Don’t fawk with Texas ! A notice ‘warning’ residents about Afro-american youth was posted up at a Houston apartment complex. You can be sure the flyer ticked more than a few people off! According to The Grio : The Houston Chronicle reported that the notice, which was posted in the Rock Springs Apartments laundry room, read, “We ask you to please contact the office immediately every time you see teenagers or adolescents of Afro-American race or any other suspicious people in the property.” It was posted in English and Spanish, since the majority of the complex’s tenants are Hispanic. DeLoyd Parker, of S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, called on the Houston Housing Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate the incident. “It’s typical of racist views constantly perpetuated by people who just don’t want people of color to be a part of their experience,” Parker said. According to the apartment complex, the notice is fake. When shown a photo of the sign, the apartment leasing employee said she had no knowledge of the notice and that “someone must have put it there.” K.K. Singh, a person who identifies as the complex’s property manager, wrote in an e-mail, “We are always careful what kind of notices we put out. Our notices are always dated and signed. You should be assured that this notice was never posted by our office. It appears someone has successfully fabricated it and been able to attract the attention of the media and take away their precious time from other momentous issues.” Deric C. Muhammad, of the Houston Ministry of Justice, said the notice is “indicative of a mindset that causes black teens to be racially profiled, not only by apartment complexes, but by convenience store owners and others.” He urged African-American families living in the apartments to “get the hell out of there as soon as possible.” Shelby Stewart, the chairman of the Coalition to Defend Civil Rights and Human Dignity, called the notice “tragic.” “It’s just depressing whenever I see racism rear its ugly head,” she said. “It’s tragic because crimes are committed by blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians, but they have singled out a race of people.” GTFOHWTBS!!! Do you think this was a bogus notice or is the Property Manager trying to cover isht up?? Images via tumblr
Don’t fawk with Texas ! A notice ‘warning’ residents about Afro-american youth was posted up at a Houston apartment complex. You can be sure the flyer ticked more than a few people off! According to The Grio : The Houston Chronicle reported that the notice, which was posted in the Rock Springs Apartments laundry room, read, “We ask you to please contact the office immediately every time you see teenagers or adolescents of Afro-American race or any other suspicious people in the property.” It was posted in English and Spanish, since the majority of the complex’s tenants are Hispanic. DeLoyd Parker, of S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, called on the Houston Housing Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate the incident. “It’s typical of racist views constantly perpetuated by people who just don’t want people of color to be a part of their experience,” Parker said. According to the apartment complex, the notice is fake. When shown a photo of the sign, the apartment leasing employee said she had no knowledge of the notice and that “someone must have put it there.” K.K. Singh, a person who identifies as the complex’s property manager, wrote in an e-mail, “We are always careful what kind of notices we put out. Our notices are always dated and signed. You should be assured that this notice was never posted by our office. It appears someone has successfully fabricated it and been able to attract the attention of the media and take away their precious time from other momentous issues.” Deric C. Muhammad, of the Houston Ministry of Justice, said the notice is “indicative of a mindset that causes black teens to be racially profiled, not only by apartment complexes, but by convenience store owners and others.” He urged African-American families living in the apartments to “get the hell out of there as soon as possible.” Shelby Stewart, the chairman of the Coalition to Defend Civil Rights and Human Dignity, called the notice “tragic.” “It’s just depressing whenever I see racism rear its ugly head,” she said. “It’s tragic because crimes are committed by blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians, but they have singled out a race of people.” GTFOHWTBS!!! Do you think this was a bogus notice or is the Property Manager trying to cover isht up?? Images via tumblr
SMH @ these guys killing this man for a Chrysler 300: Family and friends say a beloved minister was murdered Saturday in northwest Harris County, and now they need the community’s help to find the people who killed him. It happened around 1:30am at the Shadow Ridge Apartments in the 12200 block of Old Walters Road in north Harris County. Investigators identified the victim as 21-year-old Desmond Jones. He ministered and played music at several local churches and was well known in the Houston church community. According to Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Jones returned to the apartment complex after making a run for fast food. As he was parking, the suspects approached him and shot him twice — once in the head, officials said. The suspects reportedly stole the car Jones was driving and left him bleeding on the ground. He was transported by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Jones is survived by his wife and two young daughters. They were inside their home asleep when the shooting happened. Friends and relatives tell us the wife may even heard the gunshots. “She’s hurting but she’s doing well,” Pastor Chris Edwards said. A prayer vigil was held Saturday evening at the spot where he was killed. About 50 people gathered there, asking for the public’s help in finding the two men behind Jones’ murder. “We’re dealing with an innocent man losing his life at the hands of perpetrators who must be caught,” Bishop James Dixon said. The stolen vehicle is a silver 2012 Chrysler 300 sedan with chrome rims and Texas license plate number DS1-L815. The suspects are described only as black males. If you spot the vehicle, consider its occupants armed and dangerous.
There’s no script, no budget and no confirmed Charles Grodin to complement the “buddy” part of the “buddy comedy” formula that worked so well 24 years ago, but that’s not stopping the zeitgeist from panicking over the current state of Midnight Run 2 . To wit, Brett Ratner is now linked up as the director. Like we’ve never heard that before . Everybody calm down! Not that it doesn’t get somewhat worse, as Mike Fleming reports at Deadline: The studio and [De Niro’s production company] Tribeca put the wheels in motion on the sequel early last year, when they hired Tim Dowling to write a draft. [David] Elliot & [Paul] Lovett, who were writers on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , and are working on the sequel to Four Brothers (which they also scripted) will continue the storyline of Walsh, the ex-Chicago cop who, when last seen, set free the turncoat mob accountant The Duke at LAX and walked away with a wad of cash he’d use to open a coffee shop. So, yeah: Still early. Anyway, to recap, De Niro played bounty hunter Walsh and Grodin played Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas in the 1988 film, which was written with such profane, caustic fervor by George Gallo and directed by Martin Brest in his follow-up to Beverly Hills Cop . All of which raises a few questions: Would the retired Grodin reprise his role? (He’s said he’s open to it, but he’s also 77 next month and doesn’t exactly need the paycheck.) What is it with Ratner wanting sequels to Brest classics? (If it’s not Beverly Hills Cop 4 , then it’s Midnight Run 2 . Just give him Son of Gigli already and let’s be done with it!) And can Elliot and Lovett find a place for Yaphet Kotto to return as well? Because there is no Midnight Run 2 without perpetually vexed FBI agent Alonso Mosley delivering some serious comeuppance. [ Deadline ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Despite the late addition of “Redemption” to the title of The Raid , there’s little to no atonement to be had in this stripped-down action movie. These characters are not here to have some kind of emotional journey, they’re here to kick ass. And so much ass is kicked over The Raid ‘s 100 minutes that viewers may feel a little bruised themselves upon exiting, for the most part in a good way — this is a film that serves as a remind of just how wonderfully cinematic violence can be. Written and directed by the Welsh Gareth Evans but set in and populated with actors from Indonesia, The Raid takes place, with the exception of an introductory sequence, entirely inside a decrepit 15-story apartment building in Jakarta. It’s owned by Tama (Ray Sahetapy), an underworld boss who’s set up the structure as a safe house for criminals and drug addicts who rent rooms there when they need to hide out — the cops won’t go near it. That suggests the mission on which our hero Rama (Iko Uwais) and the rest of his elite police force have been sent has more to it than just clean-up — though when the question is asked of why now, it’s quickly dismissed. Armed and under the command of the no-nonsense Jaka (Joe Taslim), the team methodically makes its way up from floor to floor, cuffing room occupants and securing each level, until they’re spotting by a kid who sounds the alarm, and all hell breaks loose. Tama, flanked by his two lieutenants Andi (Doni Alamsyah) and Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian), gets on the intercom to tell his tenants they’ll have free rent for life if they take care of the invaders. Guys with guns spring out of the apartments lining each long hall, and the film becomes a maelstrom of automatic weapons, machetes and elbows to the face. Uwais, whom Evans discovered while shooting a documentary about the indigenous Indonesian martial art pencak silat , is handsome and stolid and unlikely to win any major acting awards in the near future. But he does have a certain screen charisma and, once he gets moving, he’s an impossible and impressive blur of motion. Many of the fight sequences showcase the brisk efficiency of Uwais’s deadliness, as he works his way along a whole hallway full of men trying to kill him, leaving them battered or lifeless with some well-placed blows to the kneecaps or head. After the initial culling of the cops via sniper rifles and machine guns, The Raid: Redemption sets aside firearms in favor of fists and blades and lets fight scenes play out rather than chopping them to bits in the annoying recent style of shooting action. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Evans has actual trained martial artists at his disposal and doesn’t have to cut around actors who are replaced at key moments by stunt doubles. And they’re not all of the same school — Taslim, for instance, is a Judo medalist. While Uwais, whose character is devout and incorruptible and has a pregnant wife at home and another family member in the wind, is unquestionably the star, Ruhian, as his most deadly antagonist, steals the show. His character’s introduced as a bloodthirsty enforcer, but is noticeably smaller than everyone else on screen. It’s not until he orders Jaka into a secluded room in order to kill him in hand-to-hand combat (he puts the gun away, saying “these take away the rush”) that we get to see him in action, and he doesn’t seem constrained by normal forces of gravity. The movie takes a discernible pleasure in his two big fight scenes, letting them play out at almost decadent but fully deserved lengths. There’s a sliver of a plot to The Raid , but it’s really not worth going over — when the characters pause to talk, which is rare, it does tend to kill the film’s momentum. That’s not to say it’s all hallway battles and fire fights; one of the cleverest bits has two characters hiding in a tight crawlspace while a baddie idly jabs his machete through the thin wall, and another involves the men breaking through the battered floor of an apartment to get away from gunmen at the door. Set to a score from Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, The Raid ‘s wall-to-wall action eventually gets a little repetitive — watching guys get their heads slammed into walls does start to lose its impact, no pun intended — but the film’s use of its space is never dull. It gets an entertaining element out of the juxtaposition of shabby domesticity with outrageous action, with one escape depending on an explosive inside a refrigerator. Staircases, elevators, atriums — the film may be set in one location, but it appears to make use of every nook and cranny of that setting. And while there’s a video-game quality to the way it proceeds in stages, leveling up, retreating and acquiring new objectives, at its heart The Raid is strictly old school, a film that gets a lot of glee out of the physical capabilities of its cast and their capacity to wreak havoc. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘She can probably do anything she wants,’ ‘Paparazzi’ and ‘Telephone’ director tells us at SXSW. By Kara Warner Lady Gaga Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage After the mostly positive reviews of Lady Gaga ‘s first music-video directorial effort on “Marry the Night” . It’s fair to assume that we fans can expect more Gaga-directed clips in the near future. When MTV News caught up with her “Paparazzi” and “Telephone” director Jonas
Folks need to be more careful with their narcotics…especially with babies in the house: Three people were charged after police said a toddler ingested some marijuana at their Goshen home. Officers said Joshua Smallwood and his parents, William and Kimberly Smallwood, brought the 2-year-old boy to Children’s Hospital because they said he was acting abnormally. They said the boy kept falling asleep and could not stay awake. The child tested positive for marijuana, doctors said, and a nurse called police. Tests showed the boy had eaten the marijuana, doctors said. Police said William Smallwood and his son admitted to occasionally smoking marijuana, but they said they did not smoke in the house.Officer said they found a small amount of marijuana at their Country Lake Apartments home, which police said was filthy and not fit for a child to live in. William and Joshua Smallwood were charged with drug possession and child endangering, and Kimberly Smallwood was charged with child endangering. The elder Smallwood was convicted last year of aggravated drug trafficking. The boy was hospitalized for several days but recovered, and he’s staying with other relatives. Police said other children were in the home at the time, and two other people may be charged. Source
Image courtesy of Griffon The French furniture company Griffon was established in 1848 and spent the next century making conventional products for churches and private homes. But in the 1960s, Griffon turned to creating furniture for an increasingly urban population, as the French moved out of the countryside into cities, and into smaller homes. Today, the company is still doing it, and offers an impressive catalog of folding beds, from the simple to the majestic. Folding a bed into your furniture never looked so good…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
Rapper charged with three counts of misdemeanor battery after a tussle with security. By Jayson Rodriguez Too Short Photo: Boise Police Department Bay Area rapper Too Short was arrested and charged with three counts of misdemeanor battery Thursday morning (July 15) stemming from an incident in an Idaho nightclub. According to police records, the 44-year-old MC (real name: Todd Shaw) was released after posting bail and is scheduled to return to court August 4. Another man was also charged in the incident, which the Idaho Statesman is reporting as a fight with security workers who attempted to stop the rapper and his associate from inviting underage women to the backstage area. Short performed at the Boise Knitting Factory on Wednesday night as part of a lineup that also included E-40 and Mack 10. After his performance, the rapper and his associate, who was charged with two counts of battery, reportedly were involved in a tussle with club security, eyewitnesses told police after the gentlemen warned Too Short about his behavior. Police were called to the scene and took the two men into custody. If Too Short is found guilty of all charges, he could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. As of press time, Too Short nor a representative for the rapper could be reached for comment. Related Artists Too Short
‘It’s a nod to how much work goes into making it feel like a scripted show,’ Adam DiVello explains to MTV News. By Jocelyn Vena Brody Jenner in the finale of “The Hills” Photo: MTV After six seasons, marked by streams of mascara-stained tears and countless barbecues, “The Hills” finally bowed for good on Tuesday. But instead of playing it straight, the last few moments of the series cleverly addressed years of rumors about the reality show’s, well, realness, by panning out to reveal that Kristin’s goodbye with Brody had been filmed on a Hollywood backlot. And although some “Hills” fans have taken issue with the surreal ending, creator Adam DiVello said he was just going for a “wink.” “We had joked early on about different ways to do kind of a wink to whether it was real or not,” DiVello admitted to MTV News. “There were a lot of ideas thrown around, from even Lauren waking up and this whole thing was a dream, which would have been a little ‘Newhart,’ ” he revealed. “We had come up with a bunch of ideas, and then I had this idea to focus it on the Hollywood sign and really just kind of incorporate Hollywood into the ending of it. Our show’s one that’s based in Hollywood, and these kids live, work and play here and never, never really kind of acknowledged in the series that Hollywood is where shows are made.” Of course, that final shot had some fans wondering if it was confirmation from the show itself that what they’d been watching all these years was fiction. But DiVello argued that it confirms the opposite. “It’s a nod to how much work goes into making it feel like a scripted show,” he said. “When we set out to make the show, it was a reality show without the conventions of a reality show. When we showed up to Paramount that day we kind of walked Brody through it, and he was shocked,” DiVello recalled of shooting the finale. “I believe Kristin kind of started to cry a little bit. I think she was surprised when she showed up as well. We had a great time. [Viewers wondered,] ‘Were these things shot on soundstages or were they shot in their apartments?’ But I think everyone knows it was a reality show, obviously. So would he change anything about that ending? “I think it was great. I think we did tie up some stories with the cast and I think, ultimately, not only myself, but the people that work on my team and I think the network and I think America wants to see the kids happy,” he said. “And I think it showed that. You always want to leave the audience wondering what happens next. At the end of the day we were telling stories. I hope people leave it [as] a fun, six-season trip to California,” he said of the “Hills” legacy. “I hope they leave with fond memories of it. We make this show for the fans.” Do you feel any differently about “The Hills” finale having heard the show creator’s assessment. Share your thoughts in the comments. Related Videos On The Red Carpet At ‘The Hills’ Finale The Hills Live: A Hollywood Ending The Hills (Season 6) | Ep. 12 | ‘All Good Things…’ Related Photos The Hills Finale: Behind The Scenes At The Roosevelt The Boys Of ‘The Hills’
