Background track here by Donald Fagen (minimize and listen)
Photos by Tony Napoli 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
"Tempest" A'-comin': Preview of New Bob Dylan Track
Bob Dylan's "Early Roman Kings" from his forthcoming album, Tempest, due out September 11, previewed on a forthcoming episode of the new Cinemax Channel series, Strike Back.
More here
Monday, August 6, 2012
"Never Sorry: Ai Weiwei"
Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and an extremely outspoken advocate for freedom of speech and government responsibility and reform. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.
Alison Klayman's fascinating documentary, AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, records the artist's experiences in his native country, while telling his story as the son of a poet who was punished duirng the Cultural Revolution (as a child, the artist lived in a labor detention camp with his family), and who lived in New York City in the 1980s, returning home, to make art and advocate for freedom. The film views the artist as he makes art, blogs, confronts secret police, interacts with his family, and ultimately is arrested and held in secret detention (and later released) all in detailed close-up. This is the intimate, inside story of a "dissident for the digital age" who truly blurs the boundaries of art and politics. Director Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a complex view of a society at once seeking to move its economy forward dramatically, while its government appears to remain in a reactive mode with regard to democratization and social and political freedoms. Emerging amidst this conflict, bringing this dichotomy into stark relief, is the artist Ai Weiwei and the film portrays his story in a highly personal and honest way. The film concludes with the artist's return from detention by the authorities. He is still in protracted legal battles regarding the government's charges against him of "Economic crimes." Although initially reluctant to speak out after his release, he continues to speak out and challenge the Chinese government's status quo. The ending of this story clearly has not yet been written and likely will continue to unfold for quite some time to come. A must see documentary.
In NYC at the IFC Theater.
More on the film here
NASA Rover lands on The Red Planet This Morning, 1:31 am in NYC watch it live
Touchdown is expected at 1:17 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on Aug. 6, but radio signals confirming the event will take 13.8 minutes to cover the 154 million miles between Earth and Mars, arriving around 1:31 a.m. "Earth-received time."
Friday, August 3, 2012
Friday Rolls Around: "So You Know It's Got Nothing But Soul"
Van Morrison performs "Caravan" with The Band at "The Last Waltz" from the film of the same name by Martin Scorsese.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Jerry Garcia (The Man, The Legend, The Bobble Head)
Jerry Garcia Bobble Head Day at the San Franscisco Giants.
Jerry Garcia August 1, 1942-August 9, 1995
Friday, July 27, 2012
Friday Afternoon: "It's a Hard World to Get a Break In.."
The Animals on Hullabaloo!
It's a hard world to get a break in
All the good things have been taken
But girl there are ways to make certain things pay
Though I'm dressed in these rags, I'll wear sable some day
Hear what I say
I'm gonna ride the serpent
No more time spent sweatin' rent
Hear my command
It ain't no use, I'm breakin' loose,
Holdin' me down, stick around
But baby (baby)
Remember (remember)
It's my life and I'll do what I want
It's my mind and I'll think what I want
Show me I'm wrong, hurt me sometime
But some day I'll treat you real fine
There'll be women and their fortunes
Who just want to mother orphans
Are you gonna cry
When I'm squeezing them dry?
Taking all I can get
No regrets
When I ... openly lie
And live on their money
Believe me honey, that money
Can you believe, I ain't no saint
No complaints
So girl go out
Any doubt
And baby (baby)
Remember (remember)
It's my life and I'll do what I want
It's my mind and I'll think what I want
Show me I'm wrong, hurt me sometime
But some day I'll treat you real fine
(It's my life and I'll do what I want) Don't push me
(It's my mind and I'll think what I want) It's my life
(It's my life and I'll do what I want) And I can do what I want
(It's my mind and I'll think what I want) You can't tell me
(It's my life and I'll do what I want)
Everybody Knows (This is Nowhere)
"La-la-la, la-la-la-la, everybody knows, everybody knows....."
Was that Neil's dog? Further research required.
Joel Bernstein: "The photo was in fact taken somewhere in Topanga Canyon by freelance photographer Frank Bez. He [Frank Bez] remembered Neil specifically telling him that it was taken in Topanga Canyon around September 1968."
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Golem XIV
GOLEM Teaser from GOLEM on Vimeo.
Teaser for animated short GOLEM, based on the short story GOLEM XIV by Stanislaw Lem.
Credits:
Film by Patrick Mccue, Tobias Wiesner
Voice - Cyrena Dunbar
Music - Cliff Martinez
Sound Design - Gavin Little/ echolab.tv
Title Design - Melanie Lukhaup/ luftmasche
More on Lem's story here
Sunday, July 22, 2012
N----R: The Documentary Rejected (Banned) by Facebook
The continuing economic downturn pushes further back the memory of that exciting election evening in 2008 when the U.S. -- and the world -- seemed to recognize that a major page had been turned in our history with the election of Senator Barack Hussein Obama as the first African American as President. In the ensuing months, there were many debates regarding whether the nation has reached a new "post-racial" era. Nevertheless, politics, and the challenging economic scene seem to suggest that an election does not a post-racial era make. Therefore, it is with great interest and curiosity that we accepted an invitation to attend a screening of Thea St. Omer's documentary, Nigger, which may well represent the most loaded (well, as indicated in the film, there is at least one other lulu one can think of) word in the American idiom.
The film is a series of talking head shots, of individuals of all races and ages, who are interviewed by director St. Omer about their thoughts and reactions to "the N word" as it is more commonly referred. In conversation with the director at the screening at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she noted how the film's title prevented it from appearing on the ubiquitous Facebook.
The film is a brief and challenging documentary that addresses the word that appears first to have been used as a weapon, part of the semiotics of control of African Americans, but which has now been re-appropriated as a badge of -- if not honor -- fellowship and identity in the younger African American community. Even appropriated --as both the film and members of the audience agreed-- by non-Black suburban kids who identify with the creativity, fellowship, and urban cool of hip-hop culture.
Although it appears that academics are among the individuals interviewed in the film, their comments are all personal and revelatory under director St. Omer's careful probing. And that's just what makes "Nigger: The documentary that Facebook Rejected" unique: it is a documentary from the heart, no academic disquisitions or distanced, philosophical critiques or analyses of the evolution or linguistics of this most loaded word. The film gives it to you straight from the gut, take it or leave it, with the only alternative remaining for the viewer to figure out where they, too, stand in the new American culture, post racial or not. The only hesitation that I had regarding the director's ambitious and admirable short-film effort, is the fact that, having been filmed in 2005 and 2006, there is an unexplored dimension here, inasmuch as one can think about the interviews in terms of "BO and "AO" - Before and After President Obama. This may be a quibble, and is not intended as a criticism, as much as it is the thought that the film may in fact have further resonance if a sequel were attempted, kind of like Michael Apted's "Up" series, but observing the meaning of the word in a post-racial, post-Obama context.
None of this is meant to take anything away from the director's worthy effort. She is continuing in her efforts to bring this documentary to a wider audience. However, as an example of the complex nature of this evolution, director St. Omer has been working hard at obtaining funding to make the film more available to audiences. It appears that it is an uphill climb. Visit the film's website for more information on the film and the Kickstarter campaign here
The film is a series of talking head shots, of individuals of all races and ages, who are interviewed by director St. Omer about their thoughts and reactions to "the N word" as it is more commonly referred. In conversation with the director at the screening at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she noted how the film's title prevented it from appearing on the ubiquitous Facebook.
The film is a brief and challenging documentary that addresses the word that appears first to have been used as a weapon, part of the semiotics of control of African Americans, but which has now been re-appropriated as a badge of -- if not honor -- fellowship and identity in the younger African American community. Even appropriated --as both the film and members of the audience agreed-- by non-Black suburban kids who identify with the creativity, fellowship, and urban cool of hip-hop culture.
Although it appears that academics are among the individuals interviewed in the film, their comments are all personal and revelatory under director St. Omer's careful probing. And that's just what makes "Nigger: The documentary that Facebook Rejected" unique: it is a documentary from the heart, no academic disquisitions or distanced, philosophical critiques or analyses of the evolution or linguistics of this most loaded word. The film gives it to you straight from the gut, take it or leave it, with the only alternative remaining for the viewer to figure out where they, too, stand in the new American culture, post racial or not. The only hesitation that I had regarding the director's ambitious and admirable short-film effort, is the fact that, having been filmed in 2005 and 2006, there is an unexplored dimension here, inasmuch as one can think about the interviews in terms of "BO and "AO" - Before and After President Obama. This may be a quibble, and is not intended as a criticism, as much as it is the thought that the film may in fact have further resonance if a sequel were attempted, kind of like Michael Apted's "Up" series, but observing the meaning of the word in a post-racial, post-Obama context.
None of this is meant to take anything away from the director's worthy effort. She is continuing in her efforts to bring this documentary to a wider audience. However, as an example of the complex nature of this evolution, director St. Omer has been working hard at obtaining funding to make the film more available to audiences. It appears that it is an uphill climb. Visit the film's website for more information on the film and the Kickstarter campaign here
Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Future Imperfekt
What happened to the Future?
As a lad in the 1960s, I read Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future and was most impressed by the concluding chart that listed his predictions of technologies to come. Some were right on target (Lunar Landings, although he overshot slightly, predicting the 1970s), personal radio (i.e., cell phones, 1980s though not becoming truly widespread, virtually ubiquitous, until decades later), global library (e.g., the internet/wikipedia)..etc.
An interesting website reviewed the evolution of Clarke's prognostications of the future over subsequent editions of the book, but I was always fascinated with the original edition, as a youth, in the dramatically evolving years, socially and technologically, of the 1960s and 1970s... intelligent animals, robots, planetary engineering...it reminded me of Donald Fagen's I.G.Y. which offered a vision of a cool, Kennedy-esque, future, leisure "and spandex jackets for everyone."
A recent article also took our dreams of the future to task, discussing why some issues, with so much seeming potential, never came ot fruition. Sadly, does it all come down to "The Market" ? More here
As a lad in the 1960s, I read Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future and was most impressed by the concluding chart that listed his predictions of technologies to come. Some were right on target (Lunar Landings, although he overshot slightly, predicting the 1970s), personal radio (i.e., cell phones, 1980s though not becoming truly widespread, virtually ubiquitous, until decades later), global library (e.g., the internet/wikipedia)..etc.
An interesting website reviewed the evolution of Clarke's prognostications of the future over subsequent editions of the book, but I was always fascinated with the original edition, as a youth, in the dramatically evolving years, socially and technologically, of the 1960s and 1970s... intelligent animals, robots, planetary engineering...it reminded me of Donald Fagen's I.G.Y. which offered a vision of a cool, Kennedy-esque, future, leisure "and spandex jackets for everyone."
A recent article also took our dreams of the future to task, discussing why some issues, with so much seeming potential, never came ot fruition. Sadly, does it all come down to "The Market" ? More here
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
News: Bob Dylan's "Tempest" Due Out September 11
Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album, Tempest, will be released on September 11, 2012. Featuring ten new and original Bob Dylan songs, the release of Tempest coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the artist’s eponymous debut album, which was released by Columbia in 1962.
More here
Monday, July 9, 2012
Reality Bites: Das Capital Ideas
Dr. Nouriel Roubini on the arrival of the predicted "perfect storm"of stalling growth in the U.S., debt troubles in Europe, a slowdown in emerging markets, particularly China, and military conflict in Iran - would come together to create a storm for the global economy in 2013. The perfect storm is unfolding details here
Capitalism and its discontents: The more it rots the more it thrives. Slavoj Zizek here
Zizek in The Guardian: Love, Hegel and What Zizek Won't Do and Can''t Abide here
Capitalism and its discontents: The more it rots the more it thrives. Slavoj Zizek here
Zizek in The Guardian: Love, Hegel and What Zizek Won't Do and Can''t Abide here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)