Solve street art

Solve street art
Chicago, 2006

Monday, July 19, 2010

OF TWO MINDS

OF TWO MINDS is an amazing blog by Charles Hugh Smith. I try to read it everyday to grow my brain mo bigger. Check out this piece he does on the limits of the consumerism based pursuit of happiness myth. Mad accurate. I wish i could shove this in the pie hole of every economics teacher I have ever had. 


Oversupply of Old Failed Ideas, Undersupply of New Pragmatic Ideas

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Ballad of the Black Gold

This track is on another level altogether. There is an interview about what inspired it on Okayplayer. I'm amazed Talib Kweli references Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogani people of Nigeria in his rhyme.  If you don't know this story, now is a good time to familiarize yourself with it. Truly some history filled, social movement fueled, progressive lyrics on this one.

The track is definitely hip hop pushing forward, but watching this video along with the track is truly watching hip hop pushing (us) forward. Ballad of the Black Gold



                                                

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Brilliant Solo Piano




Ethiopiques vol. 21 is an album in the Ethiopiques series (focusing on brilliant Ethiopian Jazz from the 60s) featuring Ethiopian pianist Tsegue Maryam-Guebrou. Her piano work has an enchanting sound giving the listener a blend of emotions, often sounding haunting, playful, melancholy and just plain beautiful all at the same time. She had a 35 year gap in performing until someone tracked her down and got her to play again at a concert in Washington D.C. in 2008. The story of her life is extraordinary as you may guess from the emotion she plays with:


Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then again during Mussolini’s occupation of Ethiopia’s capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948. Today, she spends up to seven hours a day playing the piano in seclusion and even gave a concert to some lucky ducks in Washington D.C. a few years ago. A compilation of her compositions was re-issued on the consistently great Ethiopiques label. You can read more about her life at the Emahoy Music Foundation. (to teach classical and jazz music to children in Africa and assist American children to study music in Africa.)