Category: Film

• Turn Off “The News”.1: Black Power Media on Paul Robeson

  I’m starting a new series of posts here to express appreciation for and link to pieces published online by some of my favorite sources of news, information and analysis. The title refers to the difference between these sources and what is conventionally understood as “The News,” ie, mainstream outlets like NPR and the New York […]

  jhd123

  October 30, 2022

  Current Events, Film, Music, Politics, Series of posts, Turn Off “The News”

  Black Panther Party, Black Power Media, Dr. Jared Ball, Gerald Horne, Internal colonialism theory, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Kwame Ture, New York Times, NPR, Paul Robeson, Richard Nixon, Snoop Dogg, Socialism

• Arches & Pathways: New Album with Dennis Callaci Streaming Now!

  

  I have a new record coming out on 11/20/20 that I made with my friend Dennis Callaci at his house in July of 2019, fresh off a fun tour of New Zealand and Australia. It comes out on Friday but you can stream the whole thing via Magnet Magazine online, right now. It was mixed […]

  jhd123

  November 18, 2020

  Film, Music, New Releases, Shrimper Records, Top 40 Over 40

  Arches & Pathways, Australia, Cookie Brooklyn & the Crumbs, Frederick Douglass, Grapefruit Record Club, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Inundation Records, John Davis & Dennis Callaci, New Zealand, Scott Solter, Shrimper Records, Tore Takemitsu, Woman in the Dunes

• Top 40 Over 40.22: Callaci & Sons reach The End of Night

  Sometimes musicians I know tip their hand by commenting on the records they love.  For years, Dennis Callaci has circled back to recommending Ornette Coleman’s 1966 album The Empty Foxhole.  Ornette recorded the album with his son Denardo Coleman, then only 10 years old, on drums.  Not considered a part of the great Ornette albums […]

  jhd123

  February 4, 2018

  Film, Shrimper Records, Top 40 Over 40

  Dennis Callaci, Film Noir, Ornette Coleman, Shrimper Records, The Empty Foxhole, The End of Night

• Dirty Harry Does Diversity.2: Indicting Invictus

  (Like the original Magnum Force, this post is a sequel to the first Dirty Harry.) Of all of Clint Eastwood’s “Sympathy for the Other” movies, Invictus was the most popular in the Land of the Liberals.  J. Edgar (gays), Million Dollar Baby (women), and Gran Torino (SE Asians) all did well but received more criticism than […]

  jhd123

  March 22, 2015

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Current Events, Dirty Harry Does Diversity, Film, History

  A.O. Scott, Africa, american empire, ANC, Barack Obama, Capitalism, Civil Rights Movement, Clint Eastwood, Economics, Films, IMF, Invictus, Irvin Jim, Left media, Matt Damon, Nelson Mandela, Neoliberalism, NUMSA, Pambazuka News, Patrick Bond, Paul Jay, Politics, profit margins, Race, Selma, The New York Times, The Real News Network, Washington Consensus

• Dirty Harry Does Diversity.1: Magnum Tucked In Tweed

  One of the weirder phenomena of early 21st century cinema has been the emergence of Clint Eastwood as would-be spokesman for various groups marginalized by the white male power structure his famed ’70’s character Dirty Harry once defended with a famously long phallic symbol.  Million Dollar Baby (2004) concerned itself with issues of gender and […]

  jhd123

  February 18, 2015

  Dirty Harry Does Diversity, Film, History, Series of posts, Uncategorized

  ANC, Angela Y. Davis, Berkeley CA, Black Panther Party, Brezhnev, Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry, Ed Sanders, Films, Gran Torino, Invictus, J. Edgar, J. Hoberman, Jack Kerouac, John Wayne, Magnum Force, Million Dollar Baby, Nelson Mandela, Other John Davises, Pauline Kael, People’s Park Protest, Politics, Race, Reds, Roger Ebert, Ronald Reagan, The Enforcer, The Ex, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tim Buckley, Too Many Cowboys, Warren Beatty, William F. Buckley

• Corporate Welfare.10: Wrestelmania

  I just read an incredible article by Dan O’Sullivan in Jacobin magazine about the abuse of wrestlers by their promoters, and in particular, by Vince McMahon and the WWE, (World Wrestling Entertainment.)  I recently wrote about the film The Wrestler as a depiction of how wrestling performs the abuse of workers outside the ring by amplifying […]

  jhd123

  August 11, 2014

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Corporate Welfare, Film, Music, Politics

  corporate welfare, Dan O’Sullivan, Films, Folk Implosion, Hulk Hogan, Interscope Records, Jacobin magazine, John Darnielle, Left media, Madonna, Mountain Goats, Professional Wrestling, profit margins, Richard Grabel, The Wrestler, Unions, Vince McMahon, WWE

• Corporate Welfare.9: Markets and Chains

  Today I’m posting a link to an article from the blog CivilEats.com by Adrien Schless-Meier called “Why Grocery Store Workers Are Making Less While Big Chains Make More.”  It’s a topic on my mind because one of the songs on the record I’m working on is about the economics of supermarkets.  The song is called “King Piggly […]

  jhd123

  July 22, 2014

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Film, Music, Work In Progress

  Adrien Schless-Meier, Bread & Circus, Cambridge, civileats.com, corporate welfare, Films, Food Justice, King Piggly Wiggly, Publix, Raj Patel, Rindge Towers, Target, The Wrestler, Trader Joe’s, Upcoming Projects, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods

• World on a Wire

  As I keep track of the unfolding struggle over the FCC’s proposed creation of a corporate “fast lane” on the internet that would regulate non-corporate media to second class status online, I’m reminded of the film World on a Wire by Rainer Fassbinder, which I watched on DVD a couple of months ago.  Despite being […]

  jhd123

  May 24, 2014

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Film, History, Politics, Uncategorized

  Amanda Hess, Astrid Taylor, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Capitalism, Democracy Now, Digital vs. Analog, Feminism, Films, Gravity’s Rainbow, History, Jesse Jackson, Jessica Gonzalez, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Neoliberalism, Politics, Poor Democracy, profit margins, Race, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rich Media, Robert McChesney, The Real News Network, Thomas Pynchon, World on a Wire

• New video released today for “Masoch” on OWS anniversary

  Today marks the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and to celebrate the occasion, we’re proud to announce that director Michael Galinsky has taken the time to make a video for the song “Masoch” from the forthcoming album “Spare Parts.” The video incorporates footage of OWS taken from an excellent short film he made called […]

  jhd123

  September 18, 2013

  Film, Music, Politics, Spare Parts, Work In Progress

  Battle For Brooklyn, Films, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, Music, Spare Parts, Upcoming Projects, Videos

• Top 40 Over 40.13: Weird Al’s “Party In the CIA”

  I can think of few more unlikely candidates for creative growth after 40 than Weird Al Yankovic.  Back when I was in grade school, he came on the pop culture radar with “Eat It,” his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”  His string of similar Dr. Demento style hits willfully sucked all of the sexual […]

  jhd123

  September 14, 2013

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Economics, Film, History, Music, Politics, Series of posts, Top 40 Over 40, Uncategorized

  Alias, american empire, Angelina Jolie, Argo, Barack Obama, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, Capitalism, CIA, Donald S. Lopez, Films, History, Imperialism, Iran, Jennifer Garner, John Limbert, Juan Cole, Lockheed Martin, Michael Moore, Miley Cyrus, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Muhammed Sahimi, Party in the USA, Politics, Prisoners of Shangri La, profit margins, Record Reviews, Richard Gere, Saviors and Survivors, Sudan, TIbet, Top 40 Over 40, Weird Al Yankovic, William Hartung