Irene Adler is a curiosity of a character in the world of Sherlock Holmes. In the canon, as authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle she appears in a single story (and is mentioned in a few others). She is not, in the story, a love interest of Holmes (who never has one throughout the series, apparently being celibate in his devotion to his intellectual pursuits). She is an opera singer and actress encountered on the cusp of passing from a fleeting romance with an impetuous royal to a lifelong commitment to a steadier man. And yet, a curious thing happens when writers in later eras seek to pull elements out of the original stories for reconstruction with contemporary storytelling tropes. Adler becomes a love interest to Holmes, and not a shy or virginal one either. To the contrary, Adler is typically depicted as not only able to hold her own against Holmes in wit, but in being a wild performer in the bedroom as well.

For example, in the Robert Downey, Jr. late 2000s film take on the…

HUGE SPOILER WARNINGS

 

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Black filmmaking has historically been perceived as lacking nuance. I'm not saying it hasn't been, but the moviemakers one is most likely to think of include Atlanta's own Tyler Perry, churning out predictable and similarly plotted set pieces in assembly-line fashion. Likewise, protest films such as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing have had an agenda, and it's hard to look for subtlety when the soundtrack is provided by Public Enemy.

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The other day I read that there were only 305 days left in 2015. I've done things, at home, away from home, but I'm still searching for my higher calling. I know what I could do, and I know what I should do, so why am I not doing it? Mostly out of fear which is very silly of me, but it doesn't change how I feel. A couple days ago an event made me evaluate what I was doing on Twitter. I'm embarrassed to report that back in 2012 I shared some of my marital problems with a stranger I knew slightly. Time…