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In progress: Capturing Donald Glover dance in This Is America video. Using Macintosh SE computer, MacPaint software & MacroMind software. Currently: 375 frames.

A post shared by Pinot (@pinot) on Jul 4, 2018 at 4:18pm PDT

New York City animator and illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi (aka @pinot) is currently animating Childish Gambino's "This is America" music video in MacPaint (software from 1984) and MacroMind VideoWorks (1985) on a Macintosh SE. On Thursday, he was 375 frames in. He's been sharing his progress on Twitter since June 9:

Trying to capture Donald Glover’s motion in MacPaint. pic.twitter.com/gL7JErrJpN

— Wahyu Ichwandardi (@pinot) June 9, 2018

Synchronizing. pic.twitter.com/7GgGFn4Htz

— Wahyu Ichwandardi (@pinot) June 18, 2018

MacPaint doesn't have layers for onion skin drawing. But at least it has copy paste o/ pic.twitter.com/97fKtf0FFX

— Wahyu Ichwandardi (@pinot) June 10, 2018

https://twitter.com/pinot/status/10099711558040084498 Read the rest

Nigerian rapper Falz created This Is Nigeria, a parody of This Is America that switched out lyrics and imagery for social ills in his country: machete-wielding gangs, codeine use, internet scammers, and much more. Read the rest

Today I learned that Donald Glover got his rapper name Childish Gambino from this online Wu-Tang Clan name generator. It's not new news (though the info was new to me, and perhaps to you as well), as he mentions it in this 2016 Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussion. He says, "If I had known it was going to be something for real, I wouldn't have used it."

Thanks, Robin! Read the rest

Last Saturday, Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) unleashed "This is America" on the world. In just this one week, the controversial video has already garnered over 95 million views and has ignited quite a conversation about it.

Now a YouTuber named LOTI has set the first part of the video to Carly Rae Jepsen's 2012 earworm "Call Me Maybe" and... it syncs up well, really well. See for yourself.

Believe me, I wanted to hate it but I can't, not completely. I saw the link in a friend's feed and immediately thought, "Too soon."

Early last week, I watched and re-watched the original video to see what it was all about, to really understand its message. Then, I read nearly every article written about it that I could find, including Cory's take on it.

He writes, in part:

The video is extraordinary on many levels: filled with subtle and overt references to gun violence, racism and inequality; beautifully directed by Hiro Murai; expressively choreographed and superbly danced by Glover and his collaborators.

The lyrics are likewise extraordinary, as is Glover's delivery, with long pauses and melodic breaks counterpointed with flat, chanted refrains.

But the truth is, and feel free to disagree with me, throwing some pop-fluff on top of something so serious not only brings some levity, but shines its original message even brighter. Or, are we trivializing it already, focusing only on the Glover's moves?

The line it walks is a fine one, for sure.

Childish Gambino's U.S. Read the rest

Since Donald "Childish Gambino" Glover debuted his single "This Is America" on last week's Saturday Night Live, the song and its accompanying video have raced around the internet, sparking analyses and arguments. Read the rest

I grew up watching Star Wars. I was bought Star Wars toys for Christmas. I had Star Wars sheets on my bed. At some point, those sheets were made into a quilt that I proudly took along with me to university. Despite having science fiction bed clothes, I still managed to have a respectable amount of sex during my four-year degree program.  I love Star Wars!

But I'm kinda worried about what Solo: A Star Wars Story is gonna be like.

What I've seen of the movie, so far, has me less than excited for the film. I say this, having loved The Force Awakens and Rogue One. I enjoyed The Last Jedi as well. They felt like a part of the same universe that I've been immersed in my entire life. But the way this trailer for Solo is cut along with the other trailer for the film, has me worried. Watch this thing and tell me that you couldn't remove Han, Lando and Chewie out of the story and still have the same damn movie. It looks and feels like every heist movie and every sci-fi film I've seen over the past few decades.

Don't get me wrong: I'll still go and see it. Alden Ehrenreich's turn in Hail Caesar is one of the funniest things that I've ever seen:

Will he be believable as Han Solo? I don't know. But I feel like I want to give him the chance to fill Harrison Ford's massive boots. Donald Glover? Read the rest