Presenter and photographer Johny Pitts recently created a photo series on Black Britishness and what that means in a nation that does things to erase them:
With ideas bouncing off each other freely, one theme continued to circle back – the concept of home. “For the Black community, after years of austerity, the Windrush Scandal and Grenfell Tower – people’s homes literally burning down – it feels like the rug has been swept from underneath us,” says Pitts.
“So what is home for us in this country that seems to be imploding in some ways? Or at least going backwards,” he continues. “We realised that home is not Sheffield for me, or London for Roger – it’s actually all these different ingredients and all this community that keeps us together.”
Seaford Town - German Settlement in Jamaica (Jamaican History) 1990s Documentary
Remember my article on the Jamaica coalition, a colloquial term for an alliance between three German political parties related to their colours making up the Jamaican flag? Probably not. But this article is actually about a connection between Jamaica and Germany.
Seaford Town is a settlement located in the west of Jamaica. German labourers settled there in around 1835, leading it to be called “German Town”. The above documentary shows both German descendants and some modern Germans in the area and how they live.
The 2022 Pokémon World Championships started today at ExCeL London and a lot has happened. So naturally, people may want a quick break and a drink and The Pokémon Company have set up a “Worlds Square” on the grounds with some interesting beverage options:
Bulbasaur’s Solar Beam Boba – Honeydew Milk Tea + Brown Sugar Boba
These sound really nice and if anyone has any pictures of them, please let me know in the comments. Having seen Charizard’s Fire Blast Fizz, I’m imagining a Magmar variant with boba made out of Lil’ Nitros, the world’s hottest gummy bears. Now that would give you some fizz! But you may need some MooMoo Milk to cancel out the heat.
How LA's Honey's Kettle Has Been Perfecting Fried Chicken for 40 Years — The Experts
I love me some fried chicken and this mini doc on Honey’s Kettle in Los Angeles had me salivating for 10 minutes. Chef Vincent Williams discussed his process of making Honey’s Kettle famed fried chicken which sees the restaurant serve 50,000 pieces every week.
In 2019, Maurizio Cattelan had taped a banana on the wall for Art Basel Miami Beach 2019 and sold it for 120,000 USD before someone ate it. Today, a similar incident price- and act-wise has come forward. Australian artist Matthew Griffin ordered a McDonald’s burger, stepped into Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland, took out a pickle from his supposed meal, and threw it on the gallery’s ceiling as an exhibition design. Now, the gallery says the public art costs 10,000 NZD (approximately 6,300 USD as of publishing the story), a hundred-fold of the burger’s original price.
Fine Arts, Sydney – the gallery that represents the artist – even dubs the stunt as a sculpture, now on display at Michael Lett until July 30th. Titled ‘Pickle’, the sculpture forms part of the exhibition of work from Fine Arts, Sydney’ program at the invitation of Michael Lett, hosted at their Karangahape Road gallery space. The show includes four new works by each of the four artists the gallery represents, each exhibited for the first time. The themes these works touch upon, including Pickle, are related to transience, distance, and time. From here, flinging the pickle from the ground up is an example of distance.
It was already mentioned in May that the team behind Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was aiming for a 2024 release, but now SEGA and Paramount have narrowed down the official date: 20th December 2024.
I won’t spoil the new character who’ll feature in the third movie but it’s set to be a blast (no pun intended; Sonic Blast has nothing to do with it, thankfully)
There’s a clear decline, starting with the acclaimed Superman: The Movie (94 percent), then the well-received Superman II (82 percent), followed by the mediocre Superman III (29 percent), and finally ending with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace at a depressing 10 percent.
Superman IV is considered one of the worst films ever made — Superman or otherwise. 35 years later, I sat down to discover if the long-reviled film actually lives up to its reputation. Unfortunately, Quest for Peace’s status as a low point for the franchise (and superhero cinema in general) is extremely well-earned.
[…]
Superman IV is not only uninteresting, it’s filled with themes and plot points that go nowhere or are rendered forgettable because there’s too much happening. You’ve got the nuclear arms race, Lex and Nuclear Man, and the evils of tabloid journalism — not to mention we need a love triangle thrown in.
When I first saw the movie back in 2008, I was aware of it being known as the worst of the bunch (yes, even worse than Superman Returns) but I watched it anyway as I had yet to see it and… objectively, it was the worst. But subjectively, I kinda liked it? I like seeing films out of their “prime” eras, with the actors much older and trying to take on new ideas. It was still ropey in terms of plot themes but scenes like the one where Kal-El/Clark Kent plucks out an energy module from Krypton (‘all that remains of a once powerful civilisation’, as his father says) to heal himself from radiation sickness gave a truer sense of finality than in previous movies.
As for “worst movie ever”? Nah. It’s in that ballpark but there are worse films in the history of cinema.
Anyway, here’s an interview with Mark Pillow, the actor that played the (second) Nuclear Man. And some interesting trivia.
I adore self-awareness in media (even if it’s after-the-fact) because as much as films and TV aren’t true depictions of humanity, I need some reality. This supercut of the ‘Right Behind Me’ trope is a great example of people effing around and then finding out.
Having just finished a bottle of Ribena, I noticed the words Lucozade Ribena Suntory Ltd. on the packaging. ‘Suntory? Aren’t they the Japanese whiskey brand?‘ I thought. A quick Google and, yes, it was the same Suntory and both Lucozade and Ribena were their brands (as well as Orangina). Now, I’m trying to imagine the above commercial, starring Sammy Davis Jr., but he’s ad-libbing with a bottle of Ribena.
The global picture agency has launched the Black History and Culture Collection to raise awareness of the history of black people in the US and UK, providing free non-commerical access to the historical and cultural images. Getty will grant access to educators, academics, researchers, and content creators, “enabling them to tell until stories around black culture.”
The curated collection has been handpicked from Getty’s voluminous archive, thought to contain over two million photographs.
I like that they’ve covered the USandUK for this collection as the experiences and cultures of Black people in the UK often get overlooked for the former.
Nichelle Nichols has passed away at the age of 89. It’s a great loss to the world but her work in television, film, and STEM lives on. Besides her iconic role as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series and subsequent films, Nichols also volunteered as a NASA recruiter:
Nichols was always interested in space travel. She flew aboard the C-141 Astronomy Observatory, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn on an eight hour, high altitude mission. From the late 1970’s until the late 1980’s, NASA employed Nichelle Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities, including Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut, and another victim of the Challenger accident).
I’m a duck fan and I’m a casual gamer. So CBR’s 10 Best Ducks In Gamingbeaked my interest and I discovered there were a lot of more ducks in games than I thought. Here’s #10:
10. FFXIV’s “Ducks” Create More Questions Than They Answer
Final Fantasy XIV has a vast array of birds, from dodos to pigeons, from chocobos to phoenixes. Still, amid all the feathers, the common duck is strangely absent. A possible exception is the “ugly duckling” minion. While it may be a cygnet or gosling, some localizations simply call it a duck.
In addition, duck bones are present as an item. The pieces of lore around the bones tell the tale of one Frandelont Raimdelle, who claimed the quacking of the “common” duck to be a sign of demonic influence and attempted to define the creatures, not as beasts, but as sinister and intelligent “spoken.”
My #1 fave Donald Duck is in the list, but not in the place I wanted him to be (that accolade when to his uncle). Who are your favourite ducks in gaming? Leave a comment!
The video above shows Tunde Dugantsi decorating Hungarian folk art cookies with royal icing. It’s delicate and beautiful to watch. I almost wouldn’t want to eat it.
