Results tagged “mosdef”

Ever since I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—the wildly imaginative, deeply moving, incredibly insightful sci-fi/romance/drama/comedy with Jim Carrey that came out in 2004—I've been pretty keen to see what else writer-director Michel Gondry can do. I found his next fiction feature film, The Science of Sleep, ultimately unsatisfying, but just as imaginative and affecting as ESotSM. So I was thrilled to hear about Gondry's latest project: Be Kind Rewind. This film—set over the bridge and up the road a piece in Passaic, New Jersey—is about one of those small, privately-owned video rental stores that are still fighting it out against the big chain stores. The shop is called Be Kind Rewind, and it's run by an aging man named Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover). His only employee is Mike (Mos Def), a young man who looks up to him as a kind of father figure. And, in fact, Mr. Fletcher has fatherly feelings for Mike, and tends to keep things from him that he knows will make him unhappy – like the fact that the shop is not doing well, the building has been condemned, and if he doesn't make a lot of money and do a lot of repairs in a very short period of time, it's going to be taken away from him to be demolished and turned into a modern apartment building. Mr. Fletcher tells Mike he's going on a trip and leaves him to take care of the store while he spies on the nearby West Coast Video in the hopes of getting the information he needs to turn his business around. Mike has been given only one hard-and-fast rule while Mr. Fletcher is away: keep Jerry out! Jerry (Jack Black) is Mike's buddy, and the local kook – a paranoid weirdo who works down at the junkyard, and lives there in a small trailer, right by the power plant. He's convinced that his mind is somehow being altered or controlled by the power plant, and so one night he convinces Mike to help him sabotage the place. Mike has second thoughts, but Jerry goes through with it – or at least tries to. Actually, all he succeeds in doing is getting himself electro-magnetized, so that the next time he walks into the video store, he erases all the tapes.

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

Haven't heard of it? From the same form of racial profiling that results in people getting pulled over for Driving While Black, basically, if you're black and travelling by plane, the odds of having your luggage (or self) searched are significantly higher than the odds white travellers operate with. In 1999, Mos Def rapped about it on his album :

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

It isn't for a little while now, when the weather will hopefully be a little bit warmer (although Phillyist makes no promises to that end), but we figured that the POPPED! festival, April 9-15, needs to be on your radar already.

The Yaris is a car made by Toyota, but most of the crazy stuff Toyota is doing to market it has very little to do with cars. For instance, this week - today through Saturday - there's something called YarisWorks going on in the city. Basically it's a whole bunch of fun-sounding free events, all focusing on D.I.Y. arts and crafts, as part of the Yaris's whole Drive It Yourself marketing slogan. You might learn how to make your own snow globe, vegetarian dinner, custom button, or time capsule. You might even get to make your own film and then watch it play while a band performs. It all culminates on Saturday with the Pool Party Jammy Jam at the pool at 13th and Carpenter. Various arts and crafts teaching sessions will be going on, as well as live performances by local bands, dancing, a BBQ, and a pool party. Of course, the best part is Ice Cream Man will be giving away free ice cream at all events. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to us.

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend:

While we try to get over the fact that the South St. bridge is so crappy it was damaged by rain, here's your roundup of what's going on in the Philly blogosphere:

"a compilation featuring twenty Philadelphia artists covering Philadelphia musicians past and present," and among the tunage is a cover of said Hall & Oates song by Method and Result.