New Jack City 1991

      This is an old film that I watched recently and I read an article online in which links the 1991 film to my hometown of Detroit. As it turns out the screenwriter for New Jack City wrote and article for The Village Voice in 1987 about the drug war in Detroit dealing with crack cocaine and street gangs. This article was his fuel for the script of New Jack City.

   Detroit-crime historian Scott Burnstein wrote an article entitled "Reel-To-Reel:New Jack City Inspired by Detroit's Chambers Brothers, The Carter was really 'The Broadmoor'". Reading this article was a chin-dropping experience for me. I adore true crime stories about my hometown but I like it even more when they make it to the big screen.  And I didn't even know until today!
      B.J and Larry Chambers are credited with bringing crack cocaine to Detroit in the 1980's. B.J brought his brother Larry aboard to his business when he got out of prison and they decided to take over The Broadmoor apartment complex in Detroit and make it a 24 hour/ 7 days a week operation. In the movie, Wesley Snipes character of Nino Brown is a mixture of both brothers.

     This is a recent photograph of what used to be The Broadmoor apartment complex, newly remade from a $10 million investment from a non-profit organization. Its still an apartment building, minus the drug operation and a beautiful upgrade.
       But wait, there's more! Selina(Michael Michelle) was Nino Brown's stylish and classy girlfriend. In real life, Selina was based on the very-classy sometime girlfriend and niece of Detroit Mayor Colman Young, Cathy Volson-Curry.  Cathy was also the ex-wife of Drug kingpin Johnny Curry and sometime lover of White Boy Rick. The girl did get around . . .

    But I'm not quite done yet. While New Jack City is predominately thought of as a 'black' film, one of the main cop characters they used was white. Judd Nelson played bad boy cop Nick Peretti and his Detroit cop counterpart was an equally ruthless cop named Mick (Bronco) Biernacki that lived up to his nick name. 

  I love most gangster films and this one was no exception. Awesome music from the time period. Scott Burnstein couldn't find a reference for Chris Rock's Pookie but I guess there were many real life Pookies.
 

Everclear

         On this weekend of my wedding anniversary, I thought I'd do a review of the band from mine and my husband's past college days that we enjoyed. The band was formed in 1991 in Portland, Oregon by the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Art Alexakis, who wrote in reflection of his experiences growing up. Largely spawned by his father walking out when he was five years old, his mother was forced financially to move the family to lower income Los Angeles, where they could be near extended family. He was constantly beat up and  ridiculed by older kids in the Mar Vista Gardens housing projects. Art's older brother died of a heroin overdose when he was 12. As a result he became an addict himself and nearly succeeded in committing suicide by putting rocks and sand in his pockets and jumping off the Santa Monica Pier. According to Art, he saw a vision of his brother and heard his voice which compelled him to change his life around and stop.

   Most of Everclear's music that has been so popular had reflected Art's pain of growing up and how he has come to overcome the experience like 'Wonderful' and 'Father of Mine'. But also songs of hope and pleasant musical reflection like 'Santa Monica' and 'AM Radio'.