Yearly Archives: 2008

Atmosphere warming at Cain’s

Luke Harrington

“I know this is a red state,” Atmosphere emcee Slug said from the main stage of Cain’s Ballroom, “but are you guys happy with the results [of the presidential election]?”

The crowd went wild.

This was the vibe in the air when Slug and his deejay Ant took the stage Friday night November 7, 2008. It wasn’t a question of politics, although those might have influenced it to a certain extent; the point was that the country was entering a new era—one of racial harmony, with the electoral victory of Barack Obama simply serving as more proof.

Slug wasn’t interested in harping on this himself, and I can’t really blame him; in some sense it’s unfortunate that I have to mention it at all, since pointing out our nation’s past racial struggles feels like setting it back—if even just a little bit. But when the (mostly) white, Minneapolis-based duo played for a mostly (but not nearly all) white audience, with three opening performers who were all African-American (emcees Abstract Rude and Blueprint, both backed by deejay Rare Groove), it was hard not to ponder how far we’ve come—and how much good hip-hop music has done for us, say what you will about its shortcomings.

This all seems appropriate for a duo that has just released an album entitled When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh– Gold and embarked on a tour christened Paint the Nation. The message Saturday night was one of inspiration and progress, and it was infectious. It was a message—and a beat—that had fans on their feet cheering—and break-dancing—all night.

Slug was just as appreciative of the Cain’s crowd as they were of him. “You motherf—ers are the best fans that anybody could f—ing have,” he said. “Ever since I first came to Tulsa in 1998, I’ve felt at home here—I can just be myself. You guys don’t make me jump through flaming hoops; I don’t have to act like I’m tough, I don’t have to act like I’m cool.” In the context it made perfect sense—Slug isn’t exactly the sort of emcee you hear on the radio often (which explains why Atmosphere remains underground, even if they’ve been active for more than a decade now). “I’m a 36-year-old rapper who likes comic books,” he told the crowd. “I’m a nerd.”

That’s not to say there’s anything particularly “nerdy” about Atmosphere’s music, however: the songs the group performed Friday night were all powerfully inspiring stories that spanned most of the group’s catalogue: “In Her Music Box,” “Godlovesugly” (“All the beautiful people be quiet!” Slug told the crowd on the final chorus), “Vanity Sick” and “Not Another Day”—all stories of human suffering and what can be done about it.

Slug’s commitment to making a difference became clear when a fan started demanding that he sing “Modern Man’s Hustle,” a song from an early album with vaguely misogynist lyrics.

At first he was amused. “You’re making me feel old,” he said. “Have we really crossed the line into being one of those bands that you can just yell out songs from the audience? Have we crossed into CCR territory?” When the fan continued to ask for the song, however, Slug got serious: “You can yell out songs like that when you’re at a show for some dude with a bunch of hits, sure—but I am not that dude with a bunch of hits. I didn’t build my fanbase through MTV and the radio, I added each and every one of you simply by being me. That’s my job here—to be myself. When I did that song, I was all about getting faded and f—ed up. I’m not about that anymore. I’m about communication.”

Slug paid the fan $20 to leave the show, and then invited the three opening acts back onstage to close the show with some freestyling (“I’m not any good at freestyling,” he said—a statement that turned out to be untrue—“but I like it.”) After momentarily trying to think of a rhyme for “Tulsa,” Slug, Abstract Rude and Blueprint—backed, of course by Rare Groove, Ant, and Atmosphere’s touring band—all improvised some dope rhymes over the hook “Slug went crazy / But where did you go?” Somewhere in there, Blueprint found a pretty good rhyme: “Tulsa—the center of hip-hop culture.”

It might not be true, strictly speaking, but it certainly felt that way that night, with every fan in the diverse crowd grooving to hope and unity. The evening was a reminder that while American culture still has a long way to go, there’s no need to give up hope.

About the author:

A graduate of the University of Nebraska, Luke Harrington currently resides in Tulsa and works in the aerospace industry–but, at any given moment, would probably rather be reviewing movies and music. In his spare time, he’s off playing blues piano, pretending to be Assistant Editor for MovieZeal.com, or reviewing the many musical events in Northeastern Oklahoma for Tulsa Today.

Is “Nerdcore” a genre?

Luke Harrington

Nerdcore Rising
United States, 2008
Directed By: Negin Farsad, with Kim Gatewood
Written By: Negin Farsad
Starring: MC Frontalot, G Minor 7, Blak Lotus, Sturgenious, MC Chris, Optimus Rhyme, MC Lars, NurseHella, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Prince Paul, Brian Posehn
Running Time: 80 min.
Not Rated
3 out of 5 stars

Music is a fickle thing, and every time a band innovates, someone is there to invent a new word for their “genre.” This is especially true with genres that people like to describe with the word “hardcore,” a word which lends itself well to portmanteaus. Hardcore punk that incorporates metal and industrial influences becomes “grindcore”; emotional hardcore punk is “emocore” (or emo, for those who are truly phonetically lazy); hardcore rap with slasher-film-inspired lyrics is “horrorcore”; and bizarrely, the fusion of hardcore rap and heavy metal is somehow “rapcore.”

Well, say hello to yet another.

Nerdcore is the new music on the scene. Yes, “nerdcore”—the fusion of hardcore rap and, um, nerdiness. Credited with creating the genre and coining the term itself is San Francisco-based rapper MC Frontalot, who mixes tight beats with lyrics about the Internet, wookiees, and +3 two-handed broadswords.

After building a substantial fanbase online and becoming “rapper laureate” for popular nerd-oriented webcomic Penny Arcade, the performer launched a tour of the continental U.S. in addition to a debut album entitled Nerdcore Rising; the film of the same title, directed by stand-up comedienne Negin Farsad, documents the tour. She and her camera follow Frontalot and his backing band as they tour throughout the southeast and the midwest, singing songs like “I Hate Your Blog” and “Hassle: The Dorkening,” culminating in a sold-out performance at PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo) in Seattle. The concert and road footage is interspersed with interviews with other nerdcore emcees (including Optimus Rhyme, NurseHella, and MC Lars), in addition to hip-hop producer Prince Paul (who’s worked with everyone from jazz-rap group De La Soul to horrorcore group Gravediggaz) and nerd music pioneer “Weird Al” Yankovic.

It’s unfortunate that the film doesn’t work particularly well, either as a concert movie or as a serious documentary. The concert footage is badly filmed, with a grainy texture and a sound quality that’s even worse, and the interviews don’t generally go very far past the obvious (though Prince Paul is remarkably insightful in his advocacy for the new genre). Farsad also fails to generate a cohesive aesthetic—occasionally dipping into rotoscoping and used-car-lot-commercial-level CGI, but generally just making the screen look cluttered (though the occasional presence of animated on-screen lyrics keeps things interesting). The involvement of so many other nerdcore artists also begs the question of why Farsad doesn’t bother to insert any of their songs or performances to give a broader picture of the genre.

There’s one moment in the film that is particularly interesting: as the band’s van enters New Orleans, Farsad’s camera surveys the damage wrought by the hurricanes of the last several years (it’s not pretty), and then cuts to footage of the band watching a couple of musicians play the blues on the street. Farsad intercuts this with interview footage in which her various subjects discuss the question, “Is nerdcore racist?” In other words, when dorky white people do what cool black people do, should that be considered offensive?

Even this misses the point though: it’s simply an attempt to graft mid-20^th century thinking onto a decidedly 21^st-century genre of music. Hip-hop is the world’s first truly global musical movement, and while the majority of the original performers may have been black (and Hispanic), it’s become a multiracial movement, with performers of every race and subgenres in nearly every country—whether MTV and commercial radio acknowledge it or not. As Prince Paul points out, the whole point of hip-hop is to be yourself and “keep it real.”

And, whether we’re fly gangstaz or white nerds, I think we can all get behind that sentiment.

Nerdcore is currently playing every Friday in November at the Circle Cinema. Call 592-FILM for tickets and showtimes.

About the author:

Bond boring franchise

Evan Derrick, Film Critic

Quantum of Solace
United States, 2008
Directed By: Marc Forster
Written By: Paul Haggis and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Jude Dench, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright
Running Time: 106 minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content
3 out of 5 stars

Quantum of Solace remains myopically focused on its priorities, but wasting time is not one of them. Action, however, is, and 10 seconds past the slinky credits (serviceable, but not nearly as clever as Casino Royale’s, an observation that sadly applies to the entire film) Daniel Craig is whipping his Aston Martin around paper-thin curves as gun-toting suits rat-a-tat-tat him and any innocent vehicles nearby. It’s an exhilarating opener, full of intense Craig grimaces and physics-defying maneuvers, but it sets a bombastic tone that Solace is unable to escape from. This is action Bond, paint-by-numbers Bond, boring Bond. Why risk one of the most lucrative franchises on planet Earth with, you know, interesting stuff?

I suspect that I’ve failed to conceal my disappointment from you. Quantum of Solace is by no means unenjoyable, but dangit Bond, why’d you have to go and butter me up with Casino Royale, promise me emotion and pathos and a reason to believe that you were more than just a plastic action figure; and then give me a sequel with none of those things? You’re a tease, double-oh seven, and a cruel one at that. Sigh.

Apart from the Bourne-style action and a steely-eyed Daniel Craig, Casino Royale was a successful reboot for one reason: Bond became a character rather than a caricature. The climactic death of Vesper Lynd (a Bond girl who – finally! – was more than just a rump and a smile) carried real weight because of this; she wasn’t disposable, and you could see the rage boiling underneath Bond’s cool exterior.

Since Solace is a conspicuous sequel, you’d expect the catharsis of a Maximus-esque “And I will have my vengeance…” moment, with Bond coolly putting the fear of god into responsible parties at the end of a silenced PP7, but it’s noticeably absent. Oh sure, there’s plenty of brooding at bars, accompanied by mournful glances at tattered photographs, but it’s all lip service.

Director Marc Forster (primarily known for Oscar-begging dramas like Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner) is always itching, itching, itching to get to his next action extravaganza, and while they’re magnificent to behold (an Italian rooftop chase ending in trapeze-style acrobatics might be the best slice of action-porn since the The Matrix Reloaded’s freeway finale), they eschew all the spicy ingredients that made Royale such an unexpected treat.

Forster should probably be exonerated from any blame. His Sony overlords, blinded by visions of limitless Bond booty, are content to put the franchise on auto-pilot, replacing risky drama with bullets and bluster (much safer, that way). Vesper, an actual match for Bond in wit, is followed by Camille (Hitman‘s Olga Kurylenko), just another pretty face with a Past (that we haven’t reverted to Christmas Jones is, at the very least, a small mercy); and the villain (Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is impotent, executing yet another global get-rich scheme that’s just a few hairs shy of Lex Luthor’s send-California-to-the-sea real estate blitz. That he’s given a physical showdown with Bond (who dispatched 347 much nastier goons previous) just adds to the parody.

Quantum of Solace is two steps back for the franchise, and while it hasn’t descended to Pierce Brosnan levels of silliness, it’s happily reneged on Royale’s tantalizing promise. While Bond junkies will find plenty to love, the obscene reams of cash soon to be filling Sony’s coffers will dissuade them from any future gambling (milk that heifer!), ensuring that subsequent installments will maintain the status quo. And I’ll be there, ticket in hand, more “Bond, James Bond” please, but I won’t be happy about it.

About the author:
Evan Derrick loves movies, loves talking about movies, and even makes them from time to time. In addition to being the founder and senior editor for MovieZeal.com, he is also a member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle and a father of two beautiful children. He can be reached for comment or complaint at evan@moviezeal.com.

Is “Nerdcore” a genre?

Luke Harrington

Well, say hello to yet another.

And, whether we’re fly gangstaz or white nerds, I think we can all get behind that sentiment.

Nerdcore is currently playing every Friday in November at the Circle Cinema. Call 592-FILM for tickets and showtimes.

About the author:

Conservatism’s death: Greatly exaggerated

Ernest Istook

Editorial: The biggest problem facing America’s conservatives isn’t our "progressive" president-elect or the liberal leaders controlling Congress. It’s defeatism.

Liberal pundits such as the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne were quick to interpret the recent elections as "a definitive end to a conservative era." A Google search for "death of conservatism" this week produced 57,900 hits. It’s the new common wisdom.

But should America’s millions of conservatives be despairing? Of course not. That’s what the Left wants the most. "It is best to win without fighting," wrote Sun Tzu in "The Art of War." "The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord."

Yes, the Republican Party (myself included) has let America down. But the roots of conservative principles run deep. They are alive and well. They need nourishment, not abandonment.

Solutions will not arise overnight, just as the problems did not.

America changed before its citizens ever voted for "change." Conservative icon Paul Weyrich wrote about that in 1999: First of all, we have assumed that a majority of Americans basically agrees with our point of view. That has been the premise upon which we have tried to build any number of institutions, and indeed our whole strategy. The second premise has been that if we could just elect enough conservatives, we could get our people in as congressional leaders and they would fight to implement our agenda. We got our people elected. But that did not result in the adoption of our agenda. The reason is that politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture.

Weyrich was right. To surrender traditional values and embrace hedonism is to avoid personal accountability – and responsibility for self is the fulcrum upon which self-governance pivots and an essential part of leveraging its power.

Weyrich linked this to the triumph of political correctness and its stifling influence. He urged people to drop out of the decadence of popular culture.
But that does not require political surrender.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested to the Conservative Political Action Conference this spring that the Washington-centric focus is also part of the problem: We should be developing a conservative action plan, at every level of this country, and not simply focused over and over again on arguments about the White House. In a fundamental way, the conservative movement has to declare itself independent from the Republican Party.

Gingrich made clear he doesn’t mean a third political party, but to end the national confusion that hurts conservatism when it is wrongly equated with Republicanism.

Weyrich and Gingrich, although accurate, left out a critical component of what defined conservatism during its finest moment – optimism. That spirit was as important to President Ronald Reagan as were his political principles.

Like its grass roots, conservative institutions are ready to rebuild. Surprising cultural victories such as reinforcing traditional marriage in California, Florida and Arizona show there is unexpected strength in the values that are intertwined with conservative principles.

The president of The Heritage Foundation, Dr. Ed Feulner, picked up on that hopefulness this week as he addressed a major meeting of supporters. "Under the circumstances," he began, "I think it’s appropriate for conservatives to feel unhappy about the outcome of this election. Very unhappy."

But, Feulner added: It isn’t as though we haven’t been in messes before. Turn your internal clocks back 30 years to the late 1970s.
·  Jimmy Carter was in the White House.
·  The Democrats held 61 seats in the Senate.
·  They controlled 67 percent of the House.
·  Our economy was hobbled by 12 percent inflation and 9 percent unemployment.
·  The top marginal income tax rate was 70 percent.
·  We were under an Arab oil embargo that compelled us to buy gasoline on odd and even days – when gasoline was available, and it often wasn’t.
·  Rather than encourage domestic oil production, our government was penalizing oil companies with windfall-profits taxes.
·  We were ordered to turn our thermostats up in the summer and down in the winter and to wear sweaters.
·  We were at the height of the Cold War.
·  Iran had been holding 52 Americans hostage for more than a year.
·  And yet those very circumstances enabled Ronald Reagan’s election.

Feulner counseled against the defeatism being urged by the left: "They will seize upon any pretext to announce the death of the conservative movement. They’ve been doing it for decades. But too many conservatives today are buying into that fallacy. That is a dangerous mistake, because it will sap your will to fight."
Feulner rallied his supporters with accounts of Heritage’s 10-year "Leadership for America" plan, and an admonition to "Win one for the Gipper."

The attitude needed by conservatives is shown by another from Ronald Reagan’s treasure trove of stories, perhaps his very best one: A boy wakes up on Christmas morning to find a pile of horse manure under the tree. Excited rather than upset, he grabs a shovel and digs into it. "With all this manure," the boy says, "there must be a pony in here somewhere."

We still have ponies in America. If we dig in and work, we will find them

About the author:
Ernest J. Istook Jr. is a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation – and host of the think tank’s satellite radio show "The Heritage Foundation Live" on XM Radio’s "POTUS08" channel. Istook also guest hosts for several national and local talk radio shows, including Bill Bennett’s "Morning in America" program and the Mark Levin Show. Istook first joined Heritage in 2007 as a Visiting Distinguished Fellow, charged with examining the murky process of appropriations. He became a permanent member of the think tank’s staff later in the year.

Before coming to Heritage, Istook, the grandson of Hungarian immigrants, represented Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District for 14 years. While on Capitol Hill, Istook served on the House Appropriations Committee where he also chaired several subcommittees, including Treasury, Transportation, and Special Agencies. He also was closely involved with national defense, homeland security, transportation, education, labor, social services, religious liberty issues and many other areas of government.

Prior to serving in Washington , Istook served in the Oklahoma Legislature, as a City Councilman and headed a state agency. In 2006, he was the Republican Party nominee for Governor of Oklahoma. Before that, he practiced law and was a journalist. Istook holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Baylor University and law degree from Oklahoma City University . He and his wife, Judy, have five children. Active in the Boy Scouts of America, he spent several years as a Scoutmaster and both his sons are Eagle Scouts.

Edit Note: First posted November 13, 2008 by www.WorldNetDaily.com, reprinted with permission.