Other TV

On the CW, Kung Fu finally wrapped up the quest for the 8 weapons, but left some storylines open for next season, such as Althea's sexual harassment case and Russell Tan becoming a new villain. The writers even brought back his son Kerwin, although he's on life support. I wonder how Zhilan will react when she finds out he survived. Maybe she'll go on a quest to heal him and earn his forgiveness, or maybe she still won't trust him. Anyway, in the big battle, Nicky and Zhilan didn't unite to defeat their mutual enemy Russell Tan, but they did both absorb the biange energy and reunite with Pei-Ling's spirit. It was implied to be her real ghost, and not just Nicky's imagination. Then Nicky released the energy and defeated Zhilan, but she's still alive to possibly return in the future.

Meanwhile I found a show on Peacock called Mohawk Girls. It's a Canadian show about women on the reservation and their dating life. It's funny, but also kind of depressing because there's a lot of slut-shaming and fat-shaming of various characters. They also feel an obligation to only date Mohawk men; if they don't, they are ostracized for betraying the community. A couple of the lead women could pass for white, appearance-wise, but they still identify as Mohawk, and their tribal identity is important to them. Zoe in particular is pressured by her mom to be the perfect role model for young Mohawks, but she won't let her have any leisure time to enjoy herself. It's sad. I watched all of season 1, but I'm not sure if I'll continue with it, since I'm getting tired of Caitlin staying with Butterhead even though he treats her so bad.

What a Week

What a week it's been, with all the Olympics controversy over Simone Biles pulling out due to experiencing the "twisties," which is apparently a spatial disorientation. She has to think about her well-being and not risk a career-ending injury or even death. Her teammate Sunisa Lee got the chance to shine instead and won a gold medal, so it's worked out great. Thankfully, standards have changed for Olympic athletes, and it's partly due to Naomi Osaka's recently focus on her mental health.

I haven't really watched the Olympics other than the opening ceremony. I've watched Amber Ruffin's short videos once I found them on Peacock, but overall I'm just not into sports. I've been watching mysteries on PBS. My sister recommended something called Professor T, a remake of a Belgian series. It's okay, but the tone has been weird and offputting at times. It's as if Adrian Monk was a university professor who sometimes has hallucinations, and he has a different, childhood reason for his trauma and OCD.

Recently I was happy to hear about Ben & Jerry's deciding not to sell ice cream in the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. I even bought a pint in celebration. Israel of course is reacting like they do to any other BDS action--calling it an anti-semitic attack. So hysterical.

Snake Eyes

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie stars not just Henry Golding as Snake Eyes but also Andrew Koji from Warrior. They play off each other well and elevate the story of blood brothers and betrayal of trust. I did watch the G.I. Joe cartoon as a child, but I didn't have the toys or read the comics. It's been so long that I've forgotten everything except character names like Scarlett, Cobra Commander, Baroness, etc. Storm Shadow is one of the characters I forgot, so I was really pleased to meet him here; this is his origin story too, and Tommy Arashikage is given a lot of depth and complexity, as the heir to an ancient ninja clan in Japan. Snake Eyes saves his life and gets invited to join the clan, but first he must pass three tests.

The movie does become too slow when Snake Eyes is hanging out in the Japanese castle grounds, almost feeling like he's stuck in a medieval world, but he does sneak out to Tokyo so we can see proper modern cities and confront the crime boss Kenta. At times the action does seem a little ridiculous, that the ninjas keep fighting with katanas (and even fans) when their Yakuza enemies could just shoot them down with guns, but there is also a mystical energy plot about a magic jewel protected by the Arashikage, so that may account for their feeling of invulnerability.

Snake Eyes is on a mission of revenge for his father's death, so he makes unwise decisions before he realizes how he's been duped and used as a pawn. His discovery of the larger battle between G.I. Joe and Cobra leads him to rethink his alliances and switch sides. That's when Scarlett drops in with her crossbow, and the Baroness arrives with a Cobra army of goons with guns. I like this movie overall, and it helps me endure the wait for other Asian-led movies such as Shang-Chi in September. I also saw a trailer for a new Maggie Q movie where she seems to be back in Nikita assassin mode. That might be fun.

Holding Pattern

I was working all weekend so I didn't hear about CPAC Dallas or anything much about the Texas special session. Have to just hope the our Democrats can hold off bad legislation again. It's really up to U.S. Congress to pass federal voting rights act. What happened to all the talk about Manchin proposing a new compromise? Why aren't they trying to pass that yet?

Meanwhile, the new Black Widow movie is out now. While I like the character in Marvel ensemble movies, I'm still pissed at Scarlett Johannson so I'm not eager to support her solo picture. I'm told that the movie features the sister character more and sets her up to be the new Black Widow after Natasha's death in the previous Avengers film. So hopefully I can watch future Marvel movies with the new Black Widow.

So instead I've been watching movies at home. Netflix's Ice Road was good for a while, but then that villain just refused to die and kept coming back for more over the top scenes, including a fistfight in the truckcab that never seemed to end. I also caught the new Leverage reboot once I figured out that IMDB TV was free and didn't even require me to give an email address. The new characters are used pretty well, but I was hoping for Hardison to come back. Hopefully he will appear in the 2nd half, due in the fall.

More Black Movies

Over the weekend, I saw the Summer of Soul concert film. It was a good mix of concert footage and historical background about the political and social issues of the time. The Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 preceded Woodstock and lasted for 6 weekends in the summer. It was free, too, so lots of people could come enjoy many genres of music performed by major stars like B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, etc. The Black audience showed the cultural transition from Motown suits to dashikis, as the growing culture of Black is Beautiful emerged.Watching the film made me wish they could release all 40 hours of footage, perhaps arranged by days, on DVD or streaming. The original filmmaker couldn't sell his footage for years, so I hope that now the footage is rediscovered, that he could finally sell all of it for those who want to buy.

I also watched Netflix's recent movie Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba as an urban cowboy in Philadelphia. Lorraine Toussaint also plays a neighbor named Nessie. It's a fictional story, but it features the real-life Fletcher Street Riding Club, a historical group of Black riders and trainers who care for horses in Philly. They are a community of volunteers who mostly have other day jobs to support their horse passion. There used to be plenty of stables in the city, but development and gentrification have shut down most of them, causing overcrowding to the point that Idris's character Harp keeps a horse in his own house. Harp is estranged from his 15-year-old son Cole, who lives in Detroit. However, after Cole is expelled from school for fighting, his frustrated mother decides to make him stay with his father for the summer, and she drops him off in the middle of the night on the doorstep. Cole is resentful about being abandoned, but then he reunites with an old childhood friend named Smush, who is now a drug dealer. Harp tries to forbid the relationship, but Cole secretly still hangs out with Smush. At the same time, though, Cole begins to work at the stables and bonds with a horse named Boo. He also connects with other cowboys and cowgirls, hearing their stories and also envying them for getting Harp's fatherly attention. The tension in Cole's dual life eventually explodes, but he learns to embrace his new home and family. I enjoyed it, and some real life Fletcher Street riders star as fictionalized versions of themselves.

Happy July 4th

The Olympics don't start until July 23rd, but they've have been in the news lately due to some really bad rulings against black women athletes and swimcaps for natural hair. It's really astonishing that they'd be so tone-deaf still. I haven't cared about Olympic sports since I stopped watching the figure skaters years ago, and even then I remember lots of unfair commentary and judgments against the black figure skaters for being too "athletic" and less graceful, aka white. How the fuck do you call someone too "athletic" for the Olympics? I guess the same way you make racist comments about Venus and Serena Williams changing tennis.

I wasn't planning to watch the delayed Tokyo Olympics this year, but then NBC announced that Amber Ruffin is going to Tokyo as a commentator. So that's why her show is going on hiatus so long this summer. (Also, her show is preparing to have a studio audience in August.) I hope Amber doesn't get infected with any new Covid variants in Tokyo. I certainly don't feel safe flying anywhere yet, much less to a crowded sports venue. I guess I'll just follow along to see if Amber makes any fun songs or skits about the Olympics.