Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
So I woke up yesterday to a video message in my in-box from Joonas Suotamo, the Finnish actor who for the past five Star Wars films has been playing the iconic character Chewbacca! This was a very special thank you message from my good friend Barry Joseph. Sadly, Barry’s father recently passed away, and I…
I wrote this for a new course I’m designing. I kind of want to shoot this for real now. Rising Stars SCENE 1: Evening, interior, a casual cafe Two middle aged women are sharing a meal together. KATY: It’s so good to see you, Jo, it’s been too long! JO: I know, I’m sorry. We’ve…
At the end of the remarkable rock climbing film The Dawn Wall, pro-climber Tommy Caldwell, described what it was like planning his legendary free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan (my rough paraphrase): “For ten years I mapped out what I hoped was a climbable route up the Dawn Wall, never really sure…
I’m so excited to see the documentary Free Solo in a couple of weeks, the story of how legendary climber Alex Honnold ascended Yosemite’s El Capitan with no rope, no harness, just his chalk bag and balls of steel. In the meanwhile, this 360 video showing a bit of Alex free soloing El Cap will…
Finally got around to watching all of "Everything Remains Raw" Moncell Durden's ambitious documentary on the Black roots of urban dance. Like the title, the film is very raw and unfinished, at times painfully so. There are parts of the work that have issues with. It diminishes the important role of Latinx dancers and culture…
I went to see the new film "Blade Runner 2049" at the Alamo Drafthouse last weekend. Although I knew no one else would, I wanted to dress up as one of the characters from the original "Blade Runner." But who to be? So many iconic roles: Deckard, Roy Batty, Pris, Sebastian. But when it came…
You thought the "Step Up" dance series was over? Nope. It's back… in Chinese! I had assumed from the lackluster box office revenues and poor reviews of "Step Up: All In" (2014) that we had seen the last of the "Step Up" film series. As friends will know, I'm a long time fan of the…
I know, my Photoshop skills are OFF THE CHARTS.
My friend DJ posted to his Facebook wall this excellent summation of why fan culture matters in an our current era of aspiring autocrats and empires. I got his permission to repost it here. Remember, when you're rolling your eyes at all the people posting about "May the 4th be with you", think about what that actually…
Last night, I got to see a sneak preview of the new swing dance documentary "Alive and Kicking" at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. A labor of love by director (and swing dancer) Susan Glatzer, the film "explores the culture surrounding swing dance from the emergence of the Lindy Hop to the modern…