Razika played The Glasslands Gallery
March 13th, 2012 by chocko
I got to the show last night at Glasslands in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a little late and a tad shook up, thanks to the wacko walking in the middle lane of the FDR in a black hoodie and backpack. I know the sidewalks can get a little crowded at times, but c’mon now. I caught the last couple songs by Belgium’s Balthazar. Their song “Blood Like Wine” was catchy and got my head bobbing, but ultimately the song went on for too long. The next band, Landlady featured the lead singer, Adam Schatz of the band Previously On Lost. I did enjoy the story of how the lead singer tripped and gashed his chin, requiring stitches to sew up the bloody mess. He offered to show the stitched up wound if you bought some merch.
Shortly after the DJs (Tanlines) dropped some Ace of Base, UB40, General Public and English Beat on the late night dancing crowd, Razika took to the stage. Razika is a young, all girl band from Norway who play upbeat and sweet ska-pop that will move your feet! Their youthful take on songs of heartache and love got the midnight marauders of Williamsburg pumped up. They sang a perfect balance of songs in English and Norwegian. They opened up their set with the catchy “Hvem Skal Tro På Deg Nå.” They also played a staple in their set, “Why Have We To Wait” which is a cover from the 1960’s Norwegian pop band, The Pussycats which features a bouncy retro vibe found in most of Razika’s songs. Some of my favorite songs in their set was the Specials influenced ska tune “Nytt Pa Nytt” and the poppy and optimistic “Taste My Dreams.” They closed the night with the crowd favorite “Vondt i hjertet.” Their album is titled “Program 91” and it is on the label Smalltown Supertown. Next up for Razika: head out west to perform 7 shows in 3 days at SXSW in Austin, TX and then off to Japan for a bunch of shows!
Tags: brooklyn, glasslands, new york city, nyc norwegian band, razika, show, the glasslands gallery
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Bowery Graffiti and Street Art
March 13th, 2012 by chocko
Chocko was hovering around the Bowery last week and noticed some changes in the scenery. It was a surprise to see the completed RETNA mural on the corner of Bowery and Houston Street. At first look, it appears to be ancient script or Hieroglyphics-meets-gang-graffiti in dripping red and blue paint. What does it all mean? There must be a some sort of Rosetta Stone for RETNA’s old world calligraphy-graff but until then, I will visit the Bowery’s newest installation for the next few months, stand in front while scratching my head…attempting to crack the code.
Take a short walk from RETNA’s enigmatic wall to the former Germania Bank Building on the corner of Bowery and Spring Street and you will discover plenty of graffiti, stickers, and art within the ever changing urban landscape. The exterior of 190 Bowery always features something, but it looks like the weather beaten wheatpasted walls could use a little sprucing up. I did find the tiny hummingbird mosaics very interesting.
Finally, a shout out and R.I.P. to Billy’s Antiques & Props whose green tent has been a fixture on the Bowery for more than two decades. Where else can you buy a stuffed coyote, some Ramones records, a glass eye and an old NYC subway sign? The store has been closed and the tent has recently been dismantled and all that is left are the skeletal remains of the structure painted blood red. A building will take the place of the former antique site and Billy’s will be back, but it just won’t be the same.
Tags: billy's antiques, bowery, graffiti, houston street, mural, new york city, nyc, retna, street art
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Red Horse played William Paterson University (Shea Center for Performing Arts)
March 13th, 2012 by Mr. C
(John Gorka,Eliza Gilkyson,Lucy Kaplansky – photo by chocko)
The folk trio of Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, and Eliza Gilkyson better known as Red Horse folked the freak out of NJ with their wonderful harmonies when they played at William Paterson University (Shea Center for Performing Arts) last Saturday. As Red Horse, each band member performed songs of their choice written by the other two artists as well as belting out a tune or two of their own original music along with other classics! While one sings, the other band members provided backup with their acoustic guitars & dynamic harmonies. As individual performers, they each have their own unique and magical sound. Lucy has a smooth, medium-high angelic voice tinted with a bit of country. Her impeccable rhythm on the guitar and piano scores add emotional layers to her songs of love and loss. What to say about John Gorka? When John speaks, he seems to be of the soft spoken , yet outgoing garden variety type with a speech flow that can sometimes be described as quirky. However, when Gorka opens his mouth to sing — wow!, out came a very rich, resonating voice with a knock’em out-sock’em out of the ball park baritone of goodness! His guitar playing is also very smooth and precise as he works those frets like its his last. Eliza Gilkyson on the other hand has a soulful-eclectic vibe to her folk tunes that invoked emotions of unity, righteousness, love, & americana. Her delivery really made her performances standout. I thought she really hit the nail on the cowboy coffin when she opened up with Neil Young’s, “I am a child”. Another one of my favorite depressing love tunes of the night was performed by Eliza when she sang Lucy Kaplansky’s – “Promise Me”. Her soulful-raspy version knocked my socks off and I felt I should of been lamenting the ballad with a swig of whiskey.
One of the more uplifting songs of the set and also one of Chocko’s favorite of the night was “Sanctuary” written by Gilkyson – performed beautifully by Lucy Kaplansky on the piano. It was a very inspirational piece! Thanks Lucy!
Buggy, a Planet Chocko contributor from the past seemed like she was really enjoying the tunes of “Scorpion” by Kaplansky. We could tell because Buggy was playing the acoustic air guitar while mastering those seamless ghost chord transitions!
(photo by chocko)
Red Horse performed all the songs from their self-titled album with a few goodies added to the list such as the catchy “Slouching towards Bethlehem” by Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky with her “Ten Year Night”, and John Gorka with “Down in Milltown” a song about his hometown of Bethlehem, PA. A rally cry of gospel filled the air thanking the Lord when Red Horse rode out into the Jersey night singing Curtis Mayfield’s – “People Get Ready.”
Individually, the Red Horse artists are amazing but, the collaboration of the three are truly something else. I enjoyed listening to the different renditions of the original songs which really made some of these old tunes seem new again almost invoking a different type of emotion and feel. If you get a chance to see any of these performers live, either solo or via this super-folk trio known as Red Horse – do it!
Lucy Kaplansky – http://www.lucykaplansky.com/2004/site.html
John Gorka – http://johngorka.com/
Eliza Gilkyson – http://www.elizagilkyson.com/
Buy RED HORSE on Amazon!
(photo by mr. c)
Tags: eliza gilkyson, folk, john gorka, lucy kaplansky, red horse
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TIGRESSES (1977) – Korean Blogathon edition
March 9th, 2012 by Mr. C
Director: Chan Lit-Ban
Stars: Shang Kwan Lin Fong,Gam Ching-Lan,Kin Young-In, Kuen Yat-Chui, Chui Sing-Gwai, Chui Joi-Giu, Chiu Shing-Gau, Gam Chi-Ying, Chiu Chun, Lam Hoi-Lam, Chui Fung, Hung Wan Ching, Kim Wang-Kuk.
Genre: martial arts-revenge
Another fun South Korean produced old school martial arts flick is coming at ya’ with a deadly kickass chick leading the way who happens to be chinese!? Yes, Polly Shang Kwan plays the leading role as femme fatale in Tigresses looking to get her sweet revenge on the Great Lord of Korea that ambushed her whole family in order to take that prestigious title of King. The plot is your typical revenge story with some pretty snazzy kung fu choreography for 1977 infused with some acrobatics that reminded me of a cross between peking opera and shaw brothers style rolling-ground fighting sequences! There is also some very neat magical powers added to the high flying wu-xia/kung fu hotpot to some of the characters in the movie to make it more mystical with the likes of the invisible man, the fire breathing specialist, and the master of hypnotics!
A non spoiling synopsis of the film follows: two sisters will get separated at a young age when their royal family gets slaughtered. One of the two siblings will develop into the character of the Black Leopard (Polly Shang Kwan) when she gets adopted into the Shaolin Temple while the other sister’s status is unknown until she slowly unravels herself into the shabu-shabu of revenge as well! The Black Leopard is draped in ninja like wear as she stalks the Great Lord’s guards one by one attempting to pick them off one at a time like a kung fu sniper. She moves like the wind while executing her Tiger-Crane techniques sometimes adding the immobilizing thrusts of the snake as well! The Black Leopard can also emit vapors and smoke from her hand. The fun comes in when she battles her superhuman opponents like the invisible man, the fire breathing – weapons expert, & the master of disaster – the hypnotist! Oh, and don’t forget, her long lost sister resurfaces, too!
I had a blast watching this movie. I was expecting basher style fight scenes but instead was pleasantly surprised with some of the crispness in the martial arts choreography. I also loved how some of the fight sequences were filmed with the camera panned out to enable the viewer to capture the entire flow and movements of the struggle while also allowing the viewer to appreciate the vastness of the beautiful geography while blood was being shed in the foreground! Very beautiful, y’all!
Watch Tigresses! It’s a soul to Seoul-wall to wall foray of insane old school action!
Tags: korean blogathon, korean blogathon 2012
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THE ARMLESS SWORDSMAN (1969) : Korean Blogathon edition
March 7th, 2012 by Mr. C
Director: Lim Won-Sick
Stars: O Yeong-Il, Kim Ji-Su, Kim Chang-Sook, Choi Gyeong-Ok
Genre: period piece martial arts
Talk about “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – literally! — which is the theme of the Japan Society’s most recent and ongoing film series mingling Japanese and Korean movie titles about Love that manifests itself in a more twisted and tainted form!
The Armless Swordsman might very well fit into this category barring the 1969 korean production which might stop the hip and modern folk from attending this type of screening. The Armless one is a classic revenge flick involving insecurities, love, swordsmanship, honor, and the will to survive! C’mon folks, the Swordsman is armless and here he is slicing and dicing, slashing and prancing as he wields his sword between his mouth with revenge in his eyes! Adding insult to injury or death to his naysayers blessed with limbs, he will use his foot to throw darts and knives to maim his opponents, a true meaning of by any means necessary!
Here’s a quick backdrop of the story without giving out spoilers to ruin the film: a young and handsome swordsman (Kim Chang-Sook) is madly in love with his teachers daughter and the feelings are mutual. However, the senior student (Choi Gyeong-Ok) of the master has been promised her hand in marriage and rage ensues when he finds out the young gunner and the masters daughter have other ideas. A confrontation between the two will leave the young jedi with two less arms. Forget about the One armed Swordsman or the Blind Swordsman, but an Armless Swordsman!! From here on out, I’m sure the viewers can imagine what the storyline will be. Our Armless vigilante will take refuge in the mountains as he recovers, thanks to a young lady and her grandfather. Here is where the limbless one will take on secret techniques of swordsmanship, throwing knives, and the art of high flying wu-xia in walk on water fashion! Mind you, the choreography and effects of this film is circa 1969 so be open minded in what to expect in this era as this rare and raw motion picture will tug at you in the limbless genre of martial art movies like the One Armed Swordsman! We have seen the One Armed Swordsman vs Zatoichi-the Blindswordsman but have they done the Armless Swordsman vs any one of the above? Hmmmm!!
Tags: korean blogathon, korean blogathon 2012
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MISS, PLEASE BE PATIENT (1981) : Korean Blogathon edition
March 6th, 2012 by Mr. C
Director: Lee Hyung-Pyo
Stars: Kim Tai Chung, Jeong Yun-Hui, Seo Yeong-Ran,Ahn So-Young
Genre: action, comedy
“He looked like Bruce Lee and he was as fast as the wind.”
Miss, Please be Patient was my first dip into Korean martial arts cinema from the 1980’s and it was a fun toe-tap into the K-pool at that! We are all familiar with the big three Korean martial art sensasians who made their presence known in Hong Kong cinema with the likes of Hwang Jang Lee (Drunken Master,Dance of the Drunk Mantis,Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow ), Hwang In-Shik (Hap Ki Do, Young Master), and Kim Tai Chung (R.I.P.), the star in Miss-Please Be Patient. Kim was better known for playing Bruce Lee like clone characters in movies such as Game of Death, Game of Death 2 aka Tower of Death, and a bit role playing the ghost of Bruce Lee in No Retreat, No Surrender with Jean Cleade Van Damme. So when I found out that KTC was starring in this Korean martial arts-comedy-action flick from 1981, my antenna ears raised up a notch!
The plot of the movie is as cheesy and easy as it can get with Li-Hwa, a well to do daughter of a shipbuilding tycoon from Taiwan attracting a bunch of vulchers including the President and other Korean gangsters looking to blackmail this well to do family. The comedic relief comes in when the boss finds out that his bumbling crew kidnap the wrong girl. In comes the charm & grace of the very skillful Kim Tai Chung laying down some Tae kwan Do kicks along with some dirty ass tricks while being assisted by a kickass chick. Cross dressing, dancing in the disco, double dragon tattoos, and Jackie Chan like slapstick action are part of the experience as well. I love this era of large collars, bell bottoms, large oval glasses, mop head hairdos, and the occassional asian poof perms as long as I’m not involved in it! The fight scenes were pretty frequent if not a bit on the comical tip, however the execution of the martial artistry was tight especially when Kim Tai Chung was behind the action! The best fight sequence in the film showed itself at the end when the twin dragon met KTC on the ship in the fight to the end!
Miss, Please be Patient is by no means a great film but in my estimation in appreciation of Korean films and Kim Tai Chung, this is a must see just for the fun factor!
Tags: korean blogathon 2012
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street art in money makin manhattan
March 4th, 2012 by Mr. C
Just a few tags that I ran across while combing the streets today enroute to the Japan Society for the “Love Will Tear Us Apart” movie program. Some pieces include the Num Pang mural inside this Cambodian sandwich shop on 41st street by the Tuff City Crew and artwork by the Roxx Cru on the side of the Momofuku milk bar on 2nd avenue & 13th street. The last piece of street eye candy was on the back of a box truck by artist – Auks One.
Tags: graffiti, new york city, street art
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Ghostface Killah – DJ Premier: Duel of the Iron Fists mixtape
March 2nd, 2012 by Mr. C
Throw your WU’s in the air–Buck-buck-Buck! Gho..Gho..Gho..stface Killah is back in the lab again with his latest martial arts Shaolin-Wutang-Killer Bee mixtape collaboration with DJ Premier!!
GhostFace shows that he still got the funky, funky killah kung fu cuts and verses with the help of the Grandmaster of beat making on the 1’s and 2’s — DJ Premier with some samplings of old skool kung movie dubs! Hmmmm, I wonder if RZA is going to use any of these cuts on his soon to be released film: MAN OF THE IRON FIST.
Check it! DUEL OF THE IRON FISTS – EP!
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Epic FAILE
March 1st, 2012 by chocko
The FAILE Mural at the corner of Bowery and Houston Street in New York City has been up for 5 months and is in the process of being replaced with new art. Here is a look back at the Brooklyn-based art collective’s eye-popping, behemoth installation shortly after its completion.
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Tags: graffiti, new york city, nyc, street art
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Korean Blogathon 2012
March 1st, 2012 by Mr. C
New Korean Cinema and cineAWESOME! are both hosting the 2nd annual Korean Blogathon from March 5-11th. We had so much fun with throwing down a few writeups last year that having a week long blitz in observing-writing-viewing-dreaming about Korean cinema is on our menu once again! Last march, we doubled down on some Korean ban chan with writeups of THE FOUL KING and CHAMPION. This year I think I’m feeling something krusty and crafty from the 1970’s and 1980’s, maybe some Hwang Jang Lee or Hwang In-Sik?
So watch/write/post anything Korean on your blog or website and then email the Korean blogathon folks with a link to your review at: blogathon@cineawesome.com during the week of 5th to the 11th of March. More importantly, have fun while doing it!! You can also manually post links to your reviews on their facebook page as well.
Tags: korean blogathon 2012
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Modus Operandi
February 29th, 2012 by chocko
Director: Frankie Latina
Starring: Randy Russell, Mark Borchardt and Danny Trejo
Genre: 70’s B-Movie, Exploitation Throwback
This film is by the young director Frankie Latina who clearly loves cinema especially grindhouse movies, blaxploitation films and Italian giallo. The movie has a lo-fi look, was shot on Super 8 mm and switches frequently from color to black & white. Each scene is provocative and carefully shot with lots of attention to detail. I got a kick out of seeing old gadgets (clunky outdated phones and top-loading VCRs!), sleek classic cars and drop dead gorgeous girls in various states of undress. If babes in bikinis firing off weapons is your thing, you’ve come to the right place. Just to balance things out, there is some male frontal nudity thrown in the mix.
There is so much genre mixing and crazy stuff going on in the movie that the plot seems to take a backseat at times. The movie tells the story of a CIA black-ops specialist Stanley Cashay (Randy Russell) who goes into retirement after his wife is murdered. Before drinking himself into oblivion, Cashay is called back on a mission to retrieve two briefcases stolen from the President. Cashay enlists the help of some fellow agents including a Tokyo badass named Black Licorice to help retrieve the cases with the mysterious content. In exchange for the briefcases, Cashay gets the identity of the killer who murdered his wife. Throw in the scene-stealing Danny Trejo in a white tux and you’ve got yourself a film with a lethal mix of bloody violence, betrayal, torture and mayhem.
Director Frank Latina shot most of the movie in his hometown of Milwaukee and took nearly five years to complete. Some of my favorite scenes include a character named Dallas Deacon (Mark Borchardt) being chased by a helicopter in an open field…no doubt in homage to “North By Northwest.” Seeing Black Licorice walk the streets of Tokyo was ultra cool. I also enjoyed the commercial for a fake TV show featuring the Bombay assassin, Ayesha Ayesha. More of her please! The showdown near the end is not to be missed…strippers, guns and nunchucks!
The DVD just got released. It’s got lots of bonus features including deleted scenes, interviews, audio commentary and an introduction by Sasha Grey who will appear in a forthcoming film by Latina. Check out the trailer below. You’ll know right away if this movie is for you!
Tags: danny trejo, frankie latina, modus operandi, movie, review, sasha grey
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Sara D Roosevelt Park
February 21st, 2012 by Mr. C
Sara D. Roosevelt park provides a green oasis in the urban trenches of lower manhattan that stretches from east Houston to Canal street bordered between Chrystie & Forsyth on the lower east side all the way down to chinatown. On a nice early sunday morning stroll in this park, you will bear witness to dragons being suspended in the air to the stillness and serenity of tai chi practitioners to the fast pace games of basketball, soccer, & handball. The Hua Mei bird garden on the Delancey street side of the park will bring a bit of old school china into Sara D. with finches, songbirds, sparrows, & blue jays chirping in their bamboo bird cages. Cross over to the other side of the delancey and you will see the Golden Age center for senior citizens as well as other raggamuffins drifting about. Central Park is nice and beautiful but the heartbeat of the poor to working class immigrant population in NYC can be truly felt in this green & concrete space.
After a nice city up walk at Sara D, I finally ventured into CHEEKY SANDWICHES to get a taste of new orleans in the L-E-S! They’ve been open for quite a while now but Cheeky was always quite elusive in my schedule. My heart rate was racing something furious after eating their sinful breakfast sandwich, a fried chicken cutlet smothered with country gravy, topped with purple slaw trapped between a buttery biscuit! Ohhh yeaaah, it was all so good! It was all hosed down with a cup of Cafe Du Monde coffee! Stop by Cheeky’s to get some beignets or “Ben Yays” as they wrote it for the linguistically impaired, an oyster or shrimp po boy, and/or one of their sinful breakfast sandwiches! Cheeky Sandwiches is located at 35 Orchard Street between Hester and Canal. Don’t blink though, Cheeky’s diminutive and undercover storefront can be quite elusive as well!
Tags: chinatown, sara d roosevelt park
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