Well, well, well. It has been awhile since we’ve had a big-budget movie about us with name, AB, actors. It’s Music Within, opening in limited release October 26, 2007. You can see the trailer athttp://www.musicwithinmovie.com/ The plot is about the creation of the ADA. From the trailer I actually am kind of excited. The movie […]
A friend and colleague has his antenna out for disability-related songs since we talked about our music explorations. (He’s fascinated by the use of anthems — both contemporary and historical — and how they connect.) He pointed me to an Alt-Country song, “We Can’t Make It Here Any More” by James McMurtry and a video […]
El Cochecito (The Little Coach) is a new dark comedy with disability and freedom at its center. It’s being shown at the diTHIS! Film Series. The Series showcases films on disability that you probably won’t see anywhere else. The description for El Cochecito says it is, “a dark comedy about an old man who would […]
Another one! Disabled artists are everywhere. Our local PBS station aired a documentary, “Man on Fire,” about Jose Clemente Orozco. He was a muralist and contemporary and rival to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo’s husband. Towards the end of his life he became more famous than Diego. The interesting aspect is how his disability affected his […]
It’s something. I was checking out the Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 CD compiled by Lenny Kaye. The CD pulls together bands that are just pre-psychedelic and are often called garage bands. It’s was influential in the punk era and beyond. Anyway, the Elastic Band has a song on the CD, […]
According to a New York Times story (registration needed) Teruo Ishii’s 1969 “Horrors of Malformed Men” has been reissued. I’ve never heard of it, which is not surprising as I don’t see very many non-mainstream movies these days. Unlike when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I thought nothing of driving forty-five […]
This morning in our local paper, the Press Democrat, a columnist said, talking about the invitees for an upcoming community supper, “The idea is that folks wealthy and poor, native-born and immigrant, able-bodied and disabled…will sit and visit… .” I wrote to thank the columnist, Chris Coursey. When I read the column I was struck […]
For the second time this week I’ve seen reference to how someone’s disability helped to make a new product or song. This is the exact opposite of the super crip or the overcomer. It shows a reality that I know. When you’ve got a disability you have to be inventive. The first is Doc Pomus, […]
from a disability perspective.Archives Sunday, August 12, 2007 Old AttitudesThe word amputees and surfing in an LA Times headline on my newsreader caught my eye this morning. It was a nice, little feel-good piece on veterans with recent amputations going surfing. A swimsuit manufacturer sponsored a weekend to teach them how to surf. Just as […]
I’ve been fascinated by the wheelchair fashion of a number of our locals. Two necessary items they use to decorate their power chairs or scooters are American flags in different configurations and an orange signal flag. Interesting, yes, but not a fashion I necessarily subscribe to. Well, perhaps that might change if the writers to […]