After Earth, its worth a Look

"After Earth, its worth a Look" 

(Aspiring to reach beyond the concepts)

By Glenn Peppers 

Will Smith as General Cyhper Raige

I saw the Movie "After Earth," and I thought to myself, "This movie isn't as bad as the critics made it out to be. Although I did find it quite slow, and loaded with way too much non-effective dialogue. Yet it was worth seeing on a snowy Sunday evening! Will Smith's role as General Cypher Raige wasn't as impactful as I think it could have been. His role was that of an unemotional detached intergalactic military man who was a stranger to his children and wife. I feel his battle hard persona would have been better played by (dare I typically Hollywood say) Denzel Washington. 

In my opinion, Washington's deadpan'ed intensity and stern command would have made General Raige's lack of fear, and detachment more believable! Smith's real life son, Jaden plays Kitai Raige, the General's son who in effect is trying his hardest to please his dad by becoming apart of this intergalactic space army, was good as this new cadet trying to make good, yet he was annoying to me in that he was quite the opposite of his father, constantly being smothered with fear because of an incident that happened to him as a child! 

Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige

The movie's juice was that fear can be conquered. Will Smith's General Raige had gotten to that point in his existence where he feared nothing! I think to this effect the movie scared some folks in that most people are so use to seeing black men portrayed as clowns and buffoons in films that powerful dramatic roles (ones that don't call for us to be noble slaves or butlers) that diffuse negative/fearful roles, scare certain audiences. 

Face it, some folks just aren't ready for a fearless black man kicking ass in the vast regions of space! Yet after seeing the film, I'm quite sure that this was not the main reason After Earth was not a box office hit! I'll say it again. It was just too slow! A film like this is hard to pull off when there are basically two people holding up a script. You need a plot and a sub-plot, and an antagonist and a protagonist in a film! A formidable villain and a perfect resolve to most any movie script! The escaped monster from the pod just wasn't good enough for me, for you did see him until the end of the movie.

Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian 

Yet I thought the film had great visuals. It was not over done or too Star War-ish. Just perfect for a Post Earth existence! What I loved about this film is that there were people of color about! In most films, cartoons and stories about space or the future. People of color are always lacking! I had a saying once. "There are more black folks in space than Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back." 

M. Night Shyamalan  

I love M. Night Shyamalan's directing, yet like most of his films, he seems to never bring the movie beyond the concept of of what is scary, or plot oriented. My biggest problem with Shyamalan's directing is that he directs as if the very concept idea alone will scare you, instead of what you can actually drudge out of a script, and take it beyond its initial concept. Case in point: "The Village" and "The Happening" Great concepts. Lame scripts and resolve in each film. At the end they both left me saying to myself... "Is that all?"

In this world of Fast Cut/Michael Bey editing and directing. After Earth was just too slow for me. I think I liked it mainly because of who was in the movie, and because of some of the visuals... Oh yeah, and because of those really cool, three section neon Chop Sticks! I gotta find those!

Glenn Peppers

“True Star Power” (Do you have it?)

Marilyn Monroe

“True Star Power” (Do you have it?) 

By Glenn Peppers                                                                 1-20-14

In this strange world that we live in, we are often times forced to contend with fake fashion, crazy trends and people who'll do anything just to be rich and famous on TV, and just about everywhere in the media. Some of them will dye their hair clown colors, and sing off key, even with Auto Tune. Some of them'll cause a stir just to keep their names in the tabloids, just so someone... ANYONE will talk about them! Remember, there's no such thing as bad press! Bad press is simply cheap publicity!

Often times, these people will have no real life, awe inspiring, game changing talent to speak of. They mainly will have become famous byway of some scandal or sex tape, or something as simple as an act of juvenile foolishness (a prank) that garnered enough attention to get the reality show gawkers and gossip hounds baying! 

Denzel Washington

Yet on those rare occasions, there comes along those special people. Folks who sometimes by just their looks alone, or by their special blend of acting, singing, or instrumentation abilities, and mere presence can command bigger than life star power! Its just something about them that cannot be copied, or reproduced! Thus sparking look-a-likes, and imitators. All of whom will never be more famous than their idols! Despite all the many so-called stars in Hollyweird these days, and the world over, true Star Power is rare! 

Reality Television, and the new term for what Talk Shows have become over the years (The Paternity Test/who’s my baby’s daddy, I slept with your mother style talk shows) have made heroes of, and created fond idol worship surrounding these people's most personal (and often times trivial) problems. 

Most any Daytime Talk Show resolve for a problem

Television has inundated the airwaves with the antics of the perverted, the mentally unstable, and the willfully ignorant, sprinkled with a dash of criminal element; mostly exploiting them instead of helping them. Often times making a mockery of them on television, turning their heartache and problems into a human pit bull dog fight, making their pain a major pastime for millions! I find this amazingly sad that this is still a factor on broadcast television in this modern age! 

Not to be discouraged though. There is still in fact a lot of true talent still out there, yet for some odd reason, it is not getting through to a broad audience of television viewers who are begging for something uniquely creative (and not just shocking) to listen to, and watch other than those feuding and squabbling House Wives shows, or dare I say, Honey Boo Boo or The World's Dumbest Drunkards and blah blah blah/Miami Repo, and all those Profane Cartoon Shows. I won't even go into the new breed of Sexually, and Esoterically Occult Charged sitcoms and dramatic TV shows. And lastly; all those Fake out 24 hour news networks, masquerading themselves as just that... News Outlets? This is not true Journalism people!

Finding something good to watch and listen to on TV now days is like cleaning out a dirty clogged up drain pipe. With all that gunk dripping out of it, Somewhere in all that smelly, stinky gunk is trapped some pretty good actors, singers, and people who write and produce some incredible Music, TV and Movies. 

Sometimes the drain pipe leaks out a great TV show, or a wonderful movie and great sounding hit records every now and again, along with truly talented people carrying true Star Power behind the product. Its not all about Swag either! Believe me, there's a difference between swag and talent. If you don't know the difference, than you truly have been watching way too much bad television! 

So what do you do when good television shows come along? When that happens, you wipe the crud off it, tag it as a favorite on the remote, and enjoy it whenever it comes on. Or you record it on your On-Demand/DVR box. If you really really like it, buy the DVD or CD. Support your local gifted artist for goodness sakes! That way you don’t have to support or settle for watching the "I Wannabe Rich and Famous Crowd" who'll do anything to be just that... Rich and Famous! 

I think that if we all were a bit more selective and demanded more, the producers would have to do a double take. In order to stay afloat, the networks would have to Back the Train Up and do some major programming repairs! They would have no other choice but to do so. 

Glenn Peppers 

“Will America Ever Rise?...”

Tamara Mowry-Housley on Oprah's "Where are they now" show

“Will America Ever Rise?...”

"The Soul of a sister in pain can only be shared by the twin of that sister. How painful would it be, to share the pain of your twin when it is racially focused not just on you, but on the people you love in your life?"

By Glenn Peppers January 13, 2014

We know them as Tia and Tamara from the 90‘s television show, “Sister Sister!” Well in their real life/grownup world, they are 35 year old women with lives, marriages, children and careers! They have also in recent months been stars of their own reality TV show about theirs lives in general! Both have still maintained their sunny cute girl next door humor, and that laugh! Oh those two can make me laugh by just hearing them do so! 

Tamara and husband Adam Housley

Well, as life progresses and carried on. The two sisters married; and married two completely different people. Tamara married a white man, and Tia married an up and coming actor in Hollywood, who happens to be black. Since marrying a white man, Tamara has received so much flack, and negative feedback that it has become painful, and even disturbing to both Tamara and her sister Tia! 

Tia and husband Cory Hardrict

The bullying seemingly doesn’t stop there apparently. Fans have issued out insults and foolish comments to Tia as well, stated that she married correctly, because she married a black man, and vice-a-versa! Yet it is Tamara who is catching the brunt of most all the racism, and negative furor from a public that I can imagine adored them both as they came along, and grew up on television in the 1990’s! 

I also can imagine these bi-racial identical twins have gone through the interracial identity crisis wringer, and the whole, “Where do I fit it in this world?” syndrome most all their lives; and now this! It was announced at the outset of January 2014 that they would in fact be ending their reality show in order to raise their children, privately (among other reasons I’m sure) away from the media, and the public! In my brief experience at being a step-parent, I can understand their protective concern! Believe me, as a parent that’s all you want to do is protect your kids, even if they are all grown up! 

See the interview clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESwbjUqBHI

I saw a clip of the interview that the twins did on a segment of Oprah’s “Where are they Now,” where this discussion came up. Tamara as well as Tia were in tears taking about their experiences with people’s hatred laden comments and remarks about their mates, and their choices in marriage! Some situations of which Tia shockingly appeared to not have any idea her sister was suffering with, sparking even more tears!

Tia and Tamara in their
Sister Sister days

I find it so sad that these wonderfully sweet hearted girls (see there, I called them girls because that’s how I remember them most, as those cute little girls on Sister Sister) are going through such BS, and small mindedness! Obviously they aren’t the only people of color taking a hit from the racism monster who in recent years has risen from its semi resting place in the hearts of America. A literal monster awakening fully to chomp on the minds of those who will succumb to its charges of hate, ignorance and intolerance! 

It is no wonder why America is no longer considered a country the world looks up to anymore! It took electing an African American President to drudge up out of America its true feelings on people of color, and push the racial mindset over the edge. This on going childish blind hatred of not just our President, plus other countless mean spirited attacks, and acts of devaluing the lives of black children to the point of taking their lives, and letting their murderers go free is madness! This is equally about as insane as acts all the other brutal acts of aggression shone to other folks of color in America! This radical up-shift in racial intimidation, bullying, and various other volatile acts is more clearly peeling away, and revealing a nation built on hate, fear, ignorance, control, and violence that is now running rampant! 

It seems America had the entire world fooled for decades about how noble, and excepting we were to all peoples!... That is of course until a black man was elected to sit in the office chair within the Oval Office of the White House. When the reality of it actually hit. All of a sudden, True Colors emerged and began to show, all over this nation! What millions kept quietly locked inside themselves for what seemed like a lifetime is now spewing out like tainted water from a toxic drain! America is failing its Life-Lesson that God offers all of humanity in Diversity and Tolerance; and so far it seems, a good many of us are failing at this lesson, miserably! 

I can only imagine folks in other lands are looking and listening at the goings on over here; yet they see it from outside the forest, as we sit oblivious among the trees in a constant hail storm of insults, snide remarks, discrimination, red lining, and acts of out right violence, and constant verbal attacks. Yet we want the world to respect this country! I can also imagine folks around the world saying, "If you'd do this to your own countryman, how will you in turn treat us if given the chance?" 

I don't blame Tia and Tamera for ending their reality show really. Maybe raising their children outside the scope of Hollyweird's intrusive eyes of the paparazzi, and nutty fans, who I can imagine just a few short years ago were Tia and Tamara's biggest fans is the best thing! 

On a broader scale; the Hate Mindset is something that is definitely not going to sustain this country! It will if not anything else be responsible for dividing it, and taking away its unique core value, and worth! The kind of racism and hatred I see today will eventually erode and chip away at the heart of the America that once had hope. The America that I grew up with set the world on fire with its melting pot of wonderful creativity, and bigger than life personalities! America has always been about People!

Through all the craziness of the 1960’s and 70’s, on through the 1980's, we all still wanted the same things. A good life! Red yellow, black, white and brown! We all worked! We all did a good thing here in America! It was our differences that made us who we are, and it was all cool! To use a 60’s phrase... “There was togetherness!” I don’t see that togetherness anymore among peoples, anywhere!

There was a time Americans from every corner of this nation felt that they could at least seek freedom, and make good in this land. Everyone contributed! Back in the day, despite our differences, I remember a time when we all did a good days work, making and producing goods the world marveled at. Our innovations and inventions blossomed and sprang forth from every culture, right here in America! America’s best sell was that it represented hope... to all! 

So that's it? It is 2014, and this is what we’ve been reduced to? Has this country gotten so turned around and twisted that we are now going to let the Small Minded ruin everything that made this land great, despite its former hardships and racist past? Its a shame that this America that I’ve loved since childhood (after all we’ve been through) cannot seem to rise above the infantile and simpleminded, even in this modern age!

Glenn Peppers

Arctic Blast or Maui Breeze

Arctic Blast or Maui Breeze

By Glenn Peppers January 5, 2014

(A really cool FB friend of mine asked her friends if they had the chance, would they ever want go to Antarctica! The answer I gave her was close to the one in this assay, as the more I thought about it, I found even more reasons not to ever go. Here’s my shake on that question, which is slightly embellished from my Facebook response.):

"Let me be the one to clearly shout a rousing, "Heck Nah!" No thank you! Ya see, I watched one of my favorite old school Sci-fi movies Saturday. the Original, "The Thing from Another World" on Turner Classic Movies (this 1951 Sci-fi movie is set in the North Pole. Which still creeps me out pretty good I might add), and as far as the North Pole or Antarctica goes for me; between Santa Claus and his Elves, doggone Flying Reindeer, The Heat Miser (you know I had to include him). The Abominable Snow Man, and that evil Ice Queen chick... The North Pole? I don’t think so!... Although "The Island of Misfit Toys" would be a cool thing to see!... Oh ok, I know. That place does not really exist... or does it?  

Aurora Borealis (the northern lights)

Yes, like many of you, I really like the Northern Lights, but I think being up there, all up close and personal with them is a little creepy as well! I can appreciate the Aurora Borealis (the northern lights) from down here in north America, thank you! 

It didn't take me much thought at all to decide not to go (as if I had the means to do so). Yeppers, as far as adventurous excursions go, I think I'll pass on the polar vacation package. I mean think about it, there's Polar Bears up there at the north and south poles; and although very cuddly and Christmas Coke Cola Cute and all, they ain't very nice to us human folk! And if you must know, Penguins are not all giddy and dancy little creatures, with little arctic Happy Feet, like in the movie either! They'll kick your butt as well, in bunches!

Plus when you factor in all the Global Warming, and Glacial Meltdowns affecting the poles, and considering the fact that Antarctica is one big giant scientific Geek Squad playground. I'd feel way out of place there because, I am a long way from being any kind of a scientist! Heck, I'm still working on long division! 

Besides its just too dang cold up and down there! So with that, I think I'll put any thoughts or plans of ever visiting either polar region on hold... at least for a little while! Well lets just say, for a long while. Michigan is as close as I want to come to being in any arctic region! And so far, early into the season, winter has knocked me over with a One Two punch! Give me Maui any day!"  

Glenn Peppers

Kaanapali Beach in Maui