Now.
Derek Walcott spoke tonight at 8, Junot Diaz tomorrow at 8.
Reception with Junot Díaz and Derek Walcott at 8 p.m. Friday.
Vaquero does his talk on the Haitian Revolution (in Spanish -- and if you know the history of the DR and Haiti's relations, this talk of the Haitian Revolution at all is revolutionary) at 7 on Friday. His music performance is scheduled at 9, in another venue, so we figure he may be poorly attended. Ah well, there it is.
Happiness is in effect, nevertheless, and now, declares Vaquero, it is time to search for the perfect mofongo, which will provide even more happiness (for him -- if I ate a mofongo, I'd never be able to eat again).
There's a new Vaquero in town (meaning the DR), by the way. Except he is a rapper and he spells it ViKaro.
The Vaquero business began when he was down here, recording some of what went on Cowboy Rumba, ("Ghost Riders in the Sky") and making the video that went with it. His name is difficult, if not impossible, for native Spanish speakers to say. It was just easier to tell everybody to call him Vaquero. So that's how he was introduced on the DR television programs and radio shows he was on back then -- Vaquero!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The U.S. 4th Fleet returns to the Caribbean & South America
Nor does one expect that either Clinton or Obama would pull it out if they got the White House, their mutual profound ignorance of the regions exhibited every time anyone thinks to ask one of them about policy there.
The first part of the article:
[ April 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Navy plans to re-establish its Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, to oversee ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean and Central and South America, a Defense Department statement said.
Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, current commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, will lead the fleet effective July 1, Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, said in a statement. The fleet will be based in Mayport, Florida, coordinating efforts with the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, which also is based there.
``This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests,'' Roughead said.
The U.S. Navy has been planning to build up its forces in the region. Admiral James Stavridis, who oversees military affairs for Latin America, told Congress on March 6 that he backs plans to designate a new fleet, led by a nuclear aircraft carrier, to patrol the waters of the Caribbean and Latin America in support of counter-terrorism operations.
The move comes as South American nations, including Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, boost military spending to counter tensions and protect oil reserves. ]
The first part of the article:
[ April 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Navy plans to re-establish its Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, to oversee ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean and Central and South America, a Defense Department statement said.
Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, current commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, will lead the fleet effective July 1, Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, said in a statement. The fleet will be based in Mayport, Florida, coordinating efforts with the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, which also is based there.
``This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests,'' Roughead said.
The U.S. Navy has been planning to build up its forces in the region. Admiral James Stavridis, who oversees military affairs for Latin America, told Congress on March 6 that he backs plans to designate a new fleet, led by a nuclear aircraft carrier, to patrol the waters of the Caribbean and Latin America in support of counter-terrorism operations.
The move comes as South American nations, including Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, boost military spending to counter tensions and protect oil reserves. ]
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran Guy Is Going To New Orleans
He's proud to be endorsed by Pastor John Hagee -- From Wiki:
[ "On the September 18, 2006, edition of National Public Radio's Fresh Air, Hagee said Hurricane Katrina was an act of God, punishing New Orleans for "a level of sin that was offensive to God." He referred to a "homosexual parade" held on the date the hurricane struck and this was proof "of the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans." [2], even though the Southern Decadence parade was scheduled for the following week and the primary gay neighborhoods, the French Quarter and the Marigny, were spared the flooding and destruction. Another reason for God's wrath, Hagee claims, was the Bush administration's pressure on Israel to abandon settlements and the associated land. Therefore, God took American land in a "tit for tat" exchange." ]
Hagee's also deeply anti--Catholic as well as anti just about anything else a sane person would never be anti. He also believes in bombing Iran.
So this guy is proud to be endorsed by Hagee, and is going to woo New Orleanians. That's damned insulting, if you ask me.
[ "On the September 18, 2006, edition of National Public Radio's Fresh Air, Hagee said Hurricane Katrina was an act of God, punishing New Orleans for "a level of sin that was offensive to God." He referred to a "homosexual parade" held on the date the hurricane struck and this was proof "of the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans." [2], even though the Southern Decadence parade was scheduled for the following week and the primary gay neighborhoods, the French Quarter and the Marigny, were spared the flooding and destruction. Another reason for God's wrath, Hagee claims, was the Bush administration's pressure on Israel to abandon settlements and the associated land. Therefore, God took American land in a "tit for tat" exchange." ]
Hagee's also deeply anti--Catholic as well as anti just about anything else a sane person would never be anti. He also believes in bombing Iran.
So this guy is proud to be endorsed by Hagee, and is going to woo New Orleanians. That's damned insulting, if you ask me.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Remembering Aimé Césaire
From Democracy Now:
Aime Cesaire, the esteemed poet, writer, politician and anti-colonial activist from Martinique died on Thursday at the age of ninety-four. Cesaire is revered in the Francophone world as a leading figure in the movement for black consciousness and pride, which he called “Negritude.” His use of culture to fight colonialism and racism influenced generations of activists and writers around the world. ]
It was his ex-daughter-in-law who was instrumental in bringing us down to the French Caribbean last summer, that visit that was so revelatory in so many ways for us both. He's the last of that great Caribbeanist generation.
From the interview Goodman conducted with Robin Kelly:
[ Cesaire, among other things, was probably one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He was an activist, a revolutionary ,who really demolished the maxim that poets make bad politicians. He’s someone who, throughout his life—of course, you mentioned he was one of the founders of, if not the founder of, the Negritude movement, beginning in 1935, when he wrote an essay coining that phrase.
On the one hand, Negritude, for him, was a recognition that Africa had value. And he had been reading Leo Frobenius’s book, History of African Civilization. But for him, you know, Africa having value and celebrating black pride wasn’t enough. He had a forward-looking vision, a post-colonial vision. And when he returned to Martinique with his wife, Suzanne Cesaire, who’s one of the greatest intellectuals of that era, as well, they edited a journal called Tropiques, which was a truly anti- colonial manifesto, in some ways, that combined surrealism, Pan-Africanism and Marxism to pretty much propose a very modernist vision of society that would transcend Europe.
And remember what happened after the end of World War II, you know, Europe was in shambles, philosophically, politically. And it was Cesaire, when he wrote “Discourse on Colonialism,” that kind of made the argument that, you know, the brutality and barbarism that defined colonialism came back to roost in some ways and can explain fascism in Europe. And if any group of people have the wherewithal or vision to recreate modern society, it is colonial peoples. ]
It seems that in the shambles the world is again, this argument is worth re-examining. Indeed, as the sun of U.S. economic ruling power sets, it may be an argument that we have no choice but to re-examine.
[ "Aime Cesaire, 1913-2008: Remembering the Life and Legacy of the Black Pride Poet and Anti-Colonial Activist"
Aime Cesaire, the esteemed poet, writer, politician and anti-colonial activist from Martinique died on Thursday at the age of ninety-four. Cesaire is revered in the Francophone world as a leading figure in the movement for black consciousness and pride, which he called “Negritude.” His use of culture to fight colonialism and racism influenced generations of activists and writers around the world. ]
It was his ex-daughter-in-law who was instrumental in bringing us down to the French Caribbean last summer, that visit that was so revelatory in so many ways for us both. He's the last of that great Caribbeanist generation.
From the interview Goodman conducted with Robin Kelly:
[ Cesaire, among other things, was probably one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He was an activist, a revolutionary ,who really demolished the maxim that poets make bad politicians. He’s someone who, throughout his life—of course, you mentioned he was one of the founders of, if not the founder of, the Negritude movement, beginning in 1935, when he wrote an essay coining that phrase.
On the one hand, Negritude, for him, was a recognition that Africa had value. And he had been reading Leo Frobenius’s book, History of African Civilization. But for him, you know, Africa having value and celebrating black pride wasn’t enough. He had a forward-looking vision, a post-colonial vision. And when he returned to Martinique with his wife, Suzanne Cesaire, who’s one of the greatest intellectuals of that era, as well, they edited a journal called Tropiques, which was a truly anti- colonial manifesto, in some ways, that combined surrealism, Pan-Africanism and Marxism to pretty much propose a very modernist vision of society that would transcend Europe.
And remember what happened after the end of World War II, you know, Europe was in shambles, philosophically, politically. And it was Cesaire, when he wrote “Discourse on Colonialism,” that kind of made the argument that, you know, the brutality and barbarism that defined colonialism came back to roost in some ways and can explain fascism in Europe. And if any group of people have the wherewithal or vision to recreate modern society, it is colonial peoples. ]
It seems that in the shambles the world is again, this argument is worth re-examining. Indeed, as the sun of U.S. economic ruling power sets, it may be an argument that we have no choice but to re-examine.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
"God Didn't Create No Junk"
The subject title above was a line delivered by Van Jones, an African American "Green" and environmentalist activist.
Since the poor and minorities tend to be most affected by pollution and environmental degradation, how in the world can anyone think that strategy and discussion about planning and dealing with climate change exclude the groups to which most of us in the world belong?
There are many green and environmental activist groups in the African American communities, both urban and rural. They have been doing good work for as along as anyone else has been doing, and the impact is personal.
successfully with climate change involves enormous work, which means jobs, which would mean a certain wealth re-distribution, because this MUST be funded. Everything from research and development, to clean-up, to manufacture, to infrastructure replacement, repair and renewal, as well a planning for a major population displacement. This work can replace the lost manufacturing sector that has been outsourced to cheaper (approaching slave) labor in other parts of the globe. This CAN be done, if we choose to. The only reason none of this is being done is because the powers who have by now redistributed the majority of the national and global wealth to their tiny minority holding don't want to. This is also hard work and demands many hands and their energies, but we can, if we want to.
Since the poor and minorities tend to be most affected by pollution and environmental degradation, how in the world can anyone think that strategy and discussion about planning and dealing with climate change exclude the groups to which most of us in the world belong?
There are many green and environmental activist groups in the African American communities, both urban and rural. They have been doing good work for as along as anyone else has been doing, and the impact is personal.
successfully with climate change involves enormous work, which means jobs, which would mean a certain wealth re-distribution, because this MUST be funded. Everything from research and development, to clean-up, to manufacture, to infrastructure replacement, repair and renewal, as well a planning for a major population displacement. This work can replace the lost manufacturing sector that has been outsourced to cheaper (approaching slave) labor in other parts of the globe. This CAN be done, if we choose to. The only reason none of this is being done is because the powers who have by now redistributed the majority of the national and global wealth to their tiny minority holding don't want to. This is also hard work and demands many hands and their energies, but we can, if we want to.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tribeca Film Festival -- Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
They've been turning 'em away from screenings of this in New Orleans. Everybody we know who's seen it says it's great. (Lolis Eric Elie is one of the New Orleans writers who interviewed Vaquero, who praised The World That Made New Orleans in The Times-Picayune last month, and this one, for the Tennessee Williams Festival.)
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
[FAUBO] 2008 68 min
Feature Documentary
Directed by: Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie
World Premiere
Interests: African American, Documentary, Social Issues
www.tremedoc.com
Cast & Credits:
Director: Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie
Principal Cast: Glen David Andrews, Lenwood Sloan, Eric Foner, Brenda Marie Osbey, Irving Trevigne, John Hope Franklin
Executive Producers: Stanley Nelson, Wynton Marsalis
Producer: Lucie Faulknor, Dawn Logsdon, Lolis Eric Elie
Screenwriter: Lolis Eric Elie
Director of Photography: Diego Velasco, Keith L. Smith, Bobby Shepard
Editors: Dawn Logsdon, Sam Green, Aljernon Tunsil
Composer: Derrick Hodge
Program Notes:
Faubourg Tremé is a first-person documentary by New Orleans natives Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie. Drawing on several years of pre-Hurricane Katrina footage, the film brings alive the history of Black New Orleans through an in-depth look at one historic neighborhood, the Faubourg Tremé.
Executive produced by Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Nelson, the film follows journalist and first-time filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie, who sets out to renovate his 19th-century house in this now deteriorating neighborhood.
Drawn to the architecture and its mix of old and new, Elie soon finds that the history of this place is the real story. This once vibrant neighborhood, he learns, was in fact the center of African American economic independence and political activism from slavery through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. In recent years, the Faubourg Tremé, now more often referred to as the Sixth Ward, has suffered from blight, drugs, and crime, and even more recently was devastated by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina-the effects of which we see here in heartbreaking detail. Yet Logsdon and Elie bring an insightful perspective to the retelling of this community's past, particularly through its literary and musical artifacts.
The result is a fresh approach to historical documentary storytelling. The filmmakers interview prominent historians to elucidate the facts, but mostly what we hear and see is the music, dance, poetry, and voices of contemporary residents. We meet people several years before Hurricane Katrina and follow their stories through the storm's aftermath. We come to understand that, just as it has in the past, this deeply rooted community is determined to rebuild and to persevere.
--– Nancy Schafer
Fri, Apr 25, 9:15PM AMC Village VII Theater 6 (Map) Sat, Apr 26, 8:30PM Village East Cinema 6 (Map) Mon, Apr 28, 9:30PM Village East Cinema 1 (Map) Thu, May 01, 3:15PM Village East Cinema 1 (Map) Fri, May 02, 5:30PM AMC 19th St. East Theater 1 (Map)
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
[FAUBO] 2008 68 min
Feature Documentary
Directed by: Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie
World Premiere
Interests: African American, Documentary, Social Issues
www.tremedoc.com
Cast & Credits:
Director: Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie
Principal Cast: Glen David Andrews, Lenwood Sloan, Eric Foner, Brenda Marie Osbey, Irving Trevigne, John Hope Franklin
Executive Producers: Stanley Nelson, Wynton Marsalis
Producer: Lucie Faulknor, Dawn Logsdon, Lolis Eric Elie
Screenwriter: Lolis Eric Elie
Director of Photography: Diego Velasco, Keith L. Smith, Bobby Shepard
Editors: Dawn Logsdon, Sam Green, Aljernon Tunsil
Composer: Derrick Hodge
Program Notes:
Faubourg Tremé is a first-person documentary by New Orleans natives Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie. Drawing on several years of pre-Hurricane Katrina footage, the film brings alive the history of Black New Orleans through an in-depth look at one historic neighborhood, the Faubourg Tremé.
Executive produced by Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Nelson, the film follows journalist and first-time filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie, who sets out to renovate his 19th-century house in this now deteriorating neighborhood.
Drawn to the architecture and its mix of old and new, Elie soon finds that the history of this place is the real story. This once vibrant neighborhood, he learns, was in fact the center of African American economic independence and political activism from slavery through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. In recent years, the Faubourg Tremé, now more often referred to as the Sixth Ward, has suffered from blight, drugs, and crime, and even more recently was devastated by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina-the effects of which we see here in heartbreaking detail. Yet Logsdon and Elie bring an insightful perspective to the retelling of this community's past, particularly through its literary and musical artifacts.
The result is a fresh approach to historical documentary storytelling. The filmmakers interview prominent historians to elucidate the facts, but mostly what we hear and see is the music, dance, poetry, and voices of contemporary residents. We meet people several years before Hurricane Katrina and follow their stories through the storm's aftermath. We come to understand that, just as it has in the past, this deeply rooted community is determined to rebuild and to persevere.
--– Nancy Schafer
Fri, Apr 25, 9:15PM AMC Village VII Theater 6 (Map) Sat, Apr 26, 8:30PM Village East Cinema 6 (Map) Mon, Apr 28, 9:30PM Village East Cinema 1 (Map) Thu, May 01, 3:15PM Village East Cinema 1 (Map) Fri, May 02, 5:30PM AMC 19th St. East Theater 1 (Map)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Live From the Field: Report from Experience Music Project
Vaquero and his crews are kickin' butt. He's not the only one sayin' that. Artists need to do in this time of crisis. What are you doing? This is what someone else is doing. Connections, human and skills, are being made, and thinking is in the house. This is what a conference such is Experience Music Project is supposed to be.
I get these phone calls from Vaquero, and he passes the cell around so I can talk to our mutual buddies and get their points of view as well. He just got out of this panel:
[ Resistance
Moderated by: Bernardo Attias
Venue: Learning LabsFeaturing:
Ned Sublette, “Música Popular: Surviving in Cuba and New Orleans, with Music”
Maurice Methot, “The Interface is the Message: Software Design as Resistance”
David Rubinson, “Napster As Cradle of the Revolution”
Peter Gordon, “Musical Action For an Authoritarian America: A Manifesto” ]
And new friends: I just talked with Citizen K, who is there, and has now met Vaquero in the theater in the round.
The panel that includes the hook-up from Havana (so Pablo Herrera could participate, as Cubans aren't allowed into the U.S. -- just as the U.S. won't allow us to go to Cuba) is just about to kick in.
[ The Gulf Stream
Moderated by: Ned Sublette
Venue: Learning Labs Featuring:
Larry Blumenfeld, “Funerals for the Undead: Marching in the Wake of the Floods”
Joel Dinerstein, “Second-Lining for Life … After Katrina”
Louis Head, “Fighting for the Sake of Music: US Cultural Policy, the Continuing Embargo Against Cuba, and the Response of US Artists and Arts Presenters”
Pablo Herrera, “Crisis and Healing in Cuban Popular Music” ]
I'm so happy and relieved. So much energy, work, thought and time has gone into this one from over here, and Vaquero feels already that all of that has been worth it and is paying off.
What else is going on can be looked at here.
I get these phone calls from Vaquero, and he passes the cell around so I can talk to our mutual buddies and get their points of view as well. He just got out of this panel:
[ Resistance
Moderated by: Bernardo Attias
Venue: Learning LabsFeaturing:
Ned Sublette, “Música Popular: Surviving in Cuba and New Orleans, with Music”
Maurice Methot, “The Interface is the Message: Software Design as Resistance”
David Rubinson, “Napster As Cradle of the Revolution”
Peter Gordon, “Musical Action For an Authoritarian America: A Manifesto” ]
And new friends: I just talked with Citizen K, who is there, and has now met Vaquero in the theater in the round.
The panel that includes the hook-up from Havana (so Pablo Herrera could participate, as Cubans aren't allowed into the U.S. -- just as the U.S. won't allow us to go to Cuba) is just about to kick in.
[ The Gulf Stream
Moderated by: Ned Sublette
Venue: Learning Labs Featuring:
Larry Blumenfeld, “Funerals for the Undead: Marching in the Wake of the Floods”
Joel Dinerstein, “Second-Lining for Life … After Katrina”
Louis Head, “Fighting for the Sake of Music: US Cultural Policy, the Continuing Embargo Against Cuba, and the Response of US Artists and Arts Presenters”
Pablo Herrera, “Crisis and Healing in Cuban Popular Music” ]
I'm so happy and relieved. So much energy, work, thought and time has gone into this one from over here, and Vaquero feels already that all of that has been worth it and is paying off.
What else is going on can be looked at here.
Friday, April 11, 2008
North Dakota Bakken Formation Oil Potential
This report of an estimated 4.3 billion barrels in that rock of the Bakken Shield has Ed Schulz all a'twitter. (Ed Schulz, a 'progressive' talk show host from Fargo, North Dakota, has taken the noon to 3 p.m. slot here on Air America; his voice and mannerisms, such as knocking on his desk, so resemble limbaugh's that for quite a long time I thought the broadcast band had reversed itself and instead of this station I'd gotten WABC -- Oh, and Randi Rhodes is gone like the new AA people wanted. What a disaster these liberals have made out of what is supposed to be a progressive radio network).
From Business Week:
[ The Bakken shale formation encompasses some 25,000 square miles in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. About two-thirds of the acreage is in western North Dakota, where the oil is trapped in a thin layer of dense rock nearly two miles beneath the surface. ]
However, this oil in in shale rock, 2 miles below the surface. How recoverable it is, despite what Schulz is saying, is questionable -- cost, technology, etc.
Nevertheless in an oil gluttonous world it could be significant. But would this be good for anybody, really? Environmentally and even locally? Would North Dakota get any benefit from the extraction? Look at what's happened in places like Nigeria, for instance. The local people get worse conditions of living, not better. And in the end they're left with a destroyed environment.
In any case shouldn't we be pouring all our resources into alternative power, not in prolonging at terrible cost of pollution and economics this system that is a failed system? At this point it's a power monopoly of massive corruption and destruction. This isn't going to be reversed because the oil is under North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Schultz is all yippydippy at the idea that the state can control this extraction and own its own oil refinery. Sooooo, who has the resources, blahblahblah to do this? You know those names, the ones that have taken over Iraq, and this isn't giving the Iraqis any income or benefit. Shoot, they have oil shortage.
Schultz comes across as uneducated and uninformed. He's not considering any of these issues.
Shoot, we were taught about that oil back when I was in middle-school in North Dakota We always knew it was there, so this isn't even really news. What is news is that Senator Dorgan (D) insisted on getting an up-to-date geologic assessment of these deposits.
From Business Week:
[ The Bakken shale formation encompasses some 25,000 square miles in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. About two-thirds of the acreage is in western North Dakota, where the oil is trapped in a thin layer of dense rock nearly two miles beneath the surface. ]
However, this oil in in shale rock, 2 miles below the surface. How recoverable it is, despite what Schulz is saying, is questionable -- cost, technology, etc.
Nevertheless in an oil gluttonous world it could be significant. But would this be good for anybody, really? Environmentally and even locally? Would North Dakota get any benefit from the extraction? Look at what's happened in places like Nigeria, for instance. The local people get worse conditions of living, not better. And in the end they're left with a destroyed environment.
In any case shouldn't we be pouring all our resources into alternative power, not in prolonging at terrible cost of pollution and economics this system that is a failed system? At this point it's a power monopoly of massive corruption and destruction. This isn't going to be reversed because the oil is under North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Schultz is all yippydippy at the idea that the state can control this extraction and own its own oil refinery. Sooooo, who has the resources, blahblahblah to do this? You know those names, the ones that have taken over Iraq, and this isn't giving the Iraqis any income or benefit. Shoot, they have oil shortage.
Schultz comes across as uneducated and uninformed. He's not considering any of these issues.
Shoot, we were taught about that oil back when I was in middle-school in North Dakota We always knew it was there, so this isn't even really news. What is news is that Senator Dorgan (D) insisted on getting an up-to-date geologic assessment of these deposits.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Another of My Favorite Writers, Zora Neale Hurston
A biography? autobiography? of Zora Neale Hurston, Jump to the Sun, tonight on PBS's "American Masters" documentary series.
Narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson.
You can find more information about the documentary here.
[ I invariably point out that getting hold of white men has always been easy. I don't need any help to do that. I only wish that I could get everything else so easily as I can get white men. I am utterly indifferent to the joy of other Negroes who feel that a marriage across the line is compensation for all things, even conscience. The South must laugh and gloat at the spectacle and say "I told you so! That is a black person's highest dream." If a white man or woman marries a Negro for love that is all right with me, but a Negro who considers himself or herself paid off and honored by it is a bit too much for me to take. So I shall probably never become a "liberal." Neither shall I ever let myself be persuaded to have my mind made up for me by a political job. I mean to live and die by my own mind. If that is cowardly, then I am a coward. When you come to analyze it, Countee, some of the stuff that has passed as courage among Negro "leaders" is nauseating. Oh, yes, they are right there with the stock phrases, which the white people are used to and expect, and pay no attention to anymore. They are rather disappointed if you do not use them. But if you suggest something real just watch them back off from it. I know that the Anglo-Saxon mentality is one of violence. Violence is his religion. He has gained everything he has by it, and respects nothing else. When I suggest to our "leaders" that the white man is not going to surrender for mere words what he has fought and died for, and that if we want anything substantial we must speak with the same weapons, immediately they object that I am not practical. ]
One of the many things I love about Hurston (along with her marvelous way with language) is how she really does say what she thinks (though not always, depending on who she is talking / writing to).
What I particularly like about this letter extract is it's another piece of the evidence that contradicts that ugly stupid cliché and canard that POC are so attracted to white people. I just hate that cliché in fiction and movies and drama (poor Pocohontas has too much to answer for -- so aided and abetted by Kipling and Kim) that the captor's daughter always falls in love with our white, blue-eyed, blonde haired hero and helps him escape, blow up the castle, and always, always dies to save his life. In reality she'd find him so disgustingly unattractive she'd wouldn't dirty her shoe by going near him.
There is also a new book, Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas A. Blackmon is a deeply researched history of the chilling, tormented condition of so many black people post the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, held in slavery up through the 1950's. As would be expected, the largest number of these illegal slaves were in states like Alabama. Shoot, you can see this going on today, still, in Louisiana.
Narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson.
You can find more information about the documentary here.
[ I invariably point out that getting hold of white men has always been easy. I don't need any help to do that. I only wish that I could get everything else so easily as I can get white men. I am utterly indifferent to the joy of other Negroes who feel that a marriage across the line is compensation for all things, even conscience. The South must laugh and gloat at the spectacle and say "I told you so! That is a black person's highest dream." If a white man or woman marries a Negro for love that is all right with me, but a Negro who considers himself or herself paid off and honored by it is a bit too much for me to take. So I shall probably never become a "liberal." Neither shall I ever let myself be persuaded to have my mind made up for me by a political job. I mean to live and die by my own mind. If that is cowardly, then I am a coward. When you come to analyze it, Countee, some of the stuff that has passed as courage among Negro "leaders" is nauseating. Oh, yes, they are right there with the stock phrases, which the white people are used to and expect, and pay no attention to anymore. They are rather disappointed if you do not use them. But if you suggest something real just watch them back off from it. I know that the Anglo-Saxon mentality is one of violence. Violence is his religion. He has gained everything he has by it, and respects nothing else. When I suggest to our "leaders" that the white man is not going to surrender for mere words what he has fought and died for, and that if we want anything substantial we must speak with the same weapons, immediately they object that I am not practical. ]
One of the many things I love about Hurston (along with her marvelous way with language) is how she really does say what she thinks (though not always, depending on who she is talking / writing to).
What I particularly like about this letter extract is it's another piece of the evidence that contradicts that ugly stupid cliché and canard that POC are so attracted to white people. I just hate that cliché in fiction and movies and drama (poor Pocohontas has too much to answer for -- so aided and abetted by Kipling and Kim) that the captor's daughter always falls in love with our white, blue-eyed, blonde haired hero and helps him escape, blow up the castle, and always, always dies to save his life. In reality she'd find him so disgustingly unattractive she'd wouldn't dirty her shoe by going near him.
There is also a new book, Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas A. Blackmon is a deeply researched history of the chilling, tormented condition of so many black people post the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, held in slavery up through the 1950's. As would be expected, the largest number of these illegal slaves were in states like Alabama. Shoot, you can see this going on today, still, in Louisiana.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
DOJ Evasions Concerning Rape Investigations
From ABC NEWS:
[ In an apparent reversal of policy, the Justice Department will send an official to answer questions before Congress on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last December, the department declined to send an official to testify before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on law enforcement efforts to protect U.S. contractors in Iraq. The hearing featured testimony by Jamie Leigh Jones, a young Texan woman who says she was gang-raped while working for government contractor KBR in Iraq. ]
The KBR rape case:
Warning: The Nation article contains graphic description of what was done to the victim.
Then there is this:
[ The Greatest Silence: Rape in the CongoToday, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is taking place on a scale that is almost unimaginable. In the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped - but their suffering goes unacknowledged. Instead, they are invisible, shamed and mute. This is the story of one filmmaker's crusade to break the silence surrounding this shocking reality, armed with a firsthand connection with the women and men she meets. Winner of a Special Jury Prize (Documentary) at this year's Sundance Film Festival, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo premieres Tuesday, April 8 at 10pm ET/PT. ]
From what I could handle of this documentary (made by a rape victim herself) it seems these guys believe that rape makes them stronger, and thus, then, is 'good for Congo.'
So convenient a 'belief' isn't it. Like the one that 'meat is bad for women,' so only men get to eat it.
[ In an apparent reversal of policy, the Justice Department will send an official to answer questions before Congress on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last December, the department declined to send an official to testify before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on law enforcement efforts to protect U.S. contractors in Iraq. The hearing featured testimony by Jamie Leigh Jones, a young Texan woman who says she was gang-raped while working for government contractor KBR in Iraq. ]
The KBR rape case:
Warning: The Nation article contains graphic description of what was done to the victim.
Then there is this:
[ The Greatest Silence: Rape in the CongoToday, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is taking place on a scale that is almost unimaginable. In the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped - but their suffering goes unacknowledged. Instead, they are invisible, shamed and mute. This is the story of one filmmaker's crusade to break the silence surrounding this shocking reality, armed with a firsthand connection with the women and men she meets. Winner of a Special Jury Prize (Documentary) at this year's Sundance Film Festival, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo premieres Tuesday, April 8 at 10pm ET/PT. ]
From what I could handle of this documentary (made by a rape victim herself) it seems these guys believe that rape makes them stronger, and thus, then, is 'good for Congo.'
So convenient a 'belief' isn't it. Like the one that 'meat is bad for women,' so only men get to eat it.
Monday, April 7, 2008
You Can See Vaquero Live Tonight at the BirdBeckett Bookstore in SF
http://www.bird-beckett.com/
Right now the Mambo group is playing -- and they aren't bad.
Alas, as management informed me, the vid quality isn't great.
Right now the Mambo group is playing -- and they aren't bad.
Alas, as management informed me, the vid quality isn't great.
The Wanderers
The hours during which Vaquero is flying from one place to another are anxious ones for me now. This didn't used to be true, but these days with such terrible oversight of the aviation industry, and the crazy weather, I worry, until I learn he's actually taking off, and until I learn he's actually safely landed. In between I'm muchly unsettled.
To get through last night's flight, I watched my favorite gang movie, The Wanderers. The movie was released in 1979, it was based on Richard Price's novel from 1974, who based it on high school gang life in the Bronx in the early 1960's.
The movie is rather more, um, expressionistic, than the novel. It was much influenced by West Side Story. But as marvelous as West Side Story is choregraphically, musically, , in my opinion, the music for The Wanderers is the Very Best. It is the soundtrack of what was popular music that was played on the radio, at parties,in the car making out, for everyone in that audience: black, white, Asian.
It's also kinda autobiographical for Price.
Price is one of my favorite writers, as I've probably said before. I loved his first novel, The Wanderers, with which he scored so high, so young, and early in his career. His next two novels were -- um, not interesting; young man, trying to leave home, doesn't know what to do with his life and with love. We have lived that story ourselves and it has been written by every new writer so we don't want to read it any more, unless there is something really new here, but there wasn't -- just recycled so many times it was limp (the best part was description of winter in an upstate NY city). Lucky for Price Hollywood called, and Hollywood called because of The Wanderers. It even gave Price a small role in the movie. So the lesson here is -- every new writer -- write a gang novel. The critics and the movies never tire of them.
After Hollywood, Price found a voice again. Most of the time. (In The Wanderers, two of the principals take off for California at the end, having no idea what they were doing or going to do -- didn't even graduate from h.s. This was prior to Price going to Hollywood.)
Price got to write for The Wire. Which no women got to do, and no black people either, but oh dear, I love The Wire anyway, but I still think it could have been even better if there had been any episodes written by women and black people.
Highly recommend that anyone watch The Wanderers. Because, most of all, it points to how music back in those days bridged differences of all kinds and brought everyone together in some way. Which is not the situation these days, with the corporatists niching and thus dividing us. Remember when most radio stations played a lot of music, when the radio provided the common soundtrack to our lives? The Wanderers is from that era. So, as the corporatists got busy buying up our media, the first thing they did was replace our genuine musica popular -- a force that helped create common, public space, where all kinds of people came together -- with hate talk radio. Which has done more to divide us than anything else ever in this nation, except slavery. Music of all different kinds, that was the radio, that was our commonly heard sound track. It was replaced by hate talk radio, to divide us, so the corporatists can continue to screw us without our protest, like the bleed out of your i-pod makes me me annoyed at best and furious at worst, the beat box that I turn my car into enrages you, etc. Even cyberspace is just a bunch of separate ghettos. Divide and conquer. That's what music is about now. Propaganda, like the corporate garbage that does get on country radio -- The Dixie Chicks are the example of what will happen if you don't toe the corporate line. Used for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Etc.
Yes, this is part of what the presentation at EMP is about. He's going to do a presentation at one of the San Francisco venues that will be three times longer than the one in Seattle, because he's got more time. But this is the part he's going do. Unless he changes his mind and does one of the other parts instead.
To get through last night's flight, I watched my favorite gang movie, The Wanderers. The movie was released in 1979, it was based on Richard Price's novel from 1974, who based it on high school gang life in the Bronx in the early 1960's.
The movie is rather more, um, expressionistic, than the novel. It was much influenced by West Side Story. But as marvelous as West Side Story is choregraphically, musically, , in my opinion, the music for The Wanderers is the Very Best. It is the soundtrack of what was popular music that was played on the radio, at parties,in the car making out, for everyone in that audience: black, white, Asian.
It's also kinda autobiographical for Price.
Price is one of my favorite writers, as I've probably said before. I loved his first novel, The Wanderers, with which he scored so high, so young, and early in his career. His next two novels were -- um, not interesting; young man, trying to leave home, doesn't know what to do with his life and with love. We have lived that story ourselves and it has been written by every new writer so we don't want to read it any more, unless there is something really new here, but there wasn't -- just recycled so many times it was limp (the best part was description of winter in an upstate NY city). Lucky for Price Hollywood called, and Hollywood called because of The Wanderers. It even gave Price a small role in the movie. So the lesson here is -- every new writer -- write a gang novel. The critics and the movies never tire of them.
After Hollywood, Price found a voice again. Most of the time. (In The Wanderers, two of the principals take off for California at the end, having no idea what they were doing or going to do -- didn't even graduate from h.s. This was prior to Price going to Hollywood.)
Price got to write for The Wire. Which no women got to do, and no black people either, but oh dear, I love The Wire anyway, but I still think it could have been even better if there had been any episodes written by women and black people.
Highly recommend that anyone watch The Wanderers. Because, most of all, it points to how music back in those days bridged differences of all kinds and brought everyone together in some way. Which is not the situation these days, with the corporatists niching and thus dividing us. Remember when most radio stations played a lot of music, when the radio provided the common soundtrack to our lives? The Wanderers is from that era. So, as the corporatists got busy buying up our media, the first thing they did was replace our genuine musica popular -- a force that helped create common, public space, where all kinds of people came together -- with hate talk radio. Which has done more to divide us than anything else ever in this nation, except slavery. Music of all different kinds, that was the radio, that was our commonly heard sound track. It was replaced by hate talk radio, to divide us, so the corporatists can continue to screw us without our protest, like the bleed out of your i-pod makes me me annoyed at best and furious at worst, the beat box that I turn my car into enrages you, etc. Even cyberspace is just a bunch of separate ghettos. Divide and conquer. That's what music is about now. Propaganda, like the corporate garbage that does get on country radio -- The Dixie Chicks are the example of what will happen if you don't toe the corporate line. Used for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Etc.
Yes, this is part of what the presentation at EMP is about. He's going to do a presentation at one of the San Francisco venues that will be three times longer than the one in Seattle, because he's got more time. But this is the part he's going do. Unless he changes his mind and does one of the other parts instead.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Martin Luther King
In Memphis, Mason Temple, the last place MLK gave an address, before his assassination.
Belafonte, who characterizes himself as a humanist, not a Christian, speaking about Christianity, slavery, the Black Church, his dear departed friend, Martin Luther King, and their discussions, blow through your ears, into your heart, like a powerful wind blows through a wide field of grain.
The Tavis Smiley show.
--------------------
Vaquero's out the door.
We spent all yesterday, a true spring day, together. We got haircuts, got new sneakers (surely a sign of spring!). We worked on the EMP presentation. Whoa, is it gonna burn! About ten we went to a lovely little new Thai restaurant for dinner. This morning was packing, making a huge brunch, working some more on the EMP presentation, and then off he went.
He'll be in good hands, I'm sure. I hadn't realized for some reason that in Portland he's going to be met by Alexander Cockburn and the Counterpunch editor.
Belafonte, who characterizes himself as a humanist, not a Christian, speaking about Christianity, slavery, the Black Church, his dear departed friend, Martin Luther King, and their discussions, blow through your ears, into your heart, like a powerful wind blows through a wide field of grain.
The Tavis Smiley show.
--------------------
Vaquero's out the door.
We spent all yesterday, a true spring day, together. We got haircuts, got new sneakers (surely a sign of spring!). We worked on the EMP presentation. Whoa, is it gonna burn! About ten we went to a lovely little new Thai restaurant for dinner. This morning was packing, making a huge brunch, working some more on the EMP presentation, and then off he went.
He'll be in good hands, I'm sure. I hadn't realized for some reason that in Portland he's going to be met by Alexander Cockburn and the Counterpunch editor.
Friday, April 4, 2008
West Coast Schedule
From the Vaquero Mailing List:
[ Here's the schedule for my occidental peeps:
Monday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. Bird & Beckett Music and Records, 653 Chenery Street (in Glen Park), San Francisco. (with music by Teddy Strong's T-Mambo Duo).
Talk + songs.Tuesday, April 8, noon. The Poetry Center, HUM 512, San Francisco State University. Talk + songs.
Tuesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m. Bollyhood Café, 3372 19th Street @ Mission Street, San Francisco. Talk + songs.
Wednesday, April 9, 7 p.m. Portland State Library, 7 p.m. Portland.
Thursday-Sunday, April 10-13. Experience Music Project Pop Conference,Seattle. (My presentation is at 11 a.m. on Saturday, but this promises tobe a great EMP and the whole thing should be an . . . experience.)
And beyond the west coast swing:
Thursday, April 17, 1 p.m., room 605, King Juan Carlos Center, 53 Washington Square South, NYU. New York.
April 30-May 2. La Feria del Libro, Santo Domingo, D.R.
And save the date, more details later:
Thursday, May 8. Brecht Forum, NYC. The World That Made New Orleans book party! ]
[ Here's the schedule for my occidental peeps:
Monday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. Bird & Beckett Music and Records, 653 Chenery Street (in Glen Park), San Francisco. (with music by Teddy Strong's T-Mambo Duo).
Talk + songs.Tuesday, April 8, noon. The Poetry Center, HUM 512, San Francisco State University. Talk + songs.
Tuesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m. Bollyhood Café, 3372 19th Street @ Mission Street, San Francisco. Talk + songs.
Wednesday, April 9, 7 p.m. Portland State Library, 7 p.m. Portland.
Thursday-Sunday, April 10-13. Experience Music Project Pop Conference,Seattle. (My presentation is at 11 a.m. on Saturday, but this promises tobe a great EMP and the whole thing should be an . . . experience.)
And beyond the west coast swing:
Thursday, April 17, 1 p.m., room 605, King Juan Carlos Center, 53 Washington Square South, NYU. New York.
April 30-May 2. La Feria del Libro, Santo Domingo, D.R.
And save the date, more details later:
Thursday, May 8. Brecht Forum, NYC. The World That Made New Orleans book party! ]
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Thom Hartman Gone from NYC's Air America Flagship Station
Instead, get this!
Ed Schultz, from North Dakota, has his prime time 3-hour slot from noon to 3 p.m.
I gotta say, I didn't like Franken at all, because he's a lousy radio person, and he isn't anywhere near as funny as he thinks, but I liked his guests and his topics, and the show moved fast, in exactly the way a talk radio should.
I haven't liked Hartman much at all, because he gave so much time to whackadoodles and neoCons. Nor did his show move or have rhythm. Franken's show did have some rhythm. Both he and Hartman are fixated on 60's rock for their bumpers and so on, which I think is a big mistake and just because it bores the sh*t out of me personally. But because it is so white and monolithic.
Schultz's voice is so close to the Big Cheese's I can hardly stand to listen to it. So far his show is even more boring than Hartman. No color, no rhythm, no sense of segue. And even MORE boring music choices.
Why can't progressive radio have great voices instead of these boring middle of the road old white guys?
This is about as antithetical to the picture Obama is attempting to get us to visualize of the U.S. as you can get, i.e. multi-cultural, multi-rhythmed, multi-colored, and not OLD and white.
So -- Schultz has actually moved to NYC, and at the moment has Obama on the phone, talking about Grand Forks, ND, where he's going to be Friday. I wish Schultz well, but hope he didn't buy whatever housing he's in. The Air America NYC station is so badly treated, nobody seems to last long, except Randi Rhodes.
Now Hartman, though gone from NYC's AA, is on an additional 4 AA affiliates, which says to me this:
Hartman doesn't have the voice for NY radio. Schultz doesn't either.
Whereas Randi Rhodes does -- and so does Rachel Maddow (gads, she's great!), so does Sam Seder, and so Laura Flanders, as Brit inflected as it is. But she's just the greatest, and has got it all: great guests, great topics, great rhythm, color, cool, authority -- o can she roll and turn on a dime!
Ed Schultz, from North Dakota, has his prime time 3-hour slot from noon to 3 p.m.
I gotta say, I didn't like Franken at all, because he's a lousy radio person, and he isn't anywhere near as funny as he thinks, but I liked his guests and his topics, and the show moved fast, in exactly the way a talk radio should.
I haven't liked Hartman much at all, because he gave so much time to whackadoodles and neoCons. Nor did his show move or have rhythm. Franken's show did have some rhythm. Both he and Hartman are fixated on 60's rock for their bumpers and so on, which I think is a big mistake and just because it bores the sh*t out of me personally. But because it is so white and monolithic.
Schultz's voice is so close to the Big Cheese's I can hardly stand to listen to it. So far his show is even more boring than Hartman. No color, no rhythm, no sense of segue. And even MORE boring music choices.
Why can't progressive radio have great voices instead of these boring middle of the road old white guys?
This is about as antithetical to the picture Obama is attempting to get us to visualize of the U.S. as you can get, i.e. multi-cultural, multi-rhythmed, multi-colored, and not OLD and white.
So -- Schultz has actually moved to NYC, and at the moment has Obama on the phone, talking about Grand Forks, ND, where he's going to be Friday. I wish Schultz well, but hope he didn't buy whatever housing he's in. The Air America NYC station is so badly treated, nobody seems to last long, except Randi Rhodes.
Now Hartman, though gone from NYC's AA, is on an additional 4 AA affiliates, which says to me this:
Hartman doesn't have the voice for NY radio. Schultz doesn't either.
Whereas Randi Rhodes does -- and so does Rachel Maddow (gads, she's great!), so does Sam Seder, and so Laura Flanders, as Brit inflected as it is. But she's just the greatest, and has got it all: great guests, great topics, great rhythm, color, cool, authority -- o can she roll and turn on a dime!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Dominican Republic
They just phoned with flight numbers, hotel reservations, etc. for the Dominican Republic stay at the end of this month, beginning of May.
I'm going on this one, since it isn't a physically rigorous.
Having a bad back has put a lot of obstacles in my way when it comes to what I think of of as Deep Travel.
I'm going on this one, since it isn't a physically rigorous.
Having a bad back has put a lot of obstacles in my way when it comes to what I think of of as Deep Travel.
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