GANG LEADER FOR A DAY
PENGUIN PRESS,
320 PAGES; $25.95
3 STARS
You could mistake Sudhir Venkatesh for a madman, indifferent to, or perhaps bent on, his own destruction.
Why else would Venkatesh — at the time a sociology student at the University of Chicago — go uninvited into a housing project on the South Side to ask a group of gang members what it’s like to be poor and black?
What possessed him to return, even after his would-be respondents held him captive overnight in a stairwell?
Even Venkatesh doesn’t seem to fully understand his reasons, but you’ll be glad he pressed on after reading “Gang Leader for a Day,” a stirring first-person account of his exploration into the Lake Park and Robert Taylor Homes led by unseemly tour guides, including “J.T.,” a drug dealer with the mind of an MBA.
Venkatesh offers an eye-opening account into an underserved city within the city, but keep your pity to yourself. The author learned that lesson, as evidenced in an encounter with J.T.’s kind, but obviously compromised mother, Ms. Mae.
When Venkatesh tries to repay her for cooking him countless dinners on her strapped budget, she rebuffs his contribution.
“We may be poor, but when you come over here, don’t pity us, don’t pardon us, and don’t hold us to a lower standard than you hold yourself up to.”
Accounts like this make you wish that Venkatesh’s “Day” lasted even longer.
– – –
Love it
SONG
R.E.M.
“Supernatural Superserious”
R.E.M.’s new single pulls together everything they skipped on their somber, contemplative previous album, filling it with Peter Buck’s grinding guitar and some sweet harmonies from Mike Mills. But it’s Michael Stipe’s warm, playful vocals that crown the band’s best opening single since “What’s the Frequency Kenneth” from 1994’s “Monster” and suggest the band’s upcoming “Accelerate” album will be something truly special. [ glenn gamboa, newsday ]
DVD
Atonement
$29.98
The decades-spanning romantic epic starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy as unjustly separated lovers went 1-for-7 at the Oscars, winning for Dario Marianelli’s original score. Awards or no, scripter Christopher Hampton and director Joe Wright successfully transferred most of the complexities and anguish of Ian McEwen’s superb novel to the screen. Deleted scenes, a pair of featurettes and Wright’s commentary track are the bonus materials.
[ KEVIN CRUST, L.A. TIMES ]ALBUM
Kathleen Edwards
“Asking for Flowers”
We’re totally smitten by this Canadian folk-rocker, who sounds a little like Nanci Griffith fronting a Springsteen cover band. You have to be pretty cool to reference both hockey great Marty McSorley and CCR star John Fogerty on the same track and make it work. But Edwards rocks like a pro, weaving her blue-collar kissoffs with heart-packed hooks and a novelist’s ear for modern language and lyrical snap. Two to download: “The Cheapest Key” and “Asking for Flowers.” [ sean daly, st. petersburg times ]
Like it
DVD
I Am Legend
DVD $28.98-$34.99; Blu-ray, $35.99
Will Smith might not be the last movie star (it just seems that way), but he makes a compelling Last Man on Earth in this hyperactive version of Richard Matheson’s apocalyptic vampire novel. Smith stars as a military virologist in a virtually uninhabited Manhattan ravaged by a mystery germ that turns survivors into nocturnal predators. Bonus features include four animated comics and a DVD-ROM link to online “making-of” materials; the two-disc edition and Blu-ray discs come with an alternate version that has a dramatically different ending.
[ K.C. ]TV
Futurama: Bender’s Big Score
7 p.m. Sunday, Comedy Central
“The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening wasn’t happy when Fox canceled his animated comedy “Futurama.” This already-on-DVD movie attacks the network, including one character saying “those asinine morons who fired us have been fired themselves!” Anyway, in this four-part “epic,” 20th Century slacker-turned-time traveler Philip Fry and his 21st Century buddies face off against alien spammers, gold-plated Death Stars — and the tattoo on Fry’s butt. I’m not quite sure what it all means — if anything — but it is certainly a scream.
[ CURT WAGNER, REDEYE ]Loathe it
TV
Rock Monster
8 p.m. Saturday, Sci Fi
I didn’t think Sci Fi could top the creatures from “Ice Spiders” or “Mansquito,” but I was wrong. In its latest funny-not-scary thriller, a “monster … made entirely of rocks!” terrorizes a European village. They might as well have set the action near the ocean, made the monster a “Rock Lobster” and used the B-52’s song as the theme. Maybe the producers meant it to be funny? If that’s the case, then rock on, Sci Fi, rock on.
[ C.W. ]
