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RA tells the remarkable story of the South African city’s thriving house scene.

South Africans are the biggest consumers of house music in the world, and Johannesburg is the beating heart of their scene. If you’re looking for proof, there is no need to visit a nightclub. In turning on a television, listening to the radio or walking down the street, it’s clear that a 4/4 pulse is the metronome of everyday life. The city’s preferred sound—vocal-led, percussive, melodic—is largely at odds with what’s popular in other international markets; this coupled with cripplingly slow internet speeds goes someway to explaining SA’s absence from the global house music conversation.

But although the scene’s stars hold ambitions that extend well beyond the country’s borders, the reality is that they’re thriving on home turf. Johannesburg has written—and continues to write—its own narrative. It has tales of hardship. The fight to free itself from the brutality of apartheid, and the role music played in that struggle. In a city still rife with poverty, house music can offer a way out. For our latest Real Scenes film we journeyed to Johannesburg and its outer lying townships, meeting the DJs, producers, promoters and record labels who are central to its story.

[via Dino]

Exactly! Smdh….

[via 564inthemorning]

Hollywood is pushing back, at least a little, against the Washington power players and others who have put the squeeze on “Zero Dark Thirty.”

In the last week, Mark Boal, who is a producer of the film and wrote the screenplay, hired Jeffrey H. Smith, a prominent lawyer who specializes in domestic security and First Amendment issues, Mr. Smith confirmed on Friday. His mission is to represent Mr. Boal with regard to any approach from Congress or the executive branch in connection with their inquiries into the film’s depiction of torture in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

I am so glad I didn’t spend my money on this movie at the theatre. It actually might be more f-cked up and problematic than Django Unchained and that’s saying something! Click the post title or that crazy screenshot of anti-Muslim tweets this movie seems to be stirring up to read the full New York Times article.

[via 546inthemorning]

Director Spike Lee came out early to condemn Quentin Tarantino’s hit slavery-themed film Django Unchained, admittedly without having even seen it.

Now the outspoken figure is facing a backlash of his own, as a growing chorus of black entertainers have called him out for his criticism of the Academy-Award-nominated movie.

Luke, I’m not surprised at but Dick Gregory’s comments seem out of character to me. I wonder how accurately this Grio article was sourced and verified??

Thanks MOU for the heads up:

America’s Middle East policy has been enthusiastically endorsed. Not at the UN or Arab League, however, but by the powerbrokers of Hollywood. At the Golden Globes, there were gongs for a heroically bearded CIA spook saving hostages and American face in Iran (the film Argo); a heroically struggling agent tracking down Bin Laden (Zero Dark Thirty) and heroically flawed CIA operatives protecting America from mindless, perpetual terror (TV series Homeland).

When challenged, the creators of these travesties respond with pat dismissal: the director Kathryn Bigelow pointed out that Zero Dark Thirty is “just a movie”. Ben Affleck has spoken touchingly of his concern that Argo might be politicised.

But such slick, award-winning cinema isn’t about nuance, it’s just self-serving moral ambiguity – and in this sense it is a fitting cultural reflection of actual US policy in the Middle East.

Click the post title or photo to read the full article.

Quentin Tarantino’s liberal use of the N-word over the course of his storied film directing career put in stark relief in this video anthology: is it context or subtext (or a more troubling racial fetishizing on his part)?

[via the DK FB page - LIKE US!]

So I actually ended going to see the movie Django Unchained despite massive reservations but this, if its legit (and it seems to be), is way beyond the pale of anything that could be considered even close to being in good taste. Smdh….

[via DK Facebook page]