How do I summarize into so many words someone as eclectic as Prince?
As I type this, details are still being sorted out, surrounding the sudden passing of Prince Rogers Nelson, who at one point had reduced his name to that of a symbol. Conflicting reports about flu-like symptoms and unwarranted speculation aside, the only fact we have is that gone too soon is a pioneer of modern music. His track “Batdance” for example, was more than a dance club fluff piece to promote 1989's Batman starring Michael Keaton. It was actually one of several iconic pieces of music from the Prince created soundtrack. To create Batdance, Prince would play one instrument for a seven minute set on a recording. Then put it down and record another track with another instrument, on and on, until finally mixing in his own vocal track. The entire composition is done entirely by ONE man. And many other tracks on the album are comprised of the sounds of Prince playing with Prince while recording with Prince. And unprecedented feat not repeated by mainstream music. Prince was a self-taught musician of many instruments, but that should come as no surprise when you consider he was the son of jazz musician Mattie Della-Shaw and pianist John Lewis Nelson. A child of divorce, Prince would channel his emotion into music, and began producing his own songs as a child. Through much trial and tribulation, he was able to release his first, real hit in 1978. While working hard at making his own dream a reality, he formed a band known as “The Time” which he then donated to his friend Morris Day, helping him get his career off the ground. Prince would also jump start the careers of Sheila E, Sinead O'Connor, and recently deceased singer Vanity, among many other performers. Prince unwittingly helped out mixed race and other minorities make waves in the music community, where they were otherwise ignored, as well as many female talents in an industry that at the time was more about looks than talent. Prince himself was African American, but seldom brought race into any interview, focusing on ability rather than color. Aside from music, Prince was also known for his role in acting, most notably in his first film Purple Rain, about a troubled musician, his abusive family having influence on his destructive behavior, and band rivalry ripping up his personal relationships. The box office smash, put together by his record label Warner Brothers, would later become an even bigger hit on VHS, later spawning a success-less sequel titled Graffiti Bridge in 1990. Between the two films, Prince starred in and directed two more movies, Under the Cherry Moon in 1986, about a gigolo who falls in love, and Sign o' the times in 1987, a concert movie. Both were commercial failures initially, but Sign o' the times would later recoup many of it's losses in the VHS market, and globally in the DVD and Blu-Ray market, though a US DVD and Blu-Ray release has never come to be. Still, the Purple Rain stunt helped launch him towards composing the soundtrack to 1989's Batman, also put together through Warner Brothers. But at the start of the 1990's, where Prince had some ups and downs, tensions arose between Prince and his record label. In 1993, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, costing the label a mint in advertising, which required a new font be created from scratch to accompany the new name. He began spinning out new albums faster than ever, in an attempt to get out of his contract with Warner Brothers faster, however he would not see his freedom from the label until early in 2000. During those years, Prince's album sales would peak and dip several times. Nevertheless, the eccentric wonder of the music world found new ways to re-invent himself, finding a younger and younger audience. In 1997, he became the first musician in history to release an entire album via the internet. Crystal Ball was available via download or telephone only, an unprecedented move. Though as forward-thinking as the move was, it would highlight a level of hypocrisy in the musician in later years. Between 2007 and 2014, Prince routinely sued YouTube and many of his fans, for any and all use of his image and sound on the internet. Any form of sharing, whether good or bad, was treated as straight-up bootlegging. He fiercely ignored the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, and sought damages from his fans in the millions. His misuse and misquote of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 eventually led to a brouhaha of sorts with the band Radiohead. In 2008, Prince performed a cover of the song “Creep” at the 2008 Coachella Music Festival, only to days later have his lawyers remove all reference to the performance from social media. In protest, Radiohead spearheaded a legal campaign against Prince, demanding he cough up the rights to the performance, since he did not own the rights to the song and had only performed a cover. "It's our song, let people hear it” demanded the band. But for as strong as their retaliation efforts were, the only fruit this bore was a temporary showcase of Prince performing Cream as replayed on his now defunct website, LotusFlow3r.com. Though Prince eased up slightly on his crusade against the internet in the final year and a half of his life, most of Prince's output remains off of most social media websites, with YouTube promising a three strike ban promise on repeat offenders. Despite the constant attacks however, Prince spent his last years with yet an even younger audience. The same Millennial listeners that would face YouTube content rejections from Prince's camp, ended up legally buying his later tracks on iTunes, attending his concerts and of course, taking selfies while in the audience of the handful of late-night talk show appearances he made to promote his last tours. Prince was eclectic, internet-wise eccentric, but overall a talented musician. He was in the process of penning an autobiography at the time of his death, and no doubt out it, it was likely to be as colorful and inspiring as he was. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook!
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I have to be honest, I didn't actually start watching any of the Mad Max films until a few months before Fury Road came out. But my husband is a huge fan, so just before Fury Road hit theaters last year, I purchased the first three movies off of Amazon, and went on a movie binge, just so I'd be caught up on the story of Max. There was something oddly different and pleasant about the movies, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Opening day, we went to go see Fury Road, amid various masculine ads and posters. There were images of exploding cars and violent slaughtering, all the makings of a truthfully man-heavy film, so I thought. But as the movie drew to a close, I began to figure out what makes the Mad Max series stand out so much more than all of the other so-called “dude” flicks. The series is sprinkled with gender equality, without it being a major deal. But none more-so than Fury Road, which is actually a pro-feminist, estrogen chick flick, disguised as a testosterone laden car show. Which is why I am deeply disappointed that most of the feminist movement missed this gem of a film, as has the Academy, who may have bestowed the film with a few well deserved technical Oscars, but not the larger wins it cleanly deserved. In fact, feminists who admitted later to not having watched the film, lied, accusing it of being anti-woman, when it's arguably the most empowering movie a young woman could have seen in 2015. The movie is centered around Furiosa, a handicapped soldier who was kidnapped as a child, and brought to the Citadel, under the leadership of the movie's main villain, Immortan Joe. Just after the introduction of The Citadel, we find Furiosa has kidnapped Joe's concubines and favored wives, and is on a race against the elements to get the women to safety, via The War Rig, a giant, spiked and deadly truck, which is loaded up with breast milk. Using quick wits and a large assortment of stolen weapons, Furiosa defies the odds by proving to be a very fast and capable bodyguard to the frightened slaves. Along the way, Furiosa finds her way through the desert to her original homeland, and has to come to grips with the grim fate of her family, while also helping the last remaining survivors of her all female tribe suit up for one last grand stand against Joe's fleet. As if this isn't enough, Furiosa also finds herself indirectly finding a way to free an entire race of people who live beneath the Citadel. And what about Max you ask? Well… he's there, but more as an accessory. Outside of the first twenty minutes of the film, where we see him tortured by nightmares and being attached as a living IV pole to a half-life named Nux, Max is used as more of a background prop, and takes a literal backseat to the story of Furiosa. He isn't weak by any means, and has retained all of the action smarts of the original, Mel Gibson character, but his character exists as a sidekick who finds different ways to aid Furiosa and to fight off Joe's forces without taking over as leader. But what really surprised me was the treatment of the women from the get-go. Yes, they're slaves. Yes, like the rest of the cast, the slaves are wearing precious more than a blanket. And yes, many of the women were used sexually. And yet, at no point in the film do Joe, or any of the other villains, address the females by slur terms, nor do they ever crack any jokes based on gender. In the entire film, I never once heard a “back in the kitchen” joke or even a sexual comment. Not once is any of the women degraded to being less than human, despite their status as sex slaves. In fact, in one of the most powerful points of the epic, when Angharad, the favorite wife of Joe who is severely pregnant with their son, sacrifices herself to save Max during a race, the film stops and becomes self aware. We see Joe, frantically begging an on-board doctor to do what he can to save her and the infant, but when both die during an emergency cesarean section, Joe actually grieves. He mourns her loss and the loss of the baby boy, and all of the villains bow their heads in memorial. The only bit of discernible dialogue comes from Joe's half-life adult son, who begins telling the grieving villains “I had a baby brother, he was perfect in every way!” For as evil as Joe is, to see such sorrow and compassion in his eyes was an unexpected twist when compared to the average movie villain, and even to the bitter end, he never tries to degrade Furiosa or diminish her power. He views her as on his level, and in some segments, even wants her to return to his army. As twisted as this sounds, this abusive cretin actually seems to care about the women he's enslaved, and not just because they offer him children or sex. Another great thing about this movie was that it was stewing in an overwhelming sense of hope, something usually left on the cutting room floor for most post-apocalyptic films. Even after Furiosa discovers the truth about her homeland, her tribe convinces her to keep hope alive. The whole film long, the slaves are encouraged to not give up on their future, and it's that drive for hope that not only saves the day, but also gives the women the courage they need to take up the weapons and start protecting themselves as well. Unlike most of today's Hollywood approved films, Fury Road never felt “emo” or whiny, a breath of fresh air amid a slue of movies and TV shows that are steeped in drama. Mad Max Fury Road shook up the landscape for aggressive films. It wasn't overtly masculine, and it held strong to the theme of gender equality, without making it seem abnormal. It's a secret pro-feminist movie surrounded by a thought provoking cast of characters, and deserves a higher honor than Hollywood is willing to give. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! |
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