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--Sherlyn Meinz, 2008
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 | History/Culture: Makers: DIY Agents of Social Change |
 by: Alyce Santoro, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Everyone Is an Artist
As our society collectively awakens to the realization that it must devise ways to stem the hemorrhaging caused by years of denial and excess and as the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement grows in popularity, Joseph Beuys' words, "everyone is an artist" ring all the more true. Beuys, who referred to himself as a "social sculptor," believed strongly not that everyone should make (so-called) fine art, but that everyone can live a richer and more meaningful life by infusing any vocation or action with his or her own personal creativity.
From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, Beuys expressed the notion that personal creativity could be cultivated and honed by connecting with nature and by developing a more intimate relationship with it. He believed that individuals as well as our entire society could be healed by returning to a simpler way of life and by becoming more attuned to the subtle, ineffable forces of the ecosystems we inhabit.
Everyone Is a Shaman
Some call one who consciously connects to, communicates with and elaborates on the intangible a shaman. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, May 29 @ 19:30:21 EDT (122 reads)
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| Rants: America, The Imperial |
by Sherwood Ross
I write to you in my last hour
In the last hour of the night
The hour of fear before the light
The hour of persecution and execution
Of the headsman’s bloody institution
Of prisoners dragged from their cells
Hearts pounding, legs trembling
Piss-soaked with fright.
I write to you from the land of discredited dreams
Of delicate white petals spilled upon the floor
Like semen wasted in the fingers of a whore
Of American dreams twisted into nightmares
Of a president’s lying schemes
For which Christ has no parable, no metaphor.
I write to you when poets are beaten in the streets
When students are shot dead for protesting war
When men earn their bread making killing machines
And never question what their work is for. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, April 26 @ 13:00:42 EDT (136 reads)
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| Opinion: Avatar Is About Our Broken Wholes |
By Cage Innoye
The movie, Avatar, is a significant film. It is the most expensive movie ever made and one of the most beautiful and attractive films produced. Technological breakthroughs were required to make the stunning picture.
Avatar strikes a chord with us. We are attracted to this fantastic world. Not only for its surreal beauty and creativity but also because this world provides something else: It is a Memory. Avatar is both new to us but at the same time, it is not new at all. Avatar echoes something that we all miss, something we all have experienced. It is déjà vu of sorts, we have been here before but we do not know when, where or how.
Avatar is a psychologically significant film for it comes at a time when the Human race, we must admit, is at a low point. And the film reminds us when we once were higher beings. We once were Avatars but have long since forgotten who we are. We have become lost in the modern world in the amnesia caused by all of our distractions. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, March 18 @ 23:24:55 EDT (131 reads)
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| History/Culture: Imagination Crisis |
by Sarah Browning
Our country faces a crippling crisis of imagination. The problems we face are enormous: a rapidly deteriorating planet, a broken health-care system, millions out of work, so many who’ve lost their homes, children who go to bed hungry, and two wars that grind on with no end in sight.
After a brutal year of rancor and name-calling, we seem to have lost faith that we have the power to solve these problems. In our despair, we don’t even know what an alternative to the status quo might look like.
Who can help? Our most creative citizens: our poets. “Any progressive social change must be imagined first,” the poet, essayist, and translator Martín Espada has written, “and that vision must find its most eloquent possible expression to move from vision to reality.”
If, when you think of poetry, you have itchy, uncomfortable memories of being forced to memorize “Crossing the Bar,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, let me introduce you to Lenelle Moïse, a young Haitian-American poet who lost family members in the earthquake. Despite the anguish, she was able to write, in the wake of the devastation, “freedom thaws in your ribcage…/ every tick, my friend, divine/ confirmation: you are alive. beat. yes!/ you are alive.” ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, March 09 @ 10:08:59 EST (131 reads)
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| Spirituality: Edgar Allan Poe and the Role of Poetry |
By Howard Bess
I am writing this column on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe comes to my attention for multiple reasons.
I serve on the Board of Directors of Palmer Arts Council. The Council attempts to bring to life artistic endeavors in our community. One of our annual events is the celebration of poetry month each April. We are deep into planning the events. We will be publishing a 50 page anthology of locally written poetry. The theme will be the 75th anniversary of the depression era move of 200 farm families from the Upper Midwest to the valley in which we live.
Poetry in abundance will be read and recited during April. In cooperation with the local school district, there will be poetry slams for local students. Local poets will be featured at evening poetry readings at a downtown Palmer coffee shop. Readers of poetry will be placed in many businesses and will read poetry for any who will listen. I hope to be placed in a local restaurant where I will go from table to table, reciting and reading poetry to willing listeners. My repertoire ranges from Invictus to Psalm 23 to Mary Had a Little Lamb. And my offerings include a rendition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”
We who live in Alaska live in the land of the raven. The majority of Americans think of the Ravens as a football team from Baltimore. Not so in Alaska. Ravens are a part of our every day life. We watch ravens in abundance and ponder their movements and social behavior. We listen to their speech and wonder about the content of their conversations with one another. A faithful listener knows they have an extensive vocabulary and fine communication skills. Ravens are central to the legends and myths of native Alaskans, whether Eskimo, Indian or Aleute. It is the ravens that bring wisdom and understanding to life. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, January 30 @ 17:56:26 EST (172 reads)
(Read More... | 5246 bytes more | Comments? | Spirituality | Score: 5)
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| Reviews: Enough Already Of WWII Violence |
by Bryan Farrell
In one of the most memorable scenes from Quentin Tarantino's new movie Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt's character gives his army of Jewish soldiers a pep talk so rousing that audiences can't resist whooping with excitement after he says, “We're in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin'."
Such vengeful emotion feeds into the "revenge fantasy" label many critics have given the film. Tarantino, however, has been more reserved about his intentions, saying, "I like that it's the power of the cinema that fights the Nazis."
He's clearly not the only one in the film industry so imbued. Over the past year Hollywood has treated us to an assassination attempt on Hitler and an armed Jewish uprising in Poland.
Movies, arguably more than any medium, reinforce the belief that superior violence was the only way to take down Hitler. For instance, the Hitler in Tarantino's film becomes a confounded and frustrated mess when he hears of the Basterds’ brutal exploits. In reality, however, Nazis were actually relieved when the resistance turned to violence because it gave them an excuse to use more drastic and suppressive measures.
According to military historian Basil Lidell Hart, who had the unique opportunity to interview German generals imprisoned in Great Britain after the war, "other forms of resistance baffled them" because "they were experts in violence, and had been trained to deal with opponents who used that method." ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, September 18 @ 23:36:33 EDT (236 reads)
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| Peace News: Art as Resistance |
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Throughout history, culture and art have always been the celebration of freedom under oppression." - Author unknown
Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have tough truths to tell, and it has been well demonstrated that the establishment media does not want to broadcast these. Given the lack of an outlet for anti-war voices in the corporate media, many contemporary veterans and active-duty soldiers have embraced the arts as a tool for resistance, communication and healing. They have made use of a wide range of visual and performing arts - through theater, poetry, painting, writing, and other creative expression - to affirm their own opposition to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The first Warrior Writers Project workshop was led by veteran Lovella Calica. To help other veterans deal with their experiences in Iraq, she encouraged them to write. Those who were willing to do so were asked to share their writings with the group. An anthology of these compositions was produced as the book "Warrior Writers: Move, Shoot and Communicate." Calica has since gone on to lead three writing workshops with veterans, and has published a second book, "Warrior Writers: Re-making Sense."
The goal of the Warrior Writers Project is to provide "tools and space for community building, healing and redefinition ... Through writing/artistic workshops that are based on experiences in the military and in Iraq, the veterans unbury their secrets and connect with each other on a personal and artistic level. The writing from the workshops is compiled into books, performances and exhibits that provide a lens into the hearts of people who have a deep and intimate relationship with the Iraq war." ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, September 08 @ 21:55:49 EDT (168 reads)
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| Opinion: How the Meaning of the Words to Songs Change, |
When Things Just Aren’t Going Your Way
By Bob S. aka Shabby aka FrogDaddy
For those that know me a little, they know that I am a full-fledged music affectionato. A music nut you might say. I totally love music and besides creating my own, I love listening to another artist’s interpretations of those eight little notes that make up the musical scales. Yeah, that’s me, I love it all, Jazz, Rock and Roll, Blues, Classical, Country, Bluegrass, Folk, you name it, I love it. It all just depends on what mood I’m in, that’s determining what I’m listen too … but I’m almost always listening. I believe that’s there is great music in all the genres without exception. You just have to listen to what the artist is saying, and if, he or she are good at their craft, they’ll transport you into another world.
Folks that know me, they also know that over the past years I’ve done many a radio show whether it be on the airwaves, over the internet or both. It used to take up most of the week for Sher and I to put together our shows and broadcast some live and some as recorded shows for syndication. Everyday, new CD’s would show up either at our house or the studio, and we’d get to listen to all the new material before going on the air. I myself have played guitar for 35 years, even played some live gigs, sat in on recording sessions. I grew up in a musical family. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, September 05 @ 20:52:48 EDT (324 reads)
(Read More... | 5682 bytes more | Comments? | Opinion | Score: 5)
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| Rants: Sorry, I Don't Think So! |
By Ray Lemire, streamingoldies.com
If you plan an event based on the anniversary of something truly historic, it makes sense to actually celebrate that anniversary at the site where the event took place – doesn’t it?
You Can Never Go Home Again Anymore
Not so fast. The defining moment of the sixties generation may be gearing up for a 40th anniversary but one of the co-promoters of the 1969 event is thinking of celebrating it in a completely different location and most certainly without the same aura – but at least it would still be free ... Big Deal. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, March 27 @ 17:51:59 EDT (271 reads)
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| History/Culture: Women’s History Month: "The Secret Music of Girls" |
By Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D. (Allegro/AFM Local 802)
Labor Culture Beat
When we think of the music that drives the popular culture of African Americans, our first thought is not of "double-dutch": girls bouncing between two twirling ropes, keeping time to the tick-tat under their toes, stepping out with snatches of song and dance that animate their torsos and release their tongues with laughter.
Girls' vernacular forms of popular music culture will never be assigned copyright; no royalties for the song-makers of double-dutch.
But their musical games reflect the exchange of music between the sexes, specifically between girls and men, that can be traced through recorded songs by male artists for over 50 years.
The music between the sexes I speak of is not found in the sexually explicit videos of MTV or BET and girls' chants are not some secondary form of expression to men's.
Girls' musical chants have actually informed the making of pop chart hits by men while male recorded hits often inspire new chants among the youngest generation of black female music-makers. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, March 14 @ 19:38:08 EDT (261 reads)
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| Stories/Poems: Waiting |
Waiting is hard. Waiting – when there’s nothing
you can do about the outcome – is hard –
hard on mind and body, hard on the spirit, hard hard hard.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the first shoe,
waiting for the centipede to have all bare feet –
waiting for spring –
and there’s nothing you can do bring spring sooner –
waiting for the economy
to bottom out, turn around, improve –
and what can you do about it?
Waiting for the war to end? Which one?
What can you do about it? Or them? ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, March 09 @ 16:32:50 EDT (244 reads)
(Read More... | 2292 bytes more | Comments? | Stories/Poems | Score: 5)
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| International: “Arabesque” |
by: Dr. James J. Zogby, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Last Friday, the "Weekend" section of The Washington Post featured a cover story on "Arabesque: Art of the Arab World," the Kennedy Center's three-week-long festival of Arab arts and culture. There is no better way to begin a reflection on the program than to quote the opening lines of the marvelous "Weekend" review by Ellen McCarthy. She wrote:
"The residents of Washington might not know it yet, but something extraordinary is about to take place on the banks of the Potomac.
Something that has never happened here - or anywhere, really."
McCarthy was so right. From the moment the curtains opened on "Arabesque's" first night, I knew something quite remarkable was occurring, and I was, quite simply, overwhelmed.
"Arabesque" is a wonder. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, March 05 @ 18:03:35 EST (250 reads)
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| History/Culture: Denver's Blue Mustang |
by Christine Smith
I love it! The beautiful blue mustang with glowing red eyes greeting you outside of Denver International Airport is magnificent.
Now a sculpture I always look forward to seeing when I’m coming/going from DIA has become a national new story (even written about in The Wall Street Journal.) Why?
The mustang is unique, powerful, bold, daring…for me it embodies a spirit of freedom, a mystical quality, a wildness, and I think it’s a most artistic welcome for people coming to Colorado. Wow - what a great way to welcome people to our magnificent state. Even for me, who has seen it several times, I still look forward to it each and every time, and the darker the night all the better.
I’ve lived in Colorado for 23 years, and I not only appreciate this work of art myself, but consider our state and the city of Denver fortunate to have this magnificent work by renowned artist Luis Jimenez. Born in In El Paso, Texas, he was known for his unique artwork nationwide. Jimenez was actually killed at the age of 65 in its creation at his studio in New Mexico, as apparently a piece of/near the torso broke from a hoist and hit him pinning him against steel cutting a major artery, after 15 years of working on this creation he simply called Mustang. His sons completed the sculpture for the City of Denver which was installed at DIA in February 2008.
It became the talk of the town, of the state, and now it appears people are discussing it nationally. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, February 10 @ 13:25:54 EST (304 reads)
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| The News: Lost Beatles Song to See "Light" of Day? |
By Ray Lemire, streamingoldies.com
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Paul McCartney has revealed he is trying to release a Beatles song that some swore didn’t exist. Carnival of Light is a 14-minute improvised psychedelic jam the band recorded in 1967 and was left off of the Anthology releases because it was "too adventurous."
"The time has come for its moment," said McCartney, who is looking into getting approval from Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison to release the track. "I like it because it’s like the Beatles free." ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, November 17 @ 18:25:25 EST (294 reads)
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| Reviews: Film - See 'Battle in Seattle' |
By Barb Kucera
With the recent street clashes at the Republican National Convention and the on-going, multi-billion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, the timing for the release of "Battle in Seattle" couldn't be better.
The film chronicles "five days that rocked the world" when protesters shut down the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999. It also provides important context for today's events.
Back in 1999, many of the same corporations now asking for a government handout were taking part in the behind-closed-doors meetings of the WTO, to set the rules of the global economy. For years, developing countries had tried to challenge the power of multinational corporations who wrote the trade deals to benefit their bottom line and not the people of the developing world – or the United States.
When labor unions, environmental groups, human rights advocates, religious organizations and others converged at the first-ever WTO talks on U.S. soil to demand a new direction in global trade, representatives of developing countries walked out – marking a sea change with ripples still being felt today. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, September 27 @ 19:25:25 EDT (333 reads)
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