Trish is trying to juggle her daughters’ insane extracurricular schedules of dance classes, voice lessons and play practices while making a dent in Heroes of High Tide book two.
Jeremy saw the first pages of his comic. It’s called “I Am the First” and features a gay lead growing up in northern Maine and explores the trauma derived from being different in a small town. When will it be done? It’ll be a while, but they’re making progress.
This Month in Pop-Culture History
- In 1940 Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar for her performance in Gone With The Wind
- 2018 Ryan Coogler’s film adaptation of Black Panther marks the first time a female cinematographer was hired for a film with this size of a budget.
- Levar Burton is born on February 16th. Burton is famous for his roles as Kunta Kinte on the miniseries Roots (his first acting role), Geordi La Forge on Star Trek The Next Generation and for producing the beloved show Reading Rainbow, one of the most successful PBS shows of all time.
For deeper dives into black superheroes you can read these articles:
- Buzz feed article about Black Superheroes
- Greatest black female heroes who are not Storm
- The Evolution of the Black Superhero
- Most Game-Changing Superheroes
Geek Outs
Trish’s Geek Out!
I am geeking out about the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic or SWTOR as it’s lovingly called. I LOVE video games and since my girls monopolize our Nintendo Switch, I tend to play more online MMO’s. I love the role play aspects and the fact that you accumulate a crew as you adventure in the galaxy. Each NPC you encounter is an actual conversation where you have to make choices in how you interact. Each choice has consequences for your light or dark side points and your influence with your companion. There are class-specific storylines that you follow as well as world quests, daily quests, heroics, flashpoints (aka dungeons) PVP and so much more! I could create one character for every class, and have a dozen or so completely different gameplay experiences due to the class storylines ALONE. If you want to check it out, there is a free to play option, it is limiting in terms of the bells and whistles of the game, but gives you a good idea of the core mechanics and gameplay. You can also check out Swtorista, a YouTuber who is THE person to check out for anything and everything about the game. Her videos will give you a good idea of what’s involved.
Check out Swtorista’s YouTube Channel
Jeremy’s Geek Out!
Raising Dion is a superhero show that defies the typical superhero action themes. In a nutshell, the series follows single mom, Nicole and son Dion, a typical story until her son starts to exhibit powers. The best part of the show, the powers are secondary to the family storyline. Alisha Wainright does an amazing job of not only playing the mom, but also a woman navigating life after the death of her husband. Ja’Siah Young does an outstanding job, not only as a young kid trying to navigate the complexities of life, but add some superpowers and now he has a whole new list of problems. This series proves that not all superheroes need to have big budgets or over-the-top battle scenes. The best part, Netflix received Jeremy’s emails and they’ve renewed it for a second season!
Deep Dive (Spoiler Alert)
Fast Color
We are used to large, loud, epic stories when people have powers, not quiet, small stories with depth. This is a sparse, simple story about three generations of women that is felt very deeply.
The world is running low on water and it’s stopped raining. Other than this fact, the movie focuses on Ruth trying to find her way back into her mother and daughter’s life. There is a sense of betrayal, of longing and most of all, a bit of worry about being rejected by the ones you love. There are amazing moments that really emphasize the emotion that has been missing in many stories lately. While not a huge box office hit, it has enough popularity that Amazon is moving forward with a series. Will it answer the cliffhanger at the end of the movie? We can only hope the stories answers some big questions while still focusing on the characters.
Question of the Week:
What non-big-budget and non-action superhero film or series would you recommend?
