Friday Open Thread: Introducing Luke Cage

Posted on September 30, 2016 by rikyrah

Today, Netflix is dropping the Luke Cage Series.

A Black superhero? I can’t wait to watch it.

………………

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The Making of Luke Cage: A Hero for the Moment

BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN

A bulletproof man hides out in Harlem.

The wrongfully convicted ex-con with superhuman strength wants to keep a low profile but soon finds himself caught between a trigger-­happy crime lord and an intrepid police officer. Despite his misgivings, he uses his body to shield the neighborhood from stray bullets in the battle between cops and criminals.

This makes Netflix’s newest protagonist, Luke Cage, an inherently political hero. Born in the pages of Marvel comics in 1972 during the boom in blaxploitation films, the man immune to bullets has taken on new resonance in the era of Black Lives Matter.

Superheroes don’t usually lend themselves to pointed social commentary. But the executives at Netflix and Marvel knew that bringing their first black-­superhero show to the small screen would require more than awe-­inspiring CGI explosions. In his first meeting with the streaming service, creator Cheo Hodari Coker won the job by pitching the series as an examination of Harlem, “like what The Wire did for Baltimore.” In order to achieve that goal, he would need to assemble his own team that would be able to capture the vibe of the New York City neighborhood.

Netflix greenlighted Luke Cage (it premieres Sept. 30), and Coker has kept his promise to Harlem. He tapped music producers Adrian Younge and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad to score the show and recruit artists like Faith Evans and Raphael Saadiq to perform at the villain’s fictional ­nightclub. He instructed the prop master to carefully choose a selection of books for Luke’s bedroom, including a copy of Ralph ­Ellison’s Invisible Man. He gathered a diverse set of writers to conjure barbershop debates over the Knicks’ lineup.

world-of-luke-cage
Left to right; Creator: Cheo Hodari Coker envisions a superhero show that fuses politics with hip-hop, set in Harlem; Alfre Woodard plays Mariah Dillard, a corrupt Harlem politician who sees Luke’s powers as an opportunity; Mike Colter stars as the smart and suave hero, Luke Cage; Simone Missick is Misty Knight, a cop who has a love hate relationship with the vigilante hero; Ali Shaheed Muhammad, one-third of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, co-created the show’s score; Composer Adrian Younge teamed with Muhammad to create a jazz-, blues- and hip-hop-inspired score

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59 Responses to Friday Open Thread: Introducing Luke Cage

  1. smlkam says:
    December 24, 2016 at 10:54 am

    this series storyline is very good to follow through, so you always end up watching it on repeat more and more.

    Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    UH HUH

    UH HUH

    ………………………………….

    GOP Blocks Probes Into Trump-Russia Ties

    Russian hackers are apparently trying to mess with our elections. But congressional Republicans are crippling any investigations—while their probes of Hillary Clinton continue.
    09.30.16 1:15 AM ET

    Suspicion is mounting about Donald Trump’s ties to Russian officials and business interests, as well as possible links between his campaign and the Russian hacking of U.S. political organizations. But GOP leaders have refused to support efforts by Democrats to investigate any possible Trump-Russia connections, which have been raised in news reports and closed-door intelligence briefings. And without their support, Democrats, as the minority in both chambers of Congress, cannot issue subpoenas to potential witnesses and have less leverage to probe Trump.

    Privately, Republican congressional staff told The Daily Beast that Trump and his aides’ connections to Russian officials and businesses interests haven’t gone unnoticed and are concerning. And GOP lawmakers have reviewed Democrats’ written requests to the FBI that it investigate Trump before they were made public.

    Reply
  11. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    This is pitiful.

    PITIFUL

    ……………………………….

    Teen accused of stealing 65-cent carton of milk at middle school to stand trial
    September 30 at 7:00 AM 

    All Ryan Turk wanted was his carton of milk.

    The teenager says he had forgotten to grab the drink the first time through the line at the Graham Park Middle School cafeteria, so he headed back. A recipient of free lunches at the Virginia school, Ryan felt he was just doing what he did every day.

    But a school resource officer said he spotted the teen cutting in line and accused him of stealing the 65-cent milk. When Ryan did not cooperate with a trip to see the principal, authorities say, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and petit larceny. Ryan turned down an offer of nonjudicial punishment, and, this week, a Prince William County judge set a trial date in November for the Dumfries teen, who is now a freshman in high school.

    He will face the criminal charges just days after his 15th birthday.

    Ryan and his mother, Shamise Turk, acknowledge that he took a carton of milk on that day last school year, but they say he was entitled to it and did nothing wrong. They, and their lawyer, allege that Ryan was discriminated against, targeted because he is a black teenager who did not want to go along with a police officer who they believe was being unfair.

    “No one needs to be punished for stealing a 65-cent carton of milk,” said Emmett Robinson, a lawyer representing the family who said Ryan’s arrest was related to institutional racism. “This officer treats kids like they’re criminals, and guess what happens — they’re going to become criminals.”

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 3:28 pm

    This teenager was walking for hours to and from work — until a police stop changed his life

    As its name might suggest, Industrial Way is not known for being pedestrian-friendly.

    The road in the Northern California city of Benicia is lined with trucking companies, warehouses and metal-finishing factories. As it curves north, before it turns into Channel Road, the street cuts under busy Interstate 680.

    So when Cpl. Kirk Keffer of the Benicia Police Department spotted a lone, lanky teenager walking on Industrial Way during the graveyard shift a few Saturdays ago, he was curious. It was after 11 p.m. and dark outside, and the boy was just nearing the highway overpass.

    “Usually in the industrial area, there’s no foot traffic, so it was kind of weird to see someone walking around on foot,” Keffer told The Washington Post.

    He stopped his patrol car, got out and called out to the pedestrian.

    Was he okay? What was he doing out there by himself?

    The teenager, 18-year-old Jourdan Duncan, was equally startled at first.

    “I was absolutely nervous,” he said. “I thought, okay, um, did I do anything wrong? Is he going to put me in cuffs? I didn’t do anything bad.”

    Duncan told Keffer he was walking back to his parents’ home in Vallejo. He had just gotten off from his job at Pro-Form Laboratories, where the teen worked on the packaging line from 3 p.m. until around midnight.

    “Vallejo? That’s like seven miles away,” Keffer said he remembered saying to Duncan.

    Soon, he had cleared out the passenger seat in his patrol car and offered Duncan a ride home.

    On the drive, Keffer asked the teen more questions. Why Benicia? Why not drive to work?

    He was agog that anybody would walk more than two hours each way, every day.

    Duncan explained that he had just graduated from Jesse Bethel High School the year before. He had gotten a job at Pro-Form Laboratories in May, and enjoyed being around his co-workers. He was saving money for college, he said — but really wanted to be an officer with the California Highway Patrol, to follow in the footsteps of some relatives who were in law enforcement.

    Reply
  26. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 30, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    “Kemet (Egypt): A Black African Civilization”
    https://youtu.be/Gs0IAzws4yA&rel=0

    “Malcolm X Speaks on Ancient Kemet/Egypt”
    https://youtu.be/kXlWLyU–MA&rel=0

    Reply
  27. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 30, 2016 at 2:30 pm

    http://www.aaihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/9780252082047_lg.jpg

    Excerpt from article at this link: http://www.aaihs.org/black-girlhood-in-the-nineteenth-century-a-new-book-on-black-girls-in-literature/

    Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century traces writing about black girlhood in early African American print sources in the nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries, a span of time that ranges from the early decades of the new republic to the eve of the New Negro Renaissance. During this period, black writers used black girls as tools to put forward their social and political agendas. Often these agendas touched upon national issues of concern to the black community, such as safety and survival during the decades when the Fugitive Slave Act was in effect, strategies for achieving full citizenship rights, working for the abolition of slavery, finding work in the post–Civil War industrialized North, and crafting strategies for educating the next generation. Just as often, writers relied upon black girls as emblems of home and family. Whatever platform they chose for their writing, the black girls they wrote about appeared to carry stories of warning and hope, concern and optimism, struggles and success.

    Finding these literary girls was not always easy. I draw upon familiar representations of black girls such as Frado in Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig (1859) and Linda Brent in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Yet I wanted to identify and learn about other voices. The materials on black girlhood in this study derive from some of the earliest black newspapers and on fiction that has only recently been recovered, including an early short story by Maria W. Stewart; the newspaper advice columns of Gertrude Bustill Mossell; Trial and Triumph, an under-recognized serialized novel Frances E. W. Harper wrote in the late 1880s; and Silas X. Floyd’s Floyd’s Flowers: Or, Duty and Beauty for Colored Children, an early-twentieth-century conduct manual for black children. My analysis draws upon the writing of black men and black women. Some of the contributors to early black newspapers were anonymous. Each of them felt they had an important message to convey to and about black girls. Some writers wanted to control them. Others sought to empower them. All of them saw their potential power.

    Reply
  45. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 30, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    http://www.blacktennishistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/weir.jpg

    Tennis player and physician Reginald Weir was born on this day in 1911 in Washington, D.C.

    He was captain of the City College of New York men’s tennis team and was ATA national champion in 1931, 1932, 1933, 1937, and 1942. His appearance in the formerly all-white United States Lawn Tennis Association’s (USLTA) national indoor tournament in 1948 was a monumental landmark in US black sporting history.
    ~from Wikipedia

    Reply
  47. SouthernGirl2 says:
    September 30, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    The media won’t talk about the greatest tragedy in American history & the racial terror inflicted against black people. On this day September 30th 1919, Elaine Race Riot. A riot by white mobs that resulted in the deaths of 200 blacks.

    https://3chicspolitico.com/2015/02/19/black-history-elaine-race-riot-lynching-massacre/

    Reply
  52. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Congress Does Something Stupid, Blames Obama
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    September 29, 2016 4:31 PM

    This is one of those days when I really wish the American people paid attention to Congress.

    Last May, the Senate passed a bill that would allow the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. The House passed it on September 9th. We all know that everyone in this country wants to do anything they can to support these families. But all along, President Obama has said why this bill wasn’t a good idea and has been clear that he would veto it.

    On the day the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act passed the House, here is how Haroun Demirjian described the President’s concerns:

    But bill supporters are bracing for a veto fight with the White House, which argues the bill could harm the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia and establish a legal precedent that jeopardizes American officials overseas.

    Three days later, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said this in response to a question during his daily briefing about a potential veto.

    “The way this bill is currently written exposes the U.S. … to significant risks in courts across the world,” Earnest added, repeating his boss’s rationale for his opposition to the measure. “The President believes that it’s important to look out for our country, our service members and our diplomats and allowing this bill to come into law would increase the risk that they face,” Earnest added.

    On September 23rd, when President Obama did, in fact, veto the bill, here is part of what he wrote:

    Enactment of JASTA could encourage foreign governments to act reciprocally and allow their domestic courts to exercise jurisdiction over the United States or U.S. officials — including our men and women in uniform — for allegedly causing injuries overseas via U.S. support to third parties. This could lead to suits against the United States or U.S. officials for actions taken by members of an armed group that received U.S. assistance, misuse of U.S. military equipment by foreign forces, or abuses committed by police units that received U.S. training, even if the allegations at issue ultimately would be without merit.

    Reply
  53. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 8:21 am

    Only One Thing Seems to Hurt Trump
    by Martin Longman
    September 29, 2016 10:55 AM

    It looks like the intelligence community is convinced that Russian spooks are trying to undermine confidence in the outcome of our presidential election. Trump and his advisors are unnaturally close to Russian (and Russia-allied) leaders. This would have been a bit of problem in any prior election. Does it matter in this one?

    The country’s most famous Klansman, David Duke, says “The fact that Donald Trump’s doing so well, it proves that I’m winning. I am winning.” I was born in 1969. For my entire conscious life, this would have been a major liability for a presidential candidate. Is that still true?

    Trump is such a pig that his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club has to take special measures to protect its female employees:

    “When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired.”

    Will Trump’s objectification of women hurt him at the polls the way we’d expect it to?

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      September 30, 2016 at 9:50 am

      Omarosa’s the only black woman I know that is insane enough to vote for the ‘pig’ Trump. Nope, it’s the white women who will vote for him , just like they did for Romney.

      Reply
  54. rikyrah says:
    September 30, 2016 at 4:54 am

    Good Morning😄, Everyone😁

    Reply

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