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GKIDS proudly presents the highly-anticipated new film from director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura, the creative team behind the critically-acclaimed, global smash hit Your Name that took the world by storm. This newest offering presents ordinary Hodaka, who in the summer of his high school freshman year, runs away from home and leaves for Tokyo. As what happens to most folks who come, star-eyed attracted by the big city lights he comes without a much of a plan and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. Our boy is on the struggle bus. Worse of all: The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day. He’s starting to think it is a sign as if to suggest how his future is going to turn out looking like.

Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner, as luck would have it. He soon finds that this bright and ultra strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability…she holds the power: to stop the rain and clear the skies.

Boasting gorgeous visuals and a story that already seems to ensnare us for a heartbreakingly good time, Weathering With You looks to share a few things in common with Your Name: some endearing teenaged characters, a plot that is serving both strange and unusual with interesting and lastly, some serious heart.

To that point, the dueling nature of opposites in the main protagonists which was present in Your Name–(Mitsuha was a country girl and Taki a city boy) also seems to be the case here in with Hodaka being from a remote island home and coming to the big city of Tokyo and meeting Hina. Director Makoto Shinkai’s films include Voices of a Distant Star and The Garden of Words feature narratives that pull at the heartstrings. Producer (but also screenwriter, director, author, creative director, and showrunner) Genki Kawamura seems to have a Midas touch which includes such projects including Mirai and Wolf Children –having him on board only heightens my anticipation for magic once again.

I’m also super interested in this film regarding something ingrained in Asian folklore, more specifically Japanese folklore: the sunshine girl. Not quite an urban legend but more of a person has the power to stop the rain and clear the skies with just a prayer. See more detailed history on the history of the Teru Teru Bozu fine weather doll here! which ties into the history of the sunshine girl here.

Weathering With You looks to be part love story, part coming of age tale with commentary on everything on cherishing your youth to climate control and more. Prepare yourself for the smiles and the tears come January in this genre-blurring film that between flies between romance, sci-fi, and fantasy. I am already in my feelings and it ain’t even December yet.

Fan Preview Screenings on Jan. 15 & 16, Opens in select theaters: January 17

See more about the upcoming release of Weathering With You here on the Gkids website. See this super cute, interactive piece of the social media campaign–make a request for a Sunshine girl.

See more about the film on your favorite social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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Here comes the sun. ?️

Tickets now on sale for WEATHERING WITH YOU✨
☔️ Fan Preview Screenings (ft. excl. video w/ Makoto Shinkai) Jan 15 & 16!
☔️ In theaters nationwide Jan. 17
?: https://t.co/1OpDrlmT7H
??on Jan 15 & 16: https://t.co/nzfr1Whet3#天気の子 #WeatheringWithYou pic.twitter.com/s4K7m2z0C3

— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) November 25, 2019

The post ‘Weathering With You’ Trailer Already Has Me In My Feels appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

‘Tis the season for big spending and major reflecting. As 2019 wraps up, ask yourself, “Can my money habits be better?” Chances are yes, they can. No matter what stage of life you’re in, your financial state is as ever-changing and complex as your life. The habits that helped you survive your 20s probably won’t help much in your 30s, 40s and beyond.

So what better time to address the state of your wealth and get a little inspired for 2020?

These 8 books are tried and true favorites that will help you not only assess your own money but help get you into the mindset of leveling up when the next year rolls in.

The Millionaire Fast Lane by MJ DeMarco 

If you were ever told the >The Millionaire Fast Lane focuses on there actually being two paths to success, labeling them The Millionaire Fast Lane and The Slowlane Road. This book digs deeper into the paths to success, analyzing both journeys and proving that the path many of us have been told to abide by, is not the only way to success; In fact according to author and businessman MJ DeMarco, that path is often much slower, and not a guaranteed approach. 

If you’re contemplating your own path and are interested in taking an unconventional route to society standards, ‘The Millionaire Fast Lane’ can help guide you in the right direction. 

Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

This bestselling book is a must-have for all entrepreneurs looking to expand their businesses and their bank accounts! Written during the Great Depression, author and former advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, Napolean Hill created a blueprint dedicated to showing business owners how to manifest, think and strategize their way to financial freedom. Having interviewed over 500 successful people, Hill has uncovered the keys to good fortune from a number of professionals proving his methods to be true. 

Hill strongly believes that the real hidden gem in becoming rich all starts from the mind, in the sense that if you can think it you can ultimately achieve it.

How Rich People Think by Steve Siebold 

Becoming rich all begins from your thoughts, at least that is what bestselling author, Stece Siebold believes to be true. Having interviewed over 1,000 millionaires and billionaires all over the globe, Siebold has cracked the code on what separates the wealthy from everyone else. ‘How Rich People Think’ breaks down the differences in thoughts from the rich and the average and lays down the foundation on how the average person can think their way to success too. 

The Power of Broke by Daymond John

According to Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur Daymond John, being broke is only temporary and should be used as fuel to work harder. In the motivational self-help book, ‘The Power of Broke,’ John explains the advantages of being broke, the creativity that sparks from lack of finances and how out-of-the-box ideas lead to billion-dollar businesses. 

If you’re currently in the midst of a financial struggle, looking for a way out, this book just might change your perspective.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mindby T. Harv Eker

According to author and businessman, T. Harv Eker, thinking like a poor person and thinking like a rich person can greatly affect your financial status. In Secrets of The Millionaire Mind Eker explores the mentality of all individuals and shows how what they think when it comes to money, plays a large part in their financial reality. He goes on to state that our thoughts can sabotage our chances of being wealthy and we must actively train our minds to think otherwise. 

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

Despite society’s teachings of budgeting, massive income or money mentality, self-made millionaire David Bach believes you don’t need any of these to become rich. In The Automatic Millionaire, Batch reveals the money misconceptions society has conditioned us into believing and tells us the truth about the path to financial freedom. In his realistic and honest approach, Bach shares his secrets to his success and how he managed to secure his future and funds without a budget. 

Women & Money by Suze Orman 

If you’re an empowered woman, who is serious about your finances and your future, this is the book for you. In ‘Women & Money’ financial advisor, Suze Orman highlights the keys to financial and emotional intelligence when it comes to money. It debunks numerous myths and preconceived notions of women in regards to money and shows a new approach in showing all women to improve their finances and ultimately their lives. 

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki 

Becoming wealthy starts from shaping the minds of the youth. In the bestselling book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki recollects his early experiences from the teachings of his poor dad, and his wealthy best friend’s dad. Throughout the book Kiyosaki distinguishes the habits and behaviors taught from both and how growing up with this dual experience shaped him into his own healthy relationship with money today. Kiyosaki digs deep into class systems in today’s society and explains how anyone can elevate themselves into wealth, no matter their beginnings. 

The post 8 Books You Need to Read To Get Your Money Right In 2020 appeared first on Essence.

For the last two weeks, the most riveting show on television was actually the impeachment hearings. So naturally, Dominic and Keith convened an episode of Hard NOC Life to talk all about it. http://traffic.libsyn.com/thenerdsofcolor/HNL170.mp3 In addition to an analysis of the hearings, both the real one and the Bizarro World one — as well as […]

On NBC’s The Good Place, now its fifth and final season, Chidi faces the ultimate question of how to save the world. It’s one of many grand, philosophical questions the comedy tries to ambitiously and charmingly tackle – questions of humanity’s inherent goodness or badness, how to save the universe, whether the universe is worth saving at all.

For Chidi, played by William Jackson Harper, indecision has been his Achilles heel and the character flaw that plagues his life and relationships, ultimately landing him in the Bad Place despite his obsession with adhering to moral philosophy. And as the loopy, fast-winding series nears its end it’s up to Chidi to decide how to save the world. An indecisive, anxiety-ridden philosophy nerd is faced with the ultimate question of the universe. For William Jackson Harper, the actor portraying him, feelings of anxiety and indecision are relatable.

I met with Harper and a few other writers in Rockefeller Center and the big question – for me, at least – was which direction this conversation would turn. The Good Place is a witty comedy that does its best when commenting playfully on the most non-playful of things, and Chidi is its structural center, the fulcrum on which the silly teeters with the profound. While I wanted to talk about the actor getting swole during his role – fans undoubtedly recall his sudden shirtless scene and early Easter egg comments about him being surprisingly fit— and the hilarious thirst tweets that followed him thereafter, his career also has its thoughtful, sober side.

Harper is a playwright whose Travisville portrayed a little-known history of his hometown, Dallas, during the Civil Rights era. In it, Harper showed Dallas as the major city whose silence during the Civil Rights movement was intentional: white business elites in Dallas wanted the city poised as a stable city in the south that could remain profitable despite the chaos happening elsewhere in the country. Harper has a thoughtful-yet-chill vibe (he insisted repeatedly on closing our room door himself to shield our conversations from the noise and distractions of Rockefeller, and spoke of how he enjoys living in Brooklyn over LA because no one in New York cares that he is on TV). It lends itself to the frivolous and the profound and so we covered both, but with more emphasis on the latter sprung from one question. When Harper was asked what trait he shared most with Chidi, his answer was instant: indecisiveness.

Harper spoke of his own experience with the anxiety that comes from having options and not knowing which to choose, and the added weight that can turn decision-making into a debilitating exercise. When slipping into his character, that decision-based anxiety was both the most familiar aspect of his portrayal, but also the most stable. Playing a character who has been “reset” to his factory settings season after season (or over 800 times, within the show’s story) makes for a unique absence of character growth. Little of Harper’s portrayals could be based on Chidi’s character development, as Chidi had not developed at all but needed to remain consistent until the series nears its conclusion. In that way, playing the character is relatively easy compared to other, longer character arcs that build and evolve. It isn’t until now, five seasons in, that Chidi knows everything, bears the weight of that knowledge, and is changed.

Facing the paradox of choice is the culmination of Chidi’s character arc, and as we discussed Harper’s career outside of The Good Place it’s easy to see how the same could be true for this stage of his acting career. This year saw Harper in Midsommar; Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan; a new film, Dark Waters, playing opposite Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway that premiered in theaters just this month. Add to that Amazon’s upcoming Underground Railroad, based on the bestselling Colson Whitehead novel, and you have a kaleidoscope of genres that make Harper’s career an open field without a set path. It’s an enviable position for a breakthrough actor but perhaps not without its anxiety: with an influx of choices, which are the right ones?

The multitude of options can make for both a million right and wrong answers – if one is to believe that right and wrong ones exist at all – and Harper’s career is set to face the same challenge. With the options ahead, which direction is the path to take? It’s a happy problem for an actor’s career to say the least, but a challenge, nonetheless. If future behavior is best predicted by past choices, it appears the actor will find a path with the most thorns. As we talked about his knowledge of The Good Place prior to signing on (he only learned about the resets shortly before filming them), it was clear that in the beginning he saw the script as a fun project whose story would run out after a single season. Many fans – me included – could be forgiven for the same thought when the series began. It was discussions over Slave Play though, and the messy nature of art’s conversation with its audience, where the wheels in his head seemed to visibly churn. (When asked about Slave Play, the new Broadway play by queer Black playwright Jeremy O. Harris, he noted that he does not believe his opinion matters; that he is most interested in the opinion of Black women on how the subject was addressed.)

So what’s next? The obvious answer is that we’ll find Harper continuing to chase the messy questions. Chidi discovered his own truth in facing the question of the universe, that there is no answer, and for William Jackson Harper’s career the same might be true. Whatever he chooses though, it would seem his career has prepared him for it by insulating him from being typecast, allowing him to keep chasing the mess. Facing the big questions, though never quite having the answers, is the purpose he finds in art. The question of his gym routine remains unanswered though, because there’s never enough time to talk intelligently on unintelligent things.

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The post William Jackson Harper Faces the Big Questions appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.