In Situ: July 2009

31.7.09

The Resonance of past Horror

If the Henry Louis Gates imbroglio makes anything clear it is that, in 2009, the mere implication of racial profiling in the arrest of a black professor on the nothing charge of disorderly conduct is sufficient to trigger a national (if not international) furor involving even the president of the United States. This incident shows us an America so chastened by its racist past—and so determined to overcome that past—that, at least for a moment, the national politics (health care, Iran, recession) stopped as the country combed over a six-minute encounter between a black academic and a white policeman.

I remember when another racial incident riveted the nation. It was the mid-1950s. I was just old enough to be sent to the barbershop on my own, and there one afternoon I noticed the men passing around a magazine. There were hushed whispers. “Don’t let him see it.” And then a booming voice, “Go ahead. He needs to see it!” continue ...

Keepin' it Klassy

Because one comment saying that someone acted 'stupidly' is more or less equal to 100 years of segregation...

Pictures

Neda Street

Rome is going to name a street after Neda Agha-Soltan — the slain symbol of Iran’s opposition movement.

“The street where Neda was killed is already known internationally as ‘Neda Street.’ I am proud that Rome — capital of peace, tolerance and freedom — will also have its ‘Neda Street,’” Onorato said in a news release after the vote was made.Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot in street protests on June 20. Her last moments were captured on a shaky video, probably shot with a cell phone, and sent out for the world to see.

Iranians on Thursday converged on her gravesite in Tehran, Iran, to mourn her death.“To name a street after someone means to remember of all of those who have lost their lives or have been imprisoned while asking for freedom and democracy in Iran.”Onorato doubts that the name will have any impact on the Iranian government’s actions, but said the purpose of the move is to show Iranians they are not alone in their situation.

The council decision was made on July 9 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Iranian student uprising.“Perhaps this might not be the right opportunity, maybe the regime will through violence and the cruelest of repressions manage to sweep it under the rug,” Onorato said. “What matters to me is that the voice of the young Iranians does not remain an isolated one, and that countries, like Italy, send them a clearmessage. In the long run, the objective tendencies always work in favor of the forces that fight dictatorship."

CNN

Raw footage:
(very graphic)

Footage with a poem:

29.7.09

And now an art piece of extraordinary size. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada writes in to tell us about EXPECTATION: “a large ephemeral sand painting portraying the likeness of Barack Obama, located in the Catalan city of Barcelona. It was created before the 2008 US presidential election using a large-scale vector graphic, a GPS topography system and approximately 650 tons of sand.”

The work’s grand scale (1 hectare / 2.5 acres) embodies the immense sense of hope felt by Barack Obama’s supporters and raises a mirror to reflect the source of that hope. Obama has awakened an enormous yearning for change that runs deep beneath decades of disaffection with the political establishment.

The outsize scale of EXPECTATION also allowed Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada to allude to the global impact of this election. For people around the world, the symbolic power of an Obama presidency would be without precedent in modern history.
Sand painting is the art of pouring colored sands onto a surface to create an image. These sand paintings are used as rituals for healing purposes by Native Americans, Tibetan monks, Indians and Australian Aborigines.

The technique of sand painting was used by the artist as a metaphor for the healing that needs to take place in order to improve our future and to secure a safer world for future generations.

http://www.artofobama.com/2009/07/23/expectation-project/

http://www.artjammer.com/

Cartoon Time

sometimes amateur video-makers do stuff at least as interesting as the pros

http://www.normancavazzana.com/

http://www.cavazzana.net/blog/

28.7.09

Created by Frank So

@ http://frank-so-art.blogspot.com/

Twice as Hard for Half as Much, and Never Enough

John Ridley writes a brilliant, indignant analysis of the meaning of the Gates arrest in the broader context of race in America

a little excerpt:

"We're sick and tired of having to prove things to the self-righteous reactionary fringe which looks at life as one, big racial profiling traffic stop: Step out of the car Mr. President and show me your birth certificate. Ma'am, could you show me how being a "wise Latina" isn't going to infringe on my male whiteliness? This despite the fact the reactionary fringe is the one with the history of duplicity and infringing."

*****************

Also:

Colin Powell on Larry King:

KING: Were you ever racially profiled?

POWELL: Yes, many times.

KING: And didn't you ever bring anger to it?

POWELL: Of course. But, you know, anger is best controlled. And sure I got mad.
I got mad when I, as a national security adviser to the president of the United States, I went down to meet somebody at Reagan National Airport and nobody recognized -- nobody thought I could possibly be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy at Reagan National Airport.
And it was only when I went up to the counter and said, "Is my guest here who's waiting for me?"did somebody say, "Oh, you're General Powell." It was inconceivable to him that a black guy could be the national security adviser.

KING: How do you deal with things like that?

POWELL: You just suck it up. What are you going to do? It was a teaching point for him. Yes, I'm the national security adviser, I'm black. And watch, I can do the job. So, you have this kind of -- there is no African-American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation.
Do you get angry? Yes. Do you manifest that anger? You protest, you try to get things fixed, but it's kind of a better course of action to take it easy and don't let your anger make the current
situation worse.

A poem for Gates

Ajar

Who hasn’t lost the keys to his
own house, searched for a window
to crawl through, kicked a back door

open, to see if it was left open?
Frost did at his Ripton farm house.
I’m telling you I climb through

a window when he isn’t there so I can
look around. No one’s around to call
the police who rarely exist up there.

Frost is a bridge to Cambridge.
He lived there, too. And now
Henry Louis Gates Jr. who the police

find in his own house. Mr. Gates
isn’t broke and entering. He lives
in his own house. Frost didn’t have

to carry an ID. Berryman found
the key to his own Henry and then
water under a bridge, I’m sorry to say.

The police want us to think it’s all
water under the bridge. I have to say
I’m sorry. For them. Someone has to

pay his respects. I expect we haven’t
heard the last of this. A poem needs
its refrain. White-haired Frost doesn’t

leave a key under his mat for me
when I come home late, when I’ve
forgotten which window I’ve left unlocked.

--Middlebury College professor Gary Margolis

27.7.09

Follow Dick Cheney on Twitter!

Its Out of Date, but still oh so funny...

http://twitter.com/dickcheney

Also Michael Steele says "what up" to young urban republicans (uh-huh)

http://twitter.com/the_real_steele

Bela Fleck's Totally Excellent African Musical Adventure

Some Explanation of the project:

Some Live Samples:

Bela Fleck playing with (left to right) John Kitime, Anania Ngoliga, Casey Driessen, Vusi Mahlesela, Mario,Toumani Diabate, and D'Gary in Falls Church, VA, on April 9, 2009, as part of his "Throw Down Your Heart" tour.

w/ kora player Toumani Diabate

DIG IT!

Some Eclipse Pics

Easy Star is rather brilliant

-from halcyonline.com

...The focus of the Easy Star All-Stars has always been on the process and the music itself, not the nightly re-creation of a frozen moment in rock history. First, Easy Star co-founders Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Michael Goldwasser make the decision on which album will get the Easy Star treatment. Then, Goldwasser, the producer, musical director, arranger and guitarist for the group, painstakingly transforms arrangements of the source material into reggae style; the goal is a musical melding at the genetic level, not just a parody with a summery beat. The band itself, which operates as a collective, with a rotating cast of musicians and artists contributing...

...Having tackled the dark complexities of the human condition on Dub Side of the Moon and the depths of the human/computer/alien psyche on Radiodread, basing the next album in the series on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is both a logical choice and a departure of sorts. ..

While it is widely credited as being one of the first concept albums (and therefore the stylistic predecessor of Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer), Sgt. Pepper’s stands apart from both of those albums in that it is basically a collection of major-key pop songs, however odd they may be. Thanks to the first two albums, fans may associate the Easy Star All-Stars with the darker side of minor-chord reggae, but they will soon discover just how good the group can be when handling brighter material...

As with the first two albums, Goldwasser stayed true to the lyrics, melodies and chord changes of the songs, envisioning as if the songs had been written by Lennon/McCartney (and Harrison), but had been recorded in Jamaica under the influence of reggae....

"As with the previous records, Goldwasser brought in a who’s who of reggae, dub and dancehall greats to contribute guest vocals. Steel Pulse, Matisyahu, Michael Rose (Black Uhuru), Bunny Rugs (Third World), Ranking Roger (English Beat/General Public) and Luciano are the most recognizable names; longtime Easy Star collaborators Sugar Minott and Frankie Paul continue their powerful associations with the group; U Roy (a founder of deejay toasting), Max Romeo and the Mighty Diamonds are among the other veteran guest artists sure to generate anticipation amongst staunch reggae fans. Members of the Easy Star All-Stars, including Kirsty Rock, Menny More and Junior Jazz, finish out the impressive list of lead vocalists.

This process was made all the more interesting by these artists’ lack of familiarity with the songs,” says Goldwasser. “They knew the Beatles, but most knew the hits and didn’t know ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ or ‘Within You Without You.’ This added newness to each interpretation that was essential to making these songs work on their own and not just as cover songs.” The members of the collective that Goldwasser tapped for this project included the main rhythm section that had supplied the music for Dub Side of the Moon: Victor Axelrod, a.k.a. Ticklah (keyboards), Victor Rice (bass) and Patrick Dougher (drums/percussion), augmented by Eddie Ocampo, who was one of the band’s main drummers from 1999-2000. Also involved were active touring members of the Easy Star All-Stars, including Ras I Ray (bass, vocals), Ive-09 (percussion), Jennifer Hill (saxophone), Buford O’Sullivan (trombone), Pam Fleming (trumpet), and Tamar-kali (vocals). Goldwasser began arranging the album in August 2007 and recording commenced in May 2008, with overdubs layered in at Goldwasser’s and Ticklah’s studios and from Victor Rice’s home base in Sao Paolo, Brazil (where Radiodread had been mixed in 2006).

(website linked at title)