RASHOMONIC.com

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

ozo

Surprised Bonnie on Monday night by setting up a double date with Bethanie and Brian. Went to a lonely little restaurant in Manassas, then came back to the house to hang out. Talked and ate ice cream and watched an Ozomatli show on DVD. Ed Morales says Ozomatli, one of Bonnie's favorite bands, is

one of the most archetypal Spanglish bands in all of the country ... a new North American experiment in multiculturalism ... a place where inter-Latino differences (salsa vs. cumbia vs. Mexican regional) fuse with African American exigencies (hiphop, funk), while presenting a lineup that includes whites and Asians.

Had to look up 'exigencies' in the dictionary.

:: 9:35 AM [+] ::

comfort music

Supposed to play guitar at a memorial event for Salvador's dad on Friday. I can't play very well, but I can't turn down a friend like Salvador.

:: 9:16 AM [+] ::

losing dad

Got a call from my friend Salvador around 9:45 last night. He was on business in California. Salvador had received word just ten minutes earlier of his father's death. They were close.

:: 6:38 PM [+] ::

malcolm and me

In his autobiography, Malcolm X tells the story of visiting his hometown in Michigan after moving to the East Coast:

My conk and costume were so wild that I might have been taken as a man from Mars. I caused a minor automobile collision; one driver stopped to gape at me, and the driver behind bumped into him.

A couple of years ago I put on a clown wig and did jumping jacks on the side of the highway in Gainesville to advertise a charity car wash. A driver passing on the other side of the road turned his head to stare and hit the car slowing down ahead of him.

:: 5:41 PM [+] ::

moving on

Furniture, furniture, furniture. Unpacked it yesterday afternoon, then went to my family's house for Michelle's birthday dinner. Came home, assembled some of it and went to bed. Woke up, assembled the rest of of it, then watched Grave of the Fireflies with Bonnie, Jake and Na. I wish I had seen that film as a kid. "It belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made," Roger says.

:: 8:35 PM [+] ::

foam and plastic

The Washington Post reports on three guys in Baghdad who were driving past the National Museum of Antiquities when they

saw the looting and decided to act ... grabbed everything they could ... filled the van and drove it home, then returned for another load... "It is our history, our heritage, our civilization," Jamil said ...

Jamil, a pianist, owned the van.

At his home, he gathered foam and plastic and wrapped the art objects. The next day, he contacted Donny George, director general of research and study for the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities ... "I am so happy," George said, patting his heart with affection for Jamil. George embraced him by the door of his van; Jamil sobbed in his arms.

:: 10:42 AM [+] ::

intellectuals

Don't miss "The Latest Theory Is That Theory Doesn't Matter" in the NYT:

The era of big theory is over. The grand paradigms that swept through humanities departments in the 20th century — psychoanalysis, structuralism, Marxism, deconstruction, post-colonialism — have lost favor or been abandoned... on April 11 the editors of Critical Inquiry, academe's most prestigious theory journal, convened ... an unusual two-hour public symposium on the future of theory.

To quote a few of the panelists:

I wish to deny the effectiveness of intellectual work. And especially, I always wish to counsel people against the decision to go into the academy because they hope to be effective beyond it. - Stanley Fish

Maybe I'm too young ... I really didn't see it: the liberation of people of color because of deconstruction or poststructuralism. - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

I think one must be careful in assuming that intellectuals have some kind of insight. In fact, if the track record of intellectuals is any indication, not only have intellectuals been wrong almost all of the time, but they have been wrong in corrosive and destructive ways. - Sander L. Gilman

:: 1:32 AM [+] ::

wheeling

Been busy with relatives and moving plans during the last few days. Grandpa's health is failing - the doctor gave him six months - so the extended family is trickling into the area from places including Juneau, Alaska and Lexington, Kentucky. Got through Mumia Abu-Jamal's Live from Death Row in about 24 hours. Started the Autobiography of Malcolm X yesterday. In the middle of Frank H. Wu's Yellow and Daniel Goleman's Primal Leadership.

:: 11:26 AM [+] ::

project coast

The Washington Post reports on South Africa's forgotten program:

Project Coast [was] a top-secret biological and chemical program created by South Africa's white-minority government, which came to light in the late 1990s... Project Coast specialized in the tools of terrorism and assassination ... The program's military commanders also researched anti-fertility drugs that could be clandestinely applied in black neighborhoods, and explored -- but never produced -- biological weapons that would selectively target the country's black majority population.

:: 12:08 AM [+] ::

nobody knows

From a recent interview with Jay-Z in XXL:

I also hear you're not really feeling the current rap scene?

I haven't bought a rap album in so long, man. I used to wait for rap albums to come out ...

Today, do you have any friends in the rap game other than Roc-A-Fella artists?

Naw. I mean it's sad as far as artists - they were never really friends, man... People really don't want to see you good, they want what you have. Nobody really knows how to play their role. Rap is all about the bravado. I'm so and so, I'm this and that.

:: 6:17 AM [+] ::

70 minutes for sale

From a profile of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in VIBE:

Part of 50 Cent's appeal is his reality, his past, his otherwise unfortunate situations - his gangsta...

At a time in America's history ... when reality TV shows like Survivor and Joe Millionaire take the place of real living, listeners of popular music expect their gangsta rappers to deliver a certain truth. Pop in a 50 Cent CD and you, too, can be gangsta for 70 minutes.

:: 8:00 PM [+] ::

throwback

If you want to give a cool gift, check out Statue.com.

:: 11:35 PM [+] ::

good girl

Two days ago Bonnie took pity on me. She dragged a filing cabinet into my office and reorganized my files. Man, I love that girl.

:: 8:55 AM [+] ::

bad boy

The Washington Post asks Franklin Graham to keep his crusade out of Iraq and "Evangelize Elsewhere".


:: 1:27 AM [+] ::

zorn: ii of ii

John Zorn reflects on life and art in Bomb:

We've made a lot of sacrifices to live the life that we live. And people don't appreciate that. They think we're out here balling, you know? It's not that way. It's hard work, and you get isolated. And you get distracted by the normal human need for companionship and love and understanding and appreciation...

I'm constantly in doubt about what I'm doing, I'm constantly tortured, and that's why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies. I'm not striving for happiness, I'm trying to get some work done. And sometimes the best work is done under doubt. Constant rethinking, and reevaluating what you're doing, working and working until you feel it's finished. And that's an interesting point too, that you've got to know when to stop.

:: 9:00 AM [+] ::

zorn: i of ii

John Zorn is a master of experimental music. I found him through a CD from Tzadik, his record label for "musician-composers who find it difficult or impossible to release their music through more conventional channels." Zorn tells Bomb Magazine:

Japan was my home for ten years off and on, back and forth. I had an apartment there and I felt a commitment... I learned to speak the language and to read it. I became well versed in a lot of the underbelly of Japanese culture. And that was a real learning experience. It helped me figure out who I was. Learning another language helps you, really, with English. It helps you focus your communication in a very real way, and that was great.

And being hit front on with a completely different culture helped me appreciate my own culture. I wouldn't have gotten into Jewishness as much as I did if I hadn't been in Japan.

More tomorrow.

:: 10:54 AM [+] ::

around the world

While songs with Arabic and Indian influences pound the hip hop charts, Beyoncé is counting down the weeks to the release of her first solo album. She tells MTV:

I've been listening to so many different artists ... there are a lot of instruments in it. It's still rock influence. It's still soul influence. There are so many different kinds of music. The harmonies are really different, and it's got an Arabic feel in a lot of the songs.

Hot. Very hot. I can hear the cash registers ringing and the CDs ripping open from Anaheim to Azerbaijan.

:: 12:35 AM [+] ::

backwards

This from the New York Villager:

MTV's reality television show, "Making the Band 2," is causing quite a ruckus in quaint Greenwich Village on Charles St. where the show is being filmed...

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she didn't think the show was appropriate for the neighborhood, citing the S.U.V.s with blacked-out windows and kids walking around in backwards baseball caps as the reasons...

Daniel Kohs, the owner of the residence being rented by MTV, defends his decision, saying no more than one or two individuals have confronted him. "There is no problem with the majority of neighbors - just a couple of rabble rousers ... There's a form of prejudice that is being laundered as noise complaints."

:: 2:07 AM [+] ::

acid tagging

The Washington Times has the story:

A permanent type of graffiti that first showed up on storefront windows before the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle has invaded the District.

Metropolitan Police Department officials said vandals are using an acidic material that permanently etches letters and words into glass. The material can't be washed, forcing many business owners to pay hundreds of dollars to replace the damaged windows...

There's a fine line between graffiti and tagging, said Mike Benson, a Northwest resident who has been studying the new graffiti. He said this type of graffiti is a form of tagging, typically used by gangs.

"Tagging lets your people know you're there," Mr. Benson, 36, said.

:: 1:02 PM [+] ::

smearing

I first tasted Nutella, a brand of chocolate-hazelnut spread, a couple of years ago in Europe. Now it's selling by the jar throughout the States. Here's the story of the stuff:

Nearly three generations of Europeans have grown up eating Nutella®, which was created in the 1940's by Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero company.

At the time, cocoa was in short supply due to war rationing, and chocolate was a delicacy limited to a lucky few. So Pietro Ferrero mixed cocoa with toasted hazelnuts, cocoa butter and vegetable oils to create an economical spread ...

This product became so popular that Italian food stores started a service called "The Smearing". Children could go to their local food store with a slice of bread for a "smear" ...

Today, Nutella is the number one spread in Europe. Worldwide, it outsells all peanut butter brands combined.

:: 9:44 AM [+] ::

the road less traveled

We got back in the early-morning hours, so I slept late. It was funny seeing six inches of snow in Jersey in April. We spent 30 minutes along the turnpike at one point trying to replace a busted windshield wiper. Another night we had to sleep in parallel twin beds like Bert and Ernie. Most of the time we hung out with friends and family.

Other news: Rashomonic is on the blogroll at Eric Lien's Mixed Asian. One of my goals in blogging is to put quality above quantity as Eric does.

:: 12:01 AM [+] ::

leaving town

Heading to West Virginia for the weekend, then over to New Jersey for a little reunion with Bonnie's family. Returning late Tuesday night. Blogging Wednesday morning...

:: 2:22 PM [+] ::

hollywood kids

Recent films including Barbershop, 8 Mile, Bringing Down the House and Chris Rock's Head of State "all share a common theme," in USA Today, "white characters acting urban." The piece goes on:

"I don't know why it's taken Hollywood so long to realize that white kids have been flocking to the hip-hop culture," says Ron Leone, assistant professor of media and film at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass."

Here's one theory:

Says Jeffrey Hyson, who teaches history and media studies at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia: "Hollywood has been notoriously slow in picking up on black culture. It's usually not until the children of studio executives begin paying attention to that culture ...

Coming soon: More angles on white kids "acting urban" and the Eminem phenomenon.

:: 12:27 PM [+] ::

lawman of the year

I have been following the Thomas Coleman investigation. Here is the latest from the Washington Post:

AUSTIN, April 1 -- Texas prosecutors today agreed to throw out the convictions of 38 people, nearly all of them black, who faced drug charges based on the uncorroborated testimony of a white former undercover police officer... his testimony was the only evidence used to convict the defendants, some of whom are serving sentences of 90 years or more.

It was a dramatic turn of events in a racially charged case that erupted into the national spotlight when more than a tenth of the black population of Tulia, a poor farming town in the Texas Panhandle, was arrested on cocaine charges in a 1999 sweep.

Of the 46 people originally arrested, 22 received prison sentences and 13 of them are still incarcerated, all on the say-so of Coleman, a police officer with a checkered past who offered no fingerprints, audio or video surveillance, corroborating witnesses or other evidence to support his testimony...

He conceded that he once owned an illegal machine gun, and he was described by previous employers as dishonest, unreliable, a racist ... For his work on the drug bust, he was named Texas's Lawman of the Year in 1999.

:: 4:34 PM [+] ::

a dream is a wish?

This morning I had one of the worst dreams of my life. I still can't shake the images. I am getting angry. I am picking up a knife. I am stabbing the back of a man I don't know. He is dying on his way to the hospital. I am sweating. Guilt and satisfaction is pounding in my stomach. Very disturbing.

:: 3:51 PM [+] ::

trippy

I picked up my brother Nate yesterday. We dropped Bonnie off at the hospital to work a night shift, then grabbed dinner at Guapo's in Manassas. The fried yucas were good. The televised soccer was even better. Then we drove to Reston Town Center to watch the highest-earning film ever in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2002). We had a great time. It was like seeing Willy Wonka or Waking Life for the first time. Definitely for all ages. The DVD comes out on April 15, another fun way to forget about the IRS.

:: 12:38 PM [+] ::