And We Shall March

The California Supremes Affirm Same-Sex Marriage Rights: What You Need To Know About The Tenuous Nature Of That Decision

I'm here only for a flash.

What the state Supremes did today was great!

However, in 2000 more than 60% of California's electorate approved an amendment to the state Constitution defining marriage as a union between one man + one woman. In other words, eliminating gay people from the equation. Prop. 22 was also called "The Defense of Marriage Act."

Because these people never give up in their zealous need to deny rights to other folks, currently there is an initiative widely expected to qualify for the November 2008 ballot that would pretty much do the exact same thing as Prop 22:

1309. (07-0079)
Marriage. Elimination of Domestic Partnership Rights. Constitutional Amendment.
Summary Date: 12/27/07 Circulation Deadline: 05/27/08 Signatures Required: 694,354

Click, scroll, scroll some more, click again, and you can read the full text of that in-circulation ballot measure. Again, this is widely expected to quality for the November general election.

What it all means is this is not even close to being over. If the California Constitution is amended, it really doesn't matter what the California Supremes say.

So. If you *truly* care about this issue, once all the cheering over today's action is done you will have to hit the streets and do all you can to legally stop the next attempt to curtail fair dealings in marriage equity. If you don't live here you can reach out to educate any friends/family who are registered voters here and urge them to take action. You can start by going to Equality California, which is a coalition partner with Equality For All, and take action.

Here is a nice run-down of what we call The Marriage Case.

Here is Equality California's blog.

For the record...though California offers the broadest slate of rights and responsibilities to domestic partners of any state in the nation,*** there are over 1,000 federal rights granted to heterosexual married couples that our state laws can do nothing about. That doesn't mean you don't make the effort to do what you can for California LGBT who want to be married; just means you go into it with Eyes Open.

More, later.

*** Reminding me once again to look into the details of Massachusetts, which is what I always think when tossing around that statement.

Okay. Gone again.

A Whole Bunch Of Things At Once

It's time to admit that there is entirely too much going on elsewhere right now and I need to step away from this place for a week or two to take care of it all. When I come back I promise Nifty Offerings. Here's some stuff to tide over until then:

Charles R. Saunders has updated his new website, and it looks like he's answering notes submitted to the forum section!

Malcolm Gladwell, and his FABULOUS hair that I dream about during those Long Nights Of The Soul, gives a hilarious/informative talk at some tech event!

And another Gladwell talking at some New Yorker event, where his ruminations on "mismatch" is particularly dead-on. (Though I must say I hate the growing trend of using 'invisible' head-mikes, because really they just look like giant warts and they are distracting.)

RedHeadDread informs moi that this umm...iguana of some kind? is actually a Bearded Dragon!

It's too bad that Prairie Home Companion doesn't do full online broadcasts, because this past weekend's show was *the best* Clintons/McCain/Obama send-up I have yet to encounter during this protracted election season! The woman they have doing Hillary deserves all the acting awards in the universe, but she topped herself this week with the broken beer bottle in one hand and a rolled up copy of the Congressional Record in the other. (Okay, truth be told their Obama is still a little weaker compared to the rest of their political personality parodies, but if all things work out they'll have *plenty* of opportunities to get him down in the future. I can't wait.)  The "Duane, the Chosen Son" routine from the past show is also great; it's offered as a clip at the top of the site under 'Mom Script'.  It reminds me of that time Mom & I went to see the Albert Brooks film, Mother, and I got into so very much trouble trying not to laugh at the parts that were, you know, HER...

I had another link, but I have lost it in the morass. William Shatner and his cigarette perform "Rocket Man."

Finally, I have no idea where this came from or even if it's real, but clearly it's Cthulhu Rising. And it's gorgeous. Which makes it even scarier.

Food, Flowers, Flowering Food

Templar, AZ: Spike Is Putting Together The Second Paper Collection! You Want? Order It Now!

The cartoonist Spike, last mentioned around this place here, is gearing up to do another paper collection of her webcomic Templar, Arizona! If you click here you can go to the pre-order page and pick which version works best for your budget. I think the "I'm a misprint" one is an ever-so-clever approach.

Click! Buy!

Right. So You Take The Hottie From Dirty Pretty Things, Throw In The Magician, The Gangster And A Couple Of Other Awesomes, Tie It All Up With A Pretty David Mamet Bow? TOTALLY THERE.

Mamet was at the Egyptian a couple of weeks ago showing this movie and doing a talk. Could not free myself from Demands Elsewhere to go. Still pissed about that, let me tell you...

Vote June 3rd! Stop This Stealth Attempt To Install A White Supremacist As Judge On Los Angeles' Superior Court!

Voters aren't showing much excitement over the June 3 election, apart from a race to replace Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke in Los Angeles County's 2nd District. Turnout is expected to be light. Many who do vote will do so by mail, beginning today. It is a stealth election, providing an opportunity to a dangerous candidate with a small but dedicated following of people who make it a point to vote when others don't bother.

This year it's more serious. Los Angeles voters, if they don't pay attention, could hand judicial robes to a racial separatist who called for restricting U.S. citizenship to persons "of the European race" and deporting blacks, Asians, Latinos and others who don't meet his racial criteria.

The candidate is Bill Johnson. Under the name James O. Pace, he wrote the racial exclusion as a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a 1985 book supporting it. Under the name Daniel Johnson, he ran a losing race for Congress in Wyoming in 1989 with a Ku Klux Klan organizer as his campaign manager. As William Johnson, he ran a losing race for Congress in Arizona in 2006. He now may have found a race he can win, unless voters here find out who he is.

The Times on April 21 endorsed Johnson's opponent, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner James Bianco, because Bianco is experienced and impressive and because Johnson was secretive about his past and about his role in a questionable campaign to remove six Latino judges from the court. Now the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a newspaper that reports on courts and the legal community, has put together the rest of the pieces on Johnson.

Johnson has been active in the Ron Paul for president campaign (he says his views on race now are identical to Paul's) and is relying on Paul supporters to rally for him. They just might do it, making it more important than ever for voters to act -- and to choose Bianco.

Here is a direct link to the Met News round-up on Johnson's record: "White Supremacist Is in Contest With Court Commissioner." Scroll down for the section on Johnson.

More Rescued Creatures

Somehow I ended up in the chain of people holding this snake. It's a boa, it's a baby, and it's HUGE already. It was about nine feet long and probably would get to be about 15 down the road. A little girl petting it asked what the bulge was. The guy told her it was dinner. She was persistent, demanding specifics in that way kids do. He finally broke down and told her it was a rabbit. She went "poor bunny!" and HUGGED the bulge. I hope the film crew got that on tape because it was so sweet! The hot guy in this shot was with the film crew. He was like, I Do Not Like Snakes, said "here" and draped part of the snake over my shoulder. As if I wasn't already holding enough snake! That fucker was HEAVY.

Here's a shot of one of the little snakes. I forget what kind it was.

When I snapped the photo of this ... um ... iguana of some kind? ... it stared right at me. Up until that point it had been ignoring moi and everyone else.

Got a great shot of a skull of some kind on their table, but unfortunately it was sitting atop their sign-up list and all of the names, addresses and emails are clearly visible. So not sharing that one due to other people's privacy concerns. But here's a shot of one of the coolest things to wander by our booth during that day.

Imagine Many Q-Tips Going Tippy Toe On You At Once

This one, and a couple more going up this week, are from an event a few weeks past, taken when it was my turn to flee the booth for a while on break.  While wandering I came across what seemed to be the most popular booth at the event, with people heaped six or seven deep around it. Turned out this was because of all of the many animals, insects and reptiles they had on hand, every creature rescued from an abysmal situation throughout SoCal. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the organization at this moment of typing.

BGF: When's the last time it bit somebody?
Patient Guy: She does not bite people.
BGF: <backs up and watches a progression of little girls let that thing crawl on their hands>
Patient Guy:  <makes  The Children Are Fine With It eye contact>
BGF: <avoids eye contact by taking pictures>
Patient Guy: <to little girl> You're what? Five? Six?
Little Girl: Four! Can I have her?
Patient Guy: No.
BGF: If it doesn't bite people, then how does it eat?
Patient Guy: She eats by biting things that are not people.
BGF: If I let that thing walk on my hand, what do I need to know?
Patient Guy: ... Don't take her if you're going to freak out because if she falls, she'll break. She's delicate. People don't understand how fragile they are.
BGF: <after many deep breaths and silent recitation of the Bene Gesserit litany> Wow. She's really soft. Can I pet her?
Patient Guy:  Lightly. You're doing good.
BGF: <upon the creature suddenly spinning in my palm, stepping on my wrist and then for no obvious reason racing up my arm> OMIGOD IT'S HEADED FOR MY ARTERIES!!
Patient Guy: Hang on. <places hand palm-up on my bicep, creature steps on it, takes creature away.>
BGF: SHE WAS GOING TO EAT MY ARTERIES.
Patient Guy: I dunno what that was about. She usually doesn't -
BGF: IT WAS ABOUT MY AR-TER-IES!
Patient Guy: You did good. Nice and calm. Except for the yelling. Why didn't you tense up?
BGF: One of my gifts is the ability to compartmentalize.

My Combat Journalism Pants Still Fit

They're just going about The Work a little differently than what they're used to. I wonder if they still make this particular brand? Because I'm gonna need a few more.

"Stars and Superheroes Sparkle at Museum Gala"

Be sure to watch the video, but what jumps out for me at first is the red web dress on the right side behind Spider-Man, seen in the second photo. It's very close to how I ultimately decided to run the webs on the Anansi Dress. A couple of the other dresses in the video take the same approach. I figured out that having the web start at the hip/side and radiate out across the body has more impact, and I don't even have a degree in this shit! Heh.

Oh, hey. So you can embed multiple links in one graph.... Good to know.
 

Glitter And Doom

via The Eyeball Kid.

So we got Waits, the Sex Pistols, NIN all going out this summer, aka the era of $4 gas and raised rent.

I need a second job.

Whitlock / Holding

He doesn’t care. He has a sexy headline he wants to promote and magazines to sell.

So on May 9, this headline will greet Playboy readers on the cover: “Jason Whitlock, The Black KKK.” On the inside of the magazine over my column, the headline will read: “The Black KKK.” A subheadline will state: “Hip Hop is killing Black America, and it’s time to do something about it.”

The story isn’t about the Black KKK. The words do not appear in the 5,000-word column. None of the sources quoted in the story or spoken to on background ever heard those words come out of my mouth, and they never spoke them to me. The story isn’t about hip-hop killing Black America.

The story is about the astronomical financial and cultural price we all — black, white, brown and yellow — are paying for locking up 2.3 million of our citizens. The piece focuses on California’s penal system, the state’s too-powerful prison guard union, Jim Brown’s anti-gang-violence organization and Mexican-black hostility.

Hampton / Holding

“She called me in and said, ‘You’ve got a choice, dear, now,’ ” Mr. Hampton recalled. “ ‘You can write this play over and over again for the next 40 years, and it’ll probably get a little better. Or you can do something completely different.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m thinking of writing a play about the extermination of the Brazilian Indians.’ And that set my course, really — which was to start again, every time.”

Heh.

I'm Not Entirely Sure

... but I think this woman, whose entries brought to me via the reader thingy are always a delight, is trying to kill me.

LOOK at that prime rib.

I Take YOUR Picture, Gary Leonard

BGF: Gary! I'm TAKING YOUR PICTURE! HAHAHA
Gary: What?
BGF: Stand still!
Gary: What?
BGF: Don't move! I'm not real good with things that move!
Gary: How's the light?
BGF: Like I care!

Gary Leonard is one of the treasures of this city, everywhere all the time chronicling it for decades. I would kill to get my hands on his archives and to organize them (if they aren't already...but I suspect they're not because he's always on the streets shooting stuff), and then work to find a permanent home for them come that distant day when he stops shooting. His archives need a safe home for future generations of LA historians. Here's a random article about him. He took a picture of Me & the Chris Ware Purse a couple of years ago! I was thrilled. (Note for clarity, the picture he took was at another event, not the one described in the link.)

Leonard has recently opened the Gary Leonard Studio/Gallery at 740 S. Olive St. downtown, a space he also uses to showcase other artists. The current show up, he told me who it was, but I forget at this moment of typing. I think it's a local editorial cartoonist. The second Thursday of each month is open house! That would be THURSDAY, not TUESDAY, as  some of us who are short on brain thought at first, which explains why we went wandering around Olive Street on the wrong Tuesday evening and ended up Confused. THURSDAY. It's on THURSDAYS. Next open house is THURSDAY, May 8th, 6 to 9 p.m.

Gary also wins the Most Awesome Business Card Award. Mine are cool, but his are awesome. They're partly in braille. He's a photog and his buiz cards are partly in braille. That's some heavy post-modern shit.

Hey, that picture didn't turn out too badly, for an ambush shot...

Mysterious Galaxy: Booksellers In The Wild

To my comrades in the GHC who have yet to stop whining, I repeat: There was no time to go into Predator Mode and hunt the man down because I was working. I warned you ahead of time! But no worries, ladies. He'll be back. They always come back to SoCal. I'll get him then. I'll tell him how all of us love him (but my love is obviously more Pure than yours), and then I'll give him every single one of his books to sign To Me With Love (and hope he's not insulted that some of them are kind of raggedy due to multiple reads), and then I'll take his picture, and then I'll make prints of the pictures and mail them to you. I PROMISE to do this for you. But don't forget your promises to cover the bail if things Go Horribly Awry.

Meanwhile, one of the 13 impossible things to happen when my shift as Executive Booth Bunny*** was over was being able to spend a bit of face time with the fabulous M'e of Mysterious Galaxy! This NEVER happens. I also got to see up close a retailer on their game. Here's how that went down..

Guy wanted a book. There's books all over the place, but guy wanted a specific edition of a book. Maryelizabeth had one copy of the desired edition of this particular book left. She found it in her inventory, walked it over to him in one of the signing areas located way the hell over in a different quadrant of the UCLA campus. The guy who wanted the book happened to still be in the signing area when she showed up. She handed over the book, he looks at it and basically goes "wow." During their brief chat he seemed genuinely surprised that she hand-delivered what he wanted. One thing I thought was rad was how she didn't even tell him she was one of the owners.

And that's yet another example of why, if you give a fuck about books, you should support the independent booksellers who are the foundation. Based on what I have seen/endured at this event over the years I guarantee you not a single employee of the Big Box Bookseller who is a major sponsor of the LAT festival would have bothered to make the effort. You'd be lucky if the people staffing the BBB booth knew who you were talking about.

Here are some pictures, the ones that didn't turn out blurry, anyway.

*** The best compliment I ever got on how I work an event of this type came from The Departed many, many moons ago, back when he was still mobile, and we were just acquaintances. I was in the previous profession, and he happened upon me working that day job's booth at an event. He watched for a good chunk of time before coming into my range of vision and letting me know he was there. He said "you're what a booth bunny should be!" I'm 95% sure that was the first time I had ever heard the term "booth bunny." Years later, once Eddie Izzard came onto the scene, James dubbed me an Executive Booth Bunny. I still miss him every day.

More From The Annals Of We Can't Take You ANYWHERE, Can We?

(Latest in an occasional series.)

So there I am at a thing, this time charged with engaging as many of the several tens of tens of tens of thousands of Avoiding Eye Contact people walking past.

BGF: May I gift you*** with our newsletter?
Target: No thanks.
BGF: May I gift you with our newsletter?
Target: You people are why this country is going down the drain.
BGF: May I gift you with our newsletter?
Target: Sure!
BGF: Our newsletter! Let me show you it!
Target: Thanks.
BGF: May I gift you with our newsletter?
Target: No.
BGF: May I gift you with our newsletter?
Target: Where did you get that bag?
BGF: If I tell you, will you promise to let me gift you with our newsletter?
Same Target: Sure.
BGF: You have to take the newsletter, first.
Same Target: Hahaha!
BGF: No, seriously. TAKE THE NEWSLETTER.
Same Target: <can't stop laughing as he takes the newsletter, nor as I direct him to turn around, look at the giant C-SPAN bus right behind him, walk over to it and take one of the bags from the giant pile of bags on their table. and then he starts laughing harder. i can understand why it was kinda funny, but i don't get why it was that funny.>
BGF: May I gift you with - O MY GOD!
Gustavo: <raises eyebrows in slight alarm>
BGF: You're the guy! That Mexican! That's you! Gustavo, ah..
Gustavo: ... Arellano.
BGF: I love your column! You're doing the Lord's work! I have your book!
Gustavo: Hey, thanks! <eyebrows lower into non-alarm mode>
BGF: And I totally knew the April 1st column was a joke!
Gustavo: That makes you the third person in the city who got it.
BGF: Can I take a picture of you?
Gustavo: Sure -
BGF: NO! Wait! COWORKER! TAKE A PICTURE OF US!!
Coworker: ... Okay.

BGF: So...may I gift you with our newsletter?
Gustavo: <laughs> Please, do.

For non-locals, a couple of random examples of his work.

After my shift I wandered a bit and snagged three more entries for the hobby site, then went home and fell over. I'd been up really, really later than I should have.

Prince! Creep! Coachella!

Will swap out after someone posts a better one.

(Oh, and nyah-nyah to The Nice One because I found it first.)

Swapped out for one with much better sound and slightly better visuals. Hail Mary mother of fuckin god this man is good.

Great classic-rock-star-style picture here.

More pictures with good shots of the shirt and wristbands.

Even more pictures.

Given his history, I wonder how long this PrinceRoll will last before every single one of them is taken down by the lawyers? CLICK WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE! Check out this guitar solo! Or this astonishing one! Or the extended "Little Red Corvette" in this one! In this one he flows from 'Seven' to 'Come Together' and he's in a different outfit. Omigod, 'Purple Rain' in the house!

(Update, one week later! The embed vid was pulled within five days of his show. Not sure about how many of the others linked to are still up, but I know at least two of them went down two days after they were uploaded. Short version? Took his legal team *less than a week* to bitch-slap it all down. Told ya to click while you had the chance.)

They give me warm & fuzzy flashbacks to the one glorious time I saw him live, the second greatest concert experience of my life. (The first was NIN way back in the day in Cleveland, when he was skinny, nobody knew who he was, and though I was mostly drunk at the time I knew that everything had Changed. Here's what happened around here during a recent NIN tour which has nothing to do with Prince, but I and several others in the circle like this story.)

And The Winner Is - Dinaw Mengestu!

This is as close as I got to the author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears  because I only had a 10-min break and thought it best to spend that time finding a bathroom that did not have a long line. He's the cutie in the middle. This weekend his pretty good book won best first book.

Dossouye: Be Ye Not Afraid

Will most likely be coming back to this down the road, but a cursory glance through the (much neglected) inbox made me think maybe a little bit now.

Yes, this is the cover:

But this is the line art for that cover, which you get to see once you get the book:

Big, huge difference, particularly with her rendering - more human, far less bestial. This is a case of pretty good line art thrown completely off-kilter once entirely too many digital effects were unleashed upon it. I think it's digital painting as there's all sorts of things about the final version that cues digital, but as one of my Experts is off rigging things, and the other is [redacted], I can't get a reliable second opinion right now. Once they reemerge and get around to their inboxes, I'll update this entry with an Informed Opinion.

So, while I join you in disliking the cover image, I strongly urge you to ignore it, get this book and enjoy what's in its pages. Tell your friends who enjoy traditional s&s adventure stories with a nice Blackitude twist and get them to buy the book. Buy books as gifts - holiday shopping done early! If we want more of these later, it ever so important to support the work now. If you have to ignore the cover art to do so, THEN IGNORE THE COVER ART.

I will also  remind you that Saunders is doing this pretty much DIY, without benefit of an art department and, I'm assuming, limited means to put into a design budget. What he got for whatever he has to work with is not ideal, but it is not horrible.

At this time I will refrain from fully responding to the "but the Night Shade covers were..." comments, save to point out that Night Shade lacked faith enough to make it all the way through the initial Imaro series. Remember that bit? That really kinda critically important data point? The action which leads us to where we are now? Invoking Night Shade in my inbox is not the Wise approach. Just sayin'.  All the other approaches expressing concern about the cover, ! good ! especially those coming from other black women. Keep them coming if you are so inclined. But Night Shade apologias = Not Good.

Given my penchant for dumping all over bad book covers - there are more examples of this Hobby all over the blog, but that's the only one I can remember right now - am I now equivocating due to Saunders being in my Pantheon? Yes.

When Night Shade kicked him to the curb, Saunders could have just walked away from genre again, as he did when DAW pulled the same shit on him decades ago. But he didn't. He decided to look at the future and try to figure out a way to keep on. He made the brave choice. And someone with the improbable name of  "Uraeus" stepped up and made it happen.*** To put it in Rev. Billy terms, this is kind of like doing what you can to support the gifted, independent artisan in a climate where the big box gatekeepers decide what they think is/is not worth the effort, and it is up to the people living in the neighborhood to jump up and down and wave their arms and shout to random passer by THIS ONE! This place right here! Stop a minute, go inside, and delight at what you will find there before the developers show up with their pale, sharp cookie-cutters and stamp it all away. (If I were not so tired that last bit would be a little less wonky. I'm gonna let it stand for now. I hope you can suss out the point I'm trying to get at, despite the clunky.) 

Do I need to put in the These Opinions Are Mine And Mine Alone And Do Not Reflect The Opinions Or Input Of Anybody I Might Be Talking About? Maybe not. But it's the internet(s). One can't be too careful.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm at the part where Kwi is experiencing fear for the first time in one hundred rains! It's 11:30 at night, I've got to be on the road for the day job tomorrow by 8:15 a.m. at the latest, and that means I need to go to bed by 2 a.m.  in order to non-violently respond to the alarm clock when it goes off at 7.  I GOT READING TO DO.

Related.

Book!

*** Dude, that's the name of the person he thanks in the opening chatter of the new book. Don't ask me any questions because that's all I know...that person's chosen name is Uraeus, and whatever reasons s/he has for using a name nobody's Mamma would actually give them, I don't care. The only thing I have to say to Uraeus is THANK YOU for doing whatever it is you had to do to get this into print, problematic cover and all.

My Working Hypothesis That A Whole Hell Of A Lot Of Us Have A Thing For Anansi (For Reasons That Should Be Obvious But Sometimes You Have To Explain It Depending On The Clue Level Of The Person You're Talking To) Gets Another Bit Of Supporting Data

Related.

This, too.

Think Of It As Blog Delivery Service, Useful For When The Email Keeps Saying ACK! FILE TOO BIG! FALL OVER! DIE! REJECT!

It's Called Drive-By Posting

Charles R. Saunders has a website!

And also, NEW BOOK.

Another Film Festival, Another Lack Of Time. Feel My Pain.

As of right now , meaning my ability to hit up the 24th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will probably mirror my inability to hit up this year's PAFF or adequately attend either of the documentary fests.  But hope springs eternal, this looks like yet another strong AAPFF lineup, and since the fest opens eight days from now that's a good enough excuse to point out the movies that jumped out for me. Maybe I can hunt some of them down on dvd later. Whenever possible the links below go to a site related to the movie, some of them with trailers!

Chances are real good this entry will have to hold for the week, as I'm busy elsewhere.

WINGS OF DEFEAT
(United States/Japan, 2007) Dir.: Risa Morimoto; Wtr.: Linda Hoaglund
Video, 89 min., Color, Documentary, in English and Japanese w/E.S.
Internationally, kamikaze pilots remain a potent metaphor for fanaticism. In Japan, they are largely revered for their selfless sacrifice. Yet few outside Japan know that hundreds of kamikaze pilots survived the war. Through rare interviews with surviving kamikaze pilots, we learn that the military demanded pilots volunteer to give up their lives. Retracing their journeys from teenagers to doomed pilots, a complex history of brutal training and ambivalent sacrifice is revealed. Sixty years later, survivors in their eighties tell us about their training, their mindsets, their experiences in a kamikaze cockpit and what it meant to survive when thousands of their fellow pilots had died. Ultimately, they help us question what responsibilities a government at war has to its soldiers and to its people.

MAMO'S WEEDS
(USA, 2007) Dir.: Akira Boch; Scr.: Naomi Hirahara
Mamo Ikeda, an elderly Japanese American gardener, is besieged with weeds. And these are no ordinary weeds-they are the same type that Mamo was accused of inadvertently spreading twenty years earlier. If this isn't bad enough, Mamo also begins to receive a series of strange phone calls from a mysterious woman who seems to know personal things about him. Going from the gardeners' federation office to a retro chop suey house in Little Tokyo to the lawns of Japanese American neighborhoods, Mamo is in search of the truth-only to discover that the weeds are keys to both his past and his future.

This movie was written by the fantabulous mystery novelist Naomi Hirahara, whose  books feature an older Japanese-American gardener who keeps ending up in these Situations. It's great stuff, and you can learn more about her and her books by visiting her website, handily a click away.

BLOOD BROTHERS
(Hong Kong/Taiwan/People's Republic of China, 2007) Dir./Scr.: Alexi Tan
BLOOD BROTHERS is set in 1930s Shanghai, a flourishing modern-day Babylon, replete with warlords, politicians, wealthy industrialists, courtesans and gangsters. Three innocent young brothers, Kang (Liu Ye, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER), Fung (Daniel Wu, BISHONEN: BEAUTY; AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) and Xiao Hu (Tony Yang), arrive in this seeming paradise in search of a better life. Enticed by the rich and powerful world of organized crime, the three brothers are hired to do the bidding for one of the city’s largest mob syndicate. However, as friends turn against friends and brother against brother, the days of innocence have passed, and the three brothers must stand up as men and make their choices.

I think this is a remake of the damn-near masterful Bullet in the Head. If it is, I'm not sure I entirely Approve, even though Woo is involved. But I would go see it anyway.

UP THE YANGTZE
(Canada, 2007) Dir./Wtr.: Yung Chang
In China, it is simply known as "The River." But the Yangtze-and the life that surrounds it-is undergoing a truly spectacular transformation wrought by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, the Three Gorges. From the vantage point of a luxury "farewell cruise" that wends its way up the River, we witness the dramatic shift: peasant families are forced to relocate their entire lives as floodwaters steadily engulf their villages, young tour-boat employees warily grasp at a more prosperous future, and Western tourists catch a final glimpse of a disappearing culture. Returning to the scene of his grandfather's riverbank youth, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang has crafted a singularly moving and cinematically breathtaking depiction of contemporary China and a disquieting glance into a future that awaits us all.

 

OUR PRIDE: THE SPIRIT OF BLACK JAPANESE IN GEORGIA
(USA, 2006) Dir./Wtr.: Yohei Suzuki
Video, 28 mins, Color, Documentary, English
OUR PRIDE foregrounds the experiences of mixed-race individuals of Japanese and African American descent who live in Georgia. Wanting to identify themselves as African American, they sometimes face criticism from African American friends who sometimes do not consider them as African Americans. The documentary raises social awareness of biracial and bicultural individuals and encourages those people to be themselves, urging the audience to accept different cultures, different races, and different ethnicities.

Here's another site related to this filmmaker.

S/HE
(Canada, 2007) Dir./Scr.: Gina Pei Chi Chen
S/HE deftly illuminates the struggle of one 12-year-old girl to follow her expected gender and cultural roles while at the same time exploring an emerging masculine nature.

WARRIOR BOYZ
(Canada, 2008) Dir./Wtr.: Baljit Sangra
WARRIOR BOYZ tells the story of a long-running gang scene that has claimed over 100 young lives in Greater Vancouver's South Asian community since the late 1980s. Surprisingly, many of these young gang members come from tight knit families in middle class neighborhoods. Filmmaker, Baljit Sangra, herself of South Asian descent, focuses on the often troubled and touching daily lives of two teenagers in danger of crossing the line from detention at school to confinement in jail; and on a scarred ex-gangster who shares his story of escaping the gang life. The film also spotlights an outspoken high school vice principal who has witnessed many young lives end tragically. This interconnected cast of real people provides an in-depth look at a disturbing trend within the urban immigrant landscape. WARRIOR BOYZ provides an insightful, ground-level exploration of the warrior/gangsta juxtaposition, which has become a part of the Indo-Canadian experience.

SF SHORTS.
All of the sf shorts, except for maybe the one that sounds boring, but they're shorts so it wouldn't be too painful to sit through.

Of All The Names In This Article, The Only One That Matters To Moi Is Larry Marder

Another good excuse to violate the no posting on weekends rule!

There's a few things about this article that are tediously irritating in the way only the mainstream press can be when encountering something its sneering at behind its hand, but since it mentions Larry Marder, and I am dying, dying I tell you, ALMOST DEAD OF DYING in ANTICIPATION of the new Beanworld book (and did I mention my Baby Bean?), I shall forgive it. Plus, it's promoting a fabulous cause, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which is doing a bunch of events at this weekend's show in NYC. If you're in NYC you should go and give them money while you're there.

Snippet!

So the comic creators drank, and drew, and anticipated the greatness that’s yet to come for what most of them would surely call their voyage. They invoked the history of censorship and exploitation of comics creators, decried once-oppressive modes of manufacturing, and celebrated the end of the dark days before graphic novels were considered art. With great cheer, they railed against the man, knowing that in comics, the boy is still king.