Exploitable Elements

The exploitation film is something of greatness. It is gritty, sleazy, bloody, nudie, happy, druggy, funny, action packed, and low budget. The many genres are all you need to describe an exploitation flick: blaxploitation, sexploitation, dwarfsploitation, carsploitation, drugsploitation, nazisploitation, cannibals, nunsploitation, nudies, kung fu, zombies, revenge films, spaghetti westerns, women in prison films and many more. Wikipedia defines an exploitation film as: "a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter." Or there is one major theme the film is based upon, like 60's and 70's black culture, an evil dwarf, a girl who gets revenge on all the men that have horribly screwed her over her entire life (sometimes literally). These "B movies" were known for being low budget, cheesy and sleazy. From what I have seen which is not much these movies can be intense, cool, the fight scenes can be incredible (kung fu), and some of the funniest films I have ever scene. Don't get me wrong a good chunk of exploitation flicks were definitely cheesy and sleazy. The gore was unlike hollywood's rated R requirements and the sex didn't hold back as much as mainstream movies. That is what made these movies so cool, they held nothing back. They did what they wanted and that made them classics.

Another aspect of the exploitation film was the theaters they were played in. The B movie was usually seen at night, usually after midnight, and played in grindhouse theaters. These theaters were not your mom and dad's theaters. They probably played pornography as well as any genre from the exploitation film. The reason for the name "grindhouse" is because the theaters were known to play the films one after another or they kept grinding them out. Another reason for the name is because the theaters had previously been burlesque theaters where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease use to be on the bill. Exploitation films were also played in drive in movie theatres, mainly because the business was declining and the theater owners needed something that would attract customers so they started playing exploitation films.

Nowadays these theaters are all but vanished and probably only exist in the larger cities like New York, Chicago and LA. However, since the invention of DVD's there is a huge surge in the production of these films on DVD. Some even are special edition with box sets and things like that. So even though the theaters are gone we can still get the exploitation experience right in our own homes.

The Way of the Wu

If you have never heard of them the Wu Tang Clan is a very successful, influential hip hop group that emerged in the early 90's. They are from New York and were formed in Staten Island or Shaolin as they refer to it. Probably the hip-hop group with the most emcees, Wu Tang's members are: RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, U God, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Raekwon The Chef, Masta Killa, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Cappadonna. Cappa was not an original member but joined in 2000.
The reason they are called Wu Tang Clan is because of their love and influence from kung fu flicks. Their first album "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was revolutionary in hip hop. As wikipedia said:

"Enter the Wu-Tang revolutionized hip hop and helped bring the East Coast back into the spotlight after Dr. Dre's G-funk had come to dominate the rap scene, in large part thanks to RZA's lean, gritty and very distinctive production style."
The name of the album came from one of the most famous kung fu flicks of all time, "Enter The 36 Chambers of Shaolin."

Their first album was a step off point for all the members of the group. Every single member has embarked on solo projects, some of which have been just as popular as "Enter the Wu Tang." RZA has produced the majority of the solo projects, has acted in feature films like American Gangster, and has created the soundtracks for films like Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai" and Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill." Raekwon's first solo album "Only Built for Cuban Linx" is hailed as a classic and I think one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Ghostface Killah has come out with ten albums to date, the first two were two of the greatest hip-hop albums ever created. GZA's second solo album "Liquid Swords" is hailed as a classic. Ol' Dirty's first solo album "Return to the 36 Chambers" is one of the most famous Wu albums ever created. Method Man's first album "Tical" is a classic and he has also acted in many films and television shows. The Wu Tang Clan is one of the greatest and influential hip-hop acts of all time, they continue to come out with albums both group and solo and embark on other projects as well.

Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is most definitely my favorite author of all time. It makes it even better that he is from Indianapolis, and writes about in every book I have read of his so far (I think, maybe not Breakfast of Champions but he probably did.) Although he writes many of his books about science fiction and is known as a science fiction writer many of his short stories and books are about war, love, and many other things. His black humor is like none other and very original.

I have to admit I have only read, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, The Sirens of Titan, Welcome To The Monkey House, and Armageddon in Retrospective. The first three I read in ninth grade and certainly need to read again. When I read Slaughterhouse-Five I knew right then that it was my favorite book and will probably be for the rest of my life (the same thing happened when I watched Pulp Fiction.) However, The Sirens of Titan was a masterpiece so unbelievably amazing that I thought it could be number one, but that argument is for a later time.

The man and his writings could be legendary. His true story about being a POW in World War Two and his life outside of war are so interesting. No wonder he wrote about them, he should have, they made damn good stories; and gave kids like me more open minds and the ability to think greater than what we watch on television.

One Damn Good Trip

In the last week I have seen Devin the Dude, Method Man and Redman, Snoop Dogg, and Ghostface Killah. If you don't know, these are all very successful hip-hop artists. The first three were all in a one night show at The Vogue. Ghost came to The Bluebird in Bloomington on Sunday night. If you do not know, Method Man and Ghostface Killah are veteran members of the incredibly successful and celebrated hip hop group, Wu Tang Clan. I am not twenty one but one of my good friend's dad owns The Vogue and we got in for free. My friend and I who went to Bloomington to see Ghostface couldn't get into the club since it was twenty one and up. So we sulked and cursed the guy who wouldn't let us in. We walked around the club to the back to see if we could listen to the show at all. At the back door there were a couple guys standing around and they told us they knew how to get on the roof and had done it before. So we followed them and climbed the pipes over the barbed wire to the roof where we had a damn good view of the stage from a vent. To me and my friend seeing Ghostface was like seeing Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley back in the day. I probably listen to his music every day. What made the trip so damn good was the fact that we saw it for free and even got to say what up to Ghost before he got on the tour bus, and he played all the classics. It was certainly worth the trip even though we got back home at two in the morning and I had class at ten thirty the next day.

Psycho

Last night for the first time ever, I watched Psycho. Of course my entire life I had heard about Psycho and how it was probably Alfred Hitchcock's greatest or at least most popular thriller. I knew that it was good but I didn't realize how good. If I was a kid, lets say fourteen at the time Psycho came out in 1960 and saw it in theaters; I would have been scared out of my mind. I probably would have needed a new change of underwear. Even though I had already scene all the key scenes in the film, and new exactly what was going to happen already, it was still scary. The incredibly famous shower scene was put together so well, with the music and the angles. When the private investigator gets killed at the top of the stairs, when we find out Norman's mom had been dead for however many years, when we finally see Norman's dead mom and see Norman dressed up as his mom. The ending was so damn good, how the psychiatrist explains everything to us, about Norman and how his mother has taken over his mind. I never really care for the Academy Awards but there are certain times when they are probably very wrong. Even though Psycho wasn't nominated for Best Picture, Hitchcock should have won for Best Director. He lost to Billy Wilder for The Apartment, which had dominated that year anyway. That year the Academy messed up for sure because Psycho is a masterpiece and certainly one of if not the greatest thriller/horror film of all time.

TV zombies

TV has to be one of the biggest reasons for people not reading as much as they used to. It turns you into a zombie, and I watch just as much as everybody else so I'm a TV zombie as well. You sit there just staring at the screen, when something isn't on that you like you just stare and flip through channels and commercials. I think that the majority of what is on television is a bunch of crap. Most people probably think this as well. However for some reason, it is just too easy to sit on your comfortable couch and just stare at whatever is on. Shows, the news, commercials, whatever is on just sucks you in somehow. My generation and younger generations probably watch the most television. It is too easy to come home from school and say your going to watch the TV just for a bit, when it actually turns into maybe two or three hours. You sit and you stare and you don't think about anything else. A little TV a day is good but too much and we all become TV zombies.

Books

I sincerely think that everybody should try to read as many books as possible. It is remarkable and amazing the stories that people can think of. It seems like most of my friends and people I know don't read any books. I don't think there is an excuse for that. There is always time to read; when your in the bathroom, before going to sleep, riding the bus, when you are waiting for anything, doctor, dentist, waiting for class. Maybe people just don't like to read as much as they used to. I guess this is due to television, the internet and video games. But compared to the nonsense that is on the majority of TV nowadays, many written works are way better. Why sit and watch a bunch of idiots on MTV or VH1 when there are incredible stories from authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Mario Puzo and a whole bunch more. (Those are just a few, I was only naming the authors who's books were right in front of me.) Reading is also very beneficial to one's brain. It expands your vocabulary, helps you to read better, and increases your knowledge on literature, and the stories are amazing. Even with all the new mediums that are taking over the world, people should try to embrace reading books as they did fifty or a hundred years ago.