The association between psychosis and smoking tobacco has been observed for a long time. In England alone, 42% of cigarettes are smoked by people with mental health problems, and in the United States, 80% of those with schizophrenia smoke, compared to a national average of 20%. This has focused a debate around what came first, the smoking or the mental illness?
Director F. Gary Gray is in San Diego promoting his short movie based on the Assassin’s Creed video game series. When he sat down to chat with MTV News, however, he shared a few details up his forthcoming biopic about N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton, specifically regarding the film’s soundtrack. Gray revealed that Dr. Dre worked on recorded a bunch of new material for the OST, which also features contributions from Kendrick Lamar and Eminem.
“Dr. Dre, it took him 15 years to step out and say, ’I want to do music again’ in the way that he’s doing it. The soundtrack is insane,” Gray exclaimed. “Seriously, it’s incredible. He went deep and you can hear some of his influences, with jazz and soul and a little bit of funk. And Kendrick Lamar is on, Eminem; a lot of great guest stars. But it’s really Dre and how he’s evolved and how he’s matured as not only a person, but as an artist. It’s deep and it’s great.”
He wasn’t perfectly clear if Lamar and Em were simply “guest stars” on Dr. Dre’s new tracks, of if they’d be contributing new material of their own. There’s also no word about any classic or unreleased N.W.A. cuts, though some of that will likely be included.
Gray also talked about the film itself, and said he focused on making a film that gives as thorough a story about the hip-hop legends as possible. “The details, the stories, the authenticity that you get and you can draw from these guys, it goes beyond googling what happened in the Death Row days or googling what happened when the group broke up,” he said, noting that having access to Dre, executive producer Ice Cube, and the widow of Eazy-E, allowed him to get the best accounts of the facts. “And I think that’s what people want to see.”
Straight Outta Compton stars O’Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, and Paul Giamatti as the group’s manager, Jerry Heller. It hits theaters August 14th. Below, watch MTV’s interview:
There are a lot of grumbling old men who waste their breath (or Twitter characters) harassing the new generation of dance music producers and consumers. (Admittedly, no era needs a legion of highly paid entertainers relying so heavily on the talents of ghost producers.) With most of the globe still undereducated on this vibrant international culture, each hyperbolic public outcry serves as a disservice to its longevity. A veteran in this culture for nearly three decades, LA transplant Richard West, better known as Mr. C, is quick to offer optimistic insights about the future of his profession. “Ten or fifteen years ago, I didn’t feel that I could retire,” says West via Skype on his lengthy career behind the decks. “I don’t feel like that anymore.”
If you’re not familiar with West’s career, that statement might ooze with ego. But long before some of today’s mainstage headliners were even walking, West was incubating rave culture in his London studio. Although he first got acclimated to UK clubs as a brash 17-year-old MC, West’s major break came when he joined the Shamen in the late ’80s. Similar to the trajectory of Underworld, Scotland’s Shamen formed as a guitar-based rock band in 1985. They didn’t embark on their infamous acid-rave exploits until Will Sinnott and Colin Angus crossed paths with West in the summer of 1988. For West, the opportunity allowed him to sharpen a psychedelic aesthetic amid the minor acid-rave explosion: “It was an information band. The band really did focus on human evolution, psychedelia, social issues, and politics, and there really wasn’t an information band like that in dance music,” he says. Four years later, the group was hitting the top of charts with their naughty rave-ready track “Ebeneezer Goode”.
New income from the track’s success meant West could support Britain’s burgeoning acid and techno sounds. “I remember getting my first check from doing pop stuff, and I didn’t buy a house or a flashy car. I set up a label called Plink Plonk Records,” says West about his early days in the A&R seat. “I put money into a recording studio that I could put friends in for free and develop their sound. If it was good, I would release it out on Plink Plonk Records. I put all my money into that and The End, which I think is the best night club that ever existed on the planet.”
It’s hard to argue with that statement. When the first wave of dance music was cooling down Stateside, Plink Plonk was the home for “Stacey Pullen’s first two EPs under the name Cosmic Messenger,” as well as Detroit’s influential Kenny Larkin and Chicago-bred Derrick Carter’s Tone Theory alias. And The End was at the center of London’s early rave scene, an environment that “absolutely blew away these American DJs and producers” when they were used to seeing massive crowds swaying to their tracks in illegal underground establishments and warehouses.
Unlike today’s headliners, these performances weren’t five-figure paydays. It was the community that kept West a figure in the underground sound for the next two decades: “I have always loved dancing, and I have always been very social,” he says. “It has been something that has been very good for the heart. To have something that I feel so passionate about, as a hobby, and to turn that into a career has made me feel very privileged.” While Plink Plonk would eventually run its course and The End would close by early 2009, West would never disappear for long. As he nears his 50th birthday, the release schedule across his co-founded Superfreq imprint remains as prolific as ever. The imprint names and cohorts might have changed, but the ethos has always remained the same: “Create a platform for new talent to express themselves without bending to the confines of what is deemed accessible by underground dance music.”
Despite (or possibly because of) his long history in dance music, West has found it a challenge to fully break into LA’s crowded underground dance music landscape. “To build something in a city that is so spread out, you really have to put in a lot of effort,” he explains. “It is hard to break in and establish a new thing — and invent my own little clique, because the Superfreq sound isn’t like anything else.” West is more than prepared for the obstacles of impressing a new city. He’s been methodically charming gate-keepers across Southern California’s dense field of designers, musicians, and visual artists, while staying true to his established core of fans in the UK. Assisting in this process is longtime Superfreq fan and London-based fashion iconoclast Sveta Morphosis. More than just a diehard fan of Mr. C’s forward-thinking acid and tech-house, she is a friend to both West and his wife and a integral asset to the visual embodiment of Superfreq’s sound. “To find someone that could echo the attitude of Superfreq through the artwork was a lucky thing. I think the universe was looking out for us.”
Having experienced both the ups and downs that come with a career in entertainment, West is realistic about Superfreq’s place in the dance environment. For West, tech-house is the “last bastion” for acid-house, but he doesn’t foresee either ever crossing over to the mainstream like the Shamen or even more recent booms from the dubstep and progressive house sounds. “I don’t know if we can actually call Superfreq a success,” West asserts bluntly. “I don’t see Superfreq being a successful label; I see it as being a label that continues to push the boundaries and push peoples’ buttons. The huge house and techno DJs from around the world might play one or two Superfreq songs in a set, and I am satisfied with that”.
His wisdom flows smoothly, but West never positions himself as one with all the answers. As the old guard over at Superfreq, he is happy to serve as inspiration and offer some mentorship, but he fosters an open environment for both old minds and new recruits to share ideas. “These young kids don’t need advice from me; they are smart. I need to keep an eye on them so that I don’t get left behind,” he jokes. Settling into the scene as a teenager himself, West champions these hungry, young producers — they’re the ones making America a fertile ground for underground talent. “These kids are the future,” says West, but he also knows the climb takes some nurturing. “With the tastes they have when they are 17, they may want to go out and listen to lowest-common-denominator fodder and dance around in furry boots, but that isn’t going to last into their 20s. They are going to want to start dressing up and being adults, being cool and drinking nice wines, going out to independent movies and listening to good independent dance music.”
When behind the decks, Mr. C has one goal: “to play good-quality underground dance music that is based on tomorrow and not today.” The checks might not match what he was making as part of the Shamen, but he continues to re-invest in the culture, continually fueling the growth and development of the label with his own personal DJ earnings. The result has been a rapid series of contorted collaborations alongside Superfreq’s Noel Jackson (East L.A. Tek) and Affie Yusuf (Indigo Kidz).
“The father of tech-house” is more than a title for West. Witnessing the culture reach a new level of maturity worldwide, he is now ready to step away from his creation and celebrate its success from the sidelines. But with a fire in his belly as incendiary as any producer, West will probably never stop influencing the next generation of noise-making party-starters. If you’re a young producer yourself, West recommends going back to the likes of Visage, Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, Juan Atkins, Kraftwerk, and Giorgio Moroder to complete your baseline in house music. It helps to know the fundamentals when attempting to push the scene to its next ring.
This new cut adds a fun serial killer dimension. More »
Japanese figure-maker Gecco brought its Bloodborne Hunter statue to San Diego Comic-Con this week, offering a glimpse of what the final product will look like when it ships this later this year. The Hunter statue, which was announced earlier this year as an unpainted prototype sculpt, stands 32 centimeters tall (about 12.5 inches) and looks incredibly detailed and faithful to its in-game counterpart. In other words, it looks pretty sick.
Gecco reps said that high-end collectible will sell for "less than $300" — they estimated about $270 — when it goes up for pre-order in late July. The figure is expected to ship this December.
Gecco's other video game statue work includes Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Snake from Metal...
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So, here Residue starts to hit its stride (emphasis on “starts to”). Well, maybe “stride” is the wrong word for the second episode of a three-episode season but this installment certainly improves upon the first. It builds on what’s been established, (thus making the sluggish episode 1 worth the struggle), and ups the stakes accordingly. It’s a show that, for all its flaws, seems to have a clear vision and mythology and I remain eagerly on board to learn just what that is.
We open with Angela Rossi, whom I referred to as Jonas’ “unspecified superior” in recap 1 (I only know her name from checking the end credits) receiving an urgent call from an unidentified man: there’s been a development in the Quarantine Zone. Troops are on their way and she needs to get her people (read: Jonas) briefed.
Two soldiers have a quick chat in the back of a truck speeding towards the Quarantine Zone. One’s been in there before, the other hasn’t. The latter asks the former what it’s like inside. His response: bad news. The truck stops. Gas masks on, guns in hand, they go in.
In eerie silence, they search the building full of ghost-like, plastic flaps. One soldier (the inexperienced one, I think) gets lost and cut off from control. Something rushes at him … and the camera zooms out from the doorway as he screams.
Title sequence!
Mathis and Jen, who met briefly in episode 1, cross paths at the police station, where Jen has just tried, unsuccessfully, to report her supernatural findings to the police. They head outside and, (egged on by Jen’s Sherlockian skills of deduction) have a heart-to-heart of sorts before parting ways. Ok, Mathis might be growing on me
Meanwhile, Jonas delivers another statement to the press. As far as anyone needs to know, the troops deployed into the Quarantine Zone “are for security purposes only” to ensure contamination does not spread (and men with guns are notoriously effective against chemical gases?). “We want to reassure everyone we are working as hard as we can to get things back to normal,” he says.
Cut to Jonas following the Minister and Rossi up a staircase, asking them what the Hell is going on, what the weapons facility was doing underground in the first place and how it blew up. Rossi tells him to stick with the “accident story” (oh, government, you so devious) to which Jonas responds in glorious fashion. “Seriously? ‘Oops, sorry. Didn’t realize you were living on top of a chemical weapons dump until someone – and we still don’t know who- blew it up!”
Sassy Jonas is the best Jonas.
That night, in a scene nearly identical to the one from the first episode—no, really:
Jen, haunted by the girl she photographed, tells a half naked Jonas (on principle, I must disapprove of the gratuitous male nudity) that she’s going out to return to the club.
She gets in with absolutely no difficulty and, after wandering for a bit, she finds the girl’s dressing room. She notices a stain by the closet door, which she opens to find a disturbing collage plastered on the walls compiled of photos, magazine clippings, drawings of monsters and paper fragments with words like “ALONE,” “MAIMED” and “DISGUST” scrawled on them. Jen, being Jen, photographs them, then notices another black spot on the wall outside the closet. This one’s larger and looks like a leak stain oozing tar, just like the one the baby Dementor left after infecting Benny (I forgot to mention that in the last recap. Sorry. Too many details to note them all).
She photographs it, reaches for it and then things get weird. It sort of entrances her and she gets flashes of the girl’s face and a pair of handcuffs besides some icky, bloody instruments of unspecified purpose. The black spot starts dripping and … a random woman (presumably an employee at the club but how or why she’s there at 3 am is never addressed) shows up, snaps her out of it and tells her to leave.
The next day, Willy, the street dodger who gained Jen access to the club last episode, tips Mathis off about a man named Dickie who might have some information on the New Year’s explosion. Mathis finds Dickie at a karaoke club, implies that Dickie, not only knows about the explosion but was behind it, stabs him through the hand and promises to return in a few days, by which time Dickie had better have something to tell him.
I take it back. Mathis still sucks.
Fortunately, in the next scene we get Jonas, albeit briefly, whose aggravation over being kept in the dark is growing. While he’s stuck at the Minister’s redevelopment speech, Jen heads over to the Grand Opera House to photograph a dress rehearsal.
As the principal dancer performs, we see that, from her POV, the theater takes on a pinkish hue and visions of posters with “Cancelled” over them flash before her. A baby Dementor appears behind her, moving with her as she dances (it’s really quite beautiful) and infects her. As she turns, her eyes blacken and, before Jen can stop her, the dancer ties one of the stage ribbons around her neck, cuts the rope with a knife (that … she was … dancing with?) and …
After a quiet moment on the sidewalk, Jen returns to her apartment and gets to work, organizing her photos and pasting them to the wall. She pulls an all-nighter and, by morning, dark circles have formed beneath her eyes (or else her eyeliner has smeared). When Jonas wakes up, she presents her findings to him. All the baby Dementor-related incidents thus far have occurred along the perimeter of the Quarantine Zone. As she speaks, Jonas glances around the apartment at the piles of photographs on the counter and the negatives hanging from the lights. To some extent, I can’t blame him for being concerned.
“Is this what I sound like to Rossi?”
At the same time, given his problems at the Home Office, he really should be more supportive. She shows him the baby Dementors in her photos and Jonas, the man who’s been biting at the bit to uncover hidden truths at work, who knows that the government’s withholding information about the Quarantine Zone and in whom Jen could find an invaluable ally, chalks them up to camera malfunctions.
Shame on you, Jonas.
Still, the conversation escalates way too quickly from there. Jen snaps at him for always spinning things to make them sound reasonable and he blames her intuitions on sleep deprivation and overwork.
“Things are being kept from us Jonas. Wake the fuck up!” she shouts, to which Jonas should respond, “Hey, you know what? Our personal investigations seem to have some serious thematic overlap. Let’s work together.” Instead, he accuses her of “wasting time with fantasists and their fucking cameras making up shit” and scoffs at the notion of mutant monsters in the Quarantine Zone –
– at which point Jen throws her coffee at him.
Okay, now, as angry as I am with Jonas, that was unwarranted. Perhaps her sleep deprivation’s impaired her judgment but it’s still an overreaction to a contrived argument that’s out of character for both of them. There were better ways the writers could have put a wedge between our two leads without making Jonas a condescending hypocrite and Jen a drama queen.
Jen, shocked at what she’s done but still pissed off, leaves the apartment and seeks out support from her curator who treats her fears with similar derision. I know this happens in every “one woman saw it coming” film and TV show but, Lord, how I hate it.
We cut to Rossi getting into a car with a mysterious, bearded, ginger man. It turns out she’s getting sick of being kept in the dark as well. She tells him that even Jonas, who the ginger guy thought was “pliable,” is getting difficult to manage. “He’s not a puppet, sir,” she says, oddly and endearingly protective of the man she’s been shutting down for the last two episodes.
After she leaves, the ginger receives a call via futuristic glasses from a pathologist inside the Quarantine Zone. The corpse of the soldier from the opening scene (at least, I’m assuming it’s him from context. I can’t say I recognize him without his gas mask) contains elevated levels of norepinephrine and oodles of neuro-modulators. The manner of death is consistent with “all the others” and, even though he was given the antidote, it made no difference. Hmm hmm hmm …
That night, Jonas, who (in case you’ve forgotten) chewed Jen out for her suspicions about the Quarantine Zone, shows up at the Quarantine Zone and pulls rank to be allowed inside. The soldiers say, no, but before they pull him away, he catches a glimpse of covered corpses on a monitor screen.
So, of course, he calls Jen immediately, apologizes profusely and tells her that she might be onto something after all goes to headquarters and confronts Rossi about what he’s seen. “Leave it alone,” she tells him. “Please.” After her conversation with the ginger, I understand her trepidation. Jonas looks at a model of the Quarantine Zone and you can just about see the light bulb switch on above his head.
And on that momentous development … we’re back to Dickie. In a sushi bar. I-I think he’s supposed to provide comic relief or something. I don’t know. I don’t care. I want the baby Dementor to take him next.
He’s in trouble with a man named Mr. B over his run in with Mathis.
Mr. B proceeds to chat with yet another mysterious man about “tying up loose ends” and fixing the Mathis problem. Go ahead. Take him. I’ll help you find him.
But back to characters I do care about!
Jen phones Jonas and leaves him an apologetic message, asking him to call her back. She goes home and contemplates her own obsession. Meanwhile, Jonas “do as I say, not as I do” Flack meets up with Willy, who leads him to a hidden entrance to the Quarantine Zone.
In a beautifully edited sequence, we cut back and forth between Jen, in her apartment, trying to get a hold of Jonas and blogging that they all need to get as far away as possible from the Quarantine Zone and Jonas and Willy making their way towards it. Jen lies down on her bed. Willy leaves Jonas at the foot of a ladder. Jen and Jonas both look up. Jen notices that on the ceiling, directly above her, is a large black spot and Jonas stares, determinedly, up the ladder that ascends into darkness.
Cut to black!
You know, maybe the best way to determine the quality of a show isn’t deciding whether or not the strengths outnumber the flaws, but whether or not, when the characters are hurt or put in danger, you care about them. Because that’s certainly the case with Residue. For all its problems, I am invested in (most of) its characters. The story, and Jen, Jonas and Rossi’s roles therein, are taking shape, and, despite everything, I want to know where they go.
Petra Halbur is a writer traversing the perilous terrain of post-graduate life whilst trapped in the world-building phase of developing her science-fantasy graphic novel. You can read more from her at Ponderings of a Cinephile or follow her on Twitter.
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Welcome to this week’s edition of Reading List, Gizmodo’s weekly collection of the Internet’s best tech stories. This week, we explore hackathon culture, glimpse the final days of World War Two, and consider the impact of technology on music.
‘Grief’, Black lamb, glass, Victorian baby boots, sterling silver, sapphire 0.27ct, black rhodium by Julia deVille in beautiful.bizarre issue 009
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gonna ride historic on the fury road
PERFECT!
WITNESS ME
I IDENTIFY
PLEASE let this be a real, full tarot deck! It is ABOUT time for some updates.
Congressman John Lewis of Georgia decided to cosplay at Comic Con as a real-life hero: himself, marching at Selma fifty years ago. [ more › ]
Bridgetgod the music from akira is so good
The Simpsons + Akira = Bartkira, an incredibly awesome mashup of two very different, but both staggeringly influential animated creations. It all began when UK artist Ryan Humphrey drew a few pages of the original Akira manga by legendary Japanese artist Ōtomo Katsuhiro using characters from The Simpsons. Artist and animator James Harvey ran with this amazing crossover concept and began curating the Bartkira project, an epic collaboration dedicated to Simpsonizing every page of the original manga. It took 768 artists redrawing 5 pages each to recreate all six volumes of Ōtomo’s masterwork that you can read right here.
Now James Harvey, producer Kaitlin Sullivan and team of 50 artist have recreated the original theatrical trailer for the Akira anime. In the Bartkira trailer Neo-Tokyo is Neo-Springfield, where motorcycles have become skateboards, Bart is (of course) Kaneda, and poor Millhouse is perfectly cast as the epically tragic Tetsuo. They even created a fantastic fictional backstory:
“In the days of old, deep in the dredges of the “Do the Bartman” VHS, there was a trailer.
In partnership with Chicken Tonight, Butterfinger, and CC Lemon, the early 90s execs of Fox and Toho made an animated short. An attempt to appeal to American consumers without having to spend a lot of money. Until a changing of the guard decided the kids needed more Poochie and it was lost…until today.”
For an even better idea of what this geektastic team has accomplished, here’s the original Japanese theatrical trailer for Akira:
[via Vimeo Staff Picks and Kotaku]
‘The Queens Armada’ by Kirsty Mitchell in beautiful.bizarre Issue 009
Get the beautiful.bizarre digital e-Book via our webstore www.beautifulbizarre.net/shop for just US$4.99
On Saturday, Warner Bros. premiered a brand new Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer at San Diego Comic-Con.
This second trailer feels like a direct response to the leaked initial trailer which came with a plethora of quibbles and skepticism. There's more action, more take-your-breath-away moments, and our first look at Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in action:
Warner Bros.
The most difficult task facing this movie is getting Superman's (Henry Cavill) persona right. He isn't a "dark" character. Rather, Clark Kent/Superman/Kal-El is a figure that represents hope. And this is why Man of Steel, the 2013 Superman reboot, felt off — you had Superman in fights that leveled buildings and destroyed Metropolis (something Superman wouldn't do).
There's a concerted effort in the trailer to establish this persona. We find out the government is really mad at him, and that it's turning to Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) for help. There are voiceovers from Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Clark's mother (Diane Lane) explaining that he doesn't owe Metropolis a thing, and that he is a hero, no matter what people say. But since Superman is Superman, he can't just walk away without trying to help the people that hate him.
And there are also shots like this one with Superman coming down from the heavens, bathed in sunlight, to establish him as a hopeful presence:
Warner Bros.
The other part of this equation is why Batman, a good guy, would be fighting Superman, another good guy. In the comic book The Dark Knight Returns, it's established that Superman is a government lackey and reluctantly fights Batman — they don't have animosity toward each other, they just are doing what they think is right.
It's a little different in Batman v. Superman. There's a pronounced 9/11 feel to our introduction of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), who we see running through a city and seeing what appears to be Wayne tower crumble and come crashing down thanks to Superman's fight:
(Warner Bros.)
We don't know what or who is in that tower that's so important, but it prompts Bruce Wayne to run into the crashing building head on:
(Warner Bros.)
And we also see what appears to be some goading from the Joker:
(Warner Bros.)
So mix Batman's anger about Superman's uncontrollable destruction, his past trauma about his parents being killed and not being able to do anything about it, and some not-so-gentle ribbing with the word "joke" in it, and you get a Batman that's ready to brawl an invincible hero:
(Warner Bros.)
It'll make for a good fight scene or two:
(Warner Bros.)
One pressing question that we didn't get an answer for is how Wonder Woman factors into this fight. You might think someone who is an Amazon blessed with god-like strength would see the anti-Superman hate and want to keep a low profile.
But that would be a boring movie.
We see two shots of Wonder Woman fighting. The first (above) has her brandishing her famous bracelets and releasing some kind of force. The second looks like she's taking a punch, and to show off her badassery, she shakes it off like it's nothing:
(Warner Bros.)
Again, how Wonder Woman fits into this universe or story is still a mystery. But she looks fit to fight.
This one:
(Warner Bros.)
Thrill-seeking travelers can now stay in Skylodge, a trio of transparent pods placed 400 feet (122m) above the ground on a cliff-face in the Peruvian Andes.
Located near the city of Cuzco, the three 24 x 8 meter capsules, made from polycarbonate and aluminium, are operated by Peruvian tour company Natura Viva and overlook the spectacular Sacred Valley – a region renowned for its breathtaking scenery, small villages and death-defying roads.
The price you’ll have to pay to stay in one of these incredibly unique capsules, is having to climb a 400-foot steel ladder embedded in the almost sheer-cliff face to get to one of these unique hotels. If you don’t fancy that, you can also hike or use a zip-wire. Oh, and the other price you’ll have to pay is approximately $300 USD.
More info: naturavive.com
