After spending the better part of a decade documenting the everyday lives of the artists, community leaders, producers and family members that make up Houston's influential hip-hop community, photographer Peter Beste and author Lance Scott Walker are finally seeing their new book,Houston Rap, hit the shelves.
If Beste's previous book project is any indication — he shot the excellent True Norwegian Black Metal, wherein Carpathian Forest's Nattefrost was captured smearing himself with his own excrement just moments after he smoked heroin, among other indelible images — we can be assured that his photographs will show the legends of the Dirty South in all their guts and glory.
We can be assured that Beste's photographs will show the legends of the Dirty South in all their guts and glory.
Beste and Walker did their work in now-legendary neighborhoods the Fifth Ward, the Third Ward and South Park, taking account of the cultures and conditions under which not only Houston hip-hop but fundamental and distinctive aspects of Southern rap as a whole — including its outsider, community-based business model — developed and thrived.
Alongside the likes of performers Bun B, Big Mike, Willie D, Lil' Troy and Paul Wall, as well as late legends including DJ Screw, Pimp C and Big Hawk, Houston Rap profiles the influential community that artists were immersed in and gives the scene its proper place in the American pop-culture canon.
The authors accomplish this in no small part with the inclusion of a timeline that covers the history of Houston rap music from the beginning of the 20th century. Many of Beste's images of the contemporary Houston scene, which have not been exhibited or published before, are included as well.
As the photographer recently told The Source, "We made an effort to present a larger picture rather than just focus on typical rap/hip-hop topics. We purposely reached out to those who are aware of how these communities have been historically overlooked and even directly targeted by ‘the powers that be’ in an effort to keep them subservient and unable to fight back.”
From Houston Rap by Peter Beste and Lance Scott Walker
Photo by Peter Beste
From Houston Rap by Peter Beste and Lance Scott Walker
For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.
The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).
Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.
Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.
The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.
Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.
A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.
There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.
