I watched a movie the other day that reminded of the freedoms of being young. I had this overwhelming sadness that came over me. Questions like, did I make the right choices, did I choose the right paths or would I change things if I had the chance to go back. I imagined running through Hiawatha Park around 10yrs old without a single care in the world except that it was sunny and the heat was on my back. Everything felt golden and tomorrow was no fear because I would only be adding one more day to being 10 years old. 10 is such a great age for me personally because I had no regrets at all, how could I? Because I had so few years of life at age 10 how could I care about what’s behind me. So then in present time I got to thinking, many people say things like “you only live once” which is used to remind us to live life to its absolute fullest. I decided I don’t like that saying. I prefer to say you actually live every day and you only ever die once. So every day is this blessing. I was in the store the other day feeling stressed about certain things and thought of how lucky I was to be walking down the aisle. On my own two feet, articulate, intelligent and with plenty of friends. So this message goes out there to anyone feeling down. You live every day you wake up and you only die once so breath every minute like it’s glorious because it is. The picture above is of West Seattle, my home town. I love West Seattle.
Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, how can you go wrong right? Great Sci-Fi film about a few topics. One, is the question of is there life outside of Earth? What does time alone for months really do to humans and what would the world be like in the future, how would it really be? What I really like is the subtle details of rooms and devices that they don’t focus on. Minor things like the rooms climate control show a futuristic presence that are very plausible in the near future. Also the way we think of traveling state to state become the norm traveling to say – the moon. No longer is it a place for astronauts it’s just a destination with living people on it. Our technology would make that trip like traveling to Florida time wise. There is also major conflict in the future which we are not surprised about. You get short glimpses of what futuristic battles could look like and what’s at steak if you run into space pirates. The scenery and CGI is profound as Pitt travels throughout our solar system looking for his father who was previously on a mission to search for intelligent life at the edge of our solar system. His father becomes lost in space without contact but the question is, is he hiding or is he lost. You also see right from the start of the film that Pitt is not your average space man. He is a fearless bad ass who stares right at death without ever flinching. He gets the job done and removes emotions from every action. This becomes another important aspect to understand about the film and how emotions have no place in military teams. The story is special and whats even more realistic is the climax of this film that asks if we are alone or not but if you watch till the end its a result that really feels most realistic to answer that question. No one wants to believe it but this movie shows just one possibility of what is potentially at edge if our solar system.
Forget that this movie can confuse you with the more recent movie called “good boys” which follows a completely younger crew. This movie was about high school best friends trying to live life to it’s fullest before being shipped off to different colleges that they all had scholarships for. They are smart, reserved and never do anything bad nor hang with the cool kids. Not this time. They are going to push themselves to any limit they can find. This movie is hilarious but sprinkled with some touching serious scenes. Which quite simply creates the greatest “high school comedy” film of this era. I saw so many bad reviews on this I had to set the record straight. You take Superbad, Fast Times Richmont High, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club, say anything, 10 things I hate about you, the Wild Life and with these hints of raunchy American Pie , Nation Lampoon’s type humor in it. Also the scenes have great music choices like their entrance to a high school party with Dead Prez “Hop Hop” blastin in the background giving you that office space feel when they break the printer. They cut out a lot of the corny cliche scenes replaced with more authentic scenes. Like when one character smokes a cigarette for the first time she doesn’t cough like every first cinematic smoke scene happens. No instead the humor is why she was smoking not because of her first ever drag. Also one character is abnormally tall like 6′ 9″ but total nerd with that Michael Cera style humor. They make references to his height in the movie to basically announce the tall elephant in the room so you that you can move on with the story. The humor is drool and near heart attack laughter that made me feel like each scene was thoroughly thought-about before shooting. So each comedic moment a joke happened it’s nailed into time for the movie. Lots of surprise scenes in this too that don’t really fit into the films style but keep you engaged to what will happen next? Great plot and story all the way through to the end. Check out this soon-to-be cult-classic.
Now, so I originally wanted to go see this show for X-Raided because I like his new music and of course his classics. X never went on stage because they didn’t want to pay him up front so I feel him on that aspect. Back to the show. This venue is a hall you can rent out over in Seatac and previously was an Auto Parts store or something at one time. Large open area with main stage setup and they used metal barriers for the VIP dance floor area. Each side also had VIP arrangements with small homemade bar areas and drink tickets to buy drinks. The ticket thing has been around a long time to avoid issues with state liquor boards and lots of biker clubs have been doing that style for a long time. The openers were decent and pleasing to the ears. X-Raided didn’t come on and that started some uneasy feelings during the show. As we waited for Boosie to come on stage I could tell everyone was getting anxious. This was probably one of the most hood shows I have been to out of Brotha Lynch, Lil Eazy E, Do or Die, X-Raided, G Perico, and so many others to name and this one topped all of that. Tattoo faces people with hoods on and dark clothing in the shadows, gold chains, flannel shirts and other attires that shared correlations to hoodlums. Either way it was all love in there as I passed through in a large fur coat, no shirt, light up glasses and pleather pants. I left all my fucks at home. When Boosie came on stage I thought the women were gonna rush the stage. Security was having issues keeping them big bitches back. Boosie was great live and sounded authentic and you could hear his actual voice sending the lyrics out, not any lip syncing. He performed great and performed like he was really pleased to be there. After the show all of us VIP members were to get a picture taken. They had no organization at all to this and everyone piled around one door to get in. After about an hour wait some fuck stick comes out and tells us it’s another $100 for a picture. Fuck that we already paid $100 for our VIP ticket and GA was $50 so you know damn well they already made their money. So I left and walked outside. I noticed not even a joke 17 police cars and cops everywhere. Not sure if -or what went down but the entire Seatac police force was waiting outside. I came out tipsy with no shirt and my phone out-snap chat ready- as I waited for my uber. All in all a great show and X-Raided announced on his IG he will be back here 2020 with brotha Lynch for a show. The very last great moment of the show was that I met a chick who also does music by the name of Holly Michelle. Awesome stuff and I hope to do a blog on her once I see her live.
Movies like this, remind me of how proud I feel to be a Native American. Also knowing Clint Eastwood had any involvement in this movie gives great confidence. First things first, this movie is amazing, powerful and realism to it’s ugliest truth. Watch it, love it, know it. Ok, So myself, I am Native American and Swedish ethnicity, and back in the 1980’s it wasn’t unheard of but it was still semi taboo to date a Beautiful lil Indian girl at West Seattle high School, but hey, my Dad was an innovator, a rebel and a Baad Mutherfucker in his hay-day(s). So he went for it, then oops here I am. In the Film Indian Horse they show the lead character go through several chapters of his life while he narrates the story to help you really grasp what the character is feeling. You see how Hockey is his way out of the life of Neglect, Abandonment, Abuse, Fear and oppression. Hockey in Canada is very popular how Football is very popular in the United States. However Hockey is much rougher as in Football fighting is strictly prohibited and can get you thrown out of games or fined. Hockey you can knock a guys teeth out and only receive minutes in a penalty box before returning to the game. The character goes through double the abuse during games as being Native American is double-hate time for other sports players. You see in the movie how this was an era when folks would openly taunt or hurt Native Americans just for being alive or enjoying a beer with friends. It makes you sick but also sort of reminded me of our History and how far we have come. First it was man VS Animal, then it was racism, then it was the type of race that mattered. Next humans realized women needed their rights, then our next milestone was gays deserved rights and soon after, Transgender can’t be left out and somewhere in the mix Animals deserved rights the whole time too. Soon the computers or robots will demand rights. Maybe that’s too far off? We digress, back to the film, there are some notable scenes like when the crowd applaud and adore the Lead Characters Hockey skills and congratulate him by throwing miniature toy Indians with Native Headdress/warbonnets on them. You see him lay on the ice staring at the the toys as land near him with this indifferent yet intense focus in his eyes. Leading us as the audience to think two things, one that he is highly offended to see a mockery of his people but also it could be a moment of shock that everyone praises him to make toys of him like a rockstar. One thing is for sure that OG Native Americans don’t appreciate mockery or toys with Warrior Chief Headdress’ on. The culture of the Native American Headdress is that it’s rarely given to anyone and only chiefs and warriors are among those to be given such a great gift. Few can proudly wear them and are to be defended at all costs. I remember the first time my Mother saw me wearing a warbonnet on my head that I bought from an online store. I wasn’t sure how she would react being a proud Native American herself. She takes one look at me and says “aww my lil Chief of West Seattle, cuuute, I love it” and it was at that moment I felt like the daughter of a Baad Mutherfucker who produced a Baad Mutherfucker for a Mom knighted me the power to wear this War Bonnet proud and to defend it against any opposing enemies. Not too long after that my Uncle (who is younger than me because the Natives don’t have an [OFF] switch, HA) Anyway my Uncle defends me to another Native from my own tribe or in Canada they call tribes “Bands” and the other member was offended by my War Bonnet. Said they are only earned. My uncle says this to him “If it’s drowning in the tears of his enemies or going through life full of Trials & Tribulations, then yes, My nephew has earned that. It’s not his fault he was sent to white washed schools without his Grandfathers guidance but at this point it’s important we as Native Americans hold onto whatever we got left.” and when I read that I felt like my Uncle did a giant upper cut punch right through any cultural appropriation comments brought on by anyone Native American OR not Native American. It was beautiful to know that he is my family. My uncle is a wise but gnarly Indian and I love him and the rest of my family just the way they are. So with that being said about how OG Native Americans not appreciating any sort of mockery of their culture you can see in the film the lead character never ever loses who he is no matter how far he goes in life. He carries his pride throughout the film into a victory lap around the scenes. You see how close he is to the family that helps him. Even though the character is taken in by other Natives who are not his direct bloodline he realizes family is who you choose. The movie covers a time when Native American language was removed from the schools and you would be strictly punished if you used any Native tongue or names in school. They successfully deleted much of Native American culture from the history books. Though some of the people he meets are great some are also bad but not revealed until it’s usually too late. You get to see an era on film before the civil rights movement with some harsh looks at our own people being harsh to other living breathing people. In a time when humans didn’t even know what humans are suppose to look like, yet it’s a trick fucking question, we are all humans so this is how we all look. How the earth was growing and like how human growing pains they can hurt. Our lands were so broken that we couldn’t even see the human race for the human and instead focused on only the race. This is a great movie for anyone that enjoys seeing a character never give up and never give in. Happy endings with true events makes it even all the better.
Lil Marc a young rapper from the South Side of Chicago was gunned down at a bus stop in the middle of the day back in 2014. Lil Marc was a 051 Young Money Gang Member which is part of the Mickey Cobra Set. Gang Set’s are the term used for sub sets or smaller groups associated with the umbrella gang name. So if your set has a name and a leader you are still apart of the larger Gang name. I stumbled across his music on Youtube and did some searches out of curiosity. Gangs are nothing new to any part of the planet and for sure are nothing new to Chicago. Generations of family members are born into gang life filled with violent situations. For most gang members everything comes down to money and trying not to be killed. You get respect for who you kill or how hard it is to be killed. If a rival gang disrespects you or your gang you hurt them. If another rival gang enters into your territory you kill or hurt them depending on each situation. If you need money you would most likely commit robbery, sell drugs or kill mutherfuckers if you apart of Gang life. No active gang members have pensions, 401K to fall back on. Sometimes even boredom or drugs can drive these gangs to kill or often retaliation from the death of your friends (called “Homies”) also can produce murders. If you get the picture of this life it’s an organization designed for death or imprisonment or both. Some of the newer generation of gang culture in the music industry have a style called “Drill Rap” or “Drill Music” where rival gangs use grim gritty violent words to diss other gangs. Formally those songs were just called “diss tracks” back in the day. Lil Marc was an active Gang Member who had a handful of tracks out before his latest diss track called “no competition” which the song called out rival gangs as well as took verbal shots about rival gangs deaths. The song is probably one of the best diss tracks I heard since the NWA and Ice Cube era. He even includes a facetime video in his music video of him arguing with a rival gang member which puts confusion to most viewers & listeners. Possibly because people wonder how two enemies even have each others phone numbers in the first place. However I think the music video is letting us know gang culture is complex, one minute you are friends from grade school -then next minute he is two blocks over joining a rival gang. So in the facetime it’s basically them semi threatening each other with death sprinkled with smiles even though they will both actually kill each other. Some neighborhoods this is all they know. Lil Marc released the “No competition” youtube video holding firearms and making threats with lyrics like; “Put your ass on a T-Shirt” referring to -in death most memorial services have dead homie’s faces on T-Shirts. Lil Marc was killed in the same location another friend of his was killed at years prior in the same exact fashion. Lil Marc was standing at the bus stop around 1:30pm 3 days after his youtube video was posted waiting to go about his afternoon. Rival gang members (most likely) pulled up and opened fire. Several shots hit young Marc and killed him at the scene. Spectators driving by video’ed and took pictures that were also posted online. Sadly photos of Lil Marc, laying dead at the bus stop are easily google’able with video as they drive by including him all wrapped up. Not sure why this story interested me but maybe because I am an enthusiast of music and how diss tracks created a fork in the road. They can make or break an artist or sometimes get people killed. Back in the day they called violent rap music “Horror Rap” “Gangster Rap” and in some cases “Bang’n on Wax” due to the violent nature of the lyrics. Check out the song “No Competition” by Lil Marc and maybe that’s a way we can all pay respects to the death of a young man killed at only 20 years old.
Nectar is located in north Seattle in the Fremont area, very easy to get to and parking isn’t too bad near Fremont studios. This is one of my favorite venues, smaller and intimate. Outdoor area with heated lamps and lower main stage with dance floor. Then upstairs is the VIP area with a small bar, couches and bar top tables etc. Great view of the stage as seen here. I have seen Dj Quik live many times and he is always on point. He delivered the classics including played an old Prince track while he DJ’ed briefly on stage. He was up there with Hi-C doing collaborations with him keeping all the energy alive. One thing that sort of bothers me is some rap shows they have too many openers or wait too long to come on. I think Quik didn’t come on till about midnight and by then everyone is hammered trying to make out the songs. I think 1 opener is fine for shows and ending a bit early gives everyone a chance to hit some spots after the show. Either way still worth seeing and would check him out again if he is ever in Seattle again.
Probably one of the most underrated movies of 2018. This movie had so many bad reviews that youtube’rs were even knocking it. Ebert gave it a 1 star and no one really felt like they understood it so I just had to review it myself. Jim Carey pulls of a perfect accent, you couldn’t even hear the voice you heard in his many comedy movies through this thick accent. It’s perfect. His acting is very serious and not one single thing has any comic relief. It’s pure realism to what the movie wants to portray. This is a love story and a drama with a mix of crime mystery and suspense. The twists and turns in this you would never expect. The type of dedication Carey’s role plays with the undying pursuit for justice and conclusion. His character plays a man that will stop at nothing to uphold the law. Yet this works against him. Yes there is some background needed like as to why Carey’s character is this way. We don’t know his characters origin or why he seems failing and on thin ice. We just know this is the big case to change things around. Or is it. The intense build up in this movie is well worth it and it keeps you engage throughout. The critics talk of thinking the scenes were too slow or not fast enough. Well the mutherfucker is investigating a death, I think in real life it doesn’t move from room to room like FLASH. You take your damn time uncovering the truth in a death. You have to let the slow build -ups take you and have the faith in each new corner. Great film and check this shit out don’t ever read stupid reviews of small minded people.
The SkooB View 