http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icRw7DWPchE

The 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick “Commando” is narrated–“shot for shot”–by a 9-year old Tanzanian boy. (The video is is part of a campaign by a US-based NGO; forget the politics, just indulge in the joy of children). Via Boing Boing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pedMB8zM2BQ The “internet stand-up comedian” Kassem G talks to beach goers in Venice Beach, California, about what’s going in Egypt. Some sample responses: “The one with the Cairo river and the pyramids?” “We’re going to war with Egypt?” Via Konwomyn.

The Chicago-born jazz musician Matana Roberts, performing live in London late last year. If you don’t take our word, here, here and here are some mainstream endorsements. In the video she is accompanied by Robert Mitchell (piano), Tom Mason (bass) and Seb Rochford (drums). H/T Greg Tate

The trailer for “Black Butterflies,” the new Dutch film about the 1960s Afrikaans writer, Ingrid Jonker, is out. Jonker came to prominence when Nelson Mandela at his inauguration as South Africa’s first democratic president, quoted her poem, “Die Kind” [The Child]. She committed suicide in 1965. The film which covers Jonker’s affairs with publisher Jack […]

This is from a minute ago, but I had to post it as it features part of my neighborhood. Wright, actor and unassuming Fort Greene, Brooklyn, resident (that’s also my neighborhood) reads his favorite Walt Whitman poem (from his blackberry) in front of the Walt Whitman Houses on Myrtle Avenue in the neighborhood. The reading […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwrpX3wMD2o The music video for a new song by Nigerian rapper/R&B singer D’Banj featuring Snoop Dogg that went online yesterday. The usual quota of hired cars, half-dressed models and money rolls follow the two showmen. The song title is a form of high poetry: “So Endowed.”  Is this male fantasy, “The New Black Atlantic“?  Commenters […]

http://vimeo.com/19132287 Video of the Burnt Sugar Arkestra performing live January 21, 2011, in New York City. Source.

[vodpod id=Video.5523753&w=500&h=411&fv=file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Ffr.player-feed.previewnetworks.com%2Fv3.1%2Fcinema%2F5444%2F331100125-1%2F] Director Pascale Lamche’s got some help from Peter Mukurube (that’s him putting Sepp Blatter on the spot in the video), Anas Aremeyaw Anas and ‘Basile’ for her new documentary Black Diamond: Fool’s Gold. From the press release: It’s an old story: in the past, it was known as the slave trade, now it’s […]

[vodpod id=Video.5351396&w=500&h=411&fv=endpoint%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fvideo%2F2011%2Fjan%2F12%2Fbritish-sea-power-live-session-control-video%2Fjson] It must be the moment. British band British Sea Power’s anti-privatization pop song, “Who’s in Control.”