friend and colleague, Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, asserting that the USSR deprived artists of "the immemorial right of the artist to be wrong."

With his setting of the Alfred Hayes poem "Into the Streets May First," Aaron Copland won the 1934 contest for best song from the Workers' Music League, which published it in its 1935 Workers Songbook. Never recorded, this stirring call to action has been performed in recent years only before limited audiences especially interested in proletarian music of the 1930s. Here are the lyrics:

Into the streets May First!
Into the roaring Square!
Shake the midtown towers!
Crash the downtown air!
Come with a storm of banners,
Come with an earthquake tread,
Bells, ring out of your belfries,
Red flag, leap out your red!
Out of the shops and factories,
Up with the sickle and hammer,
Comrades, these are our tools,
A song and a banner!

In 1964, Aaron Copeland was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson, (selected by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination and formally awarded by his successor in office) "for especially meritorious contribution to cultural endeavors."

Adapted from Wikipedia and the Workers Songbook 2.

Information on the Library of Congress Aaron Copeland Collection, here.

Information on Copeland House, here.

Photo: "Aaron Copland 1962" by CBS Television. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.