Insert Spike Lee into the equation of who you want making and starring in your movies? Looks like now may be the time for an equalizer, and it’s indeed time for more black-themed movies, in all genres:
– A bouncer at Dick’s, who in a rarity happens to be black, said he was among the first in line for the new black superhero movie, the first in its genre, Black Panther, and it was simply great. He was among many, as the film had the fifth-best opening in history, despite a small budget. Noteworthy as far as importance given, is that the review in the Pioneer Press was by a white women who usually doesn’t write about movies, rather than their regular critic. (By the way, she openly raved about it, from her first sentence or two, which is rare among critics, and other writers invoked the idea of Wesley Snipes and Blade as far as the first black super-hero movie. Uhm, that movie would be more in the action genre, and also it came out before the whole string of Marvel Comics-based shows. But thus, should we call Stars Wars, which also drew very long lines in theaters for its various versions, simply a drama rather than sci-fi?) And then WCCO had a news item about Black Panther’s success that didn’t even mention that is was groundbreaking as far as the coloredness of its hero. Start the debate? Do black-themed flicks, unless it is fashionable among white folk like the movie Selma, matter? Or should it not matter at all, should we be colorblind about who the heros are, as long as they act well? Maybe we start all this in motion now, since its Black History Month.
– Several men were caught in Hudson just prior to Super Bowl weekend in a sex trafficking sting. On one of those nights I saw several squads, from both the Hudson PD and the sheriff’s department, cruising motel parking lots on The Hill, and at times weaving into the Big Box Store lots. And also, depending on which motel you were talking about, there were lots of cars parked in those lots to the point where they were full up, or very few, depending on if people partied or just stayed in.
– A woman patron turned the hammer upside down and thumped the big, flat wooden stump to play the pounding-of-nails game at the Smilin’ Moose, which because of the cold has been moved inside. The previous week, a woman who presumably was not winning examined the underside of the stump, apparently to make sure the contest wasn’t rigged. As a buddy of mine said, it maybe could take an actual carpenter to win at this game.
– Several men were seen tossing popcorn to each other at The Moose, and catching the kernels in their mouths, but one caught a double dose of them at one time, quite the feat it you ask me. Like it was when a server there scored a pair of landings from 35 feet away on a narrow counter, by tossing old, dated rolled up receipts. What would his record be like for greens in regulation? This must be what’s done in the rare times when it is slow, and guys have kept up their prowess by tossing these paper balls against co-workers and thus shooting for a garbage can, then moved to a much smaller plastic cup, like beer pong. They subsequently stepped back to “three-point-land” and even then hit the rim of the small cup.
– A similar “trio” of men at Buffalo Wild Wings were talking about their need soon to grab a flight Out East to see Metallica in-concert. They talked about the various airplane ticket options with the bartender for even longer than a typical metal guitar solo.
– As far as music, there was a packed dance floor at The Moose for PopROCKS, especially with the majority of dancers pushing their way to the front. The lead singer was clad in what was essentially a maillot, with the balance of her skin being shown via the purple spotlight. One of the members actually hails from Hudson.
– The trivia scoreboard at BWW showed two people playing at the start of the contest, Dude and secondly Diva. I wonder how she liked playing second fiddle.
– With the weather turning colder again, a guy outside The Moose took his turtleneck sweater and pushed it up over his chin like a facemask. Despite the ongoing cold, many people were dressed in shirtsleeves.
– Buffalo Wild Wings had their whole back half filled with young people and their parents, most of them sporting Sound of Music shirts. The staff was as slammed as during the Super Bowl. Sound and Super supper.
– People at both Dick’s and The Moose, Hudson’s two main dance spots, did their version of chair dances within a half-hour of each other. “If you can’t find a partner, use a wooden chair.”
– A truck in front of me had a Texas plate, but it was traveling below the speed limit, not what you would expect from a rootin’ tooting, ragin’ cowboy. But was he for certain from the Lone Star State? Don’t know for sure as he turned into a local apartment complex to park. Ahead of him was another truck, this one boasting a big Vikings logo on the back and a lot of grime, onto which was scrawled 911. Is that for the dirtyness of the vehicle or the Vike’s last-game collapse?