Okay, enough already about the transfers, let's talk about the film itself.

In a nutshell, this 1936 Brit sci-fi feature deals with war and progress. Everytown (London?) is shown in 1940 about to celebrate Christmas amidst blaring headlines of war (in a nifty bit of symbolism, the children play with war toys around the Christmas tree). Then war hits the city (in an eerily accurate foretelling of the German blitz that DID rock England in 1940). As time goes on, the war drags into decades ending up in a post-apocalyptic society in 1966.

Because of the war, Everytown/London has regressed into a crude, medieval type society without electricity which wastes its resources on senseless wars and is led by a Hitler-type warlord ogre called "The Boss." The world is also famished by a deadly, incurable disease called "Wandering Sickenss" whose victims are shot by the boss (reminds you of Castro's quarantine of AIDS patients). John Cabal (Raymond Massey) is a leader of scientists who return to civilize Everytown/London and establish a scientific technocracy. But the Boss demands the technology to wage more war, which he tells his followers is necessary for the peace (he begins to sound frighteningly like George Bush Jr. during such speeches). Anyway, the Boss and Cabal face off, and I'll leave the rest to your imagination. A moon shot and some anti-progress protesters (simialr to today's anti WTO protesters) play major parts in the latter third of the story.

For those of us who are into history, this film is extremely eerie, yet fascinating and worthwhile to watch. It's scary in that some of what H.G. Wells prophesized did indeed come true in ways that are even more so than what I just mentioned. (Think of some of today's so-called Third World countries whose resources are wasted by boss-like dictators among other things). Basically, this film, despite the overtly speechike dialogue (Raymond Massey's soliloquy about the need for progress near the film's end is a bit hard to take), is an eloquent sermon on the hindrance that war makes on the progress of humanity and the need for education to triumph over ignorance. It would be great for a high school or college history teacher to show and have a discussion with their classes about this film.

Communist propaganda doesn't usually make for good reading, but regardless of your politics, Ho actually wrote well and it translates rather smoothly. Ho's article on the "Negro Question" was a probable factor in the support that he recieved from people such as the African-American revolutionary Robert Williams and the Black Panther movement. Conservatives may find irony in Ho's quoting from the Declaration of Independence in his victory speech after the defeat of Japan. In either case, whatever one may make of Ho Chi Minh today, his ideas are rather articulate and interesting. Good for a history class.

This is a well-detailed study of Black people in South Carolina from their disfranchisment in 1895 to the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968. Much of it is a rather grim look of the society Blacks in SC faced and their difficulty in finding workable solutions to their problems until about 1944, when they fought to regain the right to vote. Newby makes good use of the sources that were available to him at the time, such as a scattering of Black newspapers, and from White newspapers such as the Columbia State and the Charleston News and Courier. From this we get a lot of insight into events forgotten to history such as the Lake City and Phoenix massacres and the "indignation meetings" that Sc Blacks held to protest their plight. Today, Black repositories such as the Avery Center in Charleston and other collections such as the Caroliniana Library of Columbia have better collections of primary sources for current scholars of this subject, but Newby's book is a good start.

BOY! These cartoons are GREAT STUFF! I read about them as a child when I saw a 1942 ad for the cartoons and it whetted my appetite for them.

For the most part, they tend to tell the same story evey time with few exceptions, but the visual quality is WONDERFUL and even though the tales are somewhat predictable, they are imaginative and fun to watch.

My favorites are "Terror on the Midway," where Supe comes to the rescue when a wild gorilla wreaks havoc at a circus (check out the "elephant dance" early on in this film). "Underground World" is quite fascinating, as Supe and Lois get lost in an underground kingdom ruled by hawk-men (check out the ending)! "Showdown" has Supe face off against a crime-committing Superman pretender.

Some of these cartoons are not for the politically correct crowd. "Japoteurs" has Supe stop a Japanese crook from sabotaging a US warplane (remember, this was wartime). "Jungle Drums" has Lois burning at the stake while Africans with bones in their noses dance around her. You have to leave your brains at the door and remember the times to enjoy these.

But either case, get some popcorn, bring the kids (and skip the politically incorrect stuff for them), and you'll have a ball from ages 8 to 80.

Motown records has wised up and put Jr & The All Stars' Cds BACK WHERE THEY BELONG on CD. To save a lot of unecessary detail, SHOTGUN (1965) and SOUL SESSION (1966) consists of what Jr. & co. did best. The first contains this wonderful groups initial Motown work mixing Jr.'s blues shouting with sweet soul instrumentals like "Hot Cha," "Cleo's Mood," and "Cleo's Back" and hardcore funky juke joint jams. SOUL SESSION contains more of the same, except that most of these are instrumentals recorded earlier in their career.

Many of us Jr Walker fans have LONGED to see this stuff back in print, so I STRONGLY recommend that you SNATCH UP this and the Road runner/Home Cooking duet sets. Motown records should be HIGHLY COMMENDED for doing the right thing with this and bring back other great Jr. Walker Albums as JW&TAS Live, Peace & Understanding Is Hard to Find, Rainbow Funk, and A Gassss. I for one will be emailing Motown about this ASAP and after you hear this set, you probably will too.

Okay, I saw this on a Saturday afternoon when I was about 8 on television and later on "Night Flight" (of blessed memory). Anyone who has seen this knows how bad the acting and how cornball the story was. Actually, that's part of the appeal. But the MUSIC! That's where the fun begins! Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, LaVern Baker (of "Jim Dandy") fame, original doo-woppers the Moonglows (a few years before Marvin Gaye joined), etc. Alan Freed's band isn't half bad either.

Now the goofy acting and dumb story provides lots of unintended laughs. Especially when Teddy Randazzo and his buddies try to rock with outrageously bad singing and dancing that makes Al Gore look like James Brown! What a hoot! Get it, program it to the good stuff, and enjoy.

Much has been wriiten and said about the glory days of Black American Soul radio stations from about the 1950s to the late 70s when high-energy silver tounged-Dj's created as much excitement as the music they played. Unfortuantely, much of this is legend today that exists in the memories of those who were there and few actual recordings of such programs are known to survive or are available to the public today.

Luckily for us, Philly Archives has released this Cd of high-powered broadcasts of Sonny Hopson's "Mighty Burner" program from WHAT-AM (Philadelphia) from July 28, 1969 (judging from the date of the Nixon news broadcast) and late August 1969. This tape will bring fond memories of such programs to those who were there at the time and will be a revelation to everyone else (it also reveals how BORING today's corporate radio stations are by comparison).

All of the things that made classic soul radio of this era so great are here. Sonny's rapid fire slang and rhyming patter that preceded the rappers by over a decade (Make-a no mis-take-a Jake-a, wiggle them toes through them doors!), regional tunes mixed with national hits (we get James Brown, the Delphonics, the Mad Lads with an interesting version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", and the Intruders among many local acts), shout-outs to his audience, soulful commercials (you've NEVER heard ads like this before for BC Powder and Kool-aid: Madison Avenue meets Motown. Even James Brown himself does a wonderful hair-product commerical! These are good enough to have been records in themselves).

Along with the lively fun, Sonny throws in some social commentary. Surprisingly, little of it is dated. A news broadcast from an amusingly pompous announcer plays a short speech of Richard Nixon in Thailand saying the same things about Vietnam that G.W. Bush is saying about Iraq today. Sonny also educates the listerners on Black history by discussing Marcus "Gravey's" movement and playing an anti-Gang violence song. Education mixed with entertainment.

This Cd is truly a treasure of a bygone era. A history lesson with a beat that you can dance to, as Sonny's fellow Philly jock Dick Clark used to say. The only drawback is that there are no bands to seperate the songs, announcements, and commericals, but this is minor. One may only hope that the other DJ's of classic Soul radio (Magnificent Montague, Herb Kent the Kool Gent, Tall Paul White, etc.) or their stations will check their archives to make more Cds of this kind. If you weren't around to experience classic Soul radio in it's prime, you're in for a treat. Get it!

Overall, Miss Parker hits some accurate points about poor Americans accepting perosnl responsibility for their actions and the drawbacks of the welfare system. Having taught the children of (and being related to) many of the "lazy poor" that she talks about, I know firsthand that this is not merely conservative propaganda. I also agree on what she says about most of the so-called Black leaders, having been involved with community activism myself.

However, this book has some flaws. The statistics she uses to prove her points are interesting, but the listing of sources would help buttress her argument. Secondly, while I personally beleive in God myself, I have to disagree with her idea of fundamentalist Christianity being a major cure-all for victims of the culture of poverty. That works for SOME people, but it doesn't work for eveybody's mindset-besides, it may send the struggling poor directly into the trap of the false storefront prophets who are already a plague on the ghettoes.

While there is much to disagree with in this book, it DOES contain enough truth about the problems about the underclass to make it a valuable document.

Overall, I can see both sides with this siiue, having read the book over the past few days.

In displaying the examples of Boondockery from the first naional strip in 1999 (Riley, we're not in Chicago anymore) to the post 9-11 slams at the current wartime culture, Aaron McGruder shows the reader how the focus of the strip has shifted and lets us make up our minds. Even he admits in the intro that he was getting tired of the character based strips on Jazmine (who I miss, she was sweet), the Star Wars Guy, etc. and felt the necessity of speaking out during the Bush era and on things he felt were detrimental to African-American culture. McGruder can really be shrill and self-righteous against people he disagrees with, but this is typical of satirists.

There is enough real-life fodder for all this, and this book will certainly stand as a good time capsule of American life in the early millennium. The problem is that in the future, the humor in this book (especially the constant hip-hop inside gags such as the title of this book, which is from a Public Enemy lyric) will be about as funny as Lenny Bruce, Jack Parr, the Smothers Brothers, Bloom County, and Lil Abner are today.

"Deceased Brooklyn Rapper with Big swollen Belly/Any Karate flick starring Jim Kelly?" Hey, you have to give SOME stars to people who write lines like this.

This is an amazing Live CD form 1970 with Jr. co. blasting away during a nightclub date. Sort of a crosss between a juke joint and revival meeting. To say that Jr. and his organist Vic Thomas really play each other off well is an understatement.

We have here a beautiful rendition of the instrumental "Sweet Soul" whose title is very fitting (you can hear Thomas' organ better than on the studio versions). The versions of "What Does It Take" show our heroes stretching out way more than usual but the killer here is the live version of Shotgun. You will be amazed at the combination of gutbucket soul and a sancitified church revival that the studio version merely hints toward. You will NEVER hear this song in the same light again! This closes with a really beautiful reprise of "What Does It Take" that will wear you out when it is over.

This is one of the greatest live CDs I've EVER heard! However, the prices offered here by the sellers are WAY too much, even for a classic like this! Lower that range and anyone with ears will SNAP IT UP right away!