Discovery #22

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010)

Erykah Badu makes the list this year and she could probably be on it every year because her music is just so damn sexy. Badu is the queen of groove, the maestro of funk and the kerouac of beatitude. With a smooth sweetness she gives us her heart, so big and full, expanding the limits of love and pushing us to such great heights. There are very few artists today that seem to put so much energy into creating positive musical karma and that is exactly what drives Ms. Badu. I'm sincerely looking forward to the New Amerykah as it plays out in our lives. There is no mistake that this country is in dire need of change and I'm all on board with Badu's brand of patriotism. Chapter Two has brought a gentle sway and a heavenly version of hope. May it become a permanent part of the landscape around here.


Extract - Mike Judge (2009)

Mike Judge has become one of the greatest comic minds of our generation. First he gave us Beavis and Butthead (see below) when we were apathetic twenty-year-olds who didn't know how to express our generational disdain for all that splashed across our teevees with phony abandon. Then he split open the cubicle walls with Office Space and gave us some relief from the boredom of our mundane and pointless existence inside corporate amerika. Then he dropped Idiocracy on us, so goddamn farcical and outrageous, but every ounce of it bearing bittersweet truth. Now, as we reach for our forties, he brings us the folly of our further adventures in the land of the red-white-and-blue: small business ownership. Enter Jason Bateman (a familiar face from our youth, of course), the owner of an extract designing plant, just a small dream for one of those who believes in the land of opportunity. Yet, somehow nothing ever plays out with the dignified grace of those Rockefeller ambitions. Through all the madness that occurs in the lives of the wacky characters in this film, Mr. Bateman must finally rediscover what truly matters in this life (something we attempt to do every day in ours). One thing is very clear here, Mike Judge sure knows how to write wonderfully wacky characters and in the hands of a mere mortal director, this movie just wouldn't have the stamina but in his capable grip, Judge gives us an incredibly entertaining film. If anything, this movie is worth watching just to see Gene Simmons (yes, that guy from Kiss), who plays an ambulance chasing lawyer, yell at our hero and offer a way out of all his problems. The only catch is that his "generous" solution involves Bateman's family jewels and a slamming door.