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"title": "Snark and Sarcasm Rule the Roost in ‘The Adults,’ a Comedy About Grown Siblings",
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"content": "\u003cp>Michael Cera has been doing a lot of TV lately, but it’s nice to see him back on the big screen for the first time in five years. You might have seen him steal a few scenes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931753/allan-doll-michael-cera-greta-gerwig-barbie-movie-review\">in \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em> as Allan\u003c/a>, the discontinued Mattel doll briefly introduced in the 1960s as Ken’s best friend. Cera’s always been good at playing oddballs and misfits, to the point of being typecast, and sure enough, he plays another one in his new comedy, \u003cem>The Adults\u003c/em>. But his character, Eric, is one of his more interesting roles. He’s tricky and temperamental and hard to figure out — and so are his two sisters, Rachel and Maggie, whom he comes home to visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931753']It’s never explained why Eric has been away from his East Coast hometown for three years — maybe it was COVID lockdown, maybe something else. But things are clearly awkward between him and his older sister Rachel, played with a wonderfully sardonic edge by Hannah Gross. She lives in and takes care of the home they all grew up in as kids; their parents are dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In time we’ll also meet the youngest and gentlest of the three siblings, Maggie, played by Sophia Lillis. Unlike Rachel, Maggie is delighted to see their brother back in town. But she’s upset that Eric is only here for a short trip, mainly to see his old friends, and plans to spend just a little time with his sisters. He’s even rented a hotel room rather than staying at the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The writer-director Dustin Guy Defa doesn’t overload his characters with backstories. But he subtly suggests that all three of these siblings are feeling stunted and unfulfilled in their own ways. The details dribble out gradually: Rachel works at a local radio station, editing what she contemptuously calls “puff pieces.” Maggie is a recent college dropout. And as for Eric, it’s not entirely clear what he does for a living, if anything. He makes a big deal about getting home, but he winds up easily extending his trip — not to spend more time with his sisters, although he does, but to join his friends’ nightly poker games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmV5X0EBR8I\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poker serves as a pretty good metaphor in \u003cem>The Adults\u003c/em>, which is in some ways a movie about the art of the emotional bluff; it’s about characters who keep hiding how they really feel behind a wall of snark and sarcasm. But there’s more to their dynamic, too. As the story progresses, Rachel, Eric and Maggie begin reverting to a form of highly elaborate and eccentric role play from their childhood, often involving singing and dancing. At times their commitment to the bit is so extreme that you start to wonder if their parents were actors or improv comedians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932890']The effect of all this self-involved play-acting is funny, bizarre, off-putting and weirdly moving. After a while, you realize that it’s only through this sophisticated-yet-childish language that the siblings can really connect and say what’s on their minds. At the same time, some of their old gags and routines don’t land the way they used to, which is poignant and relatable in itself. If you’ve ever had a relationship that felt like stale inside jokes were all you had left, you might know the feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through this role play, you see how these characters fit together: Rachel, the judgmental, responsible one; Eric, the prodigal brother and Maggie, the fragile glue that holds them all together. There’s a wide-eyed Peter Pan quality to Lillis’ performance as Maggie, underlining our sense of these so-called adults as overgrown children. Cera, with his gangly grace, makes Eric both infuriating and endearing. But the most memorable work here comes from Gross, whose mix of big-sisterly fury and melancholy has stayed with me in the months since I first saw the movie. She turns this often squirmy comedy into something that might just break your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Snark+and+sarcasm+rule+the+roost+in+%27The+Adults%2C%27+a+comedy+about+grown+siblings+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\n\u003cdiv>\u003cem>‘The Adults’ is released Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s never explained why Eric has been away from his East Coast hometown for three years — maybe it was COVID lockdown, maybe something else. But things are clearly awkward between him and his older sister Rachel, played with a wonderfully sardonic edge by Hannah Gross. She lives in and takes care of the home they all grew up in as kids; their parents are dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In time we’ll also meet the youngest and gentlest of the three siblings, Maggie, played by Sophia Lillis. Unlike Rachel, Maggie is delighted to see their brother back in town. But she’s upset that Eric is only here for a short trip, mainly to see his old friends, and plans to spend just a little time with his sisters. He’s even rented a hotel room rather than staying at the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The writer-director Dustin Guy Defa doesn’t overload his characters with backstories. But he subtly suggests that all three of these siblings are feeling stunted and unfulfilled in their own ways. The details dribble out gradually: Rachel works at a local radio station, editing what she contemptuously calls “puff pieces.” Maggie is a recent college dropout. And as for Eric, it’s not entirely clear what he does for a living, if anything. He makes a big deal about getting home, but he winds up easily extending his trip — not to spend more time with his sisters, although he does, but to join his friends’ nightly poker games.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/CmV5X0EBR8I'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CmV5X0EBR8I'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poker serves as a pretty good metaphor in \u003cem>The Adults\u003c/em>, which is in some ways a movie about the art of the emotional bluff; it’s about characters who keep hiding how they really feel behind a wall of snark and sarcasm. But there’s more to their dynamic, too. As the story progresses, Rachel, Eric and Maggie begin reverting to a form of highly elaborate and eccentric role play from their childhood, often involving singing and dancing. At times their commitment to the bit is so extreme that you start to wonder if their parents were actors or improv comedians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The effect of all this self-involved play-acting is funny, bizarre, off-putting and weirdly moving. After a while, you realize that it’s only through this sophisticated-yet-childish language that the siblings can really connect and say what’s on their minds. At the same time, some of their old gags and routines don’t land the way they used to, which is poignant and relatable in itself. If you’ve ever had a relationship that felt like stale inside jokes were all you had left, you might know the feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through this role play, you see how these characters fit together: Rachel, the judgmental, responsible one; Eric, the prodigal brother and Maggie, the fragile glue that holds them all together. There’s a wide-eyed Peter Pan quality to Lillis’ performance as Maggie, underlining our sense of these so-called adults as overgrown children. Cera, with his gangly grace, makes Eric both infuriating and endearing. But the most memorable work here comes from Gross, whose mix of big-sisterly fury and melancholy has stayed with me in the months since I first saw the movie. She turns this often squirmy comedy into something that might just break your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Snark+and+sarcasm+rule+the+roost+in+%27The+Adults%2C%27+a+comedy+about+grown+siblings+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\n\u003cdiv>\u003cem>‘The Adults’ is released Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Blue Beetle’ is More Than a Bug in the Superhero System",
"headTitle": "‘Blue Beetle’ is More Than a Bug in the Superhero System | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Franz Kafka never realized how close he came to kickstarting a superhero franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since Gregor Samsa awoke in his bed to find himself transformed into a monstrous dung beetle in \u003cem>The Metamorphosis\u003c/em>, we’ve had spider-men, wasps, ant-men, crime-fighting ticks and mighty mantises — such a super swarm of insectoids that you might be tempted to reach for a fly swatter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13933030']We’re now back to the beetle with the new DC Comics film \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, which opens in theaters Thursday. But what distinguishes \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> isn’t its place in the bug brigade but the person doing the metamorphosizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is the first Latino superhero in a leading role in a DC film. It’s not just token casting, either. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is firmly rooted in the experience of the Reyes clan, a close-knit Mexican-American family scraping by in the shadow of the gleaming Miami-like fictional metropolis of Palmera City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime is their first college graduate — “And last!” cheerfully chimes his sister, Milagro (the very funny, scene-stealing Belissa Escobedo). The parents, Alberto (Damián Alcázar) and Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo) are broke and on the cusp of losing their home to the encroaching, all-powerful Kord Industries. Also living with them are Jaime’s grandmother (Adriana Barraza) and his truck-driving uncle (George Lopez, having a ball).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to have the other side of the tracks,” says Milagro. “Now they want that, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite big post-college ambitions, Jaime is stuck cleaning hotel rooms with his sister. Given what his family has sacrificed for him, he’s saddled with guilt. So after a chance encounter with Jenny Kord (the Brazilian actress Bruna Marquezine), niece of the company’s imperial chief executive Victoria (Susan Sarandon), Jaime jumps at the chance of a job opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He happens to turn up at Kord headquarters just as Jenny is fleeing with Victoria’s prized discovery: a blue metallic scarab from outer space called the Khaji da that she’s using to create a privatized robotic army. It’s admittedly quite a jump from the real estate business, but, well, interest rates are sky high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before you know it, Jaime, tasked with hiding the beetle by Jenny, is looking down at the thing when it sinks itself onto his face and quickly seeps into his body. Gregor’s initial response to changing into a beetle was simply to turn over (“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”), but Jaime is afforded no such chance. He’s immediately rocketed through the roof and into space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wxyy8Rcz4k\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the broadly sketched but spirited \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, much of what follows is as you’d expect. There’s getting used to the new outfit (and the sentient being that communicates Venom-style within Jaime). A recent past to uncover. The inevitable climactic battle between two hunks of CGI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, the final entry in a now defunct wave of DC films, distinguishes itself in other ways. Jaime’s family is continually along for the ride, making up his supporting cast when the big fight comes. (The grandmother’s younger days as a revolutionary emerge, comically.) Superheroes are ultimately empowerment fantasies, though they’ve often got away from that. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> manages to come closer than most in evoking the thrill of the powerless suddenly handed cosmic strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932565']Soto plays it fast and loose, mixing in a little lewdness (“Activate bug fart” is a new addition to the often solemn DC universe) and shades of neon blue and purple along the way. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> doesn’t have much originality going for itself and Maridueña doesn’t make a significant impression. But the film crucially gets that superhero movies don’t need to be self-serious to make a serious point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, light, lively and sincere, is a tribute to the tenacity and indomitability of Mexican-American families that have clawed their way into an often inhospitable society. Family members, usually plot points of some animating trauma in superhero movies, are here a central part of the action. (Lopez gets countless cracks in, and most of them land.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a time of self-inquiry for the superhero movie after hints of a new downward trend (despite some notable exceptions like the blistering \u003cem>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\u003c/em>, with its Afro-Latino protagonist ). \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, which had at one point been destined to go straight to streaming, falls in the middle of this new uncertain terrain. After a string of disappointments, future DC installments will take the comic book franchise in new directions. So it remains to be seen if \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> can be much more than a bug in the system amid larger industry shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’d wager there will be plenty of moviegoers — especially young Hispanic ones not accustomed to seeing reflections of themselves in Hollywood comic book spectacles — who’ll grin all the way through the breezy \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>. If even a low-stakes, fairly derivative superhero movie like this can charm thanks to its warm Hispanic perspective and winning supporting cast, there’s plenty of hope yet for the genre — bugs and all.\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Blue Beetle’ is released nationwide on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The new DC movie is light, lively and sincere, a tribute to the tenacity and indomitability of Mexican American families.",
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"title": "‘Blue Beetle’ is More Than a Bug in the Superhero System | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Franz Kafka never realized how close he came to kickstarting a superhero franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since Gregor Samsa awoke in his bed to find himself transformed into a monstrous dung beetle in \u003cem>The Metamorphosis\u003c/em>, we’ve had spider-men, wasps, ant-men, crime-fighting ticks and mighty mantises — such a super swarm of insectoids that you might be tempted to reach for a fly swatter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>We’re now back to the beetle with the new DC Comics film \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, which opens in theaters Thursday. But what distinguishes \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> isn’t its place in the bug brigade but the person doing the metamorphosizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is the first Latino superhero in a leading role in a DC film. It’s not just token casting, either. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is firmly rooted in the experience of the Reyes clan, a close-knit Mexican-American family scraping by in the shadow of the gleaming Miami-like fictional metropolis of Palmera City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime is their first college graduate — “And last!” cheerfully chimes his sister, Milagro (the very funny, scene-stealing Belissa Escobedo). The parents, Alberto (Damián Alcázar) and Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo) are broke and on the cusp of losing their home to the encroaching, all-powerful Kord Industries. Also living with them are Jaime’s grandmother (Adriana Barraza) and his truck-driving uncle (George Lopez, having a ball).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to have the other side of the tracks,” says Milagro. “Now they want that, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite big post-college ambitions, Jaime is stuck cleaning hotel rooms with his sister. Given what his family has sacrificed for him, he’s saddled with guilt. So after a chance encounter with Jenny Kord (the Brazilian actress Bruna Marquezine), niece of the company’s imperial chief executive Victoria (Susan Sarandon), Jaime jumps at the chance of a job opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He happens to turn up at Kord headquarters just as Jenny is fleeing with Victoria’s prized discovery: a blue metallic scarab from outer space called the Khaji da that she’s using to create a privatized robotic army. It’s admittedly quite a jump from the real estate business, but, well, interest rates are sky high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before you know it, Jaime, tasked with hiding the beetle by Jenny, is looking down at the thing when it sinks itself onto his face and quickly seeps into his body. Gregor’s initial response to changing into a beetle was simply to turn over (“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”), but Jaime is afforded no such chance. He’s immediately rocketed through the roof and into space.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/4wxyy8Rcz4k'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/4wxyy8Rcz4k'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In the broadly sketched but spirited \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, much of what follows is as you’d expect. There’s getting used to the new outfit (and the sentient being that communicates Venom-style within Jaime). A recent past to uncover. The inevitable climactic battle between two hunks of CGI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, the final entry in a now defunct wave of DC films, distinguishes itself in other ways. Jaime’s family is continually along for the ride, making up his supporting cast when the big fight comes. (The grandmother’s younger days as a revolutionary emerge, comically.) Superheroes are ultimately empowerment fantasies, though they’ve often got away from that. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> manages to come closer than most in evoking the thrill of the powerless suddenly handed cosmic strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Soto plays it fast and loose, mixing in a little lewdness (“Activate bug fart” is a new addition to the often solemn DC universe) and shades of neon blue and purple along the way. \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> doesn’t have much originality going for itself and Maridueña doesn’t make a significant impression. But the film crucially gets that superhero movies don’t need to be self-serious to make a serious point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, light, lively and sincere, is a tribute to the tenacity and indomitability of Mexican-American families that have clawed their way into an often inhospitable society. Family members, usually plot points of some animating trauma in superhero movies, are here a central part of the action. (Lopez gets countless cracks in, and most of them land.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a time of self-inquiry for the superhero movie after hints of a new downward trend (despite some notable exceptions like the blistering \u003cem>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\u003c/em>, with its Afro-Latino protagonist ). \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>, which had at one point been destined to go straight to streaming, falls in the middle of this new uncertain terrain. After a string of disappointments, future DC installments will take the comic book franchise in new directions. So it remains to be seen if \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em> can be much more than a bug in the system amid larger industry shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’d wager there will be plenty of moviegoers — especially young Hispanic ones not accustomed to seeing reflections of themselves in Hollywood comic book spectacles — who’ll grin all the way through the breezy \u003cem>Blue Beetle\u003c/em>. If even a low-stakes, fairly derivative superhero movie like this can charm thanks to its warm Hispanic perspective and winning supporting cast, there’s plenty of hope yet for the genre — bugs and all.\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Blue Beetle’ is released nationwide on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Michael Oher, Former NFL Tackle Known for ‘The Blind Side,’ Sues Tuohy Family",
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"content": "\u003cp>Michael Oher, the former NFL tackle known for being the inspiration for the movie \u003cem>The Blind Side\u003c/em>, filed a petition Monday in a Tennessee probate court accusing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of lying to him by having him sign papers making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents nearly two decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931352']In the petition filed Monday in Shelby County Probate Court, Oher asks for the conservatorship to be terminated along with asking for a full accounting of the money earned off the use of his name and story. He also asks to be paid what he is due along with interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He accuses the Tuohys of enriching themselves at his expense by continuing to “falsely and publicly” represent themselves as his adoptive parents “to the date of the filing of this petition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys,” according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher, who has never been a fan of the movie of his life, also asks in the petition that the Tuohys be sanctioned and required to pay both compensatory and punitive damages determined by the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ESPN.com first reported the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Farese, a lawyer for the Tuohys, told The Associated Press they will file an answer to the allegations in court but declined to comment further. He was among three attorneys served on behalf of the Tuohys on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leigh Anne Tuohy did not immediately respond to an email sent to her personal website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie was nominated for an Oscar, and Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher accuses the Tuohys of never taking legal action to assume custody from the Tennessee Department of Human Services before he turned 18. The conservatorship paperwork was filed months after Oher turned 18 in May 2004.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He moved in with the Tuohys just before his senior year of high school and says he was told to call them “Mom” and “Dad.” Oher says in the petition he was encouraged to call the attorney who filed the conservatorship paperwork “Aunt Debbie” Branan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931346']Oher also alleges the Tuohys had him sign paperwork almost immediately after he moved in as part of the adoption process. Oher says he was “falsely advised” that it would be called a conservatorship because he was already 18 but the intent was adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At no point did the Tuohys inform Michael that they would have ultimate control of all his contracts, and as a result Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself,” according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A book based on Oher’s life was released in September 2006 written by Michael Lewis, described in the petition as a childhood friend of Sean Tuohy’s. The petition alleges his conservators began contract negotiations for movie rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933180\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with long brown hair, wearing a soft pink strapless gown stands with a shorter blonde woman who is smiling and wearing a white strapless cocktail dress.\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-1020x724.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-768x545.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-1536x1090.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Sandra Bullock with Leigh Anne Tuohy at ‘The Blind Side’ benefit premiere in New Orleans in 2009. \u003ccite>(Skip Bolen/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The petition alleges a deal was reached to pay the Tuohys, plus children Sean Jr. and Collins, $225,000 plus 2.5% of future defined net proceeds hinging on Oher’s signature. A contract titled “Life Story Rights Agreement” was “purportedly signed by Michael Oher” and dated April 20, 2007, according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petition says Oher believes the signature is similar to his own but that he “at no time ever willingly or knowingly signed this document and that nobody ever presented this contract to him with any explanation that he was signing such a document.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the petition, Oher asks for a full accounting of his assets and how they were used considering his life story produced millions of dollars and he received nothing for the rights to something that would not have existed without him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931888']Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi, and he spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He wound up playing eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher finished his career with two years in Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He started 110 career games and won a Super Bowl with the Ravens. He also finished second in the voting to Percy Harvin of Minnesota for The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after starting all 16 games his first season at right tackle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher, who turned 37 in May, last played in the NFL in 2016 before being released in 2017 by Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two years ago, supporters cheered when Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship. The ruling came after Spears publicly demanded the end of the arrangement, which had prevented her from making her own medical, financial and personal decisions since 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spears’ high-profile battle put a spotlight on efforts that advocates across the United States have launched raising questions that such strict controls result in more harm than protection.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the petition filed Monday in Shelby County Probate Court, Oher asks for the conservatorship to be terminated along with asking for a full accounting of the money earned off the use of his name and story. He also asks to be paid what he is due along with interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He accuses the Tuohys of enriching themselves at his expense by continuing to “falsely and publicly” represent themselves as his adoptive parents “to the date of the filing of this petition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys,” according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher, who has never been a fan of the movie of his life, also asks in the petition that the Tuohys be sanctioned and required to pay both compensatory and punitive damages determined by the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ESPN.com first reported the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Farese, a lawyer for the Tuohys, told The Associated Press they will file an answer to the allegations in court but declined to comment further. He was among three attorneys served on behalf of the Tuohys on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leigh Anne Tuohy did not immediately respond to an email sent to her personal website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie was nominated for an Oscar, and Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher accuses the Tuohys of never taking legal action to assume custody from the Tennessee Department of Human Services before he turned 18. The conservatorship paperwork was filed months after Oher turned 18 in May 2004.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He moved in with the Tuohys just before his senior year of high school and says he was told to call them “Mom” and “Dad.” Oher says in the petition he was encouraged to call the attorney who filed the conservatorship paperwork “Aunt Debbie” Branan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Oher also alleges the Tuohys had him sign paperwork almost immediately after he moved in as part of the adoption process. Oher says he was “falsely advised” that it would be called a conservatorship because he was already 18 but the intent was adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At no point did the Tuohys inform Michael that they would have ultimate control of all his contracts, and as a result Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself,” according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A book based on Oher’s life was released in September 2006 written by Michael Lewis, described in the petition as a childhood friend of Sean Tuohy’s. The petition alleges his conservators began contract negotiations for movie rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933180\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with long brown hair, wearing a soft pink strapless gown stands with a shorter blonde woman who is smiling and wearing a white strapless cocktail dress.\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-1020x724.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-768x545.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826-1536x1090.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-93243522-scaled-e1692046931826.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Sandra Bullock with Leigh Anne Tuohy at ‘The Blind Side’ benefit premiere in New Orleans in 2009. \u003ccite>(Skip Bolen/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The petition alleges a deal was reached to pay the Tuohys, plus children Sean Jr. and Collins, $225,000 plus 2.5% of future defined net proceeds hinging on Oher’s signature. A contract titled “Life Story Rights Agreement” was “purportedly signed by Michael Oher” and dated April 20, 2007, according to the petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petition says Oher believes the signature is similar to his own but that he “at no time ever willingly or knowingly signed this document and that nobody ever presented this contract to him with any explanation that he was signing such a document.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the petition, Oher asks for a full accounting of his assets and how they were used considering his life story produced millions of dollars and he received nothing for the rights to something that would not have existed without him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi, and he spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He wound up playing eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher finished his career with two years in Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He started 110 career games and won a Super Bowl with the Ravens. He also finished second in the voting to Percy Harvin of Minnesota for The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after starting all 16 games his first season at right tackle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oher, who turned 37 in May, last played in the NFL in 2016 before being released in 2017 by Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two years ago, supporters cheered when Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship. The ruling came after Spears publicly demanded the end of the arrangement, which had prevented her from making her own medical, financial and personal decisions since 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spears’ high-profile battle put a spotlight on efforts that advocates across the United States have launched raising questions that such strict controls result in more harm than protection.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Below Deck,' Reality Producers Stepped in to Stop a Drunken Assault — This Time",
"headTitle": "‘Below Deck,’ Reality Producers Stepped in to Stop a Drunken Assault — This Time | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>On Monday night’s double episode of Bravo’s \u003cem>Below Deck Down Under\u003c/em>, viewers saw show producers intervening to prevent a sexual assault by one crew member (a man) on another. After the offender was fired, another crew member (a woman) who had been repeatedly refusing to hear “no” from the guy she was interested in, and who had been touching him repeatedly after he asked her not to, was shown the door as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a jarring look for a franchise that has frequently reveled in what’s sometimes been abusive behavior by very drunk people for a total of 24 seasons — 10 of original \u003cem>Below Deck\u003c/em>, seven of \u003cem>Below Deck Mediterranean\u003c/em>, four of \u003cem>Below Deck Sailing Yacht\u003c/em>, one of \u003cem>Below Deck Adventure\u003c/em>, and two of \u003cem>Below Deck Down Under\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931297']To set the scene, in the world of these shows, you have the interior crew — usually, but not always, women — who serve guests meals and drinks, clean cabins, do laundry, and run the entertainment. The exterior crew (led by the bosun) — usually, but not always, men — clean the boat, handle docking and run the tender (the little auxiliary boat), manage all the jet skis and giant inflatables and other things that are set out for rich people to use, and set up and break down everything on the outside for guests. There’s also a chef. As for the guests, they’re rich enough to charter the yacht, but not so rich that they have a yacht of their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rhythm of the show is that after a charter trip ends, the crew cleans up, and they have a night out in whatever cool location the yacht happens to be docked. Typically, they go to a restaurant for dinner and then some kind of a club to drink and dance, and then they stumble back onto the yacht, sometimes they fool around, sometimes they get in the hot tub, and then they pass out for the night. Hookups are frequent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R43v5f2lrWY\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘She said no’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On Monday night’s double episode, headed back to the yacht in a van after a night of drinking, third stew Margot was half-passed-out with her head in bosun Luke’s lap, and Luke (who’s been pursuing her all season) began to make “jokes” about hooking up with her later. Aesha, the chief stew (if you watch \u003cem>Project Runway\u003c/em>, you just saw Aesha as Bishme’s model), clocked this situation and its dangers immediately. As they got out of the van, she announced that she was going to see Margot inside and put her to bed, and Luke was going to scram. And that’s what happened, at first. Aesha tucked Margot into her upper bunk in her tiny cabin and stepped out, and that should have been the end of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was a power outage on the boat that led to some chaos. And suddenly, there was Luke, walking around the crew area completely naked, holding a towel in front of his crotch. He let himself into Margot’s room, where she was fully either asleep or passed out, depending on how you choose to describe the heavy sleep that follows heavy drinking. Fully naked, he hoisted himself up and crawled into her bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the producer voices started, ordering Luke to get out of Margot’s bed. He initially resisted, there was a confrontation that included a lot of door-slamming, and eventually Luke went back to his own room, angry. He was hauled off the boat and put in a hotel, and in the morning, Luke was fired. (There are more details in \u003ca href=\"https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2023/08/below-deck-down-under-seasons-2-attempted-assault/\">this good wrap-up\u003c/a> from Andy Dehnart at \u003cem>Reality Blurred\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>But wait, there’s more\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Now: There are layers upon layers in a show like this. The show narrative is that the captain, Jason, made the decisions to remove Luke from the boat and to fire him, but it’s hard to imagine he had any choice. One would hope the Bravo people (including the lawyers) would have had it no other way, no matter what releases anybody signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But whatever the production involvement, the story as presented by the show ended up effectively laying out some pretty basic pieces of how an event like that can happen, and what the aftermath can be. It showed how Aesha identified the risk and tried to protect Margot, and how quickly things turned in the close quarters of a boat where people have easy physical access to each other. It showed how Margot blamed herself in the morning for being drunk and too “flirty.” Aesha and Tzarina, the chef, assured her that no matter how drunk you are, nobody gets to assault you. These things might seem pretty basic to people who follow discussions about sexual violence, but they’re relatively advanced for, you know, \u003cem>Below Deck\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932418']Luke’s departure was not the end. Second stew Laura had grown interested in a Brooklyn-born deckhand named Adam. At dinner, Adam told her plainly that he only wanted to be friends. She persisted: He would never be interested in sex with her? No. He wanted to be friends. He sometimes smiled nervously, or chuckled, but he communicated clearly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But later, on the yacht, Laura was continuing to touch Adam constantly, including in the hot tub. At one point it appeared that she grabbed him under the water, given the way he jumped away and said “\u003cem>Stop \u003c/em>that.” He eventually agreed to a massage that she swore wouldn’t be sexual (perhaps hoping it would defuse the situation), but when she actually came into his room to try to do it, he insisted the door stay open and then tried to bore and ignore her into leaving. And when she crawled up on \u003cem>his \u003c/em>bed without being invited, there were more producer voices, telling her to buzz off and get out of his room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the morning, because of this behavior and because Laura decided to go around telling everyone Luke shouldn’t have been fired and eye-rolling to Margot about how it wasn’t as if Margot had really told him no, and it wasn’t as if he would have actually assaulted her (thus indicating she was not on board with the whole “respect people’s boundaries” idea), Laura was also dismissed. And interestingly, Adam blamed himself much as Margot did, saying maybe he wasn’t telling Laura no seriously enough, or firmly enough, maybe he was trying too hard to be nice about it. It is a curious impulse, this idea that had someone understood that you really did not want them to do what they were doing, surely they would not have done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Much-too-drunken sailors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s some useful material in this episode that burbles up from all the absurdity. Obviously, it’s about consent, and about how you cannot climb into the bed of a person who hasn’t invited you particularly if they’re passed out or sleeping, particularly if you’re naked. And furthermore, you can’t keep handling anybody of any gender when they’ve asked you not to. These are, you might say, the headlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the whole incident raises another uncomfortable issue. Alcohol plays a critical role in many reality-show franchises. Your housewives, your people who stop being polite and start getting real, and most definitely your bachelors and bachelorettes, all have historically done a tremendous amount of drinking. But \u003cem>Below Deck \u003c/em>has always had, to me, a particularly fraught relationship with being not merely drunk, but blackout drunk. Uncomfortable levels of physical aggression and confrontation have sometimes followed these nights out, as have mornings in which apologies are of limited value coming from apologizers who clearly have no memory of what they did. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/culture/film-tv/below-deck-eddie-lucas-baltimore-bravo-UNWBBMNDK5HQREVAXQ3GW52NII/\">an interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>The Baltimore Banner\u003c/em>, Eddie Lucas, who’s appeared on several seasons of \u003cem>Below Deck \u003c/em>as a deckhand and bosun, said this about the nights out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>And then also, when we get off charter, and they’re [the producers are] like, “Oh, you know, go out, have dinner, have a good time.” You’re like, “I’d rather just get some sleep” and they’re like, “No, you’re gonna drink. You’re gonna drink and you’re gonna stay up until four in the morning, and you’re going to like it!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13863206']As Tzarina said, the alcohol is obviously not an excuse for the behavior, but encouraging this kind of drinking has risks. And watching the producers swoop in here only reminds you how often they do \u003cem>not\u003c/em> swoop in. They watch people get in fights, punch things, scream at each other, drink until they’re sick, drink until they have to be carried home, drink until they have no idea what they’re doing — in a way, seeing producers become visible in one instance makes them hover like ghosts at the edges in all the past situations they’ve allowed to unfold (encouraged to unfold?) without any obvious intervention. Whether any other case like \u003cem>this \u003c/em>has come up, I don’t know. But many, many of these nights have looked like they could erupt dangerously at any time, and I can’t remember ever hearing a producer say, “You’ve had enough, stop drinking, go to bed.” Either they haven’t done it, or they haven’t wanted to show that they did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then this week, \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2023/08/porn-violentce-claims-bethenny-frankel-lawsuit-reality-tv-nbcuniveral-bravo-1235454964/\">\u003cem>Deadline reported\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that attorneys who say they represent a number of cast and crew from NBC Universal’s reality shows (that seems to mostly mean Bravo) sent a letter to the company demanding that possible evidence be retained in anticipation of future litigation over what the letter calls “grotesque and depraved mistreatment of the reality stars and crewmembers.” And the first bullet point they allege is plying people with alcohol (while denying them food and sleep) in an effort to intentionally degrade their mental health. Another is “covering up acts of sexual violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not going to lie: I often fast-forward through the crew nights out at this point, precisely because they always seem vaguely menacing. I watch this show as a workplace show, as hard as that might be to believe. I like it for the parts where the impossible guests want endless espresso martinis and the deck crew is desperate not to have to inflate the water slide again and everybody is juggling impossible tasks. I am bored stiff by long sequences where people do shots and slur into each other’s ears and scream at each other in the hot tub. You know what I like? I like the tension of a moment where the chef forgot that one of the guests is gluten-free and now they have to improvise. I like the parts where somebody suddenly wants an umpteen-course dinner and the crew is shorthanded because somebody is seasick. I like it when rich people insist on their beach picnic and then get rained on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5lX0g2aSsg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as with every good reality show, I admit I like it when people I don’t like get their comeuppance, usually in the form of getting fired. If one person isn’t doing their share of the work and the captain calls them in and says they’re bounced, that offers a little shiver of satisfaction, just like when a jerk gets voted off \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Not like this, though. Really, not like this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing is, all that stuff, all that kind of lighthearted workplace stuff, comes alongside all the parts that I might fast-forward through, but they still happened. (For the “all this is entirely scripted!” crowd, let me say: I wish.) And on the one hand, it’s good to know there’s \u003cem>something \u003c/em>producers will step in to prevent. On the other hand, it would be good to let people stay in and get some sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Below+Deck%2C%27+reality+producers+stepped+in+to+stop+a+drunken+assault+%E2%80%94+this+time&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Monday night’s double episode of Bravo’s \u003cem>Below Deck Down Under\u003c/em>, viewers saw show producers intervening to prevent a sexual assault by one crew member (a man) on another. After the offender was fired, another crew member (a woman) who had been repeatedly refusing to hear “no” from the guy she was interested in, and who had been touching him repeatedly after he asked her not to, was shown the door as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a jarring look for a franchise that has frequently reveled in what’s sometimes been abusive behavior by very drunk people for a total of 24 seasons — 10 of original \u003cem>Below Deck\u003c/em>, seven of \u003cem>Below Deck Mediterranean\u003c/em>, four of \u003cem>Below Deck Sailing Yacht\u003c/em>, one of \u003cem>Below Deck Adventure\u003c/em>, and two of \u003cem>Below Deck Down Under\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To set the scene, in the world of these shows, you have the interior crew — usually, but not always, women — who serve guests meals and drinks, clean cabins, do laundry, and run the entertainment. The exterior crew (led by the bosun) — usually, but not always, men — clean the boat, handle docking and run the tender (the little auxiliary boat), manage all the jet skis and giant inflatables and other things that are set out for rich people to use, and set up and break down everything on the outside for guests. There’s also a chef. As for the guests, they’re rich enough to charter the yacht, but not so rich that they have a yacht of their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rhythm of the show is that after a charter trip ends, the crew cleans up, and they have a night out in whatever cool location the yacht happens to be docked. Typically, they go to a restaurant for dinner and then some kind of a club to drink and dance, and then they stumble back onto the yacht, sometimes they fool around, sometimes they get in the hot tub, and then they pass out for the night. Hookups are frequent.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/R43v5f2lrWY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/R43v5f2lrWY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch3>‘She said no’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On Monday night’s double episode, headed back to the yacht in a van after a night of drinking, third stew Margot was half-passed-out with her head in bosun Luke’s lap, and Luke (who’s been pursuing her all season) began to make “jokes” about hooking up with her later. Aesha, the chief stew (if you watch \u003cem>Project Runway\u003c/em>, you just saw Aesha as Bishme’s model), clocked this situation and its dangers immediately. As they got out of the van, she announced that she was going to see Margot inside and put her to bed, and Luke was going to scram. And that’s what happened, at first. Aesha tucked Margot into her upper bunk in her tiny cabin and stepped out, and that should have been the end of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was a power outage on the boat that led to some chaos. And suddenly, there was Luke, walking around the crew area completely naked, holding a towel in front of his crotch. He let himself into Margot’s room, where she was fully either asleep or passed out, depending on how you choose to describe the heavy sleep that follows heavy drinking. Fully naked, he hoisted himself up and crawled into her bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the producer voices started, ordering Luke to get out of Margot’s bed. He initially resisted, there was a confrontation that included a lot of door-slamming, and eventually Luke went back to his own room, angry. He was hauled off the boat and put in a hotel, and in the morning, Luke was fired. (There are more details in \u003ca href=\"https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2023/08/below-deck-down-under-seasons-2-attempted-assault/\">this good wrap-up\u003c/a> from Andy Dehnart at \u003cem>Reality Blurred\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>But wait, there’s more\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Now: There are layers upon layers in a show like this. The show narrative is that the captain, Jason, made the decisions to remove Luke from the boat and to fire him, but it’s hard to imagine he had any choice. One would hope the Bravo people (including the lawyers) would have had it no other way, no matter what releases anybody signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But whatever the production involvement, the story as presented by the show ended up effectively laying out some pretty basic pieces of how an event like that can happen, and what the aftermath can be. It showed how Aesha identified the risk and tried to protect Margot, and how quickly things turned in the close quarters of a boat where people have easy physical access to each other. It showed how Margot blamed herself in the morning for being drunk and too “flirty.” Aesha and Tzarina, the chef, assured her that no matter how drunk you are, nobody gets to assault you. These things might seem pretty basic to people who follow discussions about sexual violence, but they’re relatively advanced for, you know, \u003cem>Below Deck\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Luke’s departure was not the end. Second stew Laura had grown interested in a Brooklyn-born deckhand named Adam. At dinner, Adam told her plainly that he only wanted to be friends. She persisted: He would never be interested in sex with her? No. He wanted to be friends. He sometimes smiled nervously, or chuckled, but he communicated clearly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But later, on the yacht, Laura was continuing to touch Adam constantly, including in the hot tub. At one point it appeared that she grabbed him under the water, given the way he jumped away and said “\u003cem>Stop \u003c/em>that.” He eventually agreed to a massage that she swore wouldn’t be sexual (perhaps hoping it would defuse the situation), but when she actually came into his room to try to do it, he insisted the door stay open and then tried to bore and ignore her into leaving. And when she crawled up on \u003cem>his \u003c/em>bed without being invited, there were more producer voices, telling her to buzz off and get out of his room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the morning, because of this behavior and because Laura decided to go around telling everyone Luke shouldn’t have been fired and eye-rolling to Margot about how it wasn’t as if Margot had really told him no, and it wasn’t as if he would have actually assaulted her (thus indicating she was not on board with the whole “respect people’s boundaries” idea), Laura was also dismissed. And interestingly, Adam blamed himself much as Margot did, saying maybe he wasn’t telling Laura no seriously enough, or firmly enough, maybe he was trying too hard to be nice about it. It is a curious impulse, this idea that had someone understood that you really did not want them to do what they were doing, surely they would not have done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Much-too-drunken sailors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s some useful material in this episode that burbles up from all the absurdity. Obviously, it’s about consent, and about how you cannot climb into the bed of a person who hasn’t invited you particularly if they’re passed out or sleeping, particularly if you’re naked. And furthermore, you can’t keep handling anybody of any gender when they’ve asked you not to. These are, you might say, the headlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the whole incident raises another uncomfortable issue. Alcohol plays a critical role in many reality-show franchises. Your housewives, your people who stop being polite and start getting real, and most definitely your bachelors and bachelorettes, all have historically done a tremendous amount of drinking. But \u003cem>Below Deck \u003c/em>has always had, to me, a particularly fraught relationship with being not merely drunk, but blackout drunk. Uncomfortable levels of physical aggression and confrontation have sometimes followed these nights out, as have mornings in which apologies are of limited value coming from apologizers who clearly have no memory of what they did. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/culture/film-tv/below-deck-eddie-lucas-baltimore-bravo-UNWBBMNDK5HQREVAXQ3GW52NII/\">an interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>The Baltimore Banner\u003c/em>, Eddie Lucas, who’s appeared on several seasons of \u003cem>Below Deck \u003c/em>as a deckhand and bosun, said this about the nights out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>And then also, when we get off charter, and they’re [the producers are] like, “Oh, you know, go out, have dinner, have a good time.” You’re like, “I’d rather just get some sleep” and they’re like, “No, you’re gonna drink. You’re gonna drink and you’re gonna stay up until four in the morning, and you’re going to like it!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As Tzarina said, the alcohol is obviously not an excuse for the behavior, but encouraging this kind of drinking has risks. And watching the producers swoop in here only reminds you how often they do \u003cem>not\u003c/em> swoop in. They watch people get in fights, punch things, scream at each other, drink until they’re sick, drink until they have to be carried home, drink until they have no idea what they’re doing — in a way, seeing producers become visible in one instance makes them hover like ghosts at the edges in all the past situations they’ve allowed to unfold (encouraged to unfold?) without any obvious intervention. Whether any other case like \u003cem>this \u003c/em>has come up, I don’t know. But many, many of these nights have looked like they could erupt dangerously at any time, and I can’t remember ever hearing a producer say, “You’ve had enough, stop drinking, go to bed.” Either they haven’t done it, or they haven’t wanted to show that they did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then this week, \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2023/08/porn-violentce-claims-bethenny-frankel-lawsuit-reality-tv-nbcuniveral-bravo-1235454964/\">\u003cem>Deadline reported\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that attorneys who say they represent a number of cast and crew from NBC Universal’s reality shows (that seems to mostly mean Bravo) sent a letter to the company demanding that possible evidence be retained in anticipation of future litigation over what the letter calls “grotesque and depraved mistreatment of the reality stars and crewmembers.” And the first bullet point they allege is plying people with alcohol (while denying them food and sleep) in an effort to intentionally degrade their mental health. Another is “covering up acts of sexual violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not going to lie: I often fast-forward through the crew nights out at this point, precisely because they always seem vaguely menacing. I watch this show as a workplace show, as hard as that might be to believe. I like it for the parts where the impossible guests want endless espresso martinis and the deck crew is desperate not to have to inflate the water slide again and everybody is juggling impossible tasks. I am bored stiff by long sequences where people do shots and slur into each other’s ears and scream at each other in the hot tub. You know what I like? I like the tension of a moment where the chef forgot that one of the guests is gluten-free and now they have to improvise. I like the parts where somebody suddenly wants an umpteen-course dinner and the crew is shorthanded because somebody is seasick. I like it when rich people insist on their beach picnic and then get rained on.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/h5lX0g2aSsg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/h5lX0g2aSsg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>And, as with every good reality show, I admit I like it when people I don’t like get their comeuppance, usually in the form of getting fired. If one person isn’t doing their share of the work and the captain calls them in and says they’re bounced, that offers a little shiver of satisfaction, just like when a jerk gets voted off \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Not like this, though. Really, not like this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing is, all that stuff, all that kind of lighthearted workplace stuff, comes alongside all the parts that I might fast-forward through, but they still happened. (For the “all this is entirely scripted!” crowd, let me say: I wish.) And on the one hand, it’s good to know there’s \u003cem>something \u003c/em>producers will step in to prevent. On the other hand, it would be good to let people stay in and get some sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Below+Deck%2C%27+reality+producers+stepped+in+to+stop+a+drunken+assault+%E2%80%94+this+time&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s turning out to be quite a summer for superspies and supercomputers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month after the action feast of \u003cem>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part I,\u003c/em> in which Tom Cruise faced off with an AI supervillain called “the Entity,” comes a very \u003cem>MI\u003c/em>-like international espionage thriller with an equally fancy and powerful machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> stars Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, an agent for an elite and clandestine intelligence agency called the Charter. Like \u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> hits glamorous global destinations (the Italian Alps, Lisbon, Senegal, Iceland) and features lengthy action sequences including a wingsuit skydive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932565']Whereas \u003cem>Dead Reckoning\u003c/em> pushed old-school filmmaking to extremes for a gripping theatrical experience, \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> revels in its digital wizardry, feels vaguely algorithm-y in its conception and was made for Netflix. Both films, interestingly, are products of the same production company, Skydance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em> was born out of the Cold War, but \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> conjures a peacekeeping spy unit outside of nationhood in the hopes of kickstarting a new franchise uncluttered by governments — a globetrotting spy movie without all those pesky geopolitics; a borderless intelligence agency for a borderless streaming era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may sound too harsh. After all, there have been countless lackluster espionage thrillers with little connection to the real world. (\u003cem>Dead Reckoning\u003c/em>, for all its thrills, has about as much to do with today’s international politics as its star has to do with lengthy interviews with journalists.) And \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>, directed by Tom Harper (\u003cem>Wild Rose, The Aeronauts\u003c/em> ), does have a few nifty moves of its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuDwndGaCFo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film’s opening sequence begins in a very Bond-like Alpine hotel where Gadot’s Stone is part of an MI6 mission posing as an inexperienced tech, not a field agent. This allows for plenty of “She can do that?” looks when the operation falls apart and Stone begins flashing Cruise-level skills while rushing off with a glowing parachute down the darkened slopes in a slinky, snowy chase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the credit of Harper, cinematographer George Steel and production designer Charles Wood, the action is generally fluid in \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>. The film’s handsomest design comes in Charter’s secret weapon: the Heart, the so-named quantum computer with supreme hacking abilities that can process chance-of-success scenarios in real time. Its operator (Matthias Schweighöfer), like a new-age John King, contorts a room full of pixels with the wave of his hand, while guiding Charter agents from afar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932805']Also in the mix is Jamie Dornan’s Parker, the leader of the MI6 unit that Stone is initially masquerading in — though his affiliations are also murky. The trouble is kicked off by a hacker of mysterious intentions played by Alia Bhatt, a Bollywood star making her Hollywood debut. Glenn Close pops in as the head of the CIA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not sure any of them get a chance to do all that much, though Bhatt is charmingly mischievous in her scenes. Not for the first time, the actor I most wish was center stage is Sophie Okonedo, who, as a Charter leader, is the most soulful presence in a not particularly soulful film. Gadot makes for a slinky if unspectacular spy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plot, from screenwriters Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder, revolves around the threat of the Heart falling into the wrong hands. This means that “Heart” is spoken of so much that you have expect the Wilson sisters to turn up eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there is nothing in the impressively generic \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>, right down to that title, that is even a little bit unexpected. All the pieces here are fine but nothing is distinct from dozens of films before it. You would swear that the movie’s star AI wrote it — and even gave itself first billing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Heart of Stone’ begins streaming on Netflix on Aug. 11, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s turning out to be quite a summer for superspies and supercomputers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month after the action feast of \u003cem>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part I,\u003c/em> in which Tom Cruise faced off with an AI supervillain called “the Entity,” comes a very \u003cem>MI\u003c/em>-like international espionage thriller with an equally fancy and powerful machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> stars Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, an agent for an elite and clandestine intelligence agency called the Charter. Like \u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> hits glamorous global destinations (the Italian Alps, Lisbon, Senegal, Iceland) and features lengthy action sequences including a wingsuit skydive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Whereas \u003cem>Dead Reckoning\u003c/em> pushed old-school filmmaking to extremes for a gripping theatrical experience, \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> revels in its digital wizardry, feels vaguely algorithm-y in its conception and was made for Netflix. Both films, interestingly, are products of the same production company, Skydance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em> was born out of the Cold War, but \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em> conjures a peacekeeping spy unit outside of nationhood in the hopes of kickstarting a new franchise uncluttered by governments — a globetrotting spy movie without all those pesky geopolitics; a borderless intelligence agency for a borderless streaming era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may sound too harsh. After all, there have been countless lackluster espionage thrillers with little connection to the real world. (\u003cem>Dead Reckoning\u003c/em>, for all its thrills, has about as much to do with today’s international politics as its star has to do with lengthy interviews with journalists.) And \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>, directed by Tom Harper (\u003cem>Wild Rose, The Aeronauts\u003c/em> ), does have a few nifty moves of its own.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XuDwndGaCFo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XuDwndGaCFo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The film’s opening sequence begins in a very Bond-like Alpine hotel where Gadot’s Stone is part of an MI6 mission posing as an inexperienced tech, not a field agent. This allows for plenty of “She can do that?” looks when the operation falls apart and Stone begins flashing Cruise-level skills while rushing off with a glowing parachute down the darkened slopes in a slinky, snowy chase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the credit of Harper, cinematographer George Steel and production designer Charles Wood, the action is generally fluid in \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>. The film’s handsomest design comes in Charter’s secret weapon: the Heart, the so-named quantum computer with supreme hacking abilities that can process chance-of-success scenarios in real time. Its operator (Matthias Schweighöfer), like a new-age John King, contorts a room full of pixels with the wave of his hand, while guiding Charter agents from afar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Also in the mix is Jamie Dornan’s Parker, the leader of the MI6 unit that Stone is initially masquerading in — though his affiliations are also murky. The trouble is kicked off by a hacker of mysterious intentions played by Alia Bhatt, a Bollywood star making her Hollywood debut. Glenn Close pops in as the head of the CIA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not sure any of them get a chance to do all that much, though Bhatt is charmingly mischievous in her scenes. Not for the first time, the actor I most wish was center stage is Sophie Okonedo, who, as a Charter leader, is the most soulful presence in a not particularly soulful film. Gadot makes for a slinky if unspectacular spy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plot, from screenwriters Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder, revolves around the threat of the Heart falling into the wrong hands. This means that “Heart” is spoken of so much that you have expect the Wilson sisters to turn up eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there is nothing in the impressively generic \u003cem>Heart of Stone\u003c/em>, right down to that title, that is even a little bit unexpected. All the pieces here are fine but nothing is distinct from dozens of films before it. You would swear that the movie’s star AI wrote it — and even gave itself first billing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Heart of Stone’ begins streaming on Netflix on Aug. 11, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "It’s #BillionGirlSummer: Taylor, Beyoncé and ‘Barbie’ Made for One Epic Trifecta | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It was a last-minute impulse purchase. Two hours before showtime, I watched resale prices finally begin to fall for the extremely sold-out opening night of Taylor Swift’s six-night “residency” at Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium. Even as a non-Swiftie, it has been impossible not to follow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931892/dear-city-leaders-stop-with-the-taylor-swift-pandering-already\">feverish local coverage\u003c/a> of international pilgrimages, \u003ca href=\"https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/a-taylor-swift-inspired-side-hustle-is-making-people/457110\">friendship bracelet\u003c/a>-making, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.metro.net/riding/guide/taylorswift/\">traffic warnings.\u003c/a> But that split-second pop culture purchase was, for me, pure irrationalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no fringe or Eras-themed ensembles in my closet, I rushed to my single seat through a sea of sequined, screaming squads with trepidation and a dull white button-down. Would I, a fortysomething South Asian man with passing knowledge of Swfitism be identified as an unwelcome interloper? Instead, my very gracious neighbor schooled me on how to wear my allotted LED bracelet, and soon I was alight in the same neon pink as the sea of humanity around us, Swift finally emerging out of parallel technicolor hues. The big tent revival swept away any fears, differences, doubts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933016\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A girl's arms, loaded with inches of friendship bracelets. One hand has the number 13 drawn on it in pink glitter. The girl's pink dress is visible behind her arms.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift fan Roselin Alvarez shows her friendship bracelets as she rides a free shuttle bus from Downtown Inglewood Station to SoFi stadium to see Taylor Swift perform her first of six sold-out ‘Eras Tour’ shows in Inglewood on Aug. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Allen J. Schaben/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For three and a half hours, I too was part of the zeitgeist — a final chapter in a summer of spectacular pop culture revival led by three women at the peak of their powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greta Gerwig, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and Taylor Swift have been the bona fide superstars of this American summer, transcending their own previous triumphs to reach unprecedented new heights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13924636']#HotGirlSummer is now more specifically #BillionGirlSummer, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931753/allan-doll-michael-cera-greta-gerwig-barbie-movie-review\">\u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>\u003c/a> already the first woman-directed film to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931981/greta-gerwig-box-office-record-female-directors\">gross more than a billion dollars\u003c/a> and Beyoncé and Swift’s dual stadium tours estimated to gross similarly dizzying amounts, each pumping \u003ca href=\"https://centerforjobs.org/ca/special-reports/special-report-taylor-swifts-impact-on-the-economy-in-los-angeles-county\">even more\u003c/a> into fledgling local economies around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a city without a center and isolating car culture, for \u003ca href=\"https://lamag.com/music/taylor-swift-sofi-los-angeles-events-specials\">one week Taylor Swift transformed\u003c/a> LA’s stadium into a cathedral — an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. Soon Beyoncé will bring her roving Renaissance to the same stadium for three nights. Across Los Angeles, cinemas are still packed with squads of women and let’s not deny it, many men — dressed in 50 shades of pink laughing and crying alongside Barbie’s quest to become whole again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago my colleague Brittany Luse hosted \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/13/1187572727/wheres-the-song-of-the-summer-plus-the-making-of-beyonces-crazy-in-love\">an episode of her show \u003cem>It’s Been a Minute\u003c/em>\u003c/a> lamenting the death of the summer song that dominated and unified pop culture in our idealized millennial memories. As a guest thinking aloud with Brittany on the show, I wondered whether the shift from ’90s and early 2000s broadcast monoculture into a streaming era Airpod “me” culture meant there were still summer anthems but only of an atomized, individual variety that reflect our splintered cultural and political lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That rumination, however, was before the \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>, Beyoncé and Swift trilogy went pied piping their way through state after state, shattering records and creating an entire communal economy of \u003ca href=\"http://www.irrationalexuberance.com/definition.htm\">irrational exuberance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s turn briefly to the matter of crass capitalism and excess marketing underlying the feel-good fuzzies of corporate pop. It’s been impossible to avoid the incessant social media coverage of this trinity of pink extravaganzas. Even my Pakistani immigrant father is texting me about how to join the Verified fans waitlist for Taylor’s next dates. Despite the exorbitant prices for concert tickets, travel and even local movie theater outings — not to mention endless product tie-ins for all manner of merchandise — is this feverish demand simply consumer madness? Is it the cumulative decline of seriousness and taste that pretentious critics lament?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931892']The answer is a resounding no. The hype surrounding \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, and Taylor’s Eras tour is commensurate with the sheer amount of resources, time and attention so many Americans of all races, genders and ages are devoting to being part of this moment. Critical acclaim has followed each of these works, layers of meaning are being made. They are an undeniable triumph of women’s creativity and ownership. Nobody I know of is asking for refunds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a deeper level, the roaring return of big tent monoculture follows the ennui of lockdowns. It is pop at its collective and connective best — the very opposite of the culture that has defined the recent past — a splintered, atomized state of streaming individualism that seemed to be a permanent new state of affairs. The promise of streaming allowed for a kind of hyper-specificity that ensured incessant algorithm-based devotion to the platform of delivery. Insularity, it turns out, has its limits. With at-home viewing no longer the only medium for entertainment, I’m certainly not alone in craving the very opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/TheSwiftSociety/status/1686886319832616960\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ongoing strikes in Hollywood have only added to a downturn for streaming’s eminence as new shows have slowed for the first time in years. Years of niche and challenging TV that supplanted cinema and boosted corporate profits have been unmasked as rooted in extractive labor practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931981']Critics like myself often raved about shows that are radical in form and representational progress, but many of these kinds of works hardly aim for or achieve mainstream success. Narrowcasting satisfies individual tastes, but doesn’t always build bridges to those beyond one’s own tribal allegiances. As new TV grinds to a halt, and a post-pandemic world feels fully open for business, in-person extravaganzas are meeting audiences where they are, and where others also are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a national level, a once relentless wildfire of political crises has also changed course. In the doom-scrolling era of the Trump presidency and the subsequently brittle politics of the pandemic, defiant narratives about identity, pain and reckoning became recurring and natural themes. For many makers and consumers, entertainment could offer catharsis and defiance. But in the glow of a post-pandemic summer that feels like the calm before a brewing storm, the heavy notes and sharp edges of overly political pop seem out of season. Billion dollar blockbusters can’t succeed with borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the communal ecstasy of sold-out \u003cem>Barbie \u003c/em>screenings and stadium séance of Beyhives and Swifties — the mood is strategic and intentional inclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/BuzzingPop/status/1687670252501368832\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Geriwg, Swift and Carter-Knowles have created in each of their new masterworks are gated dreamworlds. Swift in her moss-covered cottage of Americana folklore turns stadiums into fireside chats for any romantic, Beyoncé’s House of Chrome is a black queer club as a spaceship of alien superstars soaring above the fray — and Barbieland is a pastry inversion of the real-world’s patriarchy: a Palm Springs-style fantasia where walls don’t exist, convertibles are always top-down and Supreme Courts marginalize men for a change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are serious political undercurrents to all this, but the mood at the experiential level is buoyant, escapist and even comedic. Hovering on the distant horizon are Presidential elections and reminders of climate catastrophe but here is a ticketed invitation to get dressed, join the festivities and for the duration, release the wiggle, to quote the “Renaissance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933021\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-800x529.png\" alt=\"A stadium stage, lit up with columns of flames, shows Taylor Swift performing on large screens.\" width=\"800\" height=\"529\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-800x529.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-1020x675.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-768x508.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM.png 1282w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For one week this summer Taylor Swift transformed LA’s SoFi stadium into a cathedral — an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. \u003ccite>(Bilal Qureshi/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The closing note of each of these spectacles is a kind of transfer of energy, exuberance and American optimism that has been absent from public and cultural life for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winter is of course coming. But in the interim, there has been a remarkable sense of sunshine this summer. Even those not in attendance have felt the afterglow of the women at its center. Not a cruel, but a communal, collective, and yes, glorious summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=It%27s+%23BillionGirlSummer%3A+Taylor%2C+Beyonc%C3%A9+and+%27Barbie%27+made+for+one+epic+trifecta&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was a last-minute impulse purchase. Two hours before showtime, I watched resale prices finally begin to fall for the extremely sold-out opening night of Taylor Swift’s six-night “residency” at Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium. Even as a non-Swiftie, it has been impossible not to follow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931892/dear-city-leaders-stop-with-the-taylor-swift-pandering-already\">feverish local coverage\u003c/a> of international pilgrimages, \u003ca href=\"https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/a-taylor-swift-inspired-side-hustle-is-making-people/457110\">friendship bracelet\u003c/a>-making, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.metro.net/riding/guide/taylorswift/\">traffic warnings.\u003c/a> But that split-second pop culture purchase was, for me, pure irrationalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no fringe or Eras-themed ensembles in my closet, I rushed to my single seat through a sea of sequined, screaming squads with trepidation and a dull white button-down. Would I, a fortysomething South Asian man with passing knowledge of Swfitism be identified as an unwelcome interloper? Instead, my very gracious neighbor schooled me on how to wear my allotted LED bracelet, and soon I was alight in the same neon pink as the sea of humanity around us, Swift finally emerging out of parallel technicolor hues. The big tent revival swept away any fears, differences, doubts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933016\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A girl's arms, loaded with inches of friendship bracelets. One hand has the number 13 drawn on it in pink glitter. The girl's pink dress is visible behind her arms.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576266117-scaled-e1691775214165.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift fan Roselin Alvarez shows her friendship bracelets as she rides a free shuttle bus from Downtown Inglewood Station to SoFi stadium to see Taylor Swift perform her first of six sold-out ‘Eras Tour’ shows in Inglewood on Aug. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Allen J. Schaben/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For three and a half hours, I too was part of the zeitgeist — a final chapter in a summer of spectacular pop culture revival led by three women at the peak of their powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greta Gerwig, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and Taylor Swift have been the bona fide superstars of this American summer, transcending their own previous triumphs to reach unprecedented new heights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>#HotGirlSummer is now more specifically #BillionGirlSummer, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931753/allan-doll-michael-cera-greta-gerwig-barbie-movie-review\">\u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>\u003c/a> already the first woman-directed film to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931981/greta-gerwig-box-office-record-female-directors\">gross more than a billion dollars\u003c/a> and Beyoncé and Swift’s dual stadium tours estimated to gross similarly dizzying amounts, each pumping \u003ca href=\"https://centerforjobs.org/ca/special-reports/special-report-taylor-swifts-impact-on-the-economy-in-los-angeles-county\">even more\u003c/a> into fledgling local economies around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a city without a center and isolating car culture, for \u003ca href=\"https://lamag.com/music/taylor-swift-sofi-los-angeles-events-specials\">one week Taylor Swift transformed\u003c/a> LA’s stadium into a cathedral — an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. Soon Beyoncé will bring her roving Renaissance to the same stadium for three nights. Across Los Angeles, cinemas are still packed with squads of women and let’s not deny it, many men — dressed in 50 shades of pink laughing and crying alongside Barbie’s quest to become whole again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago my colleague Brittany Luse hosted \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/13/1187572727/wheres-the-song-of-the-summer-plus-the-making-of-beyonces-crazy-in-love\">an episode of her show \u003cem>It’s Been a Minute\u003c/em>\u003c/a> lamenting the death of the summer song that dominated and unified pop culture in our idealized millennial memories. As a guest thinking aloud with Brittany on the show, I wondered whether the shift from ’90s and early 2000s broadcast monoculture into a streaming era Airpod “me” culture meant there were still summer anthems but only of an atomized, individual variety that reflect our splintered cultural and political lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That rumination, however, was before the \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>, Beyoncé and Swift trilogy went pied piping their way through state after state, shattering records and creating an entire communal economy of \u003ca href=\"http://www.irrationalexuberance.com/definition.htm\">irrational exuberance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s turn briefly to the matter of crass capitalism and excess marketing underlying the feel-good fuzzies of corporate pop. It’s been impossible to avoid the incessant social media coverage of this trinity of pink extravaganzas. Even my Pakistani immigrant father is texting me about how to join the Verified fans waitlist for Taylor’s next dates. Despite the exorbitant prices for concert tickets, travel and even local movie theater outings — not to mention endless product tie-ins for all manner of merchandise — is this feverish demand simply consumer madness? Is it the cumulative decline of seriousness and taste that pretentious critics lament?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The answer is a resounding no. The hype surrounding \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, and Taylor’s Eras tour is commensurate with the sheer amount of resources, time and attention so many Americans of all races, genders and ages are devoting to being part of this moment. Critical acclaim has followed each of these works, layers of meaning are being made. They are an undeniable triumph of women’s creativity and ownership. Nobody I know of is asking for refunds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a deeper level, the roaring return of big tent monoculture follows the ennui of lockdowns. It is pop at its collective and connective best — the very opposite of the culture that has defined the recent past — a splintered, atomized state of streaming individualism that seemed to be a permanent new state of affairs. The promise of streaming allowed for a kind of hyper-specificity that ensured incessant algorithm-based devotion to the platform of delivery. Insularity, it turns out, has its limits. With at-home viewing no longer the only medium for entertainment, I’m certainly not alone in craving the very opposite.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The ongoing strikes in Hollywood have only added to a downturn for streaming’s eminence as new shows have slowed for the first time in years. Years of niche and challenging TV that supplanted cinema and boosted corporate profits have been unmasked as rooted in extractive labor practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Critics like myself often raved about shows that are radical in form and representational progress, but many of these kinds of works hardly aim for or achieve mainstream success. Narrowcasting satisfies individual tastes, but doesn’t always build bridges to those beyond one’s own tribal allegiances. As new TV grinds to a halt, and a post-pandemic world feels fully open for business, in-person extravaganzas are meeting audiences where they are, and where others also are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a national level, a once relentless wildfire of political crises has also changed course. In the doom-scrolling era of the Trump presidency and the subsequently brittle politics of the pandemic, defiant narratives about identity, pain and reckoning became recurring and natural themes. For many makers and consumers, entertainment could offer catharsis and defiance. But in the glow of a post-pandemic summer that feels like the calm before a brewing storm, the heavy notes and sharp edges of overly political pop seem out of season. Billion dollar blockbusters can’t succeed with borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the communal ecstasy of sold-out \u003cem>Barbie \u003c/em>screenings and stadium séance of Beyhives and Swifties — the mood is strategic and intentional inclusion.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>What Geriwg, Swift and Carter-Knowles have created in each of their new masterworks are gated dreamworlds. Swift in her moss-covered cottage of Americana folklore turns stadiums into fireside chats for any romantic, Beyoncé’s House of Chrome is a black queer club as a spaceship of alien superstars soaring above the fray — and Barbieland is a pastry inversion of the real-world’s patriarchy: a Palm Springs-style fantasia where walls don’t exist, convertibles are always top-down and Supreme Courts marginalize men for a change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are serious political undercurrents to all this, but the mood at the experiential level is buoyant, escapist and even comedic. Hovering on the distant horizon are Presidential elections and reminders of climate catastrophe but here is a ticketed invitation to get dressed, join the festivities and for the duration, release the wiggle, to quote the “Renaissance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933021\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-800x529.png\" alt=\"A stadium stage, lit up with columns of flames, shows Taylor Swift performing on large screens.\" width=\"800\" height=\"529\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-800x529.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-1020x675.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM-768x508.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-11-at-10.59.03-AM.png 1282w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For one week this summer Taylor Swift transformed LA’s SoFi stadium into a cathedral — an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. \u003ccite>(Bilal Qureshi/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The closing note of each of these spectacles is a kind of transfer of energy, exuberance and American optimism that has been absent from public and cultural life for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winter is of course coming. But in the interim, there has been a remarkable sense of sunshine this summer. Even those not in attendance have felt the afterglow of the women at its center. Not a cruel, but a communal, collective, and yes, glorious summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=It%27s+%23BillionGirlSummer%3A+Taylor%2C+Beyonc%C3%A9+and+%27Barbie%27+made+for+one+epic+trifecta&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>You might be wondering why \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7645334/\">\u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em>\u003c/a> has such an unwieldy title. I certainly did, walking into a movie I had assumed, based on the trailer, would be a clever little allegory about reality TV and social media influencing, set to a backdrop of alien invasion. I wondered: Shouldn’t any movie that prominently features squishy little pink slug creatures have a punchier name than this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932598']An hour and 45 minutes later, I realized the title was, in fact, perfect. (Those who’ve already read the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33281801\">M.T. Anderson novel\u003c/a> it’s based on might agree.) This movie doesn’t just do the thing you think it’s going to. It slowly and steadily bombards you with analogies — about gentrification, racism, colonialism, education, othering, moral compromises, information filtering — until you thoroughly realize what the invisible hand in the title is. And no, it has nothing to do with aliens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story begins as aspiring artist Adam (the wonderful Asante Blackk, best known for his role in \u003cem>This is Us\u003c/em>) connects with a new girl at his school, Chloe (Kylie Rogers), who has a fondness for scavenging in junkyards. The two share an easy rapport and a similarly frustrated-but-reconciled approach to the fact that alien overlords — a group known as the Vuvv — have made the teens’ futures bleak and their family’s lives enormously difficult. The Vuvv, incidentally, live on luxurious islands that hang low in Earth’s airspace, frequently blocking humanity’s view of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932572\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-800x454.png\" alt=\"A pink alien creature, made with CGI, that resembles a slug crossed with a crab.\" width=\"800\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-800x454.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-1020x579.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-160x91.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-768x436.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-1536x871.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM.png 1858w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A member of the Vuvv. Cute, sure, but terribly mean when it comes to money. \u003ccite>(‘Landscape With Invisible Hand.’)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the two begin to date, Chloe comes up with the idea to broadcast their “courtship” to the Vuvv, a species that reproduces asexually and is fascinated by human romantic relationships — or, at least, 1950s sitcom versions thereof. The Vuvv pay couples for broadcasts of their dating lives according to how popular they are and how many followers they have. Chloe and Adam quickly rake in enough money to buy their families small luxuries like actual meat and vegetables, as opposed to what everyone else on Earth eats now — synthetic food cubes printed by the Vuvv.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When cracks start to appear in their relationship, the Vuvv accuse Chloe and Adam of fraud and threaten to force their families into poverty for the next six generations. To avoid this, Chloe, Adam and their respective family members must figure out ways to appease the aliens. Their attempts to do so create a series of absurd but unsettling events that ultimately say more about how humans survive today than how we might endure an imaginary future under occupying aliens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD81wjRnL8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em> is dense with commentary on just about all of the terrible things humans do — to each other and ourselves — because of money, social class and status. A nice touch in this tale is the fact that the Vuvv were actively welcomed by the human race, enticed by the promise of better technology and easier lives. It’s an entirely plausible premise that highlights our shortsighted nature beautifully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932789']It helps, too, that the cast of \u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand \u003c/em>is brilliant across the board. Tiffany Haddish, as Adam’s industrious mother, brings a realistic grounding to proceedings even as her storyline veers into particularly bizarre territory. As Chloe’s father, \u003cem>The Walking Dead\u003c/em>‘s Josh Hamilton is the ideal combination of snide and desperate as his place in the world prompts his ever-growing resentments to boil over. At the center of it all, Blackk and Rogers convincingly paint the picture of a love that may have had real potential if not for being interrupted by the pressures of financial destitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll come out of \u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em> wholly entertained, but not a little queasy. With the exception of \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>, it’s hard to think of another movie that so thoroughly explores the perniciousness of late-stage capitalism with such verve and humor. It’ll leave you questioning the very fabric upon which our modern world is built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cem>‘Landscape With Invisible Hand’ is released nationwide on Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You might be wondering why \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7645334/\">\u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em>\u003c/a> has such an unwieldy title. I certainly did, walking into a movie I had assumed, based on the trailer, would be a clever little allegory about reality TV and social media influencing, set to a backdrop of alien invasion. I wondered: Shouldn’t any movie that prominently features squishy little pink slug creatures have a punchier name than this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>An hour and 45 minutes later, I realized the title was, in fact, perfect. (Those who’ve already read the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33281801\">M.T. Anderson novel\u003c/a> it’s based on might agree.) This movie doesn’t just do the thing you think it’s going to. It slowly and steadily bombards you with analogies — about gentrification, racism, colonialism, education, othering, moral compromises, information filtering — until you thoroughly realize what the invisible hand in the title is. And no, it has nothing to do with aliens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story begins as aspiring artist Adam (the wonderful Asante Blackk, best known for his role in \u003cem>This is Us\u003c/em>) connects with a new girl at his school, Chloe (Kylie Rogers), who has a fondness for scavenging in junkyards. The two share an easy rapport and a similarly frustrated-but-reconciled approach to the fact that alien overlords — a group known as the Vuvv — have made the teens’ futures bleak and their family’s lives enormously difficult. The Vuvv, incidentally, live on luxurious islands that hang low in Earth’s airspace, frequently blocking humanity’s view of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932572\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-800x454.png\" alt=\"A pink alien creature, made with CGI, that resembles a slug crossed with a crab.\" width=\"800\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-800x454.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-1020x579.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-160x91.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-768x436.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM-1536x871.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-02-at-2.56.37-PM.png 1858w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A member of the Vuvv. Cute, sure, but terribly mean when it comes to money. \u003ccite>(‘Landscape With Invisible Hand.’)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the two begin to date, Chloe comes up with the idea to broadcast their “courtship” to the Vuvv, a species that reproduces asexually and is fascinated by human romantic relationships — or, at least, 1950s sitcom versions thereof. The Vuvv pay couples for broadcasts of their dating lives according to how popular they are and how many followers they have. Chloe and Adam quickly rake in enough money to buy their families small luxuries like actual meat and vegetables, as opposed to what everyone else on Earth eats now — synthetic food cubes printed by the Vuvv.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When cracks start to appear in their relationship, the Vuvv accuse Chloe and Adam of fraud and threaten to force their families into poverty for the next six generations. To avoid this, Chloe, Adam and their respective family members must figure out ways to appease the aliens. Their attempts to do so create a series of absurd but unsettling events that ultimately say more about how humans survive today than how we might endure an imaginary future under occupying aliens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/lAD81wjRnL8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/lAD81wjRnL8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em> is dense with commentary on just about all of the terrible things humans do — to each other and ourselves — because of money, social class and status. A nice touch in this tale is the fact that the Vuvv were actively welcomed by the human race, enticed by the promise of better technology and easier lives. It’s an entirely plausible premise that highlights our shortsighted nature beautifully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It helps, too, that the cast of \u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand \u003c/em>is brilliant across the board. Tiffany Haddish, as Adam’s industrious mother, brings a realistic grounding to proceedings even as her storyline veers into particularly bizarre territory. As Chloe’s father, \u003cem>The Walking Dead\u003c/em>‘s Josh Hamilton is the ideal combination of snide and desperate as his place in the world prompts his ever-growing resentments to boil over. At the center of it all, Blackk and Rogers convincingly paint the picture of a love that may have had real potential if not for being interrupted by the pressures of financial destitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll come out of \u003cem>Landscape With Invisible Hand\u003c/em> wholly entertained, but not a little queasy. With the exception of \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>, it’s hard to think of another movie that so thoroughly explores the perniciousness of late-stage capitalism with such verve and humor. It’ll leave you questioning the very fabric upon which our modern world is built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cem>‘Landscape With Invisible Hand’ is released nationwide on Aug. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "I've Spent My Career Explaining Race, But Hit a Wall With Montgomery Brawl Memes",
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"content": "\u003cp>When you’ve built a career around explaining race and racism to people, what happens when you find a moment you just don’t want to explain?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932887']That time came for me this week, as memes were rocketing around social media connected \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/07/1192460342/montgomery-riverfront-brawl\">to the brawl in Montgomery, Ala\u003c/a>., where a crowd of mostly-Black bystanders ran to help a Black riverboat co-captain who was being assaulted by a group of white people. He had been attempting to move their pontoon boat, since it was blocking the ferry from docking in its regular space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/-YUSZW5Px6o\">from various bystanders around the dock\u003c/a> captured it all: The co-captain throwing his hat in the air, once a white man pushed him harshly; a different Black man whaling on people with a folding chair, including a white woman who was just sitting on the ground by then; a young Black man on a boat close by who jumped into the water and swam with amazing speed to the scene, jumping up to throw hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JdLnCp17Jc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, in moments, Black Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1192866104/montgomery-brawl-doesnt-constitute-hate-crime-charges-police-chief-says\">jumped to life\u003c/a> (I know the social media platform is renamed X, but — for the purposes of this piece — I’m using the term to describe people being Black across lots of social media platforms. Harrumph).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/blackkingkofi/status/1688604623727112192\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were images of people carrying folding chairs like holstered weapons. There was the graphic pointing out that an early design of the folding chair was patented by a Black man (\u003ca href=\"https://www.thoughtco.com/nathaniel-alexander-folding-chair-4074172\">seems to be true\u003c/a>). The \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Deggans/status/1688660357202546688?s=20\">photoshopped picture showing glowing rings\u003c/a> around Black folks rushing into the fight, mimicking the climax of \u003cem>Avengers: Endgame\u003c/em>, where superheroes rushed in to save the day. A \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/naima/status/1688624327309082626?s=20\">spirited re-enactment\u003c/a> of the fight around someone’s backyard pool which amped up the absurd humor of it all. Images dubbing the young swimmer Black Aquaman, Aquamayne and Blaquaman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Pleightx/status/1688924617937981440\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And two of my personal faves: A photoshopped image of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue holding a folding chair. And a version of the video remade as the opening to classic Black sitcom \u003cem>Good Times\u003c/em>, with acerbic credits noting the show was “created by Consequences & Repercussions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/WUTangKids/status/1689044660977635329\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was blown away by how quickly folks across social media — especially Black folks — were converting horror over a narrowly-averted, racialized beat down into funny memes celebrating the reflex of Black folks to stand up for one another, especially when we’re faced with danger from white people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I posted the photo of MLK’s statue with the folding chair on my social media feeds, I just added one word: Wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932753']I wanted the image to speak for itself. And I wanted people who had questions about what it meant to jump into social media and find out for themselves. I felt the image and its implied humor — that the nation’s most revered civil rights leader might be hoisting a folding chair to defend Black folks in the modern age — was most powerful when not explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, some people on my social media platforms insisted on an explanation. One was pretty persistent about it. And I realized I just didn’t want to explain the image, for some reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>When explaining becomes too much of a burden\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Yeah, it’s sometimes tiring to always be asked to explain your cultural nuances to the world. But that’s the gig I signed up for, many years ago, when I decided to write about race and media regularly. And yes, all the social media joking was hiding a fear that today’s political climate has left racists emboldened to attack a Black man in broad daylight for doing his job. So explaining the memes only resurfaced those darker feelings in ways I wasn’t quite ready to process right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, something else was also at play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931436']I always say social media is often like a giant dinner party, where people forget they are sometimes listening in on conversations between other people. In this case, being asked to explain the folding chair memes felt like having someone barge into an ongoing conversation to ask for an explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I traded messages with people and retweeted the best memes, this felt like a moment where folks could be hilariously Black online and we could all share the experience together, laughing and consoling each other in one viral social media moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Someone popping up to demand an explanation felt like they were re-centering the conversation in a way I just wasn’t willing to do right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, in situations like that, understanding comes best by sitting back, listening widely, and learning. Even for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I originally wrote a version of this column for my personal Tumblr page, mostly as a way of processing a response that was new and unfamiliar for me. I don’t know if this reaction is fair — especially given how much I’ve encouraged discussion about race over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s all I have left, in a world where I increasingly feel like a frog in pot of steadily heating water, watching racists and racism get bolder — wondering when the heat will begin to burn me, my loved ones, my family, my friends and my people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or when I’ll need to reach out for aid from a helpful brother with a folding chair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=I%27ve+spent+my+career+explaining+race%2C+but+hit+a+wall+with+Montgomery+brawl+memes&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That time came for me this week, as memes were rocketing around social media connected \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/07/1192460342/montgomery-riverfront-brawl\">to the brawl in Montgomery, Ala\u003c/a>., where a crowd of mostly-Black bystanders ran to help a Black riverboat co-captain who was being assaulted by a group of white people. He had been attempting to move their pontoon boat, since it was blocking the ferry from docking in its regular space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/-YUSZW5Px6o\">from various bystanders around the dock\u003c/a> captured it all: The co-captain throwing his hat in the air, once a white man pushed him harshly; a different Black man whaling on people with a folding chair, including a white woman who was just sitting on the ground by then; a young Black man on a boat close by who jumped into the water and swam with amazing speed to the scene, jumping up to throw hands.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8JdLnCp17Jc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8JdLnCp17Jc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>And, in moments, Black Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1192866104/montgomery-brawl-doesnt-constitute-hate-crime-charges-police-chief-says\">jumped to life\u003c/a> (I know the social media platform is renamed X, but — for the purposes of this piece — I’m using the term to describe people being Black across lots of social media platforms. Harrumph).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>And two of my personal faves: A photoshopped image of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue holding a folding chair. And a version of the video remade as the opening to classic Black sitcom \u003cem>Good Times\u003c/em>, with acerbic credits noting the show was “created by Consequences & Repercussions.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I wanted the image to speak for itself. And I wanted people who had questions about what it meant to jump into social media and find out for themselves. I felt the image and its implied humor — that the nation’s most revered civil rights leader might be hoisting a folding chair to defend Black folks in the modern age — was most powerful when not explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, some people on my social media platforms insisted on an explanation. One was pretty persistent about it. And I realized I just didn’t want to explain the image, for some reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>When explaining becomes too much of a burden\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Yeah, it’s sometimes tiring to always be asked to explain your cultural nuances to the world. But that’s the gig I signed up for, many years ago, when I decided to write about race and media regularly. And yes, all the social media joking was hiding a fear that today’s political climate has left racists emboldened to attack a Black man in broad daylight for doing his job. So explaining the memes only resurfaced those darker feelings in ways I wasn’t quite ready to process right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, something else was also at play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I always say social media is often like a giant dinner party, where people forget they are sometimes listening in on conversations between other people. In this case, being asked to explain the folding chair memes felt like having someone barge into an ongoing conversation to ask for an explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I traded messages with people and retweeted the best memes, this felt like a moment where folks could be hilariously Black online and we could all share the experience together, laughing and consoling each other in one viral social media moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Someone popping up to demand an explanation felt like they were re-centering the conversation in a way I just wasn’t willing to do right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, in situations like that, understanding comes best by sitting back, listening widely, and learning. Even for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I originally wrote a version of this column for my personal Tumblr page, mostly as a way of processing a response that was new and unfamiliar for me. I don’t know if this reaction is fair — especially given how much I’ve encouraged discussion about race over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s all I have left, in a world where I increasingly feel like a frog in pot of steadily heating water, watching racists and racism get bolder — wondering when the heat will begin to burn me, my loved ones, my family, my friends and my people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or when I’ll need to reach out for aid from a helpful brother with a folding chair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=I%27ve+spent+my+career+explaining+race%2C+but+hit+a+wall+with+Montgomery+brawl+memes&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932849\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932849\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-800x1214.jpg\" alt=\"A comic book cover featuring an illustration of a teenage girl wearing jeans, green t-shirt and flannel shirt around her waist. Her eyes are glowing yellow and dark clouds and lightning swirl around her.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-800x1214.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-1020x1548.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-160x243.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-768x1165.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-1012x1536.jpg 1012w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-1350x2048.jpg 1350w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-1920x2913.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/mother_nature_cv_custom-e4e5e088365dc0359b08f2f8343a5d1785584fae-1-scaled.jpg 1687w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Mother Nature.’ \u003ccite>(Titan Comics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis has made a separate career for herself as an author. Her bestselling books for children encourage them to be silly, be patient and like themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13930279']But her new graphic novel, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1687929015615852544\">\u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is more in line with the horror movies for which she’s known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scream queen co-wrote an “eco-horror” screenplay, which \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> illustrator \u003ca href=\"https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/penny\">Karl Stevens\u003c/a> adapted into a graphic novel for Titan Comics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went through a lot of cadmium red,” he told fans during a panel at the recent Comic-Con in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because there’s a lot of blood,” added Curtis. “There will be blood in this book.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story is set in New Mexico, where an energy corporation is fracking under land leased from a Native American woman. Her daughter Nova tries to sabotage the project and is struck by lightning. Nova then becomes the spirit of Mother Nature, who takes revenge for being destroyed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had an idea of every gruesome way that Mother Nature could kill people,” Curtis said. “You know, black ice, storms, tornadoes, burning them up with extreme heat. Hailstones to the head. What a way to go.” It isn’t nice to mess with Mother Nature; In one key scene, an earthquake shakes loose the head of an oil drill, killing Nova’s father, who worked for the energy company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932861\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 790px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932861\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM.png\" alt=\"A series of illustrated panels depicting a man slowly walking across an oil field. He glances tentatively over his shoulder at two waiting vehicles. Inside one, a man and a woman wait and watch.\" width=\"790\" height=\"1188\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM.png 790w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM-160x241.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM-768x1155.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mother Nature about to strike… \u003ccite>(Titan Comics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Curtis says the climate crisis motivated her to write such a story. “The inspiration is terror. The inspiration is fear that we are heading into a very, very dangerous place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Curtis says she’s been involved with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. But she first imagined this story when she was 19, just as she began acting, following the footsteps of her famous Hollywood parents Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She says she was influenced by 1970’s disaster movies \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyTqrtZFWeQ\">\u003cem>The Towering Inferno\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS849US849&sxsrf=AB5stBjk2_d47X_mP5O2gq_oqpRt9nTIoA:1691531492111&q=the+poseidon+adventure&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwi7qdrthc6AAxWaMlkFHac5CmkQ0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=2732&bih=1250&dpr=0.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:bc36fa4d,vid:H_5w-WmSdz0\">\u003cem>The Poseidon Adventure\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926136']“I was aware of the raping of the land. I was aware of the drilling and the blasting and the stealing of these natural resources. And I just had this idea in my head. I said, ‘I’m going to write a movie about how we’re blowing it with Mother Nature.’ I just knew it,” Curtis told NPR in an interview before the panel.. “It stuck with me so that in 2018, when I made the \u003cem>Halloween\u003c/em> movie and got reinvigorated to the process of making movies, I decided to write a screenplay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She teamed up with \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4405314/\">Russell Goldman\u003c/a>, who was her assistant on the \u003cem>Halloween\u003c/em> films. She says his great contribution to the screenplay was to make it about women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are cool,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Curtis agrees. “Women \u003cem>are\u003c/em> cool. You heard it here on NPR.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em> centers on two pairs of mothers and daughters. “It’s a story about the decisions that one generation is making in leaving a planet behind for the next,” Goldman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932846\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-800x493.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with cropped grey hair and silver rimmed glasses stands with two white men. All three hold up a comic book titled 'Mother Nature.' All are half-smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-800x493.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-768x473.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-1536x946.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie Lee Curtis, Russell Goldman and Karl Stevens — co-creators of the new graphic novel ‘Mother Nature’ — at Comic-Con San Diego. \u003ccite>(Mandalit del Barco/ NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The story’s main mother and daughter are Navajo. Goldman researched the culture, and he collaborated on the script with several Native American consultants, including author and filmmaker Brian Lee Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young (who is also the author of a new book, \u003ca href=\"https://brianlyoung.com/books/\">\u003cem>Heroes of the Water Monster\u003c/em>\u003c/a>) says he helped Goldman, Curtis and Stevens incorporate elements of traditional Diné folklore depicting retaliating natural forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13920759']“This is the first time that I’ve seen the Navajo culture portrayed in a respectful way,” Young says. He says the story also shows “that we have the power to reverse the dangers that climate change enacts on all our communities,” says Young. “I hope everyone gets to read it. It’s a lot of fun, especially as a horror fan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1687929015615852544\">Curtis is currently on strike\u003c/a> against the Hollywood studios as a member of the union SAG-AFTRA. But at Comic-Con, Curtis told her enthusiastic fans they might make \u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em> into a movie someday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be fun. Maybe I’ll direct it. Maybe I’ll co-direct. Maybe I’ll be in it. Maybe I’ll do all of it,” she said to many cheers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know what? I’m 65 years old this November, and I have no time to waste. None.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jamie+Lee+Curtis%27+graphic+novel+shows+how+%27We%27re+blowing+it+with+Mother+Nature%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But her new graphic novel, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1687929015615852544\">\u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is more in line with the horror movies for which she’s known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scream queen co-wrote an “eco-horror” screenplay, which \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> illustrator \u003ca href=\"https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/penny\">Karl Stevens\u003c/a> adapted into a graphic novel for Titan Comics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went through a lot of cadmium red,” he told fans during a panel at the recent Comic-Con in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because there’s a lot of blood,” added Curtis. “There will be blood in this book.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story is set in New Mexico, where an energy corporation is fracking under land leased from a Native American woman. Her daughter Nova tries to sabotage the project and is struck by lightning. Nova then becomes the spirit of Mother Nature, who takes revenge for being destroyed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had an idea of every gruesome way that Mother Nature could kill people,” Curtis said. “You know, black ice, storms, tornadoes, burning them up with extreme heat. Hailstones to the head. What a way to go.” It isn’t nice to mess with Mother Nature; In one key scene, an earthquake shakes loose the head of an oil drill, killing Nova’s father, who worked for the energy company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932861\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 790px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932861\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM.png\" alt=\"A series of illustrated panels depicting a man slowly walking across an oil field. He glances tentatively over his shoulder at two waiting vehicles. Inside one, a man and a woman wait and watch.\" width=\"790\" height=\"1188\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM.png 790w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM-160x241.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-09-at-10.58.28-AM-768x1155.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mother Nature about to strike… \u003ccite>(Titan Comics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Curtis says the climate crisis motivated her to write such a story. “The inspiration is terror. The inspiration is fear that we are heading into a very, very dangerous place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Curtis says she’s been involved with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. But she first imagined this story when she was 19, just as she began acting, following the footsteps of her famous Hollywood parents Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She says she was influenced by 1970’s disaster movies \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyTqrtZFWeQ\">\u003cem>The Towering Inferno\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS849US849&sxsrf=AB5stBjk2_d47X_mP5O2gq_oqpRt9nTIoA:1691531492111&q=the+poseidon+adventure&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwi7qdrthc6AAxWaMlkFHac5CmkQ0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=2732&bih=1250&dpr=0.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:bc36fa4d,vid:H_5w-WmSdz0\">\u003cem>The Poseidon Adventure\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I was aware of the raping of the land. I was aware of the drilling and the blasting and the stealing of these natural resources. And I just had this idea in my head. I said, ‘I’m going to write a movie about how we’re blowing it with Mother Nature.’ I just knew it,” Curtis told NPR in an interview before the panel.. “It stuck with me so that in 2018, when I made the \u003cem>Halloween\u003c/em> movie and got reinvigorated to the process of making movies, I decided to write a screenplay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She teamed up with \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4405314/\">Russell Goldman\u003c/a>, who was her assistant on the \u003cem>Halloween\u003c/em> films. She says his great contribution to the screenplay was to make it about women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are cool,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Curtis agrees. “Women \u003cem>are\u003c/em> cool. You heard it here on NPR.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em> centers on two pairs of mothers and daughters. “It’s a story about the decisions that one generation is making in leaving a planet behind for the next,” Goldman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932846\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-800x493.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with cropped grey hair and silver rimmed glasses stands with two white men. All three hold up a comic book titled 'Mother Nature.' All are half-smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-800x493.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-768x473.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395-1536x946.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/jamie-lee_custom-b26b646a450213a9d0a0ac4075445c6f36f8d1e9-scaled-e1691604276395.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie Lee Curtis, Russell Goldman and Karl Stevens — co-creators of the new graphic novel ‘Mother Nature’ — at Comic-Con San Diego. \u003ccite>(Mandalit del Barco/ NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The story’s main mother and daughter are Navajo. Goldman researched the culture, and he collaborated on the script with several Native American consultants, including author and filmmaker Brian Lee Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young (who is also the author of a new book, \u003ca href=\"https://brianlyoung.com/books/\">\u003cem>Heroes of the Water Monster\u003c/em>\u003c/a>) says he helped Goldman, Curtis and Stevens incorporate elements of traditional Diné folklore depicting retaliating natural forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is the first time that I’ve seen the Navajo culture portrayed in a respectful way,” Young says. He says the story also shows “that we have the power to reverse the dangers that climate change enacts on all our communities,” says Young. “I hope everyone gets to read it. It’s a lot of fun, especially as a horror fan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1687929015615852544\">Curtis is currently on strike\u003c/a> against the Hollywood studios as a member of the union SAG-AFTRA. But at Comic-Con, Curtis told her enthusiastic fans they might make \u003cem>Mother Nature\u003c/em> into a movie someday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be fun. Maybe I’ll direct it. Maybe I’ll co-direct. Maybe I’ll be in it. Maybe I’ll do all of it,” she said to many cheers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know what? I’m 65 years old this November, and I have no time to waste. None.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jamie+Lee+Curtis%27+graphic+novel+shows+how+%27We%27re+blowing+it+with+Mother+Nature%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2006, a Nissan marketing executive had a truly insane idea to create a competition and an “academy” to turn gamers into race car drivers. Darren Cox saw an untapped market of potential car-buyers in Gran Turismo enthusiasts — the popular PlayStation racing simulator that first came on the market in 1997. And in the third year of the \u003cem>GT Academy\u003c/em>, an actual star emerged in a 19-year-old British kid named Jann Mardenborough, who would go on to become a professional driver, just like he dreamed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a fine and lucrative idea for a movie — an inspirational underdog story in which brands like Nissan and PlayStation, a Sony company which also owns the studio behind the movie, can take partial credit for and help underwrite. And it couldn’t come at a better time, when F1 is exploding in popularity in the United States thanks in part to the Netflix series\u003cem> Drive to Survive\u003c/em>. But \u003cem>Gran Turismo\u003c/em> has taken this opportunity and made the cliché version in this year of movies like \u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Air\u003c/em>, which showed audiences that “brand” movies don’t have to be basic. They can be fresh, vibrant, funny and entertaining – even when literally focused on the corporate schlubs just trying to earn their keep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932623']If you don’t know ins and outs of Mardenborough’s story, it’s best not to study up before \u003cem>Gran Turismo\u003c/em>. The movie, which has gone through several writers and directors over the years it’s been in development, takes immense liberties with its true story and cherry picks things from various points in Mardenborough’s career to make his debut year as dramatic as possible. The version coming to theaters is credited to screenwriters Jason Hall and Zach Baylin and director Neill Blomkamp (\u003cem>District 9\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Chappie\u003c/em>), who likes to amp up the excitement of a car going 200 miles an hour with lots of cuts and close-ups and aerial shots that would surely drive the down-and-out veteran enlisted to train these amateurs absolutely bonkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That veteran, named Jack Salter, is played by David Harbour, who is quite enjoyable in a pretty cliché “tough love mentor with a past” role. He brings life and energy and an amusing voice of reason to this unbelievable story which can’t seem to choose a lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgKmhDaVo48\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first hour leans heavily into the brand mythologizing as it sets everything up and it is dreadful. It’s almost in spite of everything that the second half, which focuses on the actual racing, is more successful. How could it not be? It’s a very pleasing underdog-makes-good journey, with a very pleasant and empathetic lead actor in Archie Madekwe. His parents, played by Djimon Hounsou and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell-Horner, are also appealing, if underused and trotted out only for maximum emotional impact. We could have used a little more of the Mardenborough clan and a little less of Jann’s love interest, Audrey (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) who is introduced to another peripheral female character in a 5-second scene that is so out of nowhere and random that I wondered if it was only there so that the very male film could technically pass the Bechdel Test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932601']Poor Orlando Bloom gets a little lost in everything as the high-anxiety Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore, who is frustratingly underdrawn and who the movie goes through great pains to avoid making the enemy. That goes to the cocky, model-y young driver who is there to represent the big money side of European racing, in his gold car branded by Moët & Chandon. Instead, Bloom is kind of just a tour guide to the high life, uttering lines like “Ever been on a private jet before?” to the kid from Cardiff. But most egregious is the depiction of the Japanese Nissan executives, who are essentially nameless, characterless background actors in suits called on to either nod or look vaguely confused as Danny tries to reassure them that these amateur drivers won’t die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie on the page wants to romanticize the simple pleasures of race car driving outside of the glitz and glamour of the high-rolling industry, and has been directed by someone who doesn’t actually believe that the driving is enough and that it does need all the trimmings of a \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em> spinoff to make it exciting to an audience. It’s the MTV cut of Winona Ryder’s documentary from \u003cem>Reality Bites\u003c/em>, the one the slick marketing guy would make. And I think therein lies the essential incongruity of what amounts to a moderately entertaining, very long Super Bowl spot quality commercial for PlayStation and Nissan.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Poor Orlando Bloom gets a little lost in everything as the high-anxiety Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore, who is frustratingly underdrawn and who the movie goes through great pains to avoid making the enemy. That goes to the cocky, model-y young driver who is there to represent the big money side of European racing, in his gold car branded by Moët & Chandon. Instead, Bloom is kind of just a tour guide to the high life, uttering lines like “Ever been on a private jet before?” to the kid from Cardiff. But most egregious is the depiction of the Japanese Nissan executives, who are essentially nameless, characterless background actors in suits called on to either nod or look vaguely confused as Danny tries to reassure them that these amateur drivers won’t die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie on the page wants to romanticize the simple pleasures of race car driving outside of the glitz and glamour of the high-rolling industry, and has been directed by someone who doesn’t actually believe that the driving is enough and that it does need all the trimmings of a \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em> spinoff to make it exciting to an audience. It’s the MTV cut of Winona Ryder’s documentary from \u003cem>Reality Bites\u003c/em>, the one the slick marketing guy would make. And I think therein lies the essential incongruity of what amounts to a moderately entertaining, very long Super Bowl spot quality commercial for PlayStation and Nissan.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "E-40, Too Short, Chuck D and More Rap Legends on Their Early Hip-Hop Influences",
"headTitle": "E-40, Too Short, Chuck D and More Rap Legends on Their Early Hip-Hop Influences | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Remember the first rap song you heard? Some of your favorite rappers and DJs certainly do. While hip-hop celebrates 50 years of life, The Associated Press asked some of the genre’s most popular artists to recall their first memory of hearing rap and how the moment resonated with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with more than two dozen hip-hop legends, Queen Latifah, Chuck D, Method Man, E-40 and eight others cited The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” as the first rap song they heard. But not all were hooked on the new musical style by that track, and their answers reveal the sense of discovery that marked rap’s early years. (Watch videos of the \u003ca href=\"https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/hip-hop-50th-in-their-own-words/index.html\">artists describing their early hip-hop influences here\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hip-hops roots are traced to 1973 in the Bronx and it took a few years before rap records emerged — “Rapper’s Delight” was a major catalyst for introducing rap music to a much broader audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the stories of a dozen hip-hop stars who got hooked on the genre around the time “Rapper’s Delight” ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chuck D\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged Black man clutches a microphone and mic stand and smiles on stage. He is wearing a black t-shirt and black baseball cap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Enemy’s Chuck D performs in Berlin in 2019. \u003ccite>(Frank Hoensch/ Redferns)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a sophomore at Adelphi University, Chuck D was about to hit the stage to perform over the melody of Chic’s “Good Times” at a party in October 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s what he thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he stepped behind the microphone, Chuck D heard a different version of the song. It kept going and going for — 15 minutes straight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13925958']“I get on the mic to rock the house. Then all of a sudden, I hear words behind me as I’m rockin’. I lipsync. The words keep going. (Expletive) are rockin’ for like 20 minutes,” said Chuck D, a member of the rap group Public Enemy who created “ Fight the Power,” one of hip-hop’s most iconic and important anthems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After it’s all over, cats are giving me high pounds like ‘You went on and on to the break of dawn dawg,’” he continued. “Back then, it’s about how long you can rap. I went and turned to the DJ and looked at the red label that said ‘Sugarhill Gang ‘Rapper’s Delight.’’ I was like ’Oh, they finally did it.’ They were talking all summer long that rap records were going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was stunned: “I was, like, ’It’s inconceivable. How could a rap be a record?′ I couldn’t see it. Nobody could see it. And then when it happened, boom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Queen Latifah\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-800x563.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in an olive green jumpsuit performs on stage. She is holding a microphone up to her mouth.\" width=\"800\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-800x563.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-1020x718.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-768x540.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-1536x1081.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Queen Latifah performing in Chicago in 2020. \u003ccite>(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Queen Latifah, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song she and a lot of others heard and memorized where she grew up in Newark, New Jersey. But the biggest record in her world as a kid was Afrika Bambaattaa and the Soul Sonic Force’s 1982 song “ Planet Rock. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Oscar-nominated actor can be seen chasing bad guys on CBS’ \u003cem>The Equalizer\u003c/em>, many forget her roots as a rapper, with hits like “U.N.I.T.Y.” and “Just Another Day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It changed the sound,” she said. “It’s more of a synthesized, 808s, hi-hats. The whole sound of it was different. Some of hip-hop in the original days was live music. It was live bands playing break records. Like ‘Good Times’ was the beat to ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ Some of those records took actual disco records, played the music and rhymed to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>E-40\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840957\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"E-40 plays Rolling Loud Bay Area on Sunday, September 16, 2018.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 plays Rolling Loud Bay Area on Sunday, September 16, 2018. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While heading to school as a seventh grader in 1979, E-40 heard a new rap tune on a local radio station that normally played R&B and soul music in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932488']It was “Rapper’s Delight,” which interpolated Chic’s hit “Good Times.” That’s when he knew hip-hop was going to be a part of his life forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘Ohh, this is hard. I’m hooked,’” said E-40, who recalled the moment while driving to Franklin Middle School in Vallejo, California. He and fellow rapper B-Legit used to sport the same kind of fedora hats and big gold rope chains Run-D.M.C. performed in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From then on, I loved rap. In 1979, when I first heard The Sugarhill Gang, I wanted to be a rapper. I would play around with it … We grew up on New York rap. All of us did. We wanted to be hip-hop. We wanted to breakdance. We did it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But that changed everything after we heard Sugarhill Gang. Next thing you know, you’re hearing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow and ‘Roxannne, Roxanne.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lil Jon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling Black man wearing sunglasses, a grey hoodie and blue jeans sits on a couch next to a black wall.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lil Jon backstage before a DJ set at Temple Nightclub in San Francisco, 2016. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Rapper’s Delight” was probably the first hip-hop song Lil Jon heard. But he became a “super fan” of the genre as a middle schooler in Atlanta after seeing rap groups the Fat Boys and Whodini. It was his first time seeing professional rappers onstage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I might have been a fan of rap before, but I had never been to a rap concert. I’ve never seen rappers in person,” he said. “Maybe just in the magazines. That turned me into like … a super fan of hip-hop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first hip-hop record Lil-Jon bought was Run D.M.C.’s “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remembered my homeboy that lived in the neighborhood. I had to go through some woods to his house with the album,” he said. “We put the album on at his house. We were going crazy over listening to lyrics and beats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Roxanne Shante\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands onstage smiling broadly. She is wearing an off the shoulder red gown and holding her hands out in a half shrug.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roxanne Shante at the 2023 Black Music Honors in Atlanta, Georgia. \u003ccite>(Nykieria Chaney/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roxanne Shante’s first rap experience didn’t come in song form. She was introduced to hip-hop through the late comedian-poet Nipsey Russell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931795']“He had the ability to rhyme at any time,” said Shante, a host for SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells Radio. At age 14, she became one of the first female rappers to become popular after her song “Roxanne’s Revenge” and gained more notoriety as a member of the Juice Crew. She also took part in \u003cem>Roxanne Wars\u003c/em>, which was a series of hip-hop rivalries in the mid-1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shante said “Rapper’s Delight” was the record most parents brought into their home as the “party song.” But in her mind, Russell had just as much of an impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be my first encounter with loving what would become hip-hop,” she continued. “This way of having a certain cadence, this way of being able to do these certain rhymes was just incredible to me … He was able to freestyle all day, every day. And that’s who I am. That’s what I still do today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too Short\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13922549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13922549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-800x545.jpg\" alt=\"a Black man raps into a microphone on a stage with the words 'Too $hort' behind him in blue lights\" width=\"800\" height=\"545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-800x545.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1020x695.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-768x523.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1536x1047.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-2048x1395.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1920x1308.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short performs during the ‘25th Anniversary of Doggystyle’ tour at Oracle Arena, Oakland. \u003ccite>(Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s 1979. Too Short was around 13 years old. He normally listened to a variety of funk songs ranging from the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster” and Funkadelic’s “Knee Deep.” Then one day at his father’s house, he heard “Rapper’s Delight” blaring through a stereo system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927349']“I was on my funk stuff, then this ‘Rapper’s Delight’ record came out and it was like 15 minutes long,” he recalled. “I’d be at my pop’s house just bumping the loud stereo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As “Rapper’s Delight” gained momentum in 1980, Too Short gravitated more toward beatboxing. That led him to hit up the local record store where he would buy the latest hip-hop album then blasted it on his radio for anyone to hear in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to get a radio with two speakers. That was mandatory,” he said. “I was the guy with the radio who was hitting play going ‘You ain’t never heard that before’ … I had the whole room, the whole bus jumping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Doug E. Fresh\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-800x553.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man raises both his arms in the air and strides forward on stage. He is wearing a white t-shirt, black jacket and black pants. Stage lights beam all around him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-1020x705.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-768x531.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-1536x1062.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug E. Fresh onstage in New York City in 2023. \u003ccite>(Johnny Nunez/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hearing “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time changed the trajectory of Doug E. Fresh’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember when my sister came home and told me about a guy named D.J. Hollywood, who we considered the first real M.C.,” he said. “She came home and told me about a rap he had. And the rap went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding, dong, dong, dong the dang, the dang, dang, dang, the ding dong dong. To the hip hop…’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh then added: “I turned around and said, ‘Teach me that, show me.’ And after that, it’s been me and hip-hop since that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>DJ Kid Capri\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932759\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A mixed race man wearing a black Givenchy t-shirt smiles from behind DJ decks, holding one side of a set of headphones on his head.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kid Capri DJing in Houston in 2023. \u003ccite>(Marcus Ingram/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJ Kid Capri, arguably one of hip-hop’s most famous DJs in the ‘90s, grew up on soul music. His father was a soul singer. His grandfather played the trumpet. And his uncle, Bill Curtis, was the leader of the Fatback Band — which he says made the first hip-hop single “King Tim III (Personality Jock) ” before “Rapper’s Delight” was released a few months later in 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932030']Capri’s uncle gave him the opportunity to hear a rap song for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was right there,” Capri said about the Fatback Band, a funk and disco ensemble who became known for their R&B hits including “(Do the) Spanish Hustle,” “I Like Girls” and “I Found Lovin’.” But it was “King Tim III” that had a strong influence on him — especially since it came from family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world thinks ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the first rap record, but it was ‘Personality Jock,’” he said. “My uncle, he’s my family. He’s the one that did it. So, I’ve always been around it. That’s what made me be so infectious in it, because I’ve seen every level to where I’m at right now. I took all those things important to me on stage right now. When you see me on stage, you can see all those things wrapped up in me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Method Man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-800x543.jpg\" alt=\"A muscular Black man, wearing an NY baseball cap, white t-shirt and blue jeans strides across a stage, microphone held up to his open mouth.\" width=\"800\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-1536x1042.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Method Man performing in Atlanta in 2023. \u003ccite>(Prince Williams/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yes, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first-ever rap song Method Man ever heard. But the first hip-hop song that really resonated with him was Run-D.M.C.’s “ Sucker MCs (Krush-Groove 1 ).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had never heard this record and I thought I was up on everything at the time,” Method Man said of the 1983 song, which proceeded Run-D.M.C.’s first single “It’s Like That” from their self-titled album. He said “Sucker MCs” helped pave a way to usher in a new school of hip-hop artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were on a sixth-grade class trip to Long Island, and everybody was singing it word-for-word,” the \u003cem>Power Book II: Ghost\u003c/em> actor remembered. “They must have played that record 24 times on our class trip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Big Daddy Kane\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932671\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-800x598.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up image of a Black man wearing a white shirt and rapping into a microphone on stage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-768x574.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Big Daddy Kane performing in 2015. \u003ccite>(Donna Ward/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Around age 12, Big Daddy Kane might not have remembered all of his homework assignments, but he certainly could recite every lyric to the late Jimmy Spicer’s 1980 song “Adventures of Super Rhymes,” one of hip-hop’s first songs recorded in a studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane heard “Rapper’s Delight” first, but Spicer’s storytelling on the 15-minute song resonated with him the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When this song came out, just the way Jimmy Spicer was styling on them and telling the story about Dracula and a story about Aladdin, I thought it was real slick,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>DJ Jazzy Jeff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932448\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932448\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a white t-shirt and gold and white striped hat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jazzy Jeff DJs on stage.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJ Jazzy Jeff always had an affinity for music. But when the \u003cem>Fresh Prince of Bel-Air\u003c/em> star heard “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time, he felt like the song spoke to him like no other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that was the first time I felt like the music was mine,” he said. “Before then, I loved the music, but the music was kind of my older brothers and sisters, and I just liked it because it was theirs. This was the one that somebody made just for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Jermaine Dupri\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13835189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13835189\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man with a bald head wears sunglasses and a tuxedo on a red carpet. He is holding an award and smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-520x292.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jermaine Dupri at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 49th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner on June 14, 2018 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jermaine Dupri couldn’t have envisioned his successful career without listening to “Rapper’s Delight” around the age of 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember the lyrics of the song. I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Dupri, a rap mogul who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018. “I just started learning the song. I never knew it was going to take me on this journey.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Find out more about hip-hop history with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>, a KQED Arts & Culture series about the underrecognized influence and background of Bay Area rap.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” looms large as an influence, but it's not the only place these icons found inspiration.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Remember the first rap song you heard? Some of your favorite rappers and DJs certainly do. While hip-hop celebrates 50 years of life, The Associated Press asked some of the genre’s most popular artists to recall their first memory of hearing rap and how the moment resonated with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with more than two dozen hip-hop legends, Queen Latifah, Chuck D, Method Man, E-40 and eight others cited The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” as the first rap song they heard. But not all were hooked on the new musical style by that track, and their answers reveal the sense of discovery that marked rap’s early years. (Watch videos of the \u003ca href=\"https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/hip-hop-50th-in-their-own-words/index.html\">artists describing their early hip-hop influences here\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hip-hops roots are traced to 1973 in the Bronx and it took a few years before rap records emerged — “Rapper’s Delight” was a major catalyst for introducing rap music to a much broader audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the stories of a dozen hip-hop stars who got hooked on the genre around the time “Rapper’s Delight” ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chuck D\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged Black man clutches a microphone and mic stand and smiles on stage. He is wearing a black t-shirt and black baseball cap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1144886924-scaled-e1691443762805.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Enemy’s Chuck D performs in Berlin in 2019. \u003ccite>(Frank Hoensch/ Redferns)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a sophomore at Adelphi University, Chuck D was about to hit the stage to perform over the melody of Chic’s “Good Times” at a party in October 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s what he thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he stepped behind the microphone, Chuck D heard a different version of the song. It kept going and going for — 15 minutes straight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I get on the mic to rock the house. Then all of a sudden, I hear words behind me as I’m rockin’. I lipsync. The words keep going. (Expletive) are rockin’ for like 20 minutes,” said Chuck D, a member of the rap group Public Enemy who created “ Fight the Power,” one of hip-hop’s most iconic and important anthems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After it’s all over, cats are giving me high pounds like ‘You went on and on to the break of dawn dawg,’” he continued. “Back then, it’s about how long you can rap. I went and turned to the DJ and looked at the red label that said ‘Sugarhill Gang ‘Rapper’s Delight.’’ I was like ’Oh, they finally did it.’ They were talking all summer long that rap records were going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was stunned: “I was, like, ’It’s inconceivable. How could a rap be a record?′ I couldn’t see it. Nobody could see it. And then when it happened, boom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Queen Latifah\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-800x563.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in an olive green jumpsuit performs on stage. She is holding a microphone up to her mouth.\" width=\"800\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-800x563.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-1020x718.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-768x540.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901-1536x1081.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1206547466-scaled-e1691444156901.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Queen Latifah performing in Chicago in 2020. \u003ccite>(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Queen Latifah, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song she and a lot of others heard and memorized where she grew up in Newark, New Jersey. But the biggest record in her world as a kid was Afrika Bambaattaa and the Soul Sonic Force’s 1982 song “ Planet Rock. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Oscar-nominated actor can be seen chasing bad guys on CBS’ \u003cem>The Equalizer\u003c/em>, many forget her roots as a rapper, with hits like “U.N.I.T.Y.” and “Just Another Day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It changed the sound,” she said. “It’s more of a synthesized, 808s, hi-hats. The whole sound of it was different. Some of hip-hop in the original days was live music. It was live bands playing break records. Like ‘Good Times’ was the beat to ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ Some of those records took actual disco records, played the music and rhymed to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>E-40\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840957\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"E-40 plays Rolling Loud Bay Area on Sunday, September 16, 2018.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/MG_0970-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 plays Rolling Loud Bay Area on Sunday, September 16, 2018. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While heading to school as a seventh grader in 1979, E-40 heard a new rap tune on a local radio station that normally played R&B and soul music in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was “Rapper’s Delight,” which interpolated Chic’s hit “Good Times.” That’s when he knew hip-hop was going to be a part of his life forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘Ohh, this is hard. I’m hooked,’” said E-40, who recalled the moment while driving to Franklin Middle School in Vallejo, California. He and fellow rapper B-Legit used to sport the same kind of fedora hats and big gold rope chains Run-D.M.C. performed in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From then on, I loved rap. In 1979, when I first heard The Sugarhill Gang, I wanted to be a rapper. I would play around with it … We grew up on New York rap. All of us did. We wanted to be hip-hop. We wanted to breakdance. We did it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But that changed everything after we heard Sugarhill Gang. Next thing you know, you’re hearing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow and ‘Roxannne, Roxanne.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lil Jon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling Black man wearing sunglasses, a grey hoodie and blue jeans sits on a couch next to a black wall.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-509006782-scaled-e1691444783893.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lil Jon backstage before a DJ set at Temple Nightclub in San Francisco, 2016. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Rapper’s Delight” was probably the first hip-hop song Lil Jon heard. But he became a “super fan” of the genre as a middle schooler in Atlanta after seeing rap groups the Fat Boys and Whodini. It was his first time seeing professional rappers onstage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I might have been a fan of rap before, but I had never been to a rap concert. I’ve never seen rappers in person,” he said. “Maybe just in the magazines. That turned me into like … a super fan of hip-hop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first hip-hop record Lil-Jon bought was Run D.M.C.’s “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remembered my homeboy that lived in the neighborhood. I had to go through some woods to his house with the album,” he said. “We put the album on at his house. We were going crazy over listening to lyrics and beats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Roxanne Shante\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands onstage smiling broadly. She is wearing an off the shoulder red gown and holding her hands out in a half shrug.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1491748126-scaled-e1687807323886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roxanne Shante at the 2023 Black Music Honors in Atlanta, Georgia. \u003ccite>(Nykieria Chaney/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roxanne Shante’s first rap experience didn’t come in song form. She was introduced to hip-hop through the late comedian-poet Nipsey Russell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He had the ability to rhyme at any time,” said Shante, a host for SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells Radio. At age 14, she became one of the first female rappers to become popular after her song “Roxanne’s Revenge” and gained more notoriety as a member of the Juice Crew. She also took part in \u003cem>Roxanne Wars\u003c/em>, which was a series of hip-hop rivalries in the mid-1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shante said “Rapper’s Delight” was the record most parents brought into their home as the “party song.” But in her mind, Russell had just as much of an impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be my first encounter with loving what would become hip-hop,” she continued. “This way of having a certain cadence, this way of being able to do these certain rhymes was just incredible to me … He was able to freestyle all day, every day. And that’s who I am. That’s what I still do today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too Short\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13922549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13922549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-800x545.jpg\" alt=\"a Black man raps into a microphone on a stage with the words 'Too $hort' behind him in blue lights\" width=\"800\" height=\"545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-800x545.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1020x695.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-768x523.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1536x1047.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-2048x1395.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1143940667-1-1920x1308.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short performs during the ‘25th Anniversary of Doggystyle’ tour at Oracle Arena, Oakland. \u003ccite>(Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s 1979. Too Short was around 13 years old. He normally listened to a variety of funk songs ranging from the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster” and Funkadelic’s “Knee Deep.” Then one day at his father’s house, he heard “Rapper’s Delight” blaring through a stereo system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I was on my funk stuff, then this ‘Rapper’s Delight’ record came out and it was like 15 minutes long,” he recalled. “I’d be at my pop’s house just bumping the loud stereo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As “Rapper’s Delight” gained momentum in 1980, Too Short gravitated more toward beatboxing. That led him to hit up the local record store where he would buy the latest hip-hop album then blasted it on his radio for anyone to hear in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to get a radio with two speakers. That was mandatory,” he said. “I was the guy with the radio who was hitting play going ‘You ain’t never heard that before’ … I had the whole room, the whole bus jumping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Doug E. Fresh\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-800x553.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man raises both his arms in the air and strides forward on stage. He is wearing a white t-shirt, black jacket and black pants. Stage lights beam all around him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-1020x705.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-768x531.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451-1536x1062.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1563180184-scaled-e1691445859451.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug E. Fresh onstage in New York City in 2023. \u003ccite>(Johnny Nunez/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hearing “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time changed the trajectory of Doug E. Fresh’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember when my sister came home and told me about a guy named D.J. Hollywood, who we considered the first real M.C.,” he said. “She came home and told me about a rap he had. And the rap went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding, dong, dong, dong the dang, the dang, dang, dang, the ding dong dong. To the hip hop…’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh then added: “I turned around and said, ‘Teach me that, show me.’ And after that, it’s been me and hip-hop since that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>DJ Kid Capri\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932759\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A mixed race man wearing a black Givenchy t-shirt smiles from behind DJ decks, holding one side of a set of headphones on his head.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1576356953-scaled-e1691446543374.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kid Capri DJing in Houston in 2023. \u003ccite>(Marcus Ingram/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJ Kid Capri, arguably one of hip-hop’s most famous DJs in the ‘90s, grew up on soul music. His father was a soul singer. His grandfather played the trumpet. And his uncle, Bill Curtis, was the leader of the Fatback Band — which he says made the first hip-hop single “King Tim III (Personality Jock) ” before “Rapper’s Delight” was released a few months later in 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Capri’s uncle gave him the opportunity to hear a rap song for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was right there,” Capri said about the Fatback Band, a funk and disco ensemble who became known for their R&B hits including “(Do the) Spanish Hustle,” “I Like Girls” and “I Found Lovin’.” But it was “King Tim III” that had a strong influence on him — especially since it came from family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world thinks ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the first rap record, but it was ‘Personality Jock,’” he said. “My uncle, he’s my family. He’s the one that did it. So, I’ve always been around it. That’s what made me be so infectious in it, because I’ve seen every level to where I’m at right now. I took all those things important to me on stage right now. When you see me on stage, you can see all those things wrapped up in me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Method Man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-800x543.jpg\" alt=\"A muscular Black man, wearing an NY baseball cap, white t-shirt and blue jeans strides across a stage, microphone held up to his open mouth.\" width=\"800\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452-1536x1042.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-1490509176-scaled-e1691446704452.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Method Man performing in Atlanta in 2023. \u003ccite>(Prince Williams/ WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yes, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first-ever rap song Method Man ever heard. But the first hip-hop song that really resonated with him was Run-D.M.C.’s “ Sucker MCs (Krush-Groove 1 ).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had never heard this record and I thought I was up on everything at the time,” Method Man said of the 1983 song, which proceeded Run-D.M.C.’s first single “It’s Like That” from their self-titled album. He said “Sucker MCs” helped pave a way to usher in a new school of hip-hop artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were on a sixth-grade class trip to Long Island, and everybody was singing it word-for-word,” the \u003cem>Power Book II: Ghost\u003c/em> actor remembered. “They must have played that record 24 times on our class trip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Big Daddy Kane\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932671\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-800x598.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up image of a Black man wearing a white shirt and rapping into a microphone on stage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030-768x574.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/GettyImages-482124030.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Big Daddy Kane performing in 2015. \u003ccite>(Donna Ward/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Around age 12, Big Daddy Kane might not have remembered all of his homework assignments, but he certainly could recite every lyric to the late Jimmy Spicer’s 1980 song “Adventures of Super Rhymes,” one of hip-hop’s first songs recorded in a studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane heard “Rapper’s Delight” first, but Spicer’s storytelling on the 15-minute song resonated with him the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When this song came out, just the way Jimmy Spicer was styling on them and telling the story about Dracula and a story about Aladdin, I thought it was real slick,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>DJ Jazzy Jeff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932448\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932448\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a white t-shirt and gold and white striped hat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/DJ-Jazzy-Jeff-2-1-scaled-e1691447337494.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jazzy Jeff DJs on stage.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJ Jazzy Jeff always had an affinity for music. But when the \u003cem>Fresh Prince of Bel-Air\u003c/em> star heard “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time, he felt like the song spoke to him like no other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that was the first time I felt like the music was mine,” he said. “Before then, I loved the music, but the music was kind of my older brothers and sisters, and I just liked it because it was theirs. This was the one that somebody made just for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Jermaine Dupri\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13835189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13835189\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man with a bald head wears sunglasses and a tuxedo on a red carpet. He is holding an award and smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249-520x292.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/gettyimages-974991902_wide-00a7268466f1d74f29c7c836e83219f92b347249.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jermaine Dupri at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 49th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner on June 14, 2018 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jermaine Dupri couldn’t have envisioned his successful career without listening to “Rapper’s Delight” around the age of 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember the lyrics of the song. I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Dupri, a rap mogul who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018. “I just started learning the song. I never knew it was going to take me on this journey.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Lizzo Says Hostile Work Environment Allegations Against Her Are ‘Unbelievable’",
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"content": "\u003cp>Three professional dancers filed a lawsuit against \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/502301111/lizzo\">Lizzo \u003c/a>for allegedly creating a hostile work environment, but she says the allegations are “sensationalized stories” by former employees who acted unprofessionally on tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13930886']Lizzo’s former dancers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez filed a total of nine charges against the Grammy-winning artist and her team spanning from May 2021 to May 2023. During that time the dancers were “weight-shamed, forced to endure sexually denigrating behavior and preaching about sexuality and Christianity, and were pressured into participating in disturbing sex shows,” according a statement from West Coast Employment Lawyers, who are representing the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” WCEL attorney Ron Zambrano said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lizzo, a four-time Grammy-winning artist who long has been known as a backer of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/725704911/lizzo-on-feminism-self-love-and-bringing-hallelujah-moments-to-stage\">body positivity and self-love\u003c/a>, responded to the allegations made against her over X Corp, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/lizzo/status/1687061460550316032\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My work ethic, morals and respectfulness have been questioned. My character has been criticized,” Lizzo writes. “Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous not to be addressed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She writes that the former employees have publicly admitted that their behavior on tour was “inappropriate and unprofessional,” and that she takes her music and performances seriously, which comes with high standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='news_11921799']“Sometimes I have to make hard decisions but it’s never my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable or like they aren’t valuable as an important part of the team,” she writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citing her own experiences with body shaming, Lizzo denies criticizing or firing an employee because of their weight. She also doubles down on her position as a champion for women, saying there is nothing she takes more seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Zambrano wrote in a statement that Lizzo had failed her own brand and let down her fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her denial of this reprehensible behavior only adds to our clients’ emotional distress,” Zambrano writes. “While Lizzo notes it was never her intention ‘to make anyone feel uncomfortable,’ that is exactly what she did to the point of demoralizing her dancers and flagrantly violating the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., and the captain of her dance team, Shirlene Quigley, created an “intolerable” hostile work environment which includes, but is not limited to, “Defendants’ repeated exposure of Plaintiffs to nudity against their will, and pervasive habit of sharing lewd fantasies and tales of sexual encounters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents detail one occasion where Lizzo allegedly pressured Davis, Rodriguez and Williams — and the rest of her employees — to engage with nude performers in Amsterdam’s red-light district, in which Davis repeatedly said she didn’t want to and was “hounded” by Lizzo as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the complaints alleges that Lizzo aggressively confronted Rodriguez, who was resigning because of how the pop star had treated Davis. The complaint alleges Lizzo stormed toward the dancer balling her hands into fists and cracking her knuckles while shouting profanities. Lizzo was restrained, according to the court documents, but Rodriguez feared Lizzo was going to attack her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13928974']Another charge accuses Lizzo of falsely imprisoning Davis in a room, keeping her there against her will until she allowed tour staff to search her phone and iCloud storage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the plaintiffs, Davis and Williams, first met Lizzo in March 2021, while competing as contestants on the reality TV show, \u003cem>Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls\u003c/em>, for a chance to join the star’s live shows. Rodriguez was hired in May 2021, as a dancer for Lizzo’s “Rumors” music video and stayed on with the dance team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis and Williams were eventually fired, but Rodriguez resigned citing Lizzo’s behavior, according to the WCEL statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Lizzo+says+hostile+work+environment+allegations+against+her+are+%27unbelievable%27+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lizzo’s former dancers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez filed a total of nine charges against the Grammy-winning artist and her team spanning from May 2021 to May 2023. During that time the dancers were “weight-shamed, forced to endure sexually denigrating behavior and preaching about sexuality and Christianity, and were pressured into participating in disturbing sex shows,” according a statement from West Coast Employment Lawyers, who are representing the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” WCEL attorney Ron Zambrano said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lizzo, a four-time Grammy-winning artist who long has been known as a backer of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/725704911/lizzo-on-feminism-self-love-and-bringing-hallelujah-moments-to-stage\">body positivity and self-love\u003c/a>, responded to the allegations made against her over X Corp, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday morning.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Sometimes I have to make hard decisions but it’s never my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable or like they aren’t valuable as an important part of the team,” she writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citing her own experiences with body shaming, Lizzo denies criticizing or firing an employee because of their weight. She also doubles down on her position as a champion for women, saying there is nothing she takes more seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Zambrano wrote in a statement that Lizzo had failed her own brand and let down her fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her denial of this reprehensible behavior only adds to our clients’ emotional distress,” Zambrano writes. “While Lizzo notes it was never her intention ‘to make anyone feel uncomfortable,’ that is exactly what she did to the point of demoralizing her dancers and flagrantly violating the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., and the captain of her dance team, Shirlene Quigley, created an “intolerable” hostile work environment which includes, but is not limited to, “Defendants’ repeated exposure of Plaintiffs to nudity against their will, and pervasive habit of sharing lewd fantasies and tales of sexual encounters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents detail one occasion where Lizzo allegedly pressured Davis, Rodriguez and Williams — and the rest of her employees — to engage with nude performers in Amsterdam’s red-light district, in which Davis repeatedly said she didn’t want to and was “hounded” by Lizzo as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the complaints alleges that Lizzo aggressively confronted Rodriguez, who was resigning because of how the pop star had treated Davis. The complaint alleges Lizzo stormed toward the dancer balling her hands into fists and cracking her knuckles while shouting profanities. Lizzo was restrained, according to the court documents, but Rodriguez feared Lizzo was going to attack her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Another charge accuses Lizzo of falsely imprisoning Davis in a room, keeping her there against her will until she allowed tour staff to search her phone and iCloud storage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the plaintiffs, Davis and Williams, first met Lizzo in March 2021, while competing as contestants on the reality TV show, \u003cem>Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls\u003c/em>, for a chance to join the star’s live shows. Rodriguez was hired in May 2021, as a dancer for Lizzo’s “Rumors” music video and stayed on with the dance team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis and Williams were eventually fired, but Rodriguez resigned citing Lizzo’s behavior, according to the WCEL statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Lizzo+says+hostile+work+environment+allegations+against+her+are+%27unbelievable%27+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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