Elina Shatkin

Wake up and look around you! There's a war going on. It's not some piddling scuffle over oil in a distant, dusty land. This is a serious battle that's playing out in supermarkets and convenience stores across America. While the mainstream media hypes up fluff like governmental corruption, attorney firings, the collapse of the subprime lending market and the floundering Iraq War, some of us in the blogosphere are covering the issues that truly matter....

While booty shaking dances are old hat in this country -- extolled in music videos and practiced to perfection by strippers -- in West African countries such as Guinea, where the ass jiggling Wolosso dance craze has taken hold, it's enough to get you stripped and beaten in the town square. Check out this video for (what I think are) some shots of the Wolosso....

In addition to the May Day protests that rocked Los Angeles, yesterday (May 1) was also notable as it was the four-year anniversary of George W. Bush landing on an aircraft carrier and announcing we'd won the Iraq War. Actually, what he said was, "My fellow Americans, major combat operations in the Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq the United States and our allies have prevailed." And how!...

Coffy & Foxy Brown The New Beverly's two-month Grindhouse festival officially ended on May 1, but they're screening an awesome double-bill: Coffy and Foxy Brown. If only they'd screen Cleopatra Jones along with these films, you'd have God's perfect trio of sexy, ass-kicking blaxploitation flicks. WHEN: Weds., May 2 - Thurs., May 3 WHERE: The New Beverly: 7165 Beverly Blvd. (1 block West of La Brea Ave.) Japanese Video Art The Radical Communication: Japanese Video...

After yesterday's announcement of the death of former MPAA president and LBJ presidential aide Jack Valenti, we thought Freakazoid's tribute to Valenti might be a nice way to rememberthe man....

This seems to be the week for studios and mini-majors to dump their languishing indie dramas onto the market, and the unsuspecting box office audience is the beneficiary. But first, the movies that will probably win the weekend box office. The Invisible - It's teen-y. It's scary. It's got a cute boy in the lead. I smell box office winner. Justin Chatwin, who looks like he could be the cut cutest of the Culkin...

If you've passed through Hollywood enough times, you can't have failed to notice the bizarre billboard on the West side of Highland just North of Fountain. And if you're like me, every time you pass by, you idly wonder about the man whose leonine countenance gazes benignly on weary travellers. What is that guy staring at so intently? Why have I never heard of his movie? And how the hell can he afford to...

Grindhouse The week begins with a John Hayes double feature. In Grave of the Vampire, legendary vampire Kroft awakens and rapes a woman in a graveyard. The resulting child doesn't need milk. He needs... blood! This is paired with Jailbait Babysitter, which stars Therese Pare as a teenager who's turned out by an older prostitute (Lydia Wagner). Wednesday and Thursday it's a double-bill of Hong Kong action beginning with the Bruce Li (not to be...

Bastards of the Party, which recently aired on HBO, is one of if not the best documentary about the rise of the Crips and the Bloods in Los Angeles. Directed by gang member-turned-activist by Cle "Bone" Sloan, who spent years in the Athens Park Bloods and still considers himself a non-active member, the film provides an insider's view on the economic privation and neighborhood rivalries that continue to fuel L.A.'s gang warfare. Sloan traces...

If you liked Heat Vision and Jack, you'll dig Lookwell, an early '90s show created by Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien starring Adam West as a former TV star who thinks he can actually solve crimes and is always meddling with the police....