“Swamp People” (Season 2, Episode 2: “Hunter or Hunted?” History)

Life’s a little different on the bayou. The Atchafalaya River Basin spans over a millions acres in southern Louisiana. This swamp is the largest and most diverse swamp in the United States. These wetlands are home to a huge wildlife community including the good old American alligator. Thursday nights at nine on the History Channel, “Swamp People” follows a handful of colorful gator hunters down in Louisiana during their 30 day gator hunting season. The passion for their trade runs deep like their Cajun culture. These hunters are paid daily for their catches. Each gator is measured and purchased according to size. This shows success rides on that passion for the hunt and the unique Cajun culture and lifestyle so foreign to anyone outside of it.  A young wiry blonde sporting one front tooth remarks at the beginning of Episode 2: “Hunter or Hunted?”, “If you think you can come out here and do it... good luck to ya.”

In the second episode of season two, we are introduced to R.J. Molinere Jr. and his son Jay Paul. R.J. holds two word championship titles in arm wrestling and claims he is the best alligator hunter in the world. In this episode they set off to find “Dozer” a big gator tearing up the banks of the swamp. After five years of tracking Dozer, Jay Paul delivers a rifle shot to the quarter inch kill spot on its skull. He measures in at 12 feet weighing 850 pounds. The reenactments of the catches and kills are corny as hell. The rifle is points down directly at the camera when Jay Paul pulls the trigger only to be followed by a perfect splash of swamp water from the thrashing beast. The corniness does not take away from the humorous dialogue or the one-on-one gator interactions.

The hunters are given certain plots in the swamp for them to hunt on. Troy and Jacob Landry are in a new location known as “Big Pigeon” hoping to find some big gators. This episode they spend most of their time on the water tracking down intruders messing with their lines. It turns out Junior and William “Willy” Edwards are to blame. After an anti-climatic confrontation the two agree it was a just misunderstanding. Junior said it best, “ We can work it out, I mean we aint no butt-holes about it.” Troy decides to pack up and move to a different location and let Junior and Willy stay. 

Terrel Evans is probably the most bad-ass hunter on the show catching his gators by hand. He is a mammoth man clocking in at 6’4’’ weighing 240 pounds. He’s teamed up with the Mississippi Fisheries and Wildlife to tag and track the American alligators. He sets out this week to find a cannibal gator causing all kinds of trouble in the swamp and relocate it to a safer location. While watching Terrel catch this 700 pound gator you’re convinced someones going to lose a limb. 

Episode 2: “Hunter or Hunted?” introduced another set of talented hunters while further developing the story and struggles of the other hunters. In one hour “Swamp People” successfully takes you inside an intensely entertaining trade of Cajun culture. To find the dialogue and unique dialect of these hunters you would have to meet them out in the swamps. 

Agora (Magdalena Abakanowicz)

Organic form met cold steel on the south end of Michigan Avenue in 2006. 106 pairs of legs each standing nine feet tall are frozen mid-stride missing everything from the belt up. Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz is responsible for the permanent public art piece titled “Agora.” Abakanowicz spent two years casting the figures in Poland before they made their way to Chicago.

          

The collection of 106 separate sculptures are scattered across a cement slab. The size of each piece is incredible. Under closer examination you notice the interesting texture. The surface of each sculpture is rippled and manipulated. Each surface different from the next. The legs are somewhat realistic with five individual toes and believable proportions. Abakanowicz poured a part of herself into each mold.

         

“Agora” is more than a visual sculpture; its massive size creates an interaction with the viewer. You can physically walk through the piece in the company of these giant iron legs. Abakanowicz use of materials, scale, and location play a vital role in the sculptures success.

            

The separate pieces are united by the repetition of seemingly identical lower halves, when in fact each set of legs is completely unique in itself. Although similar in shape there were 106 different molds created for 106 different pairs of legs. Each mold gave way to subtle wrinkles and freckles isolating one from another. The steel is a dark burnt-umber rusted with the texture of bark. Instead of a hard man-made surface the steel appears natural and organic. Steel is solid and immovable while our legs are constantly in motion. Abakanowicz utilized the material fusing two dramatically different subjects into one cohesive sculpture. The repetition of legs echoes through the crowd uniting each unique piece as whole.

            

When walking though “Agora” your eyes wander from leg to leg in all directions. The towering legs are anything but submissive. You become the minority amongst the crowd of figures. Instead of viewing the sculpture, you’re now the one being viewed. Your space is utterly invaded. It’s this overwhelming sense that for a moment you are part of something. A concrete slab covered in steel doesn’t always move you like that.

            

A mysterious group of sculptures stand tall in the southwest corner of Grant Park at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road. This corner is a perfect location for a large installation with its heavy traffic. With all the movement in the park and on the streets “Agora” too seems to be moving. Abakanowicz’s work speaks of dignity and courage, a reflection of herself. Her fusion of the organic and non-organic mix perfectly into a complicated visual and physical interaction.

“Almost Famous” (Cameron Crowe 2000)

“Almost Famous” is an 18 year olds dream come true - to travel the country with a kick-ass rock-and-roll band - with more drugs, booze, and sex than you can imagine - meeting a few incredible souls that will shape your future along the way. Now tell that same epic experience through the passionate wide eyes of a 15 year-old outcast looking for nothing more than a great story on a some band. Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this film to tell his story as a new critic to rock and roll. He gives a true and honest insight into the struggles all great rock critics must go through.

       

“Almost Famous” revolves around William Miller (Patrick Fugit) who gets a taste of the real world at a young age of 15 when he is offered to right a story for Rolling Stone magazine. His role is similar to that of Cameron Crowe and the story itself mirrors many true events Crowe experienced. Frances McDormand plays Williams over-protective mother Elaine, a school professor ironically struggling to teach her oldest daughter Anita (Zooey Deschanel) how to live a fulfilling life while maintaining some morals. In 1973 William enters high school a quiet outcast secretly writing for underground newspapers. He seeks out Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who at the time was a huge deal in the rock critic world. A fifteen year-old needs some explaining and incite, even comfort while experiencing a road tour and all its baggage. This is where Lester Bangs comes in. His professional knowledge and advice flows deep through the movie almost poetic at times. He reassures William after the tour, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when your’e uncool.”

            

Along the way William meets both Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), her not-so-groupie “Band-Aides” (they are clearly all about the music) and the band Stillwater. Its two front men, Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) on guitar and Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) on lead vocals. As quickly as William learns how manipulated people can be, he learns how easily manipulated a critics work can be. Making friends with the band, falling in love with the lead guitarists girl (not wife), getting laid, getting the cover story, seeing the shit you shouldn’t have seen, all contribute to the complications of a critics work.

           

In “Almost Famous” Crowe managed to portray the difficulties William faced in a way that left the audience feeling sympathetic. Not only for William and his broken heart but for the situation. The situation, that with a stretch, every critic goes through. The push and pull of what to say and what not to. The factors involved can be endless but they are what make a story. Lester Bangs told William at the beginning and the end of the film, “Be honest, and unmerciful”. Crowe obviously took a lot from those two words. He understood great writing isn’t always riding on a destined-to-crash airplane/confessional with the hottest rock band of the time, but sometimes it is. Sometimes great writing hurts it’s so true. 

Mumford & Son, “Sigh No More” (Island Records, 2009)

Mumford & Sons debut studio album “Sigh No More” is an indie folk rock masterpiece. The album was first released in 2009 in the UK before reaching the US in 2010. “Sigh No More” has had rising success since its release, recently acquiring Album of the Year at the 2011 BRIT Awards. The multi-talented group includes Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. These four brits know how to have a good time and it's evident in every song. The combination of guitar, bass, drums, keys, accordion, mandolin and banjo coupled with a four-way vocal contribution gives Mumford & Son a real meaty sound.

The 12 track album begins with “Sigh No More” a creeping collective vocal intro leading into an upbeat strings shred fest. “Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you/ It will set you free.” Marcus sets you straight with his bold lyrics, enlightening with both whispers and vein bursting grit. There are a few standouts on the album but not one ugly bettie.

“Little Lion Man” is one of four singles from the album. An ass kicking folky track that earned a nomination for “Best Rock Song” at the 2011 Grammys. The boys go all out for this track clearly beating themselves up both with the lyrics and the instruments. “But it was not your fault but mine/ And it was your heart on the line/ I really fucked it up this time.” It’s a darker track for the album with a personal struggle most of us can relate to. Make your mistake. Throw your pity party. Judge yourself. Admit you were wrong and it wasn’t the first time. “Little Lion Man” hits home hard.

Marcus Mumford has interesting inflections in his strong voice. Early in track two “The Cave” he sings, “The harvest left no food for you to eat/ You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see.” His treatment of the lyrics is subtle and catchy. The folk instrumentals lend themselves well to the slow builds culminating with strong breakdowns. Marcus leads into track five “Thistle and Weed” with, “Spare me your judgements and spare me your dreams/ Cause recently mine have been tearing my seams.” His voice is soft and paired with an even softer guitar. As the song plays his voice grows with the lyrics. The drums join, then the keys, and before you know it Marcus is repeatedly screaming, “I will hold on” only to be interrupted by the quartets instrumental climax.

“Sigh No More” is a fresh-folk-rock twist that surely made its mark thus far. To those who don’t follow the bluegrass or folk scene there is no need to panic. They have taken beautiful rhythm and vocals and made it completely their own. Mumford and Son did everything but fuck it up this time with “Sigh No More.”

"No Country For Old Men" (Coen brothers 2007)

In 2007 brothers Ethan and Joel Coen were responsible for yet another film masterpiece with “No Country For Old Men”. The thriller takes you straight to rural west Texas in the 1980’s, where you follow three characters as they weave in and out of each others trails. The visibly disturbing psychopathic bounty hunter Anton brilliantly played by Javier Bardem opens with an up-close and personal choke scene at the local police station. The old-timer-ready-to-retire cop Ed Tom Bell played by Tommy Lee Jones investigates a drug deal gone wrong with the timely departure of Llewelyn Moss played by Josh Brolin.  With two million dollars in cash neatly wrapped in a black leather Llewelyn decides to grab the dough and his wife and leave town. While Anton searches for Lewelyn and the cash he continuously quenches his thirst killing anyone in his way. With Lewelyn on the run and Anton leisurely chasing, Bell follows closely behind with an enlightening commentary and young curiosity for the new case.

The film carries a small amount of dialogue creating and constant tension. From the very second it starts you are stuck. Stuck sitting and trying to figure out this killer and the times. Tommy Lee Jones opens the film with a voice over where he introduces his role with a glimpse of some really deep shit that is about to unfold over the next 122 minutes. Jones says, “You can’t help but compare yourself against the old timers. Can’t help but wonder how they would’ve operated these times. There was this boy I sent to Huntsville here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn’t any passion to it. Told me that he’d been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he’d do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. Be there in about fifteen minutes. I don’t know what to make of that. I surely don’t. The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job – not to be glorious. But I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. You can say it’s my job to fight it but I don’t know what it is anymore. More than that, I don’t want to know. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He would have to say, okay, I’ll be part of this world.” To “be a part of this world” would require a man to “put his soul at hazard”. That end thought is enough to make your head hurt. Spend two hours wandering your mind with that one. 

Anton is a character that really makes you sick to your stomach. He is cold and calculated. With the emotionless killing he makes you hope he’s only a character. Hope that no one could ever possibly operate like that. He enjoys what he does. You can see it in his eyes and in his sick smirk. He follows Llewelyn and makes one thing very clear. He has something that doesn’t belong to him. So consider yourself dead. Anton stops at nothing to get to Llewelyn who seems oddly unshaken by this hit-man. Ed spends his days inching closer and closer to protecting Llewelyn but falls short. In this film no one wins. Everyone loses. Even Llewelyn’s poor-helpless-noninvolved wife. "No Country for Old Men" is a comment on death. It’s one thing we all have in common. Every path is different. Some right and some definitely wrong. No matter what the path or who the hell is on it, one thing is certain. It ends. For everyone. The film is deep enough that one viewing just breaks the surface. The opening and closing dialogue in it is worth hearing alone. The Coen brothers managed to take you back to an unfamiliar place. The setting is beautiful and beyond convincing. It’s quiet and slow. Uncomfortable. The cast was phenomenal especially given the light dialogue. This award winning Coen brothers film was another hit that deserves to sit next to Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

“Shameless” (Season 1, episode 7: “Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father,” Showtime)

“Shameless” is an American television show based on the original British t.v. drama. The American version is set on the south side of Chicago. It is based on Frank Gallagher, played by William H. Macy. While following the far from normal life of this single-parent-drunk, you watch his six children raise themselves with a little help from the neighbors. The south side of chicago plays home to this struggling poverty stricken family.

The oldest daughter Fiona, played by Emmy Rossum, has taken on the mother role since official mom left Frank. She is in charge of her five younger siblings and attempting to keep her stumbling father in line (when he’s around). Fiona attempts to take care of Liam (Blake Johnson) the black baby of the family, the dangerously violent minded Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), youngest and at times most sane daughter Debbie (Emma Kenney), Ian the homosexual brother (Cameron Monaghan), and genius eldest son Lip (Jeremy Allen White). In order to really get a sense of this family’s dysfunction you have to see them operate in their environment (chicago slums) with their own set of problems based around the lack of cash flow and the main contributor to that (Frank). 

The most recent episode aired this past Sunday, February 20th, is titled: “Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father.” The title has all the irony in the world seeing as he is neither of the two. It begins with Frank being repeatedly dunked in a bar bathroom toilet by two thugs he owes six grand. This leads off Franks search for a way to cheat death by either coming up with the money or “dying” and leaving all his problems behind. Lip, Ian, and Ian’s fake girlfriend Mandy (Jane Levy) stumble upon a lost driver looking for help. They send him in the direction of a phone and manage to empty the entire truck full of meat with the eager help of some neighbors. Franks gets some sense knocked into him by a homeless woman and decides to go ahead and fake his own death and escape his unpaid debt. 

This episode was packed full of twists between Ian’s boss’ wife catching Kash (Pej Vahdat) and Ian in a nice anal act with the newly installed cameras at the convenient store or the horse tranquilizers, stolen coffin, and the swap of Frank’s “dead” body for an equal weight in left over beef trimmings. Sheila, Frank’s woman at the moment, is played by Joan Cusack. She is a treat to watch play the agoraphobic divorced mother of one. She is so incredibly hindered by her mental state that even a look out the front door seems deadly. She had pure fear on her face as baby Liam wandered around outside while she is babysitting for the day. With a leash made of linens, she ties one end around her waste and the other to the stair post, and ventures out to the unknown, all to save sweet Liam. It’s the biggest and only real breakthrough we’ve seen from her this season. Usually young Ian finds himself trying to find a way out of conflicts with Mickey the neighborhood thief, but this week they end up making up. Or hooking up. The past episodes have all been dramatically different but this weeks stood out. Secrets came out, debts were payed, problems solved, and more problems introduced. 

This series seems to get better and better every week. This week was no different. A nice pick me up episode after last weeks dramatic downer. Next week ends the first season and if the trend continues you can count on a second season and not soon enough.

Banksy: Wall and Piece

Banksy: Wall and Piece is a collection of work done by the notorious street artist who goes only by Banksy. The book is composed of photographs of his work ranging from graffiti to fine art and including the process of both. Through out the book there are short anecdotes and quotes by Banksy and others. His work is found all over the world. Many of his public street art carries a political message. He is known by many aspiring artist as Banksy. He has kept his real identity hidden to the public. With no face to his alias name his message is even more dramatic. “People either love me or they hate me, or they don’t really care.”

Banksy works in so many different mediums it’s hard to place him into a genre of artist other than the blanketed term “street artist”. He uses fake surveillance cameras, stencils, spray paint, parking cones, piss stains, and phone booths. He uses the streets, buildings, walls, sand, paintings, signs, people, and pigs as his canvas’. This book takes you around the world following his work from New York, London, Vienna, Bristol, Barcelona, Paris, and Palestine.

The opening page written by Banksy gives you a great starting point for who the hell this guy is and why he sneaks around doing what he believes so hole heartedly in. Truth. He illustrates his truth a thousand different ways over the next two hundred some pages. He says, “Despite what they say graffiti is not the lowest form or art. Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.” 

Wall and Pieces is beautifully laid out flowing from an intense introduction of a phantom artist into powerful photos of his inspiring work. Through his work you see a process unfold with powerful stories from history and personal experience. A photo of small school girl hugging a giant bomb with a small heart looming over her innocent head is paired with this caption, “It takes a lot of guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in - like peace and justice and freedom.” Not all of the work is heavy in political undertones. Pulp Fiction’s Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta pose in black and white with freshly painted bananas replacing their guns. Turn the page and their guns are back but now they both are wearing obnoxious banana costumes. A black and white stenciled piece of the queen of England sitting on some skank’s face is followed by a quote that reads, “Conversations don’t get any better as you get older.” Wall and Piece takes a fresh and free approach trying to explain a man who no one really knows. Banksy is a phenomenal artist with a passion rivaled by few who remains a mystery to most and a sliver of truth for us all.