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"You're burning both sides of the rope and just pulling." - The Roots, Water

V for Vendetta's futuristic England is an all caucasian country. Apparently the neo-conservatism masquerading as fascism in the film involved the complete white-washing of what is currently a pretty diverse community. Dark skin is no where to be found. It's odd for me that the Wachowski Brothers would make that choice (or allow that choice to be made by the director). One of the reasons I connect and enjoy the Matrix trilogy so much is that it's a world of many hues with the heroes, to a person, reflecting that multicultural aesthetic. I know that Alan Moore's source material serves to guide this choice but if they're going to gloss over the big picture concept of fascism vs. anarchism -- the two extremes that are the base of everything within the comic books -- and essentially bring it down to a question of neo-conservatism vs. revolutionary action, then maybe we could have had some brown people on the screen. Modern Day England has roots in the Middle East and Africa and those groups are growing. Surely, a near future UK would be even more culturally mixed.

But enough of my race hangups.

Or maybe not. It's interesting when we, as Americans, are confronted with revolutionary images we can sympathize with. After all, our country is built on the overthrow of one government for the creation of our own. Those images don't reconcile well in a post 9-11 America but V is compelling. He's seeking to overthrow a government who lies to its people, who institutes curfew, who seeks to keep order by opression and suppresion and the populace goes along with this very easily. My mind kept going to John Brown. How important were his "terrorist" actions at Harper's Ferry and before in moving the cause of abolition forward? Is he a hero or villain or something in between?

The same can be asked about V who uses violence and destruction to move his cause forward. The film is supposed to be raising the question of whether or not this push towards revolution, which is fueled mostly by vengeance, should be celebrated but doesn't really. Even at the key plot twist, we aren't really left with questions about V's "goodness".

There are some thought provoking elements to the film, however. Afterwards, there was a deep discussion about torture and terror, death penalties and revenge. For that I'll forgive the silly and unnecessary love story elements at the end, the sometimes ridiculous dialogue and the pacing of the flick. It felt longer than it should have and took far long to get to the hook of the story. But, for all its flaws, it's a good film and worth the money.

Just remember 2 things: In the future, the cool guys wear masquerade masks and speak in iambic pentameter and a revolution without dancing is one we don't want.

"Recognize that this game can be hard." - The Alchemist, Hold You Down

I could listen to KRS-One talk about MCing all day. People debate this all the time and I assume it is generally agreed upon but it needs to be said: KRS is the embodiment of the MC. His voice, his energy, his command of whatever conversation he is a part of whether it's on stage or in the alley or at the kitchen table, his vibe just screams MC. If there's anything to get from The MC: Why We Do It it's that. The hour and twenty minute doc wastes some time, in my opinion, going through the history of hip hop before really delving into the nuances of it all. The debates between artists, through interview, about the difference between MCing and rapping are intriguing; the discussion of the idea of keeping it real and the current trends in hip hop and why they exist are insightful with varied outlooks giving weight to the idea that hip hop has splintered and subgenre-d enough where there might be room for all.

There isn't much in the way of new ground here and, outside of MC Lyte, the female MC is missing even when the discussion turns towards mysoginy. Interesting in that conversation, though, is Too $hort's open struggle with how his rhymes might effect the world. He clearly hasn't made peace with it yet despite his attempts at explaining what he does and who he is. Also of interest? Talib Kweli's frank discussion of what he feels are his shortcomings as an MC, Q-Tip's quiet philosopher in contrast to KRS's all-knowing teacher styles, and the literal breaking down of rhymes by MCs and why they are amazing.

Slightly less impressive was a 5 year old retrospective on Spike Lee from The AFI Director Series. It was a little jarring to see Ossie Davis as the first speaker in the piece but his view of the director is probably the strongest in the hour. Maybe my problem with the doc is that it is 5 years old and two of my top five Spike films have come since then, Bamboozled and The 25th Hour. I'm of the opinion that The 25th Hour, while not Spike's most important film, is his best film, just edging out Malcolm X. Wesley Snipes's candor about the problems he sees in Jungle Fever (he doesn't think Spike did enough relationship scenes to show why these characters care about each other) are something to think about though.

I've got She Hate Me tonight as well but it's time to go out. Tomorrow for that. And for some reason, I've been thinking about He Got Game lately too and feel like it deserves another shot.

See, Ray Allen's resurgence with the Sonics this year is worth somethin'.