PicoBlog

When I was around 20, I went to the legendary/infamous Kappa Beach Party in Galveston, Texas for the first and only time. For those who might be unfamiliar, the Kappa Beach Party, or “The Kappa” as it was also referred to, is a Spring Break-style event curated by the Black Greek letter fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi that coincides with the annual Black Beach Weekend, a rotating series of events that lays claim to being “the livest party” in the South.

Welcome back to my “Black Film Streaming Pick” series, a continuous column about Black films currently available on streaming platforms. If you haven’t already, take a look at my last pick: Leo Hurwitz’s documentary essay about post-War Black America — Strange Victory, which is still available on the Criterion Channel. For this month I decided to highlight an LA Rebellion classic: Billy Woodberry’s bare and affecting film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984) starring Kaycee Moore and Nate Hardman.

Today I’m launching a short summer section of the newsletter ☀️ It’ll go out 4 days a week until the end of August. There are so many small, short social posts I see while digging for news that make me pause — or make me want to say everything. I’ll share one Instagram post, TikTok, Tweet, image, video, or weird emblem on the internet I think you should know about — but keep it short.

At long last, the conclusion to what we started in Black Hammer Reborn is here. Coming August 30th to comic shops, BLACK HAMMER: THE END #1 (of 6) will reveal the fate of Lucy Weber and bring together almost every character that’s appeared in any Black Hammer Universe book! It’s a sprawling, cosmic “event” comic filtered through the Black Hammer lens, and it starts here! Malachi Ward, who co-illlustrated Black Hammer Reborn with the amazing Caitlyn Yarsky, will be handling art duties on this series and he’s doing some fantastic work.

Recently I came across a thought provoking entry by Gabriele de Seta on ‘black technology’ (heikeji 黑科技), a Chinese term used to describe cutting edge and futuristic technologies, so advanced that they defy comprehension. Researching further, I was struck by how commonplace this idea is in Chinese, while it is effectively unknown in English. To be clear, this Chinese term is distinct and separate from ‘black tech’, which examines the intersection of race, technology and oppression.

Let’s focus on Black-capped Chickadees. Don’t roll your eyes, chickadees are special. I restocked my birdseed to gain the privilege of watching these birds each day with my morning coffee. There are few joys akin to hearing an increase of calls and song from chickadees as I go out to fill the feeders. The Black-capped is North America’s most widespread species of chickadee. Their range map is expansive. Much of the northern United States, much of Canada, and a good chunk of Alaska.

You’ve probably driven past Blair’s and not given it a second thought. It’s the little white building on the corner of Rowena and Herkimer, covered in string lights, with an arrow fashioned out of lightbulbs pointing right to the entrance. And despite the inviting aesthetic, I hardly ever meet anyone who’s actually eaten at Blair’s. That’s a shame, considering that this restaurant offers one of the most quaint and cozy dining experiences that you can find on the east side.

The story of how I found Blame! is weird, and only possible because I am terminally online. I was scrolling Reddit and saw a post on the r/worldbuilding subreddit, a community to either talk about worldbuilding or share your own. Well, this guy posted his futuristic megastructure concept he created, and it was… something: “This image isn’t Blame! yet. Please don’t click out…” If you’re as much of a critical thinker as say, a 10-year-old child, you might blurt the following observations:

This month the Criterion Collection is showcasing a set of movies they’re calling “Beyond Blaxploitation.” It features 15 films, mostly from the early to mid 1970s, and highlights a number of iconic Blaxploitation flicks like Shaft (plus its lesser sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!), Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Across 110th Street, and several of others. The thing is.. I watched these movies. I watched quite a few of the movies in this collection, as well as other Blaxploitation movies not on the Criterion list.