Radio Radio: On Donald Tillery, for Metro Connection

Their debut album, 1972

1974 promo shot. Donald TIllery is on the far right.

Donald Tillery, Jan. 25, 2014

I have a story on today's episode of Metro Connection about Donald Tillery, a DC music legend who played with the Soul Searchers for 15 years. He's a fascinating man, and I hope I'll be writing about him again at much greater length this year. You can hear the piece here.

My thanks to DC music historians Eli Meir Kaplan and Kevin Coombes. Eli suggested the story, and Kevin provided insight as well as the promo shot of the Soul Searchers. Eli profiles figures from the city's soul scene on his blog, Soul 51. Kevin's site, DC Soul Recordings, is also indispensable.

Podcast: Young RoboCop, Old RoboCop

RoboCop '14 & RoboCop '87. The original has more gestural flair, and so does the movie he's in.

Thanks to Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl and L.A. Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson for having me on the Voice Film Club podcast this week to talk RoboCop, and to listen in rapt mostly-silence while they discuss Vampire Academy. I've not seen the latter but I certainly will, based on the impression HAHAHAHAHAHAjokes it made on Amy and Alan.

You can hear the episode here. I can't believe I forgot to plug the good RoboCop remake.

The Big Engine That Couldn't: Why RoboCop's Hopeless ED-209 is One of the All-Time Great Movie Robots

Phil Tippett and ED-209. (RoboCop Archive)

Director Paul Verhoeven gives ED-209 his motivation. 1986. (RoboCop Archive)

Smaller in real life, but still pretty damn big. (RoboCop Archive)

You have 20 seconds to comply, and then I will shoot you anyway. (RoboCop Archive)

I saw José Padilha's new remake of Paul Verhoeven's classic sci-fi satire RoboCop the other night. It reminded me of what it feels like when someone with a pleasantly melodic voice covers a song by Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan: It's technically "better" in all the ways that don't matter, and worse in all the ways that count.

I'll be discussing the picture later this week in the first of a series of posts I'm going to be writing for the my pal Linda Holmes over at NPR's Monkey See about... remakes! But first, this little ditty for my man Alan Scherstuhl at the Village Voice, about how the brilliant animator and visual effects artist Phil Tippett created my favorite performance in the 1987 RoboCop: the dysfunctional robot ED-209.

UPDATE: A reader located and sent me a link to the Starlog magazine photo I reference in the piece. And that reader turned out to be Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hiatt, whose stuff I've been reading for years. "Pretty neat," as patrolman Alex Murphy might say.

What's in a name? Easy Money: Hard to Kill, née Snabba Cash II, reviewed.

You messed with the wrong cybernetic lawman, Mr. Pocket Square.

My review of Babak Najafi's Snabba Cash II, the middle chapter of a Swedish crime trilogy, is up today on The Dissolve.

The Motherfucker with the Limp: Folger's Richard III, reviewed.

Drew Cortese is a supervillain for the ages. (Jeff Malet)

No one was more excited than I was when the Folger Theatre announced that Drew Cortese -- a standout player from Studio's The Motherfucker with the Hat last year -- would play Richard III. The show is good, but not the radical reinvention I'd hoped it might be.  Read all about it in today’s Washington City Paper.

Losing My Religion: Mars at Sunrise, reviewed.

Haale Gafori and Ali Suliman in a surreal film inspired by the experiences of Hani Zurob.

My review of Mars at Sunrise, documentarian Jessica Habie's fictionalized account of Palestinian artist Hani Zurob's imprisonment, is up today at The Dissolve.

Fairbrass Knuckles: The Outsider, reviewed.

Flame-Spitting Revolver and Craig Fairbrass co-star in The Outsider.

I had some fun reviewing the dreary revenge/action pic The Outsider, starring a burly Brit with the awesome name of Craig Fairbrass, for The Dissolve.

NOT PICTURED: James Caan, Jason Patric, Shannon "American Pie" Elizabeth.

Mucho Mistrust, Love's Gone Behind: Rorschach's Glassheart, reviewed.

Megan Reichelt and Lynette Rathnam

That's a refrain from Blondie's "Heart of Glass," by the way. Who knew? Not me.

I'm of the opinion that Reina Hardy's spin on Beauty and the Beast, Glassheart, is an undercooked play, but the cast of Rorschach Theatre's production is doing admirable work. My review is in today's Washington City Paper.