FRIDAY MORNING MIXTRESS!

Today we're showing off another mixtape, one created for my friend Jules, aka The Mixtress.

The concept is simple: make a mixtape. Send Jules two copies and $3. In return you get a mix from her and a mix from somebody else participating in the project. It's a dead-lock cinch you'll get to hear something brand-new to you -- and, hey, you can help turn somebody on to stuff you like, as well. So, here's what I'm sending this month:

MIXTAPE SPOILERS AHEAD!



1. Shiny Toy Guns -- Major Tom
2. Bimbo Jones -- And I Try
3. DJ Lobsterdust -- Down UnDa Club
4. UNKLE & Josh Homme -- Restless
5. The Felice Brothers -- Run Chicken Run
6. Angry vs. The Bear -- I Sing, We Sing
7. Figurines -- Hey Girl
8. The Stranglers -- Golden Brown
9. Drew Andrews -- I Could Write A Book
10. Lior & Sia -- I'll Forget You
11. KaiserCartel -- Oh No (live on My Old Kentucky Blog)
12. A Fine Frenzy -- Last Of Days
13. The Hood Internet -- In The Air Ce Soir
14. Metric -- Help I'm Alive (The Twelves Remix)
15. Thunderheist -- Space Cowboy
16. Semi Precious Weapons -- Magnetic Baby (NSFW)
17. De Novo Dahl -- Be Your Man (live on MOKB)
18. You Me & Iowa -- Howling At The Summer
19. The All New Adventures Of Us -- The Wide-Eyed Led Us Home
20. Location Location -- Starpusher
21. Paul Van Dyk -- Time Of Our Lives

A Friendly Reminder About Cinco De Mayo

Continuing a semi-yearly tradition of mine since my days working at my college paper, just a few notes about today:

1. This is not Mexican Independence Day
Nope, that's September 16th. 5/5 commemorates an unlikely Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The battle delayed, but did not stop, an eventual French occupation of the country, which lasted three years before it was toppled.

2. This is not that big of a deal back home
Don't let the beer ads fool you; 5/5 is a regional holiday, usually celebrated at the site of the battle. But, it's nowhere near as big a deal as it is in El Otro Lado. Now, is that because of immigrant pride, or American corporate opportunism? That, I leave for you to decide. During my time working in local Spanish-language radio, the biggest sponsors for our Cinco de Mayo concerts were -- you guessed it -- beer companies. Banners everywhere, beer girls hawking their wares on the stage, booze selling like hot cakes in the fenced-off drinking area. I don't doubt that at least some of the people who attended the events had their hearts in the right place, but the commercial aspect definitely got on my nerves when I thought about it.

3. 'Celebration' does not equal acceptance
Sure, people around the country will don their fakest sombreros and sing Ricky Martin at karaoke bars -- because all Latinos are from Mexico, right? -- but the furor over the H1N1 virus revealed examples of how we're still Others here, no matter the method of emigration. Check out these comments by Boston radio host Jay Severin regarding Mexicans:

"When we are the magnet for primitives around the world - and it's not the primitives' fault by the way, I'm not blaming them for being primitives - I'm merely observing they're primitive."

"It's millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America."

"We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of criminaliens already here.

And in Pennsylvania, two white teens were acquitted in the beating and killing of an immigrant. From the story:

"Isn't it a little late for you guys to be out?" the boys said, according to court documents. "Get your Mexican boyfriend out of here."

... Burke recalled hearing one final, ominous threat as the teens ran. "They yelled, 'You effin bitch, tell your effin Mexican friends get the eff out of Shenandoah or you're gonna be laying effin next to him,' " she said.

On the more anecdotal side, have you ever noticed that, in some discussions about the increase in Spanish-language radio stations in this country over the past few years, that there's almost always one person in the talk who gets indignant about it? That complains about "fucking Mexican music" as if it were clogging up his or her airwaves, depriving them of valuable time that could be spent listening to Sublime for the 80 millionth time? The guy who fancies himself a new Zapata today might be parroting Lou Dobbs tomorrow. Just something to listen for, if you're joining the party at your local watering hole tonight. Myself, I'm probably gonna sit it out, think about home, and have a drink.

Not tequila, for the record.

What's Behind The Music?: Arturo v. Anvil: The Story Of Anvil!

As easy as it could be to compare Anvil! The Story Of Anvil to This Is Spinal Tap, it's really more like a more acclaimed movie, The Wrestler, than you might imagine.

Like Randy "The Ram" Robinson, band founders Steve "Lipps" Kudlow and Robb Reiner were big in the '80s, until they somehow lost their way, resulting in them playing Toronto-area bars and, in Lipps' case, making do working for a school-lunch catering company.

Quite unlike Randy, though, Lipps and Robb are living in more understandable circumstances. Their band is still playing and recording, and each of them is supported by a loving, if at times seemingly bemused, family. Not only are the Anvil boys more real than The Ram, they're more sympathetic. As we see each of them -- Lipps, especially -- ping-pong between optimism and fear, friendship and frustration, and a steady, if underwhelming, stream of gigs across Europe, it's not hard to feel for them as they keep reaching for a level of success that, going by the sentiments of the array of stars interviewed for the film, they should already have reached.

The problem with the movie -- and it's not necessarily the band's fault -- is that we never learn why they never made it big. There's allusions to mismanagement throughout the movie, and the band meets a guy on tour who seemingly volunteers to help remedy that, but we never find out what comes of that encounter. Furthermore, it's surprising to find that Anvil isn't able to capitalize on the '80s nostalgia wave and book itself into smaller halls closer to home. Put it this way: if Enuff Z'nuff can still tour, there's seemingly no reason why Anvil -- who, judging by the tracks we hear in the movie, is actually good -- shouldn't be, either. At least, none that's shared in the film.

In the end, though, Anvil does its' duty as a feel-good story, culminating in the group's return to Japan, which was the nadir of their initial run toward the big leagues. Whatever the hell had happened to deny them further triumphs, the joy in Lipps' face as he sees the crowd is genuine. And if the positive press this movie and their accompanying tour is getting Anvil some of that long overdue recognition, I won't fault them for that.

Shanks For Nothing: Arturo v. X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the movie of the year! ... if the year were 1995.

Give Hugh Jackman credit for putting his money where his mouth is -- he's listed as a producer on this flick, and his affection for the title character seems genuine. Unfortunately for him, this movie was more like Van Helsing than X-Men 2. Hell, there were moments when the movie felt like a slightly-better-written episode of Smallville.

Part of the problem is, because the film is a prequel (in film canon, it takes place more than a decade before the X-series opens), there's too many limits going in. You know Jimmy/Logan/Wolverine is gonna make it through; it's just a matter of how the dots get connected.

And to be fair, the script by David Benioff and Skip Wells does that well enough. Yes, a young Cyclops is featured in the film, but there's not enough contact between himself and Logan to mess with the timeline established in the rest of the movies. There's even a scene thrown in for the Scott/Emma Frost 'shippers among us. (One wish for the planned First Class film: a triangle between Scott, Emma and a young Jean Grey. Fanservice and soap opera all in one!)

The brightest spots amidst all the angst (more on that later) are, not surprisingly, Ryan Reynolds stealing the movie as Wade Wilson in the course of one monologue; and, somewhat surprisingly, Taylor Kitsch giving us a Gambit who is refreshingly long on swagger and short on the Pepe Le Pew-like pronouncements he's prone to in the comics. Both are one-note characters, to be sure, but they're entertaining one-note characters -- enough so that you actually want to see their roles being expanded if the series continues.

As Duncan MacLeod, Logan himself, Hugh Jackman again brings his best t-shirts to the proceedings. But the character is undercut from the get-go. First off, as we've all known since his first solo mini-series, a good Wolverine story should not be PG-13. You can't do the grim without doing the gritty. As he tells his girlfriend, "What I do isn't very nice," so to put it bluntly, this story needed blood. Maybe not Eli Roth-levels of gore, but enough to hammer home the nastiness of the circles he runs in when he's not in Westchester County.

The toning-down of the story also leaves Liev Schrieber with precious little to do as Sabretooth, who is further neutered by being portrayed as Logan's half-brother, something which Wolvie's proper origin didn't cover. The "my brother is my enemy" subplot, spread out over what felt like 200 fights between the two, took Wolverine from retro to outright dated. Not bad, per se; hindsight being what it is, if this were the first X-movie we'd ever gotten back in the day, it would be a good warm-up for whatever was to come. But by now, it's just another comic-book movie -- hardly the best at what it's trying to do.

Quick Thoughts on Dollhouse

Dammit, now that was Prime Whedon Stuff right there. "Briar Rose," written by TEH JOSS and Jane Espenson, gave us a cliffhanger on par with anything we'd seen the Mutant Enemy team do before. Anything.

And most of the credit here, without spoiling it, should go to Alan Tudyk, who knocked his role out of the park. This is the kind of ass-kicking Heroes just can't deliver any more. Suddenly I'm more hopeful next week's episode is only a season finale.

Up In Smoke: Arturo v. Heroes 4.12!

Cross-posted to Racialicious!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

A note about this week's especially tardy report: Monday morning I had to undergo an emergency wisdom tooth extraction. The procedure required more than the usual amount of local anesthetic to prep me, because for most of the previous 10 hours, I'd felt like the tooth had grown flaming tendrils designed to stream shards of glass down my jaw and up my temples, despite my efforts to contain the pain; literally, I was popping antibiotics and pain relievers at a rate that would give Hollywood starlets pause, and it didn't help.

I tell you all this because the experience was less frustrating than the latest season finale for Heroes.

True, “An Invisible Thread” did give us a pair of sincere OHMYGOD moments. But even when it's good, this series can leave you dissatisfied. Why all the filler between the killer? The best and worst aspect of the episode was, it made stuff like 1961 look even more pointless in retrospect. And it brings other uncomfortable questions to mind:

1. Will less episodes mean more good episodes?
Advertising Age recently reported that the show is getting trimmed from 25 episodes to 18-20 eps next season. From the examples given us by British television, that could bode well.

At the very least, it could mean we don't have to wait for months while the Benetrellis and friends run around in circles before finally getting their crap together in the proverbial nick. This time, the First Family ended up outwitting Sylar before he could fulfill his Presidential aspirations.

Again, though, let's stop and think for a sec: exactly why did Sy want to usurp President Worf's form? If his motivation had been to follow through on Micah's idea to repeal the persecution of metahumans, that might have made things more interesting. As it was, we got a solid 40 minutes of Zachary Quinto getting his Snidely Whiplash on – which, hey, the guy is good at. But we've been here already.

This time around, the Heroes' victory was costlier than usual. As Roundtable member Mahsino predicted last week, Nathan and his eyebrows were cut down by Sylar and his, eyebrows. The scene and its' aftermath, with Angela losing it at the sight of his body, were each gruesome in their own ways. But Angela's and Noah's idea to “save the day” -- using Parkman to brainwash Sylar into believing he is Nathan, was, admittedly, clever in its' own ugly way – it's the kind of f'd up gambit the two old pros are used to after 20 years in the life, although Parkman, still very much a do-gooder, is already chafing under the guilt. But HRG's explanation is the right one: Sylar becoming a news story would only have made things worse for everybody with powers, and their families.

So, in the next volume, “Redemption,” one can expect to see Mr. B and Mrs. P try to both keep SyNate under control and guide Primatech's rebirth as a government agency. But, see, consider one thing about these past few grafs ...

2. What will the series' POC characters matter in the grand scheme of things?
Now more than ever, the answer seems to be: not much. The overarching plotline would seem to not feature any POCs. And in Volume IV, remember how Rebel and his mission – shepherding metahumans to safety – was seemingly so important early on? As soon as we saw it was Micah, the character and the story were dropped, aside from last week's run-in with Sylar. Previously, Claire and Hiro had received communications from Micah; do their cell phones not have a Reply button? And this is without bringing up the rest of Micah's family being brushed off over the course of the series.

In “An Invisible Thread,” Hiro manages to get his own mini-arc, as he defies the pain his powers are now causing him to “shut down” Building 26 and free Mohinder and the other imprisoned superhumans. He also saves Noah from getting betrayed by Danko. But witness the cremation scene: only Hiro, Mohinder and Ando are still part of the main ensemble, three characters out of a POC group that numbered seven in Season One – nine, if you count Charles and Kaito.

And of these three, only Hiro has been mentioned as having a subplot in the upcoming season, as he continues to struggle with his powers. Some predictions: next season, Hiro's going to go through a Flowers For Algernon-like journey designed to be “emotionally wrenching.” Ando will get his own costume. And Mohinder will get manipulated by somebody while providing the voiceovers.

3. Why should anybody stick with this show after the past couple of seasons?
Honestly, I couldn't tell you right now. And coming from a guy who was positively enthralled by Heroes' first season, that's a tall statement to make. The show that seemed to be on a path to expand racial dynamics in sci-fi on tv isn't even a very good sci-fi show anymore – let alone a positively diverse one. The show has lost its' direction, its' heart, and most damningly of all, it's lost its' point. It has been passed by, creatively and/or commercially, by the likes of Lost, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, and, hell, arguably even Dollhouse.

So we come to you, dear readers, and ask: should we even care about recapping this show anymore? Several people at The R have written in that they don't even watch Heroes anymore, or only watch it because they want to snark at it with our Roundtable. That is the saddest commentary of all on a show that once held so much promise: that it's just around for us to laugh at. Much like my Monday morning, after the pain and the frustration, the season and this series have only left me numb.

Next Week: A special chat with the Racialicious Roundtable
All images courtesy of HeroesWiki
Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive

FRIDAY MORNING BLACKPOOL!

You know how it goes. You find a series you dig, you want to find out more what else your favorite actors in the show have done. For instance, before his eyebrows took over Heroes, Zachary Quinto was doing stage work here in San Diego. Same goes for Doctor Who: before she played Rose Tyler, Billie Piper was doing stuff like this. (Of course, after she played Rose, Billie was doing NSWF stuff like this, but that's a whole other discussion.)

And then we come to David Tennant and Blackpool.

I haven't tracked down the whole series, but the premise seems to be Moulin Rouge meets Mickey Spillane, centered around casino owner Ripley Holden, played by David Morrissey, who many of us here in the States recall from The Next Doctor. This is the opening of the series' second episode:



Tennant, here sporting his native brogue, plays Detective Inspector Carlisle, who arrives to investigate a murder in Ripley's casino. He also makes time to bust Ripley's son:



Along the way, Carlisle also starts making time with Ripley's wife Natalie, leading up to this scene, which I've been assured is SQUEE-worthy:



Like I said, I haven't seen the whole series -- just bits here and there on YouTube. And apparently it was only released on DVD in the UK and Australia. But, it's definitely a series I'm keeping my eye out for.