It's Hard Out There for a Ho: The puzzling sexual games of Black Snake Moan
By Dana Stevens for Slate
The other night I was sitting around watching television and a trailer for Black Snake Moan came on. At first viewing, I honestly thought it was a joke, like a skit or something. Then I realized I was watching Numbers, which doesn't have skits.
As Slate's Dana Stevens writes,
You only had to see the blaxploitation-style poster of Christina Ricci chained and kneeling at Samuel L. Jackson's feet to know that Black Snake Moan (Paramount Classics) was going to be a provocative rebel yell of a movie. A middle-aged black man in the South chains a young white woman to his radiator to cure her of nymphomania and succeeds: What a rich exploration of racial and sexual archetypes! What a daring challenge to viewers' expectations! Or maybe: What bullshit.
I guarantee that the words provocative, bold, and courageous will be bandied about in discussions of this movie, and they won't be entirely misplaced. Writer and director Craig Brewer, who made 2005's Hustle and Flow, has a fine sense of locale (here, the Tennessee countryside), a way of coaxing thrilling performances from actors, and terrific taste in music. But can we just start with something very basic here? Chaining someone to your radiator is wrong. Depriving a near-naked and recently assaulted stranger of the most basic physical liberty for days on end is a sick, perverse, and cruel thing to do. Black Snake Moan appears to be—or, worse, pretends to be—oblivious to that simple fact. And that obliviousness makes all of the movie's supposed risk-taking seem more like exploitation.
Before I get ahead of myself with analysis, let me go back and set up the movie. We open on a scene of Rae (Ricci) desperately banging her boyfriend (Justin Timberlake), who's Iraq-bound with the National Guard. Moments after seeing Ronnie off with a promise to be true, Rae is getting dirty with a burly black drug dealer. That same night, she gets high at a party, has semiconsensual sex on a football field, and is subsequently raped, beaten, and left for dead by Ronnie's best friend...[READ MORE]
Sports...from the Onion
Excited Red Sox Fans Eagerly Await Debut Of Matsuzaka's 'Ultimate Galactic Dragon Gyroball Pitch Power Explosion'
BOSTON—Now that Manny Ramirez has reported to camp and the spring-training opener against Minnesota is in the books, Red Sox fans are turning their attention to the awesome power rumored to dwell within much-touted off-season pitching acquisition Daisuke Matsuzaka—a man who many say possesses pitching powers and techniques beyond the comprehension of mortal fans...[READ MORE]
Music
Remember...Ned's Atomic Dustbin? Here's the video for "Grey Cells Green." Honestly. Felicia loves this band.
Featured Album: Damien Jurado Gathered in Song
I've been a fan of Damien Jurado ever since I got my hands on "I Break Chairs," which is a great narrative rock record from this Seattle based artist. With Gathered in Song, Jurado treats his fans to a songwriting gem of live tracks and demos.
As Aversion.com writes in their review of Gathered in Song:
It's probably the truest measure of any singer/songwriter: One guitar, one voice and two tracks to put it all to tape -- live. It's a do-or-die situation, giving songwriters nothing behind which to hide, nothing to distract us and nothing to take the pressure off of them.
Recorded live on a two-track tape machine, Gathered in Song, originally released in 1999, sees Jurado taking the two-track challenge. It's Jurado at his most elemental, basic and unrefined. For an artist whose Pacific Northwest roots, casual songwriting and emotional depth-charges earned him comparisons to everyone from Nick Drake to Elliott Smith. And while none of the comparisons thrown his way quite fit -- he has the indie spirit of Smith but a woodier, salt-of-the-earth approach more akin to Neil Young's quiet moments -- most people can agree on one thing: He's a master of intimate atmospheres and even more intimate songwriting, so the ridiculously low-key setup on this EP works.
The no-frills approach works well for Jurado. Although he struggles with a few natural limitations -- namely a voice that occasionally cracks and wavers when it's not too busy going flat -- Jurado shows us why Gathered in Song's been a sought-after piece in his fans' collections since it went out of print shortly after it was released. "Chevrolet" and "East Virginia" are folk-based numbers that capture the earthy tones of Iron and Wine, while Jurado finds a voice that taps into the lonesome Gen X spirits of Smith and Conor Oberst. A violin doubles Jurado's musical depth in "Happy Birthday John," though he doesn't get lost in its depths.
Made in Mexico tacks on a few demo tracks at the end of Gathered in Song, mostly to appease hard-line fans. Although they're generally decent -- check out the demo version of "Matinee" for a highlight -- there's something missing from Jurado's live-to-tape performances from the first half of this re-release. Jurado might not be the flashiest or most evocative singer/songwriter of his generation, but he can hold his own.
Damien Jurado - "Chevrolet"
Damien Jurado - "East Virginia"
Damien Jurado - "As You Wish" (Previously Unreleased)
Damien Jurado at Myspace