Dear White People...

One in the Chamber...

Strange Light is so Right...

Ooops he did it again. The king of poetic sex appeal, cathartic reveal and squeal is back at it again with yet another ingenious foray into the land of don't fence me in...and being the uber fan that I am, I had to speak on what I know of this project and share its undeniable coolness with you.




Strange Light is narrative in the form of not only poetic verse, but dance and music taking its title from an "epic" piece Brown was commissioned to write by the Noord Nederlandse Dans collective, a contemporary dance company in the Netherlands. 
The 14-member troupe took Brown's "theatrical texts," set them to music and dance, and then performed the resulting piece in Europe and Canada. Brown was thrilled by the result. On his website, brownpoetry.com, he calls the piece "a cosmic love story and an autobiographical gut-search" that's "clarified in the light of a new-found personal vulnerability."

When a person dies, he believes, it is because poetry has left the body. It follows, then, that the very essence of life "is poetry vibrating within the body." "Strange Light" tells the story of one such poetry-powered person — "a man with strange light and tiny blisses."

I mean damn, tell me this shit isn't magical?

Brown vows that this will be his last poetic work, opting to move closer to family and focus on a new medium, playwriting. As promising as this sounds, after I've read his final work cover to cover and  mused about it for several weeks following; after I've removed it from my bedside table and put it on the shelf to accompany his other works, I will , and this is the God-honest-truth, shed at least one tear knowing there may be no other volumes to share company beside: Born in the Year of the Butterfly Knife, I love You is Back, and  Scandalabra. 

Brown remarked recently,"I really feel a change happening in America in regards to people feeling empowered to put on their unique and fun art shows, including poetry, especially poetry." 

I hope you know that has a lot to do with champions of expression who do so with as much undeniable originality, vibrato and aplomb as you do sir. 

Brown's advice to aspiring poets, shared on his website, was simply this: "pour passion into your craft, work hard, and let the words take you to impossible heights — and beyond. If you write poetry, imagine it beyond the page, beyond the stage, and then bust your butt to make it happen... You can do it."

Yes we can! 

This message has been brought to you by the people for Derrick C. Brown for President in 2012.

pick up his latest work and shed a tear with me at: http://writebloody.com/shop/products

You Should Know...

Kimbra

If Bjork and Esthero had a daughter it would be this chick.

She's got just enough electro soul to champion the sound we all fell in love with when Esthero dropped her sick debut album Breath From Another. And she truly carries on the 'wicked little girl' legacy by being defiantly imperfect in her perfect little nitch. But when it comes to her aesthetic and the sheer refusal to fall into one genre, you know there would be no place for Kimbra without the trail blazing of one patit Icelandic wildcat who taught us all that growling is in fact vocal acumen, when done right.

But all that just peaks your interest. What will enthrall you is the poetry in her words and her ability to be very much her very own artist as she references all the great artists who'v influenced her in some form or fashion. Its like a tribute to that genre bending, sometimes b-girl, sometimes experimental, sometimes totally memorable and soulful female vocalist. And I have to say, she makes me so glad that this strange-wonderful-fearless-fierce lioness-but always female tradition will continue.

More about the artist:

Kimbra Lee Johnson known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and guitarist. On 29 August 2011 she released her debut album Vows, which peaked in the top 5 in both New Zealand and Australia, and number 14 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. Kimbra is featured on the 2011 single, "Somebody That I Used to Know", by Gotye, which has reached number 1 in over 20 countries including New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and United States.

In June 2010 Kimbra's first single on Forum 5, "Settle Down", was released. She had started writing the track four years earlier – it was finished with François Tétaz. The music video was directed by Guy Franklin. On December 10, 2010, the Australian 'indietronica' group Miami Horror released their single, "I Look to You" featuring Kimbra's vocals. Kimbra also starred in its music video.

Early in 2011, Kimbra's song "Cameo Lover" was short-listed as a finalist for the 2011 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition. In March she issued "Cameo Lover" as her next single, its music video was released in April and was directed by Franklin. On July 15, 2011, "Cameo Lover" won the songwriting competition, ahead of third placed song, "Somebody That I Used to Know", written by Belgian-Australian musician, Gotye. Kimbra went on to sign to Warner Bros. Records New Zealand for distribution in New Zealand and Australia, as well as a worldwide deal for other territories with Warner Bros. Records in the US. Kimbra was featured in Gotye's single, "Somebody That I Used to Know", which was mixed by Tétaz. Tétaz had recommended Kimbra to Gotye after a 'high profile' Australian female vocalist had withdrawn from the collaboration. The single is a commercial success charting nationally and internationally: it has reached No. 1 on the Singles Charts in over 20 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, and the US. The single went 9 times certified Platinum in Australia. The success of the collaboration resulted in Kimbra's singles "Settle Down", "Cameo Lover" and "Good Intent" (which was issued in August) also charting within the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart.

On August 29, 2011 Kimbra's debut album, Vows, was released in New Zealand and September 2, 2011 in Australia. In its first week of release it charted at No. 3 in New Zealand, No. 5 in Australia and No. 14 in the US. In its second week, it rose to a peak of No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Australian producer 'M-Phazes' produced Kimbra's track "Call Me" and assisted on other tracks onVows. Kimbra won the "One to Watch" award at the 2012 Rolling Stone Awards and has collaborated with Mark Foster (of Foster the People) and DJ A-Trak on the track "Warrior", which was released. On April 14, 2012 she performed "Somebody That I Used to Know" with Gotye on Saturday Night Live by April 18th  the track peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

For more about the artist visit: http://fuckyeahkimbra.tumblr.com/

and ya don't stop...

the secret...

shout out to East L.A.

East Los Angeles from Steve Saldivar on Vimeo.

an American Dream...

4 stars ****

At one point in “A Better Life,” an emotionally resonant film about how we live now, the director Chris Weitz opens a scene with a pair of adorable, gap-toothed little girls belting into karaoke microphones, giving their charming all to a song with un-self-conscious gusto. He then cuts to three bald men, crammed tattooed arm to tattooed arm on a couch, who are beaming at the girls with barefaced and shared delight, lighted up by the grace of children behaving like children. It’s touching and startling to see these men show such tenderness at this innocent spectacle, especially because all three are gangbangers.

What gives the scene punch isn’t that Mr. Weitz has the ostensible courage to show that gangsters delight in their children like everyone else; their humanity is a given, as is their visceral threat. Rather it’s the ordinariness of the interlude, its everyday quality that makes it so good and points to what, at times, distinguishes “A Better Life” from the overly blunt social-issue tract it could have easily become.

For the teenaged Luis (José Julián), an outsider hovering at the edge of the room and watching the children sing while he shyly cozies up to his girlfriend, Ruthie (a vivid Chelsea Rendon), this isn’t a gangster’s paradise. It’s a place of conviviality and safety, of loving fathers and doting mothers; in other words, a home.

Set largely in East Los Angeles, an area that doesn’t often pop up in movies except as a scary, nominally exotic backdrop (or unless Cheech and Chong are going up in smoke), “A Better Life” involves a struggle to hold onto a home of one’s own. For Luis and his own father, a gardener, Carlos (Demian Bichir), that means the United States, though home is also — as laid out rather too neatly in the sentimental script by Eric Eason from a story by Roger L. Simon — the relationship between father and son.

For Luis, who’s all-American from his birth certificate to his accent, Carlos isn’t just his father, he’s also a periodically embarrassing ambassador from a foreign land, a Mexican immigrant as seemingly unassimilated as he is undocumented.

“A Better Life” is a blunt turnaround for Mr. Weitz, whose previous gigs were at the helm of “The Golden Compass” and the last installment in the “Twilight” juggernaut. “Compass” had its moments, but “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” was dutifully impersonal hack work, and it’s hard to remember what happened in it or to care why it did.

The same can’t be said of his best films (both directed with his brother, Paul Weitz), the exuberantly vulgar comedy “American Pie” and “About a Boy,” a near-seamless adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel. It’s unusual for a director to scale down again as dramatically as Mr. Weitz has with “A Better Life” (that polymath Steven Soderbergh makes it a habit), but it’s done him good.

There are hitches, including a narrative structure that mechanically keeps Carlos and Luis more or less apart, laying out their worlds — Carlos awake, Luis asleep, Carlos at work, Luis at school — until the strands are braided together, and the two have become one. A single father, Carlos worries about his son but is so wrung out by dawn-to-dusk labors, rising with bird songs and jackhammers, he barely seems to know him. When offered a chance to buy a truck, he sees it as a path to the promised life of the title. Mr. Bichir, a Mexican actor with a long list of credits in his country, and Mr. Julián (who was 16 during the shoot), are both very sympathetic, and they hold your attention despite some awkwardly directed patches.

Mr. Weitz at times struggles, including with his actors, and the film’s scale doesn’t always fit its story; all the crane shots and a score performed by the London Symphony Orchestrasuggest he hasn’t scaled down enough. Yet he also gets plenty right, including a school that could be a prison and a shabby bungalow with old paint and a verdant garden.

His Los Angeles looks like the real deal instead of a tourist’s postcard, and in one memorable scene Carlos rides in a truck and watches as its richly diverse, multi-everything population races by. Later he takes Luis to a nearby rodeo, where they listen to the oompah oompah of norteño music in a place that looks like another country but is just around the corner.

As is sometimes the case with movies that take on civil and political rights without force-feeding the audience, “A Better Life” plays the human interest angle hard. It tries to put a lump in your throat and a tear on your cheek (it succeeds), pumping your emotions doubtless in an attempt to look nonpartisan. “We don’t really have a political agenda,” Mr. Weitz told NPR.

O.K., sure, there’s nothing political about the hardships endured by a Mexican immigrant eking out a subsistence living as a gardener in Los Angeles, mowing lawns for jittery white ladies and motoring around without a green card or half a prayer. It’s just a story about a father, a son and the bicycle — oops, truck — that helps bring them together. If you say so!

A BETTER LIFE

Directed by Chris Weitz; written by Eric Eason, based on a story by Roger L. Simon; director of photography, Javier Aguirresarobe; edited by Peter Lambert; music by Alexandre Desplat; production design by Melissa Stewart; costumes by Elaine Montalvo; produced by Paul Junger Witt, Christian McLaughlin, Mr. Weitz, Jami Gertz and Stacey Lubliner; released by Summit Entertainment. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.

WITH: Demian Bichir (Carlos Galindo), José Julián (Luis Galindo), Dolores Heredia (Anita), Joaquín Cosío (Blasco Martinez), Chelsea Rendon (Ruthie Valdez), Nancy Lenehan (Mrs. Donnelly) and Tim Griffin (Juvie Officer).

By MANOHLA DARGIS

The New York Times 

"Yo, we're not free..."

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never scared...

Ai Weiwei

For 81 days last spring and summer, Ai Weiwei was China's most famous missing person. 

Detained in Beijing while attempting to catch a flight to Hong Kong on April 3, Ai, an artistic consultant for the iconic Bird's Nest stadium, was held almost entirely incommunicado and interrogated some 50 times while friends and supporters around the world petitioned for his release. 

On Nov. 1, Ai, who says the case against him is politically motivated, was hit with a $2.4 million bill for back taxes and penalties. Two weeks later, he paid a $1.3 million bond with loans from Chinese supporters who contributed online and in person and even tossed cash over the walls of his studio in northeast Beijing.

The son of a revolutionary poet, Ai, 54, has grown more outspoken in recent years, expressing his anger at abuses of power and organizing online campaigns, including a volunteer investigation into the deaths of children in schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. His detention came amid a broad crackdown on activists by the Chinese government meant to stamp out a call for Arab Spring–inspired pro-democracy protests as well as continuing unrest in the Tibetan regions, where 12 people have set themselves on fire since March to protest Chinese policies.

Ai, who speaks excellent if not quite flawless English, sat down on Dec. 12 with TIME's Hannah Beech and Austin Ramzy — and a calico cat, one of nearly two dozen cats and dogs at his studio — to discuss his detention, the poetry of Twitter and whether China is immune to the global forces of protest and revolution.

In 1981 you left China with no plans to return, but you came back. Why? 

Before, I had seen my father and other people criticized or struggled against, but I was not directly involved. Then you see your generation being crushed. You see that this power has no intention of telling the truth. On the one hand it is ruthless, but on the other hand it is so weak.

When you are 20-something years old, you realize the only way to protect your dignity is to leave rather than to be damaged by this big machine. You see in your generation people who are destroyed. So I decided I had to leave. After 12 years in New York, I was 36. I heard a lot about how China was different. My father was ill. I wanted to go back to China and pay my last respects.

You returned in 1993. How is today's China different from the one you left? 
I think two things have changed China. To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive. But domestically it's still the same machine. There's no judicial process or transparency.

The other is the Internet. They realized that it was also important to surviving. It's also related to survival. But to use it, they had to open up. They could not completely censor the information and the knowledge available there. These two things completely changed the character of this nation.

In recent years, you have merged the Internet with political activism. How did that happen? 
I got involved with architecture. To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.

Because of my work in architecture, Sina [a Chinese Internet company] asked me to blog. I told them I don't have a computer. I don't know how to type. They said, "Don't worry, it's easy. We can help you set it up." At the beginning, I started to post my early artworks. I only wrote a few articles. Even though writing is the most admirable skill, I had no chance to become a writer because of my educational background. I hadn't really studied it except for Chairman Mao's sentences. So I just started to type. My first blog post was one sentence, something like "To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason."

Later I became very involved in writing. I really enjoyed that moment of writing. People would pass around my sentences. That was a feeling I never had before. It was like a bullet out of the gun.

Your work online became more political, particularly after you launched your investigation into the shoddily constructed schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake. 
They shut off my blog because every day we were posting investigations. I said it was O.K. if the government didn't want to tell the truth, but citizens should bear the responsibility to act. That is very powerful. We showed the people how we got those [student] names, what were the difficulties [the volunteers] encountered, how many times we had been arrested, how we searched — all the details.

I was very sad the moment they shut it off, because there was nothing we could do. And then some guy said, "I opened a miniblog for you." It was just one sentence — 140 characters. Twitter was like a poem. It was rich, real and spontaneous. It really fit my style. In a year and a half, I tweeted 60,000 tweets, over 100,000 words. I spent a minimum eight hours a day on it, sometimes 24 hours.

Your detention forced you into silence. What was it like? 
First they make sure you know that nothing can protect you, no law can protect you. They gave me the example of Liu Shaoqi [the Chinese head of state who was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and died in prison in 1969]. The constitution could not protect him, and today not much has changed. Then they said, "We want to dirty your name. We want to smash your popularity. We want to tell people you're a liar and dishonest."

Do you think your release was due to international and domestic pressure? 
I think it only could have come from support for me from the international art community and the political community and also in China.

In November, after you were served with a $2.4 million bill for taxes and penalties, Chinese citizens started giving money to you. After that, there was talk of a possible pornography charge, and in response to that, people started posting their own nude photos online as a sign of support. Have you been surprised by the reaction your case has inspired in China? 

I'm very surprised, and I think the people who are doing this were also surprised. People are so encouraged by this new technology. It provides such possibility. This really changes the landscape of the political situation. In the past, only the powerful could make their voices heard. Today anybody with clear thinking or a special way of understanding will be recognized.

Does what has happened in the Arab Spring have significance here, or is China under a different set of rules? 

I think Chinese leadership is trying to tell the world they have another set of logic or reasoning or values which are different from yours. Of course, I don't think they believe that. It's just an argument that's made when you can't confront the truth and facts. They really want to maintain power. At the same time, they refuse to communicate. They refuse to have good intentions. They refuse to be sincere. How can that last?

One of the criticisms that are made of you by some Chinese is that you promote democratic values that are not universal but Western, and China has its own path of development. 

I never emptily talk of democratic values. I always focus on individual cases. How many students died? What are their names? What are the basic facts? Did the police really beat me that night? Can a human being speak out with dignity?

So, what would you like to see in China? 

We need clear rules to play the game. We need to have respect for the law. If you play a chess game but after two or three moves you can change the rules, how can people play with you? Of course you will win, but after 60 years you will still be a bad player because you never meet anyone who can challenge you. What kind of game is that? Is that interesting? I'm sure the people who put me in jail, they're so tired. This game is not right, but who is going to say, "Hey, let's play fairly"?

Second, they cannot stop people from communicating freely, to get information and to express themselves. When they do that, this nation is not a right place to live. They sacrifice generations of people's opportunities. This is a crime.

Some people argue China doesn't need democracy. 
Democracy, right or wrong, has been proved. The Chinese case has not been proved yet. For me there is no logic there. It doesn't matter if it's successful or not. You cannot sacrifice people. I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone's rights.

How do you spend your days? Are you still making art? 
I'm an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I'm always looking to extend the boundaries. Art is the product of a person who uses a special form or shape or light to communicate. Life experience certainly teaches you how to become an artist.

I restrict the time I spend on the Internet now because I have to also talk to lawyers, communicate with the people who lent money to me.

In the afternoon I go to a park with my child to get some exercise. I go to the police station twice a week to hear their opinions and criticism. I do have a work I started two or three years ago — it takes a long time to finish. I'm happy they never tried to stop me from doing art.

If you had a chance to go overseas, would you? 
I have to evaluate, Is it better to stay in a jail here or go abroad? If you go, you really have to say goodbye.

You feel you wouldn't be allowed back? 
Not only that. I'm afraid I would lose the sensitivity to this reality. There are so many things you can do in life, and of course, activist isn't my top choice. I think I would lose touch with here, and I certainly feel I owe a lot of people. If I can make a good effort, I would continue to do that.

 

To learn more about the artist visit:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/ai-weiwei 

Sunflower seeds

You should know: the rookie of the year...

Kendrick Lamar 
and the album is:  Section 80


Kendrick Lamar was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Compton, California where he quickly fell in love with hip hop music. At the age eight, Lamar witnessed his idols, Tupac and Dr. Dre film the music video for their single "California Love," which became a very significant moment in Lamar's life. 

In 2003 at age sixteen he released his first mixtape, Youngest Head Nigga In Charge under the name K. Dot. The mixtape was able to garner enough attention for Lamar to get a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment. He then released a twenty-six track mixtape two years later titled Training Day.

 In 2008 Lamar made a cameo appearance on Jay Rock's "All My Life (In the Ghetto)" music video. After receiving a co-sign from Lil Wayne, he released his third mixtape in 2009 titled C4, heavily themed around Tha Carter III LP. Soon after, he decided to drop his stage name K. Dot and go by his real name. This resulted in him releasing a self-titled EP; the Kendrick Lamar EP in late 2009.

In 2010 he toured with Tech N9ne and Jay Rock on The Independent Grind tour. On September 23, 2010 he released O(verly) D(edicated) a highly acclaimed mixtape that included a song titled "Ignorance is Bliss" in which he glorifies gangsta rap and street crime but ends each verse with "ignorance is bliss" giving the message "we know not what we do". It was that song specifically that made legendary hip hop producer Dr. Dre want to work with Lamar. This led to him working with Dre and Snoop Dogg on Dre's Detox album and him considering signing to Aftermath Entertainment.

In January 2011 Lamar said his debut album was 90% finished. On July 2, 2011 Lamar released his third solo project Section.80 to critical acclaim. It included features from GLC, Colin Munroe, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and production from longtime collaborator Sounwave, Wyldfyer, Terrace Martin, J. Cole and more. On the topic of whether Section.80 would be an album or a mixtape Lamar said;

 "I treat every project like it’s an album anyway. It’s not gonna be nothing leftover. I never do nothing like that. These are my leftover songs y’all can have ‘em, nah. I’m gonna put my best out. My best effort. I’m tryna look for an album in 2012".

The first single for Section.80 was 'the J. Cole produced track "HiiiPower", the concept was to further explain the HiiiPower movement. Section.80 went on to sell over 10,000 copies in its first week without any television or radio coverage and received very positive reviews.

Lamar said that he has seen dead relatives in his dreams for years and that one morning in 2010, Tupac Shakur came to him with the message, "Keep doing what you're doing, keep my music alive." This is what he says inspired him to write much of Section.80. Tupac Shakur is also his favorite rapper, and influences not only his music, but his day-to-day life. He dedicates at least 10 minutes to Tupac in each of his concerts.

In the second half of 2011, Kendrick Lamar appeared on Game's The R.E.D. Album, Tech N9ne's All 6's and 7's, 9th Wonder's The Wonder Years and Drake's Take Care. In August 2011, while onstage with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Game, at the West Los Angeles concert, the three of them crowned him the "New King of the West Coast"

In March 2012, MTV announced that Top Dawg Entertainment, the independent record label Lamar is signed to, have closed a joint venture deal with Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment, marking the end of his career as an independent artist.

Under the new deal Kendrick Lamar’s projects, including his upcoming debut studio album Good Kid in a Mad City will be jointly released via Top Dawg /Interscope/Aftermath while releases from the rest of Black Hippy (Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and ScHoolboy Q) will be distributed via Top Dawg and Interscope. 

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