Baraka: Of Beauty & Destruction

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"Baraka" is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated as "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds." This non-narrative film captures scenes of various landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies and cities from Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, Israel amongst other places (24 countries from 6 continents). A greater appreciation of Earth and humanity will arise after watching the footage---It really underscores the observation of many that in spite of the many socio-cultural differences amongst various groups (that have, sadly, led to wars & strife since the dawn of humanity), there are amazing similarites. As Maya Angelou wrote in her timeless piece, "Human Family":


I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

Peace

::MixMasterE::

Oooops!

Katie Couric: Why isn't it better, Gov. Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

Gov. Sarah Palin: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the -- it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

Another brilliant response:

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It's just right over the border." --Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008


...and imagine- this could be the next president if MCcain wins but suffers a heart-attack....I shudder....

Peace

::MixMasterE::

Seasons

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

-William Butler Yeats

September 19, 2008 : The Fall Of Goliath

"You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray...." - Malcolm X

Wow! The life of a Wall Street hedge fund manager (and his coterie of suck-ups) must be sweet! You can trade millions of dollars a second and make a hell of a fortune in commissions, fees, etc and have that money taxed by the Fed at such a low rate (the untaxed going to offshore havens) then, as icing on the cake, have the government use taxpayer money (our hard-earned bucks!) to bail you out of trash assets (that stunk from the start)& leaving whatever money you made intact and earning interest elsewhere.I guess that's the calculated economic return for campaign contributions to a spineless, Janus-faced Congress. Your crooked ass comes out on top win or lose! What a racket!! And all these notions we've been fed about sweatin' & pullin' up on our boot-straps and earning an honest living (to make a good man out of ya!)was just half of the story all along (surprised?). The other half we didn't hear was that you had better suck up to the right people and take advantage of whomever and whatever to achieve your goals--and it doesn't hurt to inherit wealth & be white (or emulate "whiteness") to establish and enhance one's connections and influence.

From what I've been reading over the last week, we are in dangerous territory. I don't profess to be an expert in economics (although I majored in it in college), but I find it hard to believe anything Hank Paulson or Ben Bernake have to say. Do you really think that they have the interests of the common man at heart? Hank Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs for crying out loud! Goldman Sachs is the top beneficiary of his bailout plan--a plan in which he seeks TOTAL authority without any intervention.

Something stinks.


“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”~Dylan Thomas

Peace

::MixMasterE::

Other Voices

Hip Hop has the potential to change the world.

No, I'm not talking about Hip Hop in tinsel wrap courtesy of Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, P. Diddy (or is it Puffy Duffy?), Ying Yang Twins, Snoop (although I will admit I like their lyricism and tight production)--I am speaking of the more progressive,genre-expanding, lyrically-brilliant Hip Hop artists along the lines of Common, Nas, Lupe Fiasco, Immortal Technique, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Ceelo, The Roots, Dead Prez, KRS-ONE and Kanye West-- Masters of Alliteration, Paradox, Allegory & Metaphor weaving rich narratives of life in between the lines like latter-day griots (with Pro Tools..haha).

It's no accident that mainstream media skims over/neglects the more socially potent and relevant material of the more progressive artists. Like drug dealers, record and cable/TV executives push the partyln', pimpin' & gun-totin' swagger on the young & impressionable at the expense of incisive observations of the body politic & cogent socio-cultural analysis. One can deduce that the recording companies fear the broadening/popularization of uplifting, intelligent music by young black men (primarily) since the shameful stereotypes and wayward follies that keep our young enraptured and intellectually disengaged have served them so well. As Lupe Fiasco quotes a record executive in "Dumb It Down":

"Won't you talk about your cars..
You've been shedding too much light
You make'em wanna do right
They're getting self-esteem
These girls are trying to be queens
They're trying to graduate from school
They're starting to think that smart is cool
They're trying to get up out the hood
I'll tell you what you should do... Dumb it down!"

Executives sell, they could care less if a message or image is toxic or just useless (Lil Wayne): They are amoral-to-immoral agents out to market whatever turns a quick profit. Sadly, one too many artists cloud their vision/silence their voices & succumb to the law of the jungle (market)--essentially they become accomplices to their own mental enslavement and end up looking/sounding like fools at the end of the puppet-masters' strings.

So, just what type of messages/images are the more progressive, trend-defying artists projecting that bring such trepidation and disgust to the well-fed honchos of the major entertainment oligarchies? Some samples : Nas has critiqued North American lifestyles ("America"),Common has approached the male-female dynamic in a reflective & didactic manner("The Light"), KRS-1 has warned against self-destruction( "Self-Destruction"), Talib Kweli has meditated on a dream deferred ("Everything Man") and The Roots have sympathized with victims of domestic abuse ("Innocence Lost")...I can go on but my point is that the real face of Hip Hop is not being truly represented in the mainstream (with the exception of Kanye West and a few others). Sometimes Hip Hop's face is deeply sorrowful as reflected in The Roots "Return to Innocence Lost", sometimes it's angry as in Immortal Technique's, "The Poverty of Philosophy", sometimes it's fearful & confused as in 2PAC's "Are U Afraid 2 Die?", sometimes serenely metaphysical as in Blackilicious's "Release", sometimes grateful and loving as in Goodie Mob's "Guess Who?". Indeed, there are many faces in Hip Hop, but the mainstream chooses only to exploit the more limiting, lifeless visions of hoes, rims and jacuzzis (for the most part).

Fortunately, a growing number of progressive Hip Hop artists are gravitating towards (or creating)independent labels to promote, manufacture, distribute and sell their work which will allow a broader appreciation of their work untainted by the greed, cowardice and stupidity of mainstream record executives. Sparks are going to fly when the full power of Hip Hop is unleashed and I can't wait--I am sick of cowards and zombies who dot the landscape.

By way of conclusion, a few conscious flows (not suitable for the uncommitted, one-dimensional weak-hearts who fear reprisals, rejection, discomfort & change ).....

Keep movin'...

::MixMasterE::

Lose Your Self

Creatures rise and creatures vanish;
I alone Am Real, Arjuna,
Looking out, amused, from deep
Within the eyes of every creature.
- Bhagavad Gita



The Creator is hidden in his own creation. Natural religion is the religion of beauty
-Hazrat Inayat Khan


Peace

::MixMasterE::

Satin Groove: The Music of Don-E

What do you get when you cross Maxwell with Maxi Priest & a few sprinkles of Bilal, D'Angelo and Rahsaan Patterson? You get an incredible artist from the UK who goes by the name of Don-E.

I didn't know what to expect from this artist when I slipped his CD in my car stereo. I had my finger on the fast forward button as I have no patience with listening to crap while driving. After the first cut, I eased up and just mellowed out on simmering, slow-burning grooves that seeped softly into my stream of consciousness. R&B legend D'Angelo makes a guest appearance playing a languid, freaky Fender Rhodes on "So Cold". Indeed, D'Angelo's influence on R&B is still being felt more than a decade after dropping the classic "Brown Sugar". My favorite cut is "You & I" which has such a honey-toned, smooth texture that you may find yourself immersed in memories (and driving into someone else's lane!). The whole set is exceptional and a welcome breath of fresh air on the music scene. So without further ado, I present Don-E's current release, "Natural"~~Enjoy!

MixMasterE

In Opposition

Blind acceptance of authority has always been one of my biggest pet peeves. The well-worn phrase, "Power corrupts...Absolute power corrupts absolutely", still rings true and will continue to ring true until we get it in our heads that authority figures/authoritarian systems are to be continuously critiqued and ultimately taken down.

The life of the intellectual freedom fighter has always been a liberating and creative force of nature. Musically, Bob Marley & Peter Tosh were the foundation of my quest to unmask "truth" for myself. As I matured, other agents from various spheres entered the mix--Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, C.L.R James, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, bell hooks, Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Michael Parenti, Tariq Ali, Michael Eric Dyson, Edward Herman, Howard Zinn, Ivan Van Sertima, John Henrik Clarke, Paulo Friere, Paul Street, Tim Wise, Vandana Shiva, Barbara Ehrenreich, Susan Taylor, Arundhati Roy, Michael Klare, Adrienne Rich, Haki Madhubuti, Audre Lorde, David Edwards, Normon Solomon, Gore Vidal and a whole host of other luminaries and not-so-well-known, but equally powerful intellects/poets/writers/performers/politicians/activists/journalists, helped in the shaping of my world-view. I share with you a few thinkers who have made it their vocation to re-awaken one and all to the power that bubbles beneath the illusions...


Stuart Hall on Representation & The Media


Tim Wise on The Creation of Whiteness


Cornel West on Barack, Race, HipHop & Prophetic/Socratic Approaches


Sut Jhally on Advertising & The End Of The World


Gore Vidal on Bush, Democracy and The State of The U.S Media


OneLove!

::MixMasterE::

Poet's Nook: "Island Like a Heart" by J.P. Dancing Bear

Prospero kept the island as his heart—

a secluded place far from the sight of ships

yet tensed, the open maw of a steel trap.

Scattered along the craggy shorelines

the planks of wrecked vessels drifted,

gray gulls cried like grieving sailors.

The underbrush rustled with dumb lust

as brutes smashed and searched in hunger.

At dusk gnats rose out of the reeds,

dark ghosts readying their haunts.

He left the night to the creatures

with their savage cacophony, each sure

it ruled the island, sure as his revenge.

(Taken from the VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW-Contemporary Poetry and Poetics)

Political Symbolisms

The McCain-Palin ticket may be shallow on the many dilemmas facing the U.S/the world--the economy, species extinction, Middle East tensions, poverty at home and abroad, global warming, civil liberties, etc--but the behind-the scenes spinmeisters that string them along are brilliant stage masters/reality-benders that we all should be wary of & confront with righteous anger. Remember Reagan and his hollywood swagger that captured a nation and gutted the poor and working-class while the rich made off like the bandits like they've always been. Political symbolism is very powerful, and no matter what the substantive issues are of the day, diverting the voters' attention away from the real issues that affect them to the things that do not (through unubstantiated personal attacks, rhetorical sleight of hand, straw man tactics,red-herring schemes, etc) is a game as old as politics, but folks fall for it every time. Don't think Obama is a shoe-in--He has a ways to go as these dirty GOP bastards will do whatever it takes to prevail.

Be vigilant!

::MixMasterE::