At the beginning of the film we find ourselves at a fictional Ivy League place of higher learning, the prestigious sounding Winchester University. Here we find several interesting black students trying to find their role within the system. These include the geeky looking, huge Afro wearing Lionel, who happens to be gay and a Mumford & Sons fan, played with great deadpan flavour by Tyler James Williams (better known as playing Chris in the Chris Rock TV comedy 'Everybody Hates Chris'). Then there is the mixed race, militant, fiery Samantha (Tessa Thompson) who leads the charge for her black brothers and sisters, yet has her own personal identity issues. Dark skinned Coco (Teyonah Parris) refuses to be labelled as ''yet another sista from the 'hood' and tries desparately to hide the fact she is from the South side of Chicago. Troy (Brandon P Bell) sees himself as the 'smooth, cool dude' whose success is pretty much a done deal, especially with his father (TV '24''s Dennis Haysbert) is the Dean at Winchester. However, even he feels as if he has a 'role' to play in order to get ahead.
After making several 'short' movies, director Justin Simien presents his feature length debut, the funny and sassy 'Dear White People', which he also wrote, with an assured confidence and definitely with a voice not heard too often in cinema. Its arrival at the Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year resulted in this small independent movie winning the Special Jury Award, and you can see why it did so. As a 30 year old African American film maker who had seen too many stereotypical roles for people of colour on screen, Simien set about putting together a film, albeit a comedy, about the situation of race, especially among the young of America. Who fits in where? How should people view other people? He has written a script that pulls no punches, yet covers so much of the hard facts with humour. The (mainly) young cast rise to the challenge of bringing the subtle textures needed to make this work. On the surface it may look like another broad based 'black comedy', however the questions raised from the story shines a light on everybody involved, whatever colour they are.
At the beginning of the film we find ourselves at a fictional Ivy League place of higher learning, the prestigious sounding Winchester University. Here we find several interesting black students trying to find their role within the system. These include the geeky looking, huge Afro wearing Lionel, who happens to be gay and a Mumford & Sons fan, played with great deadpan flavour by Tyler James Williams (better known as playing Chris in the Chris Rock TV comedy 'Everybody Hates Chris'). Then there is the mixed race, militant, fiery Samantha (Tessa Thompson) who leads the charge for her black brothers and sisters, yet has her own personal identity issues. Dark skinned Coco (Teyonah Parris) refuses to be labelled as ''yet another sista from the 'hood' and tries desparately to hide the fact she is from the South side of Chicago. Troy (Brandon P Bell) sees himself as the 'smooth, cool dude' whose success is pretty much a done deal, especially with his father (TV '24''s Dennis Haysbert) is the Dean at Winchester. However, even he feels as if he has a 'role' to play in order to get ahead.
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Last December music legend Stevie Wonder achieved an ambition that he had been wanting to fulfill for a considerable number of years, namely to give a live performance of his entire classic Grammy winning, 1976 released double album, 'Songs In The Key Of Life'. He did this at his 18th annual 'House Full Of Toys' benefit concert at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, presenting to a packed audience all 21 songs from the record, including all 4 songs from the added bonus vinyl 7" single, to great joy and acclaim. Stevie obviously loved the experience, so much so that he has now decided to take his 'Songs In The Key Of Life' show on an 11 date US tour, stretching from New York to Oakland, California. Tickets for the shows went on sale on 22nd September.
We, here in the UK can only hope and pray that Stevie decides to bring this special musical journey to our shores. Above, I have included an excellent documentary on the actual making of Stevie's classic 'Songs In The Key Of Life'. Here are Stevie Wonder's US tour dates: November 6 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden November 9 Washington, DC - Verizon Center November 11 Boston, MA - TD Garden November 14 Chicago, IL - United Center November 16 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center November 20 Auburn Hills, MI - The Palace Of Auburn Hills November 22 Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena November 25 Toronto, ON - Air Canada Center November 29, Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena December 3 Seattle, WA - Key Arena December 5 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena Take 5 distinctive UK r&b male vocalists, who in their own individual ways have made their mark, not only in their homeland, but also on an international level, achieving success and picking up loyal fans along the way, from the 1980's right up to the present day, and you have the ingredients which make up the 'super-group' package of The British Collective. The 'select' members in question are Junior Giscombe, Leee John (lead singer of Imagination), Omar, Don-E and Noel McKoy. Each gentleman represents a major talent and all of them have and continue to nurture and support soulful music coming from the British Isles, which in this day and age where real soul seems to be in short supply, at least in the mainstream, is a godsend for lovers of top quality musical sounds. The combined efforts of this celebrated group was first heard last summer on the Don-E single, "Spiritual" (one of my fav tracks of 2013), this gorgeous,melodic groove was tailor made for the sun, and while although it was received very well by music critics and fans alike, it did not obtain the huge success it so richly deserved. Such is the way of the current dire state of the music business. In any case this single (from Don-E's 'Little Star' CD) featuring this cream of UK music stars produced such a positive reaction that out of it came the formation of The British Collective. The guys are now currently readying an album, and as they say on the street..."It soon come..." Meanwhile the first introduction has just arrived, the very smooth sounding, honey coated 'Romantic' allows the different voices to blend in such a cool harmonious manner that works like a charm. The track is now available to buy on iTunes and other outlets. The guys even got together a made a very cool video (directed by another UK talent, Ms Sam 'MamaSam' Davis). So here it is, check it out..... In my humble opinion, Don-E's excellent 'Spiritual' would have benefited had it been accompanied by a similar video treatment to 'Romantic' (allowing all the participants to be seen together), however what was offered was nice enough, and takes nothing away from a great track. So here is the video for 'Spiritual': |
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