Star Trek fans have been curious since it was announced that Quentin Tarantino will be directing a new film in the franchise. What would the director of violent films such as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015) do to the beloved series? Now, Nerdist presents a short preview for how they imagine the new film will look.
The trailer features a narrator over scenes from the original series. It also includes a guitar soundtrack that sounds right out of Pulp Fiction (1994).
In Nerdist’s imagination, the Tarantino film will feature Captain Kirk and the rest of the gang blazing their way through the universe with guns and punches. Do not want to cross this crew.
Check out the funny trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek: Voyage to Vengeance. “Set your phasers to thrill!”
As of now, the upcoming Star Trek film, which will be written by Mark L. Smith who wrote The Revenant (2015), does not have a release date.
What is your favorite Star Trek film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon was born in Chicago on January 24, 1947. He was one-of-a kind, and could blend his dark humor, important themes, and music better than anyone else before or since.
Throughout his career, he crossed paths with other legends in various ways. While he was starting out in the early 1970s, he toured with the Everly Brothers as a piano player and music coordinator. In the mid-1970s, he lived with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. And in 1976 Jackson Browne produced Zevon’s major-label debut album, entitled Warren Zevon.
He continued to connect with other talented and legendary musicians and artists throughout his career. Later in his career, he became a regular guest and substitute bandleader on Late Show with David Letterman.
His debut album included classics such as “Carmelita” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” While he never received the success he deserved, he continued to record wonderful songs such as “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and “Werewolves of London.”
Some of his most memorable work came on his final album, The Wind. Zevon created the album after doctors had diagnosed him with pleural mesothelioma. Zevon knew the cancer was killing him, but he wanted to create one last work of art. A number of musicians who admired Zevon’s work came to the studio to help out. Guests included Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Dwight Yoakam, Billy Bob Thornton, Emmylou Harris, and Tom Petty.
The album was released on August 26, 2003. Zevon died at his home in Los Angeles on September 7, 2003 at the age of 56. The Wind, which featured songs such as “Keep Me In Your Heart,” went gold and won two Grammys.
What is your favorite Warren Zevon song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One ridiculous aspect about comments made by President Donald Trump regarding his preference for immigrants from Norway over immigrants from Haiti and some other African nations is the debate about his language. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Senator David Perdue of Georgia, who attended the Oval Office meeting, defend the president by using a bit of linguistic legerdemain.
While reliable sources confirm that Trump referred to Haiti and other countries as “shithole countries,” Trump’s allies have raised an interesting defense. Cotton and Perdue supported Trump by denying the president said the word. But apparently the basis for their defense is that Trump actually said “shithouse countries.”
Others may debate whether it is more or less racist to have used one term over the other. But it is clear that politics is at a low level when you have elected Senators even making such an argument to suck up to this president.
The incident, however, probably is not a new low for politics. Just considering Cotton’s record, one sees a man whose loyalty to ideology often trumps traditional notions of national service. For example, during his first year in the Senate in 2015, Cotton organized other Senators to undermine President Barack Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran through a letter to the government of a foreign country.
Cotton also worked to prevent the confirmation of a highly qualified African-American woman to be the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas because she was friends with President Obama. The nominee, Cassandra Butts, had a distinguished career when she was nominated for a position that needed to be filled.
After a hearing about Butts’s nomination in May 2014, Cotton put a hold on her confirmation. He later told her that he was doing it because he knew she had been friends with President Obama since law school. And he wanted to hurt the president. Butts spent the last 835 days of her life waiting for the confirmation before she died of acute leukemia.
“Cotton Fields”
For something nicer, when I think of rotten cotton, I go back to the classic song “Cotton Fields.”
Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten, You can’t pick very much cotton In them old cotton fields back home.
Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, wrote “Cotton Fields.” He recorded it in 1940.
A number of famous artists have covered the song, including Odetta, Harry Belafonte, the Beach Boys, and Johnny Cash. But my favorite cover version is the one by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
The CCR version is the one I grew up listening to. It appeared on their 1969 album Willy and the Poor Boys.
“Cotton Fields” is a wonderful song that people still enjoy more than seventy-five years after it was first recorded. By contrast, seventy-five years from now, nobody will probably remember how a man named Cotton tried to ingratiate himself to a president based on a distinction between “shithole” and “shithouse.”
Photo of cotton fields via Creative Commons and Kimberly Vardeman. What is your favorite version of “Cotton Fields”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chimesfreedom previously wrote about Tyler Childers’ wonderful voice on his excellent debut album Purgatory(2017). The Kentucky native is not only an outstanding songwriter, he is great at interpreting songs too. And his interpretation skills show in his take on “Rock Salt and Nails,” which was written by Utah Phillips.
As we noted in a previous post, the Phillips classic is a song about heartache and pain. Then, it adds a touch of anger with the reference to filling a shotgun with rock salt and nails.
“Rock Salt and Nails” has been covered by a number of artists, such as Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, Bob Dylan, Steve Young, and Buddy and Julie Miller. The version by Tyler Childers is a worthy interpretation that stands with the best. And it is one of my new favorite covers. Check it out.
What is your favorite Tyler Childers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
For singer-songwriter-activist Joan Baez’s January 9 birthday, watch a wonderful live television performance from 1965.
Singer-songwriter-activist Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York. In many ways, Baez is the voice of the 1960s. She started out as an important part of the folk movement in the early part of that decade, recording many popular songs throughout the decade. And in 1969, she performed at Woodstock.
Baez also became one of the early and most vocal artists working for social justice issues. She continues to be a voice for important causes. For example, she marched next to Martin Luther King, Jr. and went to jail for supporting the draft resistance. And, she sang in the first Amnesty International tour.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Baez is still making music and doing other important work as she nears the end of her professional career. On April 7, 2017, Jackson Browne inducted her into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During her induction speech, she noted the current political climate and made the following appeal to the people:
“Where empathy is failing and sharing has been usurped by greed and the lust for power, let us double, triple, and quadruple our own efforts to empathize and to give of our resources and our selves. Let us together repeal and replace brutality, and make compassion a priority. Together let us build a great bridge, a beautiful bridge to once again welcome the tired and the poor, and we will pay for that bridge with our commitment.
“We the people must speak truth to power, and be ready to make sacrifices. We the people are the only one who can create change. I am ready. I hope you are, too. I want my granddaughter to know that I fought against an evil tide, and had the masses by my side.”
“When all of these things are accompanied by music, music of every genre, the fight for a better world, one brave step at a time, becomes not just bearable, but possible, and beautiful.”
For 2018, Baez has planned the “Fare Thee Well Tour 2018.” And in 2018, she also plans to release her first album since 2008 when she released Day After Tomorrow. Joe Henry is producing the new album, Whistle Down The Wind.
1965 Live Performance
Celebrate Baez’s birthday by going back to 1965 as you watch her perform a televised concert that year. June 5, 1965, she performed at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, London. Watching her perform does make the world a little more bearable and beautiful.
> What is your favorite Joan Baez song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
. Zevon created the album after doctors had diagnosed him with 
.
(2017). The Kentucky native is not only an outstanding songwriter, he is great at interpreting songs too. And his interpretation skills show in his take on “Rock Salt and Nails,” which was written by Utah Phillips.
. Joe Henry is producing the new album, Whistle Down The Wind.
