Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

Every city has its moment a time when events and people converge in one place to define it for years to come. Drill down and those moments often decades long are generally associated with neighborhoods Montmartre in the first years of the 20th Century, Harlem in the 1920s, Soho in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Cary Cordovas new book, The Heart of the Mission, Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco, offers the first history of the Mission Districts moment a confluence of art and culture that began in the late 1960s and lasted into the 1990s. The Beats, jazz, the 1968 student movement and the Central American wars all fueled a Mission Renaissance. The Heart of the Mission is a lively guide throughthis history, but its also an important book in documenting and contextualizing the work of Mission artists.

Cordova, a San Francisco native who teaches at UT Austin, traces the beginning of the Mission Renaissance back to the Latin Quarter in North Beach, and such early institutions as The Unin Espaola, also known as the Spanish Cultural center, a block away from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Latin music seeded San Franciscos bohemian culture through some of the centers tenants including the 1941 Marimba Club and the 1967 Tropicana Club. By the 1970s, Cordova writes, music of the North Beach Latin music scene had relocated to the Mission District. Muralist Patricia Rodriguez describes to Cordova what that sounded like: In every corner in the Mission in the seventies Santana was playing, Malo was playing, whoever was playing in the street. Drumming sessions became part of Dolores Park culture, precipitating a debate over the right to occupy public space in the city.

While a pan-Latino arts community would follow, initially Latino artists and musicians played in the citys avant-garde milieu and the evolving bohemian counterculture, perhaps most notably embodied in Beat and jazz cultures, Cordova writes. The San Francisco Art Institute then the California School of Fine Arts and its training in abstract art and Bay Area figurative abstraction influenced artists such as Luis Cervantes, Jos Ramn Lerma and Ernie Palomino. Later, when the Mission District and its artists became identified with political and mural art, these and other artists continued to produce first-rate abstract, pop and assemblage art.

Gallery artists had a difficult time getting recognition, but the media discovered the muralists early on. The artists working in 1974 on Homage to Siqueiros inside the Bank of America building at Mission created a media spectacle designed to undermine their corporate sponsor, while the artists of Latino America caught attention as one of the first all-female community mural groups in the nation. From the outset, politics local and pan-Latino were embedded in the mural tradition.

Cordova provides an excellent narrative and analysis of both murals. She also documents the shift provoked by the Central American civil wars, most visibly on Balmy Alley where in 1984, 27 artists contributed 27 murals attacking U.S. intervention in Central America. The concentration of murals in a single block proved an astonishing display of diverse aesthetics and shared politics, Cordova writes.

If you thought you knew Balmy Alley, think again. Cordova recounts its history but also gives a close contextual look at the iconography, often supplemented by interviews with the artists. And she goes deep: Balmy Alley, we learn, was a needle strewn alley in 1972 when artist Emilia Mia Galaviz de Gonzalez envisioned it as a Mexican garden with murals of flowers, birds and fish.

Poets, artists, activists and musicians riff off one another throughout the Mission Renaissance. Cordova sets the scene as poet Nina Serranos re-christens the 24th Street BART plaza as Plaza Sandino, then documents the ways all of the Mission players connected with the zeitgeist of a global third world movement. Poet Roberto Vargas, Cordova writes, brought together the war to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua with the battles at Wounded Knee and the fight to free U.S. activist Angela Davis.

To demonstrate the threads of these relationships, Cordova follows the November 1968 Third World Strike at San Francisco State and its impact on Juan Fuentes, Rupert Garca and Yolanda Lpez. Lpez and others also embraced an alliance with the Black Panthers. From the politics we better understand Lpezs complex and stark posters. Another section follows the trajectory of three Salvadoran artists, Romero G. Osorio, Martivn Galindo and Victor Cartagena, and shows how closely their Salvadoran roots affected their journeys and those of fellow Salvadoran activists, some of whom joined the Salvadoran guerrillas and Nicaraguan Sandinistas on the front lines.

There is a rich history of how Da de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, provided a cultural nexus for mourning in the 1980s in San Francisco. Grief consumed a city in the midst of the AIDS crisis, but also families losing loved ones in Central America as well as on the streets of San Francisco. The Mexican tradition, which Ren Yaez and Ralph Maradiaga at Galera de la Raza, took into the public sphere in 1972, provided a collective release and remembering.

Although Da de los Muertos is now mainstream San Francisco, it was suspect at first. When Yolanda Garfias Woo lectured about it to her students at John McLaren School, one teacher accused her of teaching witchcraft. And when Yaez tried to get a permit from the police for the candlelight procession, he tells Cordova, This captain thought I was part of a Charles Manson cult or something.

This summer has produced a number of retrospectives of artists left out of museums during the periods when they created art. These include the Brooklyn Museums We wanted a Revolution Black Radical Women, 1965-85, New York MOMAs Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, and finally, in SF, the deYoungs Revelations: Art from the African American South. Perhaps it is time for a retrospective of the Mission Renaissanceone that attempts, as Cordova succeeds in doing, to more than scratch the surface. A retrospective would showcase some of the artists featured in the bookGraciela Carrillo, Ren Yaez, Romeo G. Osorioas well as the exquisite work by such artists as Lpez, Garcia, Fuentes, Enrique Chagoya, Juan Pablo Gutirrez and many more. In the meantime, you can start by paying closer attention to the historic murals on Balmy Alley and elsewhere in the Mission as well as the art from newcomers and old timers showing up at the Galera de la Raza and other neighborhood galleries.

I will be interviewing Cary Cordova at a book event on August 17th at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission St. The event will include music, free tapas and it will run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. You can get free tickets here.

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Review: Cary Cordova's romp through the Mission Renaissance ... - Mission Local

Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, has vowed he plans do a Steve Jobs and stage a comeback as Ubers CEO.

Whether or not he can improve the treatment of women in Uber and restore its dominance in the ride sharing market are not two independent goals.

The inability of its investors and board to enforce ethical conduct shows its level of disarray even as they have been seeking a new CEO. The Washington Post reported last week the short list has been narrowed down, to three men.

Discrimination against women is alive and well in Silicon Valley and technology. I know successful female engineers who were told in high school by teachers even female teachers they should plan for a career as a secretary.

How Hong Kong women are levelling the pitch in the male-heavy tech industry

From an early age, to start-ups and right up to board level, women are treated poorly in the male dominated, fraternity house atmosphere.

Sexism, ageism and other afflictions of stereotyping are rising to the surface in Silicon Valley and technology like no other time.

One of the reasons is that women are more willing to speak out and militate against sexual harassment and campaign for equal pay. Feminism may be dead as a social movement, but it has evolved into issue-driven battles.

Sexism, ageism and other afflictions of stereotyping are rising to the surface in Silicon Valley and technology like no other time

As more brave women have come forward to share their own tales and experiences from the belligerent environment of the tech world, it is becoming more evident the industry has long-standing, pernicious problems. And everyone in the industry is complicit.

But, today the financial and technological stakes in Silicon Valley are higher than ever. And tech, venture capital and the power and glory of successful start-ups have become mainstream culture.

The Silicon Valley zeitgeist is accurately skewered in the HBO series Silicon Valley. At a valuation of $60 billion, sovereign funds and leading private equity investors have piled into Uber. Yet, they cannot seem to extricate themselves from this embarrassing corporate governance dilemma.

Unlike established corporates with longer histories, start-ups are usually formed with little regard for issues such as political correctness and gender balance. The founders are usually friends or colleagues or classmates people close and relevant and necessary for starting the business and developing the technology.

There is scant thought for any political sensitivities. Meeting gender quotas in management or at board level is a low consideration.

Start-ups are a high risk for founders, surviving milestone to milestone, month to month.

Today, a new breed of start-up like Uber presents conflicting corporate governance issues. Its not really a new company since it has been around since 2009. With $6.5 billion in 2016 sales and a $60 billion valuation, its certainly not a small operation.

Ellen Pao drops high-profile Silicon Valley gender bias case, citing personal resources

But, because it is not publicly listed, Ubers investors treat it like a start-up have indulged a dominant founders excesses. They fear that if they lose him that the enterprise will collapse. And with billions of capital tied up, it could one of the biggest failures in VC history.

Meaningful change can only begin at board or investor level. The overarching issue for investors is how tech companies even as big as Uber can cross the chasm into becoming sustainable and successful high growth corporations.

There is scant thought for any political sensitivities. Meeting gender quotas in management or at board level is a low consideration

It used to be that hiring adults older and more experienced senior managers from IBM or Hewlett-Packard was enough to convert a start-up with a successful product with structured sales and marketing and product support teams.

It is no excuse that ethics and corporate sustainability have a hard time keeping up with sprawling growth. All of Ubers institutional investors state they adhere to ethical codes, yet few of them acted to rectify serial sexual harassment and bad boy CEO conduct.

The ability for a young company to cross the chasm from being a small enterprise into a large one remains a constant challenge facing tech start-ups. The initial promise of monopolies like Uber can encourage an investment frenzy. The lure of temporary exclusivity makes it almost worthwhile to ignore or suspend unethical behaviour because the rewards are astronomical.

How Ubers board works together to resolve its current dilemma will serve as an important example for years to come.

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Many start-ups, bulging with endless capital, still lack the nous on how to enforce the ethical values needed to mature - South China Morning Post

The running mate configuration has not changed either, with both retaining their previous partners. William Ruto for Kenyatta and Kalonzo Musyoka for Odinga. The only thing that has changed is their party identities.

Kenyattas 2013 Jubilee coalition is now the Jubilee Party, comprising most of the constituent parties that had been part of the coalition. The 2013 Jubilee formation was an alliance between parties loyal to the president, and his deputy William Ruto.

For its part Odingas camp underwent a coalition overhaul, morphing from the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy to the National Super Alliance. The coalition brings together several parties, both old and new, led by the Orange Democratic Movement, Odingas longtime party.

Latest polls have indicated that the two candidates are neck-and-neck. Both have factors working for and against them.

Uhuru Kenyatta A few things are in Kenyattas favour. At 55 years of age, he is a young president who represents generational change. Kenyatta also comes from one of the wealthiest families in Kenya. Forbes Magazine ranks him as the 26th richest person in Africa, with an estimated fortune of $500m. This means that hes been able to contribute financially to a vibrant campaign.

As the incumbent some would also argue that he has had access to state resources and agencies to facilitate his re-election. Incumbency has also allowed him to drive his campaign on the steam of his development record and flagship projects in infrastructure, the energy sector and public service delivery.

In terms of voting blocs, Kenyatta has the support of Kenyas two most populous ethnic groupings: the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru (Gema) and the Kalenjin. The registered voters in the Gema grouping are approximately 5588nbsp;389, in the Kalenjin are 2nbsp;324nbsp;559.

Combined, thats 7nbsp;912nbsp;948 votes, which is equivalent to 40% of the electorate. Thats a formidable start when you consider that presidential strongholds have historically recorded a higher voter turnout during elections.

On the other hand, Kenyattas four-year tenure has been riddled with corruption allegations, including the Eurobond and National Youth Service scandals.

His admitted inability to rein in corruption in his government has worked against him. Additionally, his government is also accused of ethnic exclusion.

The Jubilee presidency is seen as a two-man show. This has contributed to the perception that Jubilee is not ethnically representative.

Raila Odinga Odinga has many things going for him. High up on the list are his charisma and strong political mobilisation skills. Historically, Odinga has always been a formidable opposition politician; not being an incumbent has enabled him to galvanise effectively.

Odinga enjoys wider ethnic support compared to President Kenyatta, comprising among others the Kamba, Luhya, Luo and Maasai tribes. These communities comprise over a third of the voting population. But the disadvantage is their historically lower record of voter turnout.

At 72 years of age, Odinga represents the older generation of Kenyan leaders who joined politics in the 1970s and 80s. And this being his fourth attempt at the presidency, theres lethargy among some of his supporters.

Hes viewed by some as power hungry and untrustworthy, especially because of his alleged association with Kenyas 1982 coup. His calls for mass action after the contentious 2007 election, during a period that saw the displacement and death of thousands of Kenyans, also contributed to this perception.

Also to his disadvantage is an association with past corruption scandals during his term as prime minister, including the maize and Kazi Kwa Vijana youth programme scandals.

The main political formations There are two main formations in the 2017 election the Jubilee Party and the National Super Alliance.

The Jubilee Party, formed in September 2016, followed a merger between The National Alliance and the United Republican Party representing two ethnic communities the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. The Jubilee Party also has the support of other political parties including the Kenya African National Union, NARC Kenya, the Labour Party and the Democratic Party amongst others.

The National Super Alliance is a coalition of political parties formed in April 2017. Its leading lights are Odingas Orange Democratic Movement, the Wiper Democratic Movement led by Kalonzo Musyoka, the Amani National Congress led by Musalia Mudavadi, Ford Kenya led by Moses Wetangula and Isaac Rutos Chama Cha Mashinani. The coalition brings together the Luo, Kamba and Luhya ethnic groups, and a section of the Kalenjin community.

In this election cycle party manifestos have become increasingly important. This explains the Jubilee administrations scramble to complete promises outlined in its 2013 document.

The Jubilee Party has made even more promises in its recently launched manifesto. Three that have caught the public attention include the creation of 1.3 million jobs a year, free public secondary education and the expansion of Kenyas food production capacity.

The National Super Alliances promises are more political. They include a constitutional amendment to provide for a hybrid executive system to foster national cohesion. Two other notable promises are to lower the cost of rent by enforcing the Rent Restriction Act and to implement free secondary education.

Strengths and weaknesses The strengths of the Jubilee Party lie mainly in its incumbency and its development track record over the last four-and-a-half years. But the party has been weakened by divisions within its ranks. These were amplified during the campaign as disagreements broke out over the leadership of campaign teams. The ruling party is also handicapped to the extent that its not as ethnically diverse as its competitor.

The National Super Alliances main strength lies in its ethnic diversity. Its five principals represent different ethnic communities.

The super alliance also creatively captures the zeitgeist of a section of the electorate, with some of its campaign slogans such as vindu vichenjanga (things are a-changing in the Luhya dialect) making their way into popular use. It is riding on the euphoric wave that usually accompanies the hope of regime change.

One of its weaknesses, however, includes a perceived predilection to violence because the opposition has previously resorted to mass action. In 2016 for example, it organised a series of protests to mobilise for the removal of key members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission, the body responsible for organising the general election.

Another weakness is its close association with allegedly corrupt financiers.

Key concerns There is a perception that historically, the presidency has been the preserve of two ethnic groups the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. This feeling of disenfranchisement has become a key campaign issue.

There are however, some non-tribal issues that have taken the foreground. These include corruption, economic and social stability, lower cost of living and improved security.

Daisy Maritim Maina is a PhD candidate in Political Economy at SMC University

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What you need to know about the Kenyan elections - African Independent

Happy Birthday Andy Warhol. This is the artist that propelled contemporary art to the breaking-point that we know today. He was the zeitgeist artist of the 1960s and 70s who broke away from the strict boundaries dictated by the Abstract Expressionist establishment controlled by critics like Clement Greenberg. Here is a quick biography. Enjoy!

Im afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning. Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928. As a child, Warhol suffered from Sydenham chorea, a neurologicaldisorder commonly known as St. Vitus dance, characterized byinvoluntary movements. When the disorder occasionally kept himhome from school, Warhol would read comics and Hollywoodmagazines and play with paper cutouts. Growing up in Depression-era Pittsburgh, the family had few luxuries, but Warhols parentsbought him his first camera when he was eight years old.

Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe 1967

After graduating from art school with a degree in pictorial design, Warholmoved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist, and hedropped the final a in Warhola. He moved with fellow classmate PhilipPearlstein and created a circle of close-knit friends including college friendLeila Davies Singeles and dancer Francesca Boas. His work firstappeared in a 1949 issue ofGlamourmagazine, in which he illustrated astory called What is Success? An award-winning illustrator throughoutthe 1950s, some of his clients included Tiffany & Co., I. Miller Shoes,Fleming-Joffe, Bonwit Teller, Columbia Records, andVogue.

In 1960, Warhol turned his attention to the pop art movement, whichbegan in Britain in the mid-1950s. Everyday life inspired pop artists, andtheir source material became mass-produced products and commercialartefacts of daily life; commercial products entered into the highly valuedfine art space. In 1961, Warhol created his first pop paintings, which werebased on comics and ads. Warhols 1961Coca-Cola [2]is a pivotal piecein his career, evidence that his transition from hand-painted works tosilkscreens did not happen suddenly. The black and gray composition firstsketched then hand painted is a blend of both pop and abstraction, whichhe turned away from at the beginning of his career before experimentingwith it again in the 1980s.

Warhol turned to perhaps his most notable stylephotographicsilkscreen printingin 1962. This commercial process allowed himto easily reproduce the images that he appropriated from popularculture. Among Warhols first photographic silkscreen works are hispaintings of Marilyn Monroe made from a production still from the1953 filmNiagara. In 1962, he began a large series of celebrityportraits, featuring Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and ElizabethTaylor. Warhol made his series ofCampbells Soup Cansin 1962and exhibited them the same year in his first solo pop art exhibitionat Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.

In 1963, Warhol began his series ofDeath and Disasterpaintingsthat used images from magazines and newspapers as well aspolice and press photographs of suicides, car crashes, andaccidents as source material. Warhol produced a range of filmsbetween 1963 and 1968, beginning with his first feature-length filmSleep(1963), five hours and twenty-one minutes of poet JohnGiorno asleep. His groundbreaking eight-hour-long silent filmEmpire(1964) features continuous slow motion footage of theEmpire State Building in New York City. In 1966, he made his mostcommercially successful film, the three-hour-long, double-screenThe Chelsea Girls.

In 1964, Warhol moved his studio to a large loft at 231 East 47thStreet in midtown Manhattan. Warhol collaborator Billy Namedecorated the space with silver paint and aluminium foil, and itbecame known as the Silver Factory. It was a creative hub forparties and experimentation, from drug use to music and art. Itspopularity grew quickly, and it attracted a diverse and inclusivecrowd of artists, friends, and celebrities, many of whom posed forshort film portraits. With a stationary Bolex camera, from 196466Warhol made almost 500 of these silent four-minuteScreen Testsplayed back in slow motion.

Warhol was infatuated with Hollywood celebrity and fame sincechildhood. He wrote to movie stars for headshots and fan photos,assembling scrapbooks between 1938 and 1941. In the 1960s, TheFactory became a hangout for artists, musicians, and writers,including Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote, and much more.Warhols Superstars, including Edie Sedgwick, Brigid Berlin,Ondine, and Candy Darling, were Factory goers who appeared inhis films and became fixtures in his social life. In the 1970s, Warholwas a regular at the New York disco Studio 54, and he receivedhundreds of portrait commissions from wealthy socialites,musicians, and film stars. He remained in the spotlight in the 1980swith his television work and high-fashion modelling. Warholachieved stardom, and helped others do the same, realizing hisexpression, In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15minutes. Words Courtesy The Warhol

P.S. If this isnt enough excitement for one day, Its also Richard Prince and Howard Hodgkins Birthdays today!

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Happy Birthday Andy Warhol 89 Today - Rest In Peace - Artlyst - ArtLyst

Getting its bid in early, Switzerland has selected The Divine Order to represent it in the Foreign Language Oscar race. Directed by Petra Volpe, the period drama about the fight for equal rights for women has sold more than 300,000 tickets at home. In April, it played the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Narrative Award, the Nora Ephron Prize for Volpe, and Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film for Marie Leuenberger.

By accounts, Switzerland is the first to declare for Foreign Language this year. The majority of selections will roll in during early fall. Last year, Switzerland put forth Claude Barras My Life As A Zucchini which made the Foreign shortlist and then scored a Best Animated Film nomination.

The Divine Order centers on Nora, a young housewife and mother living in a quaint village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Noras life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody until she starts to publicly fight for womens suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

At the Swiss Film Awards it won three prizes including Best Screenplay and Best Actress. Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist co-acquired it in the U.S. where it has an October release set.

Other international sales include Italy (Merlino Distribuzione), Germany/Austria (Alamode Film), China (DD Dream), Canada (Films We Like), Benelux (September Film), France (Version Originale), Spain (Surtsey Films), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery Film), Poland (Bomba Film) and Denmark (Filmbazar).

The film is produced by Reto Schaerli and Lukas Hobi for Zodiac Pictures, co-produced by Swiss Radio and Television and Teleclub with support from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Zurich Film Foundation, Canton of Aargau, Lucerne and Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Suissimage and Migros Kulturprozent. Trust Nordisk is handling international sales.

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Oscars: Switzerland Selects 'The Divine Order' For Foreign ... - Deadline

Credit: Marvel Comics

With "Marvel Legacy" under two months away and neither hide nor hair of the Richards family cropping up, it is starting to seem as though the one returning title fans most expected as part of the (un)relaunch may not happen after all.

Yes, there is a small Fantastic Four presence in the "Legacy" solicitations Marvel Two-In-One brings back Ben Grimms 70s team-up title in a big way. But the family dynamic the team once occupied has largely been co-opted by the new Defenders, which features Marvels new premiere married couple, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.

But the somewhat surprising lack of Fantastic Four Marvels literal first superhero family - in a movement designed to capitalize on Marvels roots and its decades long history led us to consider what it would take to bring the FF back in a meaningful way, as a continuing presence in the Marvel Universe and the reasons why they left in the first place.

The perception of the why of the Richards familys absence certainly seems to be that the Fantastic Four no longer connected with audiences - according to Marvel.

Fantastic Four is a title and a concept that has a lot of built in historical importance in the Marvel Universe, but to the readership of today, it doesnt resonate the same way that X-Men, or Avengers, or even Guardians of the Galaxy does right now, Marvel Executive Editor Tom BrevoorttoldNewsarama in January 2016 after the conclusion of Secret Wars, the crossover that took the Richardses and by proxy the FF off the board. Its sort of taken for granted. Its sort of seen as a holdover from another era. Which isnt to say that the characters arent great, or the concepts arent important, or that it isnt a lynchpin of the Marvel Universe, but its just the facts of the world, and the zeitgeist of today. Fantastic Four hasnt been at the forefront.

However, Jonathan Hickman, who wrote Fantastic Four and the companion FF series, as well as Secret Wars, takes a slightly different position.

Of course not, Hickman told Newsarama when asked if he agreed there was a disconnect between audiences and the Fantastic Four. Not only because my personal experience is that it's not true, but the idea behind that conceit is that the core concept is somehow broken. Which is nonsense.

"Family, Future, and Exploration, are timeless, universal concepts. Sure, they can be nostalgic, but they don't have to be. That's really the brilliance of a lot of the early Marvel characters, they were created by guys wrapping both arms around timeless themes, Hickman continued. There are some exceptions to this, of course, but for the most part almost everything Marvel owns is highly malleable and easily exploitable. I'd argue execution is the mission critical element necessary for a Marvel book to succeed. Fantastic Four is no different.

Its funny - just a few years ago there were two ongoing Fantastic Four comics, said one-time Marvel and IDW editor, now writer John Barber, echoing Hickmans sentiment. So I think it can connect with the audience - you just need the right story, and the right hook to draw people in to find out its the right story.

Kwanza Osajyefo, former DC Comics editor and current Director of Creative Strategy for PR firm Weber Shandwick (as well as writer of Black), pointed to other Marvel properties once perceived as far-fetched, saying Dont tell me a talking tree and anthropomorphic raccoon can sell but the Fantastic Four cant.

The concrete whys of the Richards familys absence have been a matter of speculation since they left the Marvel Universe in Secret Wars, but as it turns out, the actual reason for their disappearance from Marvel's publishing line may be exactly what some conspiracy minded fans have said all along - 20th Century Fox's ownership of the franchise's film rights - but maybe not for the reasons they may expect.

I think its pretty common knowledge at this point that Marvel isnt publishing Fantastic Four because of their disagreement with Fox, Hickman explained. While it bums me out, I completely understand because, well, it isnt like theyre not acting out of cause. Fox needs to do a better job there.

Hickmans reasoning seems to imply that Marvel did indeed drop the FF because of the Fox films not necessarily for financial reasons, but because the most recent reboot was both critically and financially unsuccessful, and failed to reflect well on Marvel's comic books. Marvel still publishes an entire line of X-Men comic books, for example, despite Fox also controlling that franchise's film rights.

Barber spelled it out more directly, saying Not to be blunt, but three f---ing terrible movies dont help anything.

I think the lack of a current Fantastic Four series owes a lot more to the film situation than to a lack of interest, he clarified.

But Hickman also says that the Fantastic Four didnt need to leave the Marvel Universe.

That kind of thinking runs contrary to everything I believe in as a professional storyteller, Hickman explained. It comes from a place of manipulation where an attempt is made to make the reader desire something through denial. It's hacky. It's suboptimal. It's the central tenet of all sh---y dating advice. If you want someone to care about a book, write a story they care about.

Its the publishers job to find a creative team with heart for the project and then get it to the right audience, added Osajyefo. Guardians of the Galaxy gave Marvel territory in sci-fi, Avengers is superhero drama, but exploratory, family adventure - thats the Fantastic Four.

Its clear which characters are absent, and thats a darned shame because I assume both Marvel editorial and fans have love for the Fantastic Four, he continued. Maybe that will be rekindled the way it has been with X-Men, but without a ride at Disneyland, their future is dubious.

When it comes to comic books, however, the Fantastic Four might just be one of the lynchpins to what Stan Lee himself described as "Marvel Legacy"'s intent of "returning to classic characters as they were originally portrayed" after all.

Fantastic Four is the birth of the Marvel Universe, explained Barber. Its the first comic published under the Marvel banner; it really started the set-up of heroes that dont always see things the same way. When Namor returned in Fantastic Four #4, it established the idea that the Marvel Universe was expansive and persistent - the stories from the 1940s still happened!

That was a wild notion. Plus, via the Skrulls and Galactus and Mole Man and Wakanda and the Microverse and Latveria the series created the foundation what the Marvel Universe was like, on Earth, below, and above. And in a literal sense of creating characters - so much came out of those Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues, from Black Panther to the Kree to Doctor Doom to the Inhumans. Its an incredible bout of world-building and unfettered imagination.

But its the central tenet of the Fantastic Four, the guiding principle, that made them a hit in the first place that Barber says is the key to making them work in 2017 and which makes them so essential to the idea of the classic Marvel Universe.

Focus on the family, Barber said. I dont buy family being a problem with the Fantastic Four, its just a matter of figuring out and understanding what 'family' means to the contemporary world.

Youd be hard-pressed to make me believe Marvel cant light a torch under the Fantastic Four, quipped Osajyefo.

Art from 'Secret Wars #9'

But there's still the question of when they'll be back - because none of the creators talked to for this article are under the assumption that the Fantastic Four are gone forever.

"We knew a year or so out that the Fantastic Four as a property wasn't going to be published at Marvel past 2015," Hickman explained of their last appearance in Secret Wars. "When this became a foregone conclusion, then Secret Wars moved about six inches to the left to read as 'the last Fantastic Four story.' I mean, it's not, as it'll be back someday, and it's not, as it's only the Doom-Reed axis and not the entire family, but it's the best we could do because of how pregnant we were."

Back in 2016, just after the end of Secret Wars, Brevoort took the same position.

"Whether its tomorrow, or in a year, or in five years, the potential, and indeed the likelihood, is that there will be some new Fantastic Four book again," Brevoort said. "And in the meantime, those characters, for the people that love them, are still in play, and are still a factor in the Marvel Universe. But the omnipresent but overlooked Fantastic Four is not. Hopefully that absence will actually make it more valuable when we announce some Fantastic Four thing at some date in the future."

And, according to Hickman, there is one specific thing that could definitely bring the Fantastic Four back.

"Disney probably needs to buy Fox.

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Understanding FANTASTIC FOUR's Legacy & Possible Future - Newsarama

Mick Jagger: both he and Jeremy Corbyn are frauds when it comes to Brexit. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters

In the days following Theresa Mays triggering of Article 50 last March, Mick Jagger sat down to write a pair of songs that would capture the anxiety and the unknowability of a post-Brexit UK.

The songs England Lost and Gotta Get A Grip were released last week. They are both hideous. It behoves a future generation to commemorate in musical form that the day Sir Michael Philip Jagger got woke about Brexit was the day that rock music died.

I went to find England, it wasnt there. I think I lost it in the back of my chair. I think Im losing my imagination. Im tired of talking about immigration, sings Sir Mick over a beat that could only charitably be termed as funk-like.

The realpolitik of Brexit is addressed in the final verse of England Lost: I had a girl in Lisbon, I had a girl in Rome, now Ill have to stay home. Which is as cutting a take on the EUs freedom of movement directive as you are ever likely to hear.

With lyrics on the two songs about fake news, lunatic political leaders, refugees, Isis and, everyones favourite, metadata scams, Jagger has been saluted by a supine music press for becoming politically charged and capturing the zeitgeist.

Whenever a figure from the world of showbiz or politics (and the distinction is now blurred) engages with a political talking point for profit commercial or otherwise we need to see receipts.

Jagger may be anxious about Brexit now but just a few weeks before the EU referendum last year he was a lot more sanguine about it, telling Sky News that Brexit would be beneficial to the UK in the long-term.

But as a vocal supporter of Margaret Thatcher so much so that he held private meetings with her when she was in office he would think that way about Brexit.

His concern about England on his new songs is touching. This is the England he ran away from to take up residency in France in 1971 when the then Labour governments tax regime didnt suit his enormous bank account.

And hes kept running: since the 1970s the Rolling Stones have had their multi-millions managed out of Amsterdam to reduce their tax. Its working out quite well for them. Figures released in 2006 showed the Stones paid $7.2 million in tax on earnings of $450 million a rate of 1.6 per cent.

Its just as well that paying a drastically reduced tax rate on your earnings in a foreign country for most of your career doesnt disqualify you from writing politically aware songs about your own country.

Like many a rock star Jagger would do anything for his country except pay tax in it.

In the idolatrous world of showbusiness you can say or do what you want with impunity no matter how inconsistent or hypocritical your words or behaviour may appear to be. The political world is more circumspect or used to be according to Simon Kuper of the Financial Times, who last week cast a cold eye over the rise of the political fan.

He writes: Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn have fans, Hillary Clinton and Theresa May dont. The political fan is a poorly understood modern phenomenon. Political fans reason a lot like sports or music fans.

Corbyns rapturous reception at this years Glastonbury Festival is described by Kuper as an event unprecedented in British political history. At Glastonbury 2016, many festival-goers wept openly on the Friday morning as the EU referendum result filtered in.

This year, not only did Corbyn receive a heros welcome while speaking on the main stage but over the three days of the festival crowds spontaneously broke into chants of his name. There was more than a touch of the Papal Mass in Phoenix Park about it.

Like Jagger, Corbyn is seasoned campaigner who knows how to artfully dissemble. Addressing the Glastonbury crowds, he was touchy-feely in excelsis in every child there is a poem before erupting into paroxysms of platitudes about the environment, peace and love. He didnt once mention the B word the word that had reduced Glastonbury to tears the previous year.

But when he was talking to the grown-ups on an ITV political show just weeks previously, he outlined in stark terms how he wanted a hard Brexit and how clearly the free movement of people ends when we leave the European Union and there will be managed migration. The dog-whistle term, managed migration, has been in every UKIP manifesto since 1999.

As with Jagger on his new single, Corbyn is opportunistically and cynically getting down with the youth vote without disclosing some important facts such as that Jezs voting record on the EU is up there with the rabid right of the Conservative Party and has drawn effusive praise from Nigel Farage.

In Britains previous referendum on EEC membership in 1975, Corbyn voted to leave. He was one of the architects of Michael Foots 1983 Labour manifesto which promised to pull the UK out of the EEC immediately. He voted against the Maastricht Treaty, against the Lisbon Treaty and in 2011 crossed the floor to vote with hardline Tory MPs in calling for an EU referendum.

In March of this year, he imposed a three-line whip on Labour MPs to prevent any of them from voting against Theresa May triggering article 50. Back in the day, we used to call that democratic centralism.

That article 50 vote brings us back to Jagger and the reason he wrote his Brexit blues. Born within a few years of each other in the 1940s, Jagger and Corbyn were nice middle-class boys who went to grammar schools.

If for one the future held sex, drugs and rocknroll, the other had to make do with fair-trade coffee, protest demos and speechifying.

But both headlined Glastonbury. And both are frauds when it comes to Brexit.

Im sorry to hear youll have to give up your girl in Lisbon and your girl in Rome, Mick, but as you said yourself, Brexit could be beneficial in the long term.

And Jez, there is indeed a poem in every child. Even the migrant ones you intend to manage.

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Brian Boyd: Spare me Mick and Jez's Brexit hypocrisy - Irish Times

The Democratic Socialists of Americahave a big question to answer a 24,000-person strong question. According to a recent announcement, thats how many members the group claims to have, thanks in part to the interest in socialism prompted by the insurgent presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders and as a reaction to theelection of a far-right president in Donald Trump. But, as800 delegates descend on Chicago forthe DSA National Conventionthis week, the group must figure out how itsmasses of card-carrying socialists will engage in electoral politics.

Local chapters have debated how much energy to put into running for office versus engaging in issue advocacy, and whether to align with Democrats or work on building a new political party.

EnterJabari Brisport a DSA-endorsed, Green Party candidate for New Yorks 35th City Council District whooffers one potential path forward for the group.

A flyer for a New York City Council candidate forum hangs outside the Epiphany Lutheran School in Brooklyn, NY on July 26, 2017.

Photo: Bryan Thomas for The Intercept

Brisport is a 29-year-old African-American artist and activist who was born and raised in the 35th District, which includes portions of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn. In a wide-ranging interview with The Intercept, he described his motivation for running, and his thoughts on the larger political zeitgeist.

Grassroots politics runs deep in his family as does radicalism. Brisports mother is a former Black Panther. Hespent years organizing around local causes, and was an enthusiastic backer of Sanderss presidential campaign. Unlike Sanders, however, Brisport chose to end his cooperation with Democratic Party after the election.

Last year, I was really just fed up with the party, he said. After Bernie lost the nomination, I decided to moved on out to the Greens who, honestly, ideologically Im closer to and are a better fit with me. I was also tired of arguing with other Democrats over things I think are basic, like whether money influences politics.

The New York City Councils first-past-the-post elections, where whoever gets the most votes wins outright, running as a third-party candidate is tough.But because Brooklyn is so heavily dominated by Democrats,Brisport is essentially trying to introduce atwo-party competition. In doing that, hes walking a path similar to Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative councilwoman in Seattle who defeated a Democratic opponent on a platform designed around democratizing wealth and power in the city.

The incumbent in the 35th District is a former art museum executive named Laurie Cumbo,who moved into the district to run for office in 2013. Brisports main ideological difference with Cumbo is their divergent approaches to developing Brooklyn.

Hers is what Ive seen called the Guggenheim Theory of development, which is that if you bring lots of really glitzy art spaces to an area, really great concert halls, really great art museums, so on and so forth, thatll bring economic improvement to the area, he noted. Which is like a half-truth. Because it brings more wealth and improvement to the area but also pushes out the poor people.

What Brisport is describing is the process of gentrification, which has swept his part of Brooklyn in recent years, drawing the ire ofAfrican-American and West Indian communitiesin the district. Brisport claims to offera more democratic form of growth guided by the local community.

Give more community control, he suggested, pointing to the redevelopment of the Bedford-Union Armory in Crown Heights. Brisport opposes plans to turn the 138,000-square-foot armory into a bonanza for private developers. Instead, he is supporting residents who want to turn the site into a community land trust. Under such a model, land development would be approved by a nonprofit controlled by the local community.

People from the community organize into a non-profit, and then you can turn over the land to them, instead of wealthy developer, he explained. They can choose who they contract out to. Maybe theyll contract out to a non-profit. Ultimately, theyll have final say in the negotiations.

That same spirit of greater localized democracy runs through the entirety of Brisports platform: From expanding participatory budgeting, to requiring police officers to live in the city, to taxing the rich to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth and power.

One of the challenges ofBrisports run for office and for DSA, in general is defining democratic socialism in a way that Americans will embrace it as a mainstream ideology.

You tell somebody socialism without hearing somebody describe it, they automatically think government owns everything, takes away your property, he complained. Its not necessarily thinking about it as government. Its about We The People. Its about having power and agency over how things are guided.

He cited the financial crisis as an example of how a group of elites were able to negatively impact the lives of millions of people without facing democratic accountability.

In 2008, when the banks crashed the economy, we cant vote out the CEOs of those banks, we have no say over those bankers, he noted. However, if an elected official messes up the economy, you can vote them out. You have a say.

A crowd gathers for a New York City Council candidate forum inside the Epiphany Lutheran School in Brooklyn, NY on July 26, 2017.

Photo: Bryan Thomas for The Intercept

One of the obstacles Sanderss presidential campaign faced in his race against Hillary Clinton was the strong loyalty shown by older African-American voters to the establishment of the Democratic Party. The only cohort of the black electorate Sanders won was the youngest. The establishment party candidates also made strong showingsamong these voters of other ethnic backgrounds in races againstpopulists. In his re-election bid, Chicagos Mayor Rahm Emanuel, for instance, counted on strong black support to beat back challenger Chuy Garcia in his Democratic primary. Sanders-backed Tom Perriello suffered from a deficit among black voters in the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary.

For Brisports part, these shortfalls came largely thanksto a coordinated campaign by the partys establishment and the deep Southern tiesheld by Clinton and her husband, the former Arkansas governor President Bill Clinton.

The Democratic Party weaponized identity politics a little bit against Bernie Sanders, he said of last years presidential primary. As soon as he started losing the South, they made this whole thing of him not connecting with black voters. Which is insane. Because like, if Coke was really doing well in the South over Pepsi, nobody would be like, Well, I guess Pepsi is having trouble connecting with black voters!'

However, he also said Sanders should have adjusted his approach to appeal to a wider set of voters. Bernie also is a little bit guilty, he conceded. At some point, he failed to move things outside of an economic lens. I think he was asked this one question at a debate that was like, whats your biggest blind spot as a white person. He said, when youre white you dont know what its like to be poor. I dont know how he got to that conclusion.

I love Bernie. I would vote for him 10 times. But Im not sure what he was going for with that statement, Brisport continued. I think his bigger blinder was seeing so much from an economic lens, when you do need a mixture of an economic approach and an approach toward marginalized groups. When I said weaponized identity politics earlier, I dont mean to say Im anti-identity politics. I understand their role. Its a double-edged sword. Its something to be addressed not something to be used as character assassination.

Brisports criticism matches that of Khalid Kamau, a DSA-backed socialist candidate who won a city council seat in South Fulton, Georgia, in the spring.

I love Bernie, but I think where his campaign failed I dont think this is a personal failure of Bernie, but perhaps of the people that were around him and advising that campaign is that there wasnt enough attention paid to people of color, Kamau told Truthout in March. I am not sure that people of color who were in that campaign were listened to the way they should have been.

New York City Council candidate Jabari Brisport (second from left) meets with constituents following a candidate forum inside the Epiphany Lutheran School in Brooklyn, NY on July 26, 2017.

Photo: Bryan Thomas for The Intercept

Going forward, Brisport believes the best way for democratic socialists to build a truly multi-racial movement is to show up and support communities of every background.

DSA is multi-tendency. Its electoral but also fighting lots of different battles: housing, immigrant justice, climate, labor rights, strike solidarity, education, he explained. What theyve been really great at doing is going into these conflicts where the community is fighting. And not only allying themselves with the local community, but amplifying them and also taking a backseat. Not like coming up and saying, Were DSA, were running this. But also saying how can we amplify what you do?

New York Citys 2,000-member strong DSA chapter has put its money where it mouth is in diversifying the movement. So far, both of the candidates it supports for city council races comes from non-white backgrounds. In addition to Brisport, DSA voted to endorsethe Rev. Khader El-Yateem in his Democratic primary in Brooklyns diverse Bay Ridge neighborhood. El-Yateem is a Palestinian Christian and a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign a bold stance in a city known for its stridently pro-Israel politics.

El-Yateem is Trumps worst nightmare. He supports immigrants, is Arab-American and explicitly refuses to take money from developers, NYC-DSA Co-Chairwoman Rahel Biru said in a statement.

Brisport has seen the difficulties in organizing people of different ethnic backgrounds into one movement firsthand. He pointed to disputes between Caribbean-Americans and Jewish-Americans in Brooklyn over housing as an example.

Theres a general sense in the community that the Jews are buying up the land and controlling everything, he said of complaints hes seen in the Caribbean community. Which is upsetting. He added, Its almost like what I saw Trump do. He saw peoples real concerns about an economy that was failing them and shifting it over to Muslims and Mexicans.

Brisports goal is to end racial infighting and unite his diverse district behind democratic socialism.

What I tell people is gentrification isnt caused by white people, its caused by capitalism, he said. If you de-commodify the land and you take the profit motive away, then we can actually fight against this.

Top photo: Jabari Brisport, a 29-year-old actor-turned-activist-turned-member of the Democratic Socialists of America, poses for a portrait in Brooklyn, NY on July 26, 2017.

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Jabari Brisport Is Running For City Council to Bring Democratic Socialism to Brooklyn - The Intercept

He remembers the early days of hope, when he was working on a weekly newspaper in Birmingham and dreaming of being anywhere else. Then theres the hard times when OCS had no money and were propped up by Steve Craddocks session fees from Paul Weller. There was the overwhelming, zeitgeist-capturing success of Moseley Shoals, a record that sold more than a million copies and put them alongside Oasis and The Verve as one of the most important bands of the times. And, of course, there has been the blur of drink and drugs, of hang-ups and let-downs, of friends and family, of familiar places and places hes known.

When OCS played the Symphony Hall, Foxy was pretty sure he was going to burst into tears. And when they headlined the Town Hall, for an emotional homecoming gig that was released as a DVD, he pretty much did.

Nah, Id trodden on a nail, Foxy deadpans.

Hell be back home for Beyond The Tracks, the Birmingham festival that runs from September 15-17.

Birmingham is one of the places thats always really kind to us. If you go outside the area, a lot of bands think audiences have a tendency to be dull. But Ive never ever found that. I think that opinion says more about the people who think it, than it does about the Birmingham crowds. The Town Hall was a really nice gig. Steve started off on the organ and people were sitting there, all around him. That was a really nice show.

And the Symphony Hall was special because we played with a string quartet. The first night was probably one of the quietest and most disappointing that we did during that set of gigs. It was a Saturday. But the Tuesday one was miles better. We thought it would be the other way round. I remember walking out and thinking I was going to burst into tears. I thought what the hell are we doing here? The Symphony Hall is such a beautiful place.

OCS work when their mojo clicks in, these days, rather than when a record company demands. In recent months, Foxy has been trying to write new songs that will form their 11th album, the first since 2013s Painting. Its an unhurried process thats devoid of the normal deadlines.

Weve had a busy year, with these summer gigs and then with shows planned at the end of the year for Australia and New Zealand and Dubai. But we need to start recording and I need to find time. I write the songs, I always have done. Then the others turn it into OCS. Steve is our musical director.

There are no concessions to modernity when Foxy is writing songs. Though OCS once released an album called One From The Modern and, like Weller, are intrinscially linked with the Mod movement, the songwriting process is distinctly Old Skool.

I sit down with an old Sony tape player, that you would have had for Christmas circa 72, with cassettes. I had to buy a job lot of because I wanst sure how long theyd be about. I got them from Asda Living, in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I play and record and just start. I just see what happens. Sometimes nothing comes and other times a song will come in minutes.

He always feels nervous before he starts, over-thinking and worrying about what might happen. For him, OCS come to life on the stage, rather than in the studio. I think bands start because you want to play to your mates in pubs and impress girls. Then suddenly you find yourselves in the studio. These days, once Ive written the song, I may as well head off down the pub for two days while theyre recording, then come back to do the vocals.

OCS were the apogee of Britpop. When Cool Britannia ruled the waves, no band had the same swagger and street cred, no band looked as smart or partied as hard. A carousel of drink and drugs seemed to spin for years as the band enjoyed five top 10 albums, and became the house band for Chris Evanss TFI Friday.

It was a lot worse than anyone can ever imagine, but it was wonderful.

Those days have gone, however. Yes, no longer. These days, I live in a village near Stratford, where I know everyone and everyone knows me. Were all friends. I spend most of my days reading The Times at the local pub, or with my friends, instead of songwriting, which is probably what I should be doing. The other boys have their own lives and Steves is down in Devon. When we started out, we were a gang. That was one of the greatest things about being in the band.

Foxy remains a roadhog. As much as he likes his village pub, hes never lost his love of a hotel room. And as the band remain popular around the world, particularly Down Under, hell be spending plenty of time in them.

We played Australia and New Zealand for the first time last year and we sold the gigs out in hours. None of us had a clue what it would be like. We didnt know if theyd even heard of us. Were going back and doing bigger places.

I like being on the road. I love hotels. Everyone says it must be a nightmare but its quite good fun. All your rooms are nice, theres a bar and theres nice food what else do you want? When we started saying in decent hotels, Id been used to living in student accommodation in Kings Heath and Moseley. I couldnt believe it, I was staying in rooms where the windows werent broken.

And yet for all of the rocknroll excess, Foxys true home is with an acoustic guitar in a pub, playing songs like Simon and Garfunkels The Boxer. You dont have to be Mick Jagger. A pint on the table, a Neil Young song and an acoustic guitar . . . thats what makes me happy.

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Ocean Colour Scene talk ahead of Birmingham festival appearance - expressandstar.com

America is experiencing an extraordinary episode in the history of manufacturing opinion. Never has there been such focused determination to ruin an American president by the opposition party and the press that supports them.

Why is the Left dedicated to destroying the Trump presidency? Because Trump is the one person who says he wont submit to the world around him. He is the symbol of national sovereignty in the battle with globalism, and a symbol of the sovereignty of individuals We The People in the battle with steroidal expansion of government and government control.

The Left cannot allow the zeitgeist of nationalism or self-determination; a government party barreling toward socialism must quash both wherever they appear. They must cut off Trumps head and stab him to death politically and personally, just as Kathy Griffin and the Shakespeare players did in effigy. The American press, as part of that Leftist movement, is a vital tool in the mission to destroy anything and anyone that threatens their forward motion. That determined destruction clearly centers on the current President and his administration. Turn on network news, pick up a major paper, and there is no denying the collaboration.

Resist, Resist, Resist, they say. But what is the rest of their message? Rise with us to silence those who disagree? Rise to make american leadership less significant in the world? Rise to preserve uncontrolled government expansion and soaring national debt? Rise to redefine our military into an experiment in social engineering rather than a force to protect the nation and its allies? Rise to disdain American values? Rise to remove gender as well as excellence from our lexicon and the lives of our children? Rise to deconstruct the Constitution and ignore Federal law?

All those things were initiated and/or amplified under Barack Obama. Those things and more like them are what the progressive left, dragging silly liberals with them, stands for. The complete rejection of those things and those people by millions of americans gave us the Trump presidency. We can only watch and see which vision prevails, but if there is any hope, it lies in patriotism... in the continued commitment of Americans to personal freedom, and in the vision, personal strength, and determination of Donald Trump.

Hartley Porter

Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

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Letter to the editor: Rallying behind Trump | Opinion ... - South Strand news