California has long been associated with fantasy, but few people know that centuries before Hollywood, it drew its very name from an imaginary kingdom—one ruled by a Black queen. Around 1530, when Hernán Cortés’s conquistadors, amid shipwrecks, mutinies, and the destruction of the Aztec Empire, arrived at the peninsula on Mexico’s western side, they christened…
This imposing bronze statue on the Montreux promenade features Freddie Mercury striking his iconic pose. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe statue is the work of a British-based Czech sculptor Irena Sedlecka, famous for British public figures, but also for oversized Communist statues dedicated to the working man. Sedlecka first saw Mercury…
When sketch comedy finds a wide audience, it’s like lightning in a bottle. Think of how The Lonely Island used to dominate “Saturday Night Live” with their digital shorts, or how Tim Robinson made a cult Netflix hit out of his 2019 series, “I Think You Should Leave.” Netflix seeks to replicate some of Robinson’s…
Tired of the endless positive energy of our media? Ready for something a bit more gritty and dark as your entertainment? Want a movie that matches your own cynicism about the current state of affairs? Sure you are, because, ya know, not everyone gets good things in life, chum. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect…
The twisted terror that can live on at the heart of one’s grief, especially when that grief is over the death of a child, has been the subject of cinematic exploration for many decades. From Donald Sutherland imagining his drowned daughter stalking him on the streets of Venice in Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, to…
A life-size and lifelike painted bronze statue of a man and his dog stand near the Morristown Green in Morristown, New Jersey. The man is Morris Frank, co-founder and first Vice President of The Seeing Eye. The dog’s harness is immediately recognizable as that of an assistance animal. The dog is Buddy, a German Shepherd…
The pizza Margherita is considered to be the classic Neapolitan pizza. While it has come to be a famous dish all over the world, some say its story began in a narrow alley in Naples. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAccording to the popular legend, the pizza Margherita was invented in 1889…
Broadway comes to Indiana in The Prom, the latest from director Ryan Murphy. Based on the Tony-nominated musical of the same name, it’s ostensibly about two queer girls who just want to go to prom together. Problem is that the PTA in their small Indiana town has banned them from doing so, and when some no…
This gem lies right off the Pacific Coast Highway in the town of Davenport, just north of Santa Cruz. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe view from the roadway is inspiring, as visitors will find old pilings of a defunct pier that stretches out into the Pacific Ocean. To get to the…
Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for November 10th, 2020, including our…
A little commercial break never hurt anyone. What we see too often on broadcast stations, though, is a crush of advertising that makes TV watching a chore. We’ll put up with a few spots in between an NFL touchdown or grand slam. Sitting through a two-hour movie overstuffed with ads can be brutal. Read moreA…
As budding filmmakers, my class of film school graduates is utterly terrified to enter the real world. Not only because of the tricky environment of finding employment and a steady or not so steady- paycheck in an artistic field like film but now because we are forced to find work in an actively hostile job…
On November 2, 1920—Election Day, 100 years ago—Moses Norman of Ocoee, Florida, joined more than 25 million Americans in going to the polls to cast his vote. Unlike most of those other voters, however, Norman was Black, and exercising his rights meant putting his safety at serious risk. Just days earlier, the Ku Klux Klan…
“So we’re headed to New Earth, at the speed of light, with an alien?!” “Yeah, we got it…” Saban Films has released an official trailer for a sci-fi action thriller now known as Breach, formerly known as Anti-Life. On the cusp of fatherhood, a junior mechanic aboard an interstellar ark heading to New Earth must…
Hoi An is an old port city in central Vietnam that flourished from the 16th to 19th-century, attracting traders from Japan, China, and Europe. Its historic district, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the Hoi An Ancient Town, was divided between the Chinese and Japanese quarters, connected by a beautiful arched bridge. Read…
When a ceramic relief depicting the Madonna with Child was returned to the church of Scansano in Tuscany, Italy, after five decades of absence, the town threw a solemn celebration. The local bishop, priest, prefect, mayor, and law enforcement officials all attended. On a September morning in 2020, a crowd gathered. The torso-sized relief was…
Although the Virgin birth may be the founding narrative of the Christmas holiday, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the urtext for how we tell Christmas stories. Ebenezer Scrooge has reached archetypal status as the misanthrope who, through various difficulties in life, becomes tight-fisted, forgets the virtues of caring for others, the pleasure of communing…
The Monument to the Fallen of Dogali (Monumento ai Caduti di Dogali) is a memorial, located in Rome, dedicated to the fallen Italian soldiers of the Battle of Dogali. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThis battle was fought in 1887 between Italians and Ethiopia in modern-day Eritrea, during the Italian colonial expansion in…
Brochs are tall, round, stone houses that date back to Scotland’s Bronze Age. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThey were constructed from two layers of drystone walls which actually supported each other, making it possible to build these tall structures. The tallest known broch is around 42-feet (13-meters) in height. Carn Laith…
Also known as the “Pepperpot,” St Catherine’s Oratory stands at one of the highest points of the Isle of Wight. The 35-foot octagonal tower is Britain’s second oldest lighthouse after Dover’s Roman beacon, and as such, the Pepperpot has overseen much of the island’s history. Its creation, however, tells perhaps its most enlightening tale. Read…
Writer/director Michael McCartney’s new comedy/horror thriller, Roommate Wanted, is an edgy cocktail of shocks, suspense, and satire with a fresh and diverse cast. Angelique Sabrina White shines as Maria, a pre-law student who shares a rented house with some carefree college roommates. Unhappy with her academic direction, and struggling with her romantic feelings for another…