Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Chuck Stephens
386 Summersong Pl, Talmo, GA 30575, US
Investment Summary Net Operating Income (NOI) minus mortgage payments. Calculation: NOI - Mortgage Payments Monthly Cash Flow -$962 Capitalization Rate is a rate of return that compares the yearly Net Operating Income (NOI) to the market value. Calculation: NOI / Market Value Cap Rate 3.4% Annual Cash Flow / Cash Invested Calculation: Annual cash flow divided by initial cash invested. Cash-on-Cash Return -12.0% Net Operating Income (NOI) divided by total debt payments.
Demon Pond: Here Comes the Flood
It’s difficult to not be, by default, an amateur Nipponophile nowadays, especially if you belong to the roughly 50 percent of the world’s population born since 1995, nostrils-deep in the ever-crashing tsunami of Japanese pop culture—animated, comic-booked, video-gamed, and otherwise.
Why is Israel retreating from Gaza now?
By Chuck Stephens HISTORY is repeating itself. Ten years after the Greek armada of a thousand ships arrived at the gates of Troy, there was still a stand-off. The gridlock apparently ended with the Greeks departing and leaving behind a gift – a wooden horse. But under cover of darkness, the Greeks sailed back and were able to finally enter and sack the city. Because inside the horse were some Greek fighters, who opened the city gates in the middle of the night.
South Africa Polls 2024: Electorate may throw out ANC
By Chuck Stephens I was born in deep rural Belgian Congo during the colonial era. Whites were a very conspicuous minority and Belgian colonialism over-compensated for it. The Belgians were, in a word, cruel to Africans. Fortunately for me, my parents were medical missionaries from Canada, and for the most part Congolese could make a distinction between colonizing Belgian and Canadian medical missionaries.
Does Putin play offense or defense?
TUCKER Carlson has a gift for challenging dominant perceptions. His interview with Vladimir Putin has happened again. Like last year, when Carlson released footage from the Capitol on January 6. It was stunning and his recent X-rated extravaganza with Putin could change that again. Boris Johnson was quick to respond that what Putin said to Carlson was straight out of Hitler's playbook. This intrigued me, because I don't know which of the two Boris Johnson or Tucker Carlson is more right-wing.
Is Putin playing offense or defense?
By Chuck Stephens TUCKER Carlson has a way of challenging prevailing perceptions. His interview with Vladimir Putin has done it again. Like last year, when Carlson aired some footage from the Capitol on January 6. That was astounding and his recent X-extravaganza with Putin could be another game-changer. Boris Johnson was quick to respond that what Putin told Carlson was “right out of Hitler’s playbook”.
The death of tourism in South Africa
By Chuck Stephens I AM a career missionary in Africa. I hold a PhD is religious studies. I have written a dozen books, one of them tracks the history of how the gospel entered Africa, starting with the Acts of the Apostles. It comes right up to the present and covers – among others – TB Joshua. The subtitle of this book is “Shepherding the flock without fleecing the sheep”. That pretty much confesses my bias in writing this article.
What does Egypt really want in Gaza?
By Chuck Stephens TWO peace plans have emerged in the Ukraine war so far. Neither of them have been taken seriously because they were tantamount to one side surrendering. That is not peace. For example, some voices say that there was only one world war, with a 20-year armistice in the middle. Germany was crushed and embittered by WWI. So it came back with a vengeance. Learning from this, the allies introduced a grand “Marshall Plan” after WWII ended, to help to revive the defeated countries.
Can Israel smoke the peace pipe with Mustafa Barghouti?
By Chuck Stephens AT this stage it is rather unlikely that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar can ever run for president of Palestine. The alternative that most people consider is 88-year old Mahmoud Abbas, president of Fatah. Both Hamas and Fatah endorse the use of violence. Enter Dr Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian from Ramallah who is likely to run for president on a platform of non-violence. He is co-founder and leader of the PNI (Palestinian National Initiative).
Israel vs Hamas: Who has the advantage now?
By Chuck Stephens THE original four-day “pause” has been extended for another two days. The guns are silent, the bombs have stopped falling, the smoke has cleared. The proxy-war in the media has taken another turn. For the first week or two after the October 7 massacre, public opinion was with Israel. Several heads of state visited and commiserated with Netanyahu. Misery loves company. They too had tried to root out terrorism.
Ep 452 - House — The Only Podcast About Movies
There’s something spooky about Nobuhiko Ôbayashi 1977 House and it’s not the bananas everywhere! Join us, Gorgeous, Melody, Fantasy, Sweet, Mac, Kung Fu and Auntie as we try to find Blanche in what Chuck Stephens calls “a modern masterpiece of le cinéma du WTF?!” Knock on our doors via email or play us a tune on Twitter or Instagram You can catch our episodes early and ad free over on Nebula.
Deaths of Cinema | Cork Soaker: William Friedkin, 1935–2023 - Cinema Scope
By Chuck Stephens “The path was silver, grained with streaks of rose-gray, and the walls of the canyon were turquoise, mauve, chocolate and lavender.
How to Reverse Dwindling Biblical Literacy
By Chuck Stephens | April 10, 2022 Recent reports about how often people use the Bible are alarming. The American Bible Society reports an “unprecedented drop” in the number of Bible users in just one year. Research by the same ABS suggests that only 9 percent of Gen Z are engaging with scripture on a regular basis. That means all those born since the turn of the millennium, 22 years old or less. It is said that “a problem understood is a problem half solved”.
Making Russia Great Again
By Chuck Stephens | March 13, 2022 Recent weeks have been confusing, less so for those who are connected to the West. Because there has been widespread condemnation of Russia’s latest incursion into Ukrania. However, I live in South Africa which is a card-carrying member of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). So my condemnation of Russia was met with silence, not amens. This week our President, Cyril Ramaphosa – very much a protégé of Nelson Mandela – spoke to Putin on Zoom.
The Arch Who Came In from the Cold
Chuck Stevens on Desmond Tutu's Legacy By Chuck Stephens | January 11, 2022 Awakening Once upon a time, Sophiatown was designated a black area. Desmond Tutu grew up there. Any whites he had seen there were soldiers or policemen – not friendly. Then one day the unexpected happened. It envisioned Desmond Tutu as a boy. He was walking down the street with his mom. Along came a white man, who tipped his hat and greeted his mother with esteem. Tutu later said that this moment changed his life.
Beginning another “Reconquista Cristã”
Make a New Year’s resolution to do your part By Chuck Stephens | December 31, 2021 For three centuries after Jesus was executed by the Romans, his following grew by leaps and bounds. The Romans finally gave up trying to suppress it and the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. If you can’t beat them, join them. He and other emperors succeeded in subduing the church in another way – merging it with the power and military might of the Roman Empire.
A Missiologist Laments
By Chuck Stephens | November 19, 2021 My bias has to be confessed from the outset – in favour of missionaries. We are all human and as such imperfect. So mistakes have been made and these call for public apology. But at the same time, when missionary work is tarred with the same brush as colonialism, expansionism and exploitation – that is not always fair and it is at times irrational. In Canada, in 2021, over 50 churches have been burned down.
Exploded View | Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen’s Psychomontage No. 1
By Chuck Stephens A snippet of nature footage depicts crickets pitching chittering woo; smash cut to a newsreel shot of a wrecking ball demolishing a tower. A hapless Foley artist ooks and grunts an approximation of a spasmodic chimp; a blonde in black stockings canoodles with her canine in a glade in a public park. The male gaze intrudes…wait, is that Taylor Meade? (No.) A shabby cymbal-and-bass stroll slinks across the soundtrack, less stripteasical than pallid pink panther.
Exploded View | Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen’s Psychomontage No. 1
By Chuck Stephens A snippet of nature footage depicts crickets pitching chittering woo; smash cut to a newsreel shot of a wrecking ball demolishing a tower. A hapless Foley artist ooks and grunts an approximation of a spasmodic chimp; a blonde in black stockings canoodles with her canine in a glade in a public park. The male gaze intrudes…wait, is that Taylor Meade? (No.) A shabby cymbal-and-bass stroll slinks across the soundtrack, less stripteasical than pallid pink panther.
Moebius Dragstrip
By Chuck Stephens in the March-April 2000 Issue Monte Hellman makes Westerns. He’s made them again and again. He’s made them in Utah and he’s made them in Europe; he’s made them with horses and he’s made them with hot rods. He’s made them with Sam Peckinpah and he’s made them with Samuel Beckett. Famously, in the space of six weeks in the summer of 1966, he went into the desert with a small crew and a little of Roger Corman’s money, and made two.
Exploded View: Steina & Woody Vasulka
By Chuck Stephens Icelandic filmmaker Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir’s extraordinarily warming 2019 documentary The Vasulka Effect, about the protean Euro-hippies and rightfully dubbed “grandparents of video art,” Steina and Woody Vasulka, was exactly the movie I needed to see this winter.
Exploded View | Michael Snow’s Cover to Cover
By Chuck Stephens When I was young, people spoke of immorality. All the things they said were wrong are what I want to be. Over, under, sideways, down, (Hey!) I bounce a ball that’s square and round. When will it end?
Past Imperfect: Christopher and Jonathan Nolan on Memory, Metaphysics and
Back to selection Memento (Photo by Danny Rothenberg) by Chuck Stephens in Directors, Interviews, Screenwriters on Jul 30, 2020 Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, Memento The following interview with Christopher and Jonathan Nolan was originally published as the cover story of Filmmaker‘s Winter, 2001 issue. As French film critic Andre Bazin might have once said: “Why don’t you take a picture?
Exploded View | No President (Jack Smith, 1967-1970)
By Chuck Stephens “When you have police everything looks queer.” —Jack Smith Political filmmaker and pageant master Jack Smith’s final feature, No President—created and variously incarnated while Richard Nixon took office and the ’60s came to a close (and left, like all of his films after 1963’s Flaming Creatures, intentionally unfinished)—is a masque of race and death.
#Old Lives Matter: Some reflections on Covid fatalities | All4Women
By Chuck Stephens, The UNEMBEZA Desk, Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership Chuck Stephens tells us why we have to find a new, better and inclusive way of keeping the centrality of the family. Families do not exist just for raising children, and Covid-19 may be the wake up call South Africa needs to offer our elderly a (dignified) place to grow old… How quickly we forget. Especially when we want to When will there be a day of mourning?
Exploded View - For a Cameraless Cinema: Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts
By Chuck Stephens “That photography is not a prerequisite for handmade cinema’s production means that we can more easily come to view how artists used a variety of materials—not only paint, but also rain, oil, or electricity—as well as other media, technologies, and practices where cameras might be avoided, in order to pursue the goal of constructing time-based abstract compositions.” Gregory Zinman’s excellent new book on movies made (or remade) through the direct, often tactile engagement...
No place for human rights in fight against deadly coronavirus
By Chuck Stephens 6m ago THE Covid-19 epidemic has been politically illuminating. China seems to have slowed down the spread of the virus by using draconian measures that could never be imposed by democratic governments. The first major surge of the epidemic beyond China’s borders was into South Korea. It seems to have spread there in the midst of a religious group whose members congregated for funerals or worship.
Black Sun
You’ve probably never seen anything quite like this manic, oddball, anti–buddy picture about a young, jazz-obsessed Japanese drifter and a black American GI on the lam in Tokyo. The two outsiders become outlaws, and Koreyoshi Kurahara depicts their growing bond as an alternately absurd and tragic culture clash. Black Sun (Kuroi taiyo) features original music by American jazz drummer Max Roach.
Ride the Pink Horse
Hollywood actor turned idiosyncratic auteur Robert Montgomery directs and stars in this striking crime drama based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. He plays a tough-talking former GI who comes to a small New Mexico town to shake down a gangster who killed his best friend; things quickly turn nasty.
Exploded View: Peter Fonda’s Idaho Transfer
By Chuck Stephens. “A useless piece of drivel about an obnoxious group of teens who get ‘teleported’ into the future, where they are expected to set up a new civilization in Idaho.” —Motion Picture Guide, author and edition unknown, found on the apparently abandoned Idaho Film Commission website from 2009 The late Peter Fonda—actor, celebrity, experimental filmmaker, activist, head—never actually did enjoy an easy ride, career-wise.
Death’s Angel: Peter Fonda in Easy Rider
Movie stars (and their kids) getting a pass from the LAPD is as old as slapstick in Hollywood, but Peter Fonda’s smile could have charmed the skin off a snake under any circumstances. To meet the Easy Rider star in person, you’d think you’d encountered a grounded god.
Exploded View | Flaubert Dreams of Travel But the Illness of His Mother Prevents It
By Chuck Stephens “Mosquitoes begin to hum, toads commence to leap; serpents hiss. Lightnings flicker. Hail falls.
#Election2019: No time for cynicism
Picture: Courtney Africa/African News Agency (ANA) Democracy was once described as the worst imaginable form of government – except for all the others. It is complicated and at times messy – just ask Theresa May! But it beats despotism or anarchy, hands down. An election campaign can get people’s dander up. Like throwing chairs at one another at a debate last week. That kind of behaviour got the contempt that it deserves from the media. It is un-democratic to get so steamed up.
Only a clean coalition can unseat the ANC and its alliance partners
The EFF's Julius Malema and the DA's Mmusi Maimane shake hands at Parliament. File photo: David Ritchie/African News Agency (ANA) We are now into the second half of the 2019 election campaign. The polls show that no opposition party can beat the ANC. But there is a prospect that by forming a coalition, the opposition parties could unseat the ruling party. So there is no prospect at this stage, according to the polls, that the DA will win, or the EFF. That is not on the cards.
Exploded View: Makino Takashi’s Ghost of OT301
By Chuck Stephens “Like news reports of wartime Japan, films with stories or a precise structure throw images at an audience with their meanings already intact. Rather than making films with my own imposed structure, my method is to abandon structure altogether or, in other words, layer images that once embodied meaning on top of one another until they become unintelligible.”—Makino Takashi Grain or rain?
Ditching Eskom in favour of solar power is the patriotic thing to do
Picture: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA) At this point in time, decommissioning your “Electric Geyser” and replacing it with a solar water heater, could be construed as an act of patriotism. Load shedding sucks, so every homeowner that can get off the grid and tap into the sun’s rays for domestic water heating is acting out of good citizenship. Half of the electricity consumption in every home is to heat its water. For baths, for showers, for washing dishes, for washing clothes, etc.
A dummy's guide to the land debate
File picture: Leon Muller/African News Agency (ANA) I have watched this debate closely since EFF was launched. It had interested me previously, in several countries like Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well. In 2017 I wrote a lot about it, and 7 of my submitted articles were run by a national media platform. Then came the decision in parliament to investigate "expropriation without compensation", and a tsunami of public discussion has followed. So I have been monitoring the debate, more than engaging.
Brexit is not just another Media Moment
This insightful commentary is a really well-written explanation of why Brexit is a monumental moment in world history. We feel it is important enough to share with you… By Chuck Stephens The world is so full of news – natural calamities, wars, crime, elections, and so on – that there is not much time to dwell on any one story. Unless it’s a huge mess like Watergate that went on forever. But British history is very long.
Are you next on David Mabuza's 'hit list'?
Chuck Stephens takes a humorous look at allegations that Deputy President David Mabuza had a hit list of ten names, with the first two already crossed off. Picture: Siphephile Sibanyoni/ African News Agency (ANA). Here are some guesses only. I am not a reporter, I write comments – not news. But his niece said that there were ten names written on one page in his diary, which had us all wondering WHO the other names were.
Why we need a 'War Chest' for Project Re-Capture
As anyone who follows the news knows, there is now a fleet of vehicles to reign in on State Capture. Starting with Zondo’s State Capture Commission and including SARS Nugent Commission. Others are being appointed each with a specific remit, usually to advise the President on what executive actions he should take. Zondo already requested more time – he said that the original six months was far too short, and he applied for an extension to two years. There are always cost implications.
We need to reaffirm family and faith to halt SA's moral meltdown
Democracy is a great thing, and most welcome in South Africa. Of course, there are different models of democracy and there is still some tweaking to be done on our Constitution. For example, the Slabbert Commission report recommended that only half of the seats in the National Assembly remain under “cadre deployment” or “the PR system” (i.e. proportional representation).
Exploded View | Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty
Though not primarily known as a filmmaker, the great earthworks artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) had cinematic inclinations, implicit and explicit.
There is no one-size-fits-all panacea for SA's land reform woes
Any party that over-simplifies the complexity of SA's land reform problem and therefore of its solution, is not worth electing, says the writer. Picture: Nhlanhla Phillips/African News Agency (ANA) After the American Civil War, many freedmen believed they had a moral right to own the land they had long worked as slaves. They widely expected to legally claim 40 acres (16 ha) of land (a quarter-quarter section) and a mule after the end of the war.
#CrimeStats: Who is really to blame for SAPS' poor performance?
When Police Minister Bheki Cele presented the 2018 crime statistics to Parliament recently, what grabbed the headlines was the 57 murders per day (average) and the debate whether this is like living in a war zone. One statistic in that debate was that 30 000 soldiers lost their lives in the ten-year-long War in Vietnam, while 20 000 citizens are murdered every year in South Africa. Ouch. Another statistic, though, went relatively unnoticed.
Whose swamp are we draining?
In South Africa, the scuttlebutt is that the state was captured. In the US, they are using a different term for largely the same phenomenon - that Washington is a “swamp” that needs to be drained. This parallel is often missed by people who don’t see an inherent inconsistency in promoting Ramaphoria and in lampooning Donald Trump, the disruptor-in-chief. The two commissions in South Africa - Zondo and Nugent - are really there to drain the swamp.
Insignificance: Stargazing
The dance along the artery The circulation of the lymph Are figured in the drift of stars The year is 1954: a fabulous bit of film history is about to unfurl. Grips are busy piloting their klieg lights into position, groupies crane and gawk from behind cordons of cops, and in a moment, a blindingly blonde actress in a billowing, Dior-like dress will sear herself into the retinas of midcentury modernity by flashing her limitless gams beneath a marquee touting Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Mandela led by example, and so should SA's 'black diamonds'
Nelson Mandela famously said that he had fought against black oppression and would also fight against white oppression if it came to that. File picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters As a role-model, Madiba personified that at the end of the day, commands and directives are not as strong as role-modelling when it comes to leadership. In his own rural poor context, he himself was privileged – from the royal family, getting early exposure to leadership role models and an education.
Exploded View: Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn’s Whacker
I am wantonly isolating Whacker (2005) from the rest of the work of video artists Stanya Kahn and Harry Dodge because the sun is going down and time is short and there’s yet quite a thicket of weeds upon the hill and still more, and less, left to say.
#YouthDay: South Africa has given its youth a bad check
Black pupils take to the streets to protest the quality of their education on June 16, 1976. Picture: Independent Media Archives We are marching to Pretoria! Last year, when I marched with Save South Africa in Pretoria, I was humming this tune. But I kept it to myself! We don’t hear much of this old martial song any more. For it is less than politically correct, with roots in colonialism that were then adapted to a song about the Boer War.
Right back at ya! – How Zuma’s reflective blaming is rubbing off | IOL News
Welcome to the Back-talk Café. Wait for the maître d to seat you, she is always dressed in nice African fashions. The cooks at the back are these Indian brothers, who love it spicy. They even have South African passports now. The waiters are mostly black with a few quota whites and coloureds. The owner sits at his own table in the shadows, he is the one with the shiny shaved head. His table is near the back door. He slips out if any clients arrive in full dress uniform.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Chuck
Contact Chuck, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack