Homeboy on the Range
CD in Play: Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
The SkaVinci Code Under Fire
Carribean musicians of all stripes presented a united front at a press conference held in Kingston earlier today. The normally fractious groups, given to bickering amongst themselves as to which style of music is the truest form of Carribean music, pulled together to protest the upcoming film version of the novel by author Dawn Braun. Braun's novel, which follows the exploits of a musicologist who begins to question the true roots of Jamaican music and starts a dark and mysterious journey to uncover the darkest and most forbidden secrets of Ska and Rock Steady, has sold millions of copies worldwide and has brought with it heavy condemnation from the international Reggae community.
The Carribean Music Anti-Defamation League (CMADL) declared its intention to boycott the film and put pressure on their respective national governments to prevent the film from being shown anywhere in the Carribean. A spokeswoman for the CMADL has also asked all music loving peoples of the Earth to avoid seeing the film. In an unprecidented move, the World Hip-Hop Alliance has also declared its intention to join forces with the CMADL. The WHHA and the CMADL had been in a cold war of sorts when Dub pioneer Patrick Henry (AKA King Fatback) claimed that hip-hop artists ought to be paying him and other dub pioneers royalties for giving birth to hip-hop.
Dawn Braun has defended her work repeatedly and the film's director, Herman Hovelbrött, has stated that both the film and the book are works of fiction and are purely speculative in nature.
Yeargh! Me Achin' Feet...
I am on my feet about seven hours a day, five days a week at work. I have had one pair of shoes that did not give me blisters - this is no longer the case. Now I have to go and buy new shoes/boots this week. They smell horrific as well and are currently killing anything that moves living in the garage.
Awkward Moments and Happy Ones as Well
A former friend of mine has stopped communication with me altogether. Some of it is his family and some of it is me and perhaps it has been brewing for a while. Something is up, however, because I ran into two people today who we all used to hang around with. When they have encountered me in the past it was always firendly and easy. It was still friendly today, but guarded and a bit... carefully distant. No mention of parties, no mention of get togethers or how we should get together because it has been far too long - just a "maybe we'll see you around here again."
They say the older you get the harder it is to make friends, I have come to believe this is true. I did, however, run into an old friend from the music days, Don Webber. Don's still very much the same, though he is in the film industry as opposed to music. Still operates his own business, Electric Funnel Entertainment and is still the same basic guy I have always known. And if you know Don, there is something kind of comforting in that.
Politics
Conservatism is Anti-Christ. If you are conservative and cannot understand why I would say such a thing - then you need to re-examine what your Faith says about money, material goods, doing unto others and the poor and then give your political faith a sharp going over. More on this another time. Repent. No, seriously... REPENT.
The poster was done by Alfredo Rostgaard.
The SkaVinci Code Under Fire
Carribean musicians of all stripes presented a united front at a press conference held in Kingston earlier today. The normally fractious groups, given to bickering amongst themselves as to which style of music is the truest form of Carribean music, pulled together to protest the upcoming film version of the novel by author Dawn Braun. Braun's novel, which follows the exploits of a musicologist who begins to question the true roots of Jamaican music and starts a dark and mysterious journey to uncover the darkest and most forbidden secrets of Ska and Rock Steady, has sold millions of copies worldwide and has brought with it heavy condemnation from the international Reggae community.
The Carribean Music Anti-Defamation League (CMADL) declared its intention to boycott the film and put pressure on their respective national governments to prevent the film from being shown anywhere in the Carribean. A spokeswoman for the CMADL has also asked all music loving peoples of the Earth to avoid seeing the film. In an unprecidented move, the World Hip-Hop Alliance has also declared its intention to join forces with the CMADL. The WHHA and the CMADL had been in a cold war of sorts when Dub pioneer Patrick Henry (AKA King Fatback) claimed that hip-hop artists ought to be paying him and other dub pioneers royalties for giving birth to hip-hop.
Dawn Braun has defended her work repeatedly and the film's director, Herman Hovelbrött, has stated that both the film and the book are works of fiction and are purely speculative in nature.
Yeargh! Me Achin' Feet...
I am on my feet about seven hours a day, five days a week at work. I have had one pair of shoes that did not give me blisters - this is no longer the case. Now I have to go and buy new shoes/boots this week. They smell horrific as well and are currently killing anything that moves living in the garage.
Awkward Moments and Happy Ones as Well
A former friend of mine has stopped communication with me altogether. Some of it is his family and some of it is me and perhaps it has been brewing for a while. Something is up, however, because I ran into two people today who we all used to hang around with. When they have encountered me in the past it was always firendly and easy. It was still friendly today, but guarded and a bit... carefully distant. No mention of parties, no mention of get togethers or how we should get together because it has been far too long - just a "maybe we'll see you around here again."
They say the older you get the harder it is to make friends, I have come to believe this is true. I did, however, run into an old friend from the music days, Don Webber. Don's still very much the same, though he is in the film industry as opposed to music. Still operates his own business, Electric Funnel Entertainment and is still the same basic guy I have always known. And if you know Don, there is something kind of comforting in that.
Politics
Conservatism is Anti-Christ. If you are conservative and cannot understand why I would say such a thing - then you need to re-examine what your Faith says about money, material goods, doing unto others and the poor and then give your political faith a sharp going over. More on this another time. Repent. No, seriously... REPENT.
The poster was done by Alfredo Rostgaard.
posted by Magnus at 23:47
5 Comments:
hee hee...SkaVinci COde. Cute.
May I reccomend Birkenstocks if you ave to walk a lot. They almost massage your feet when you walk. Do NOT get Supervogs tho. Man my feet...
Hey Magnie (stupid me being cute, eh?),
No doubt age brings intrasigence. But it also brings wisdom. In the odd few, it brings flexibility.
I still consider you my friend. I'm sorry if I haven't been responding to your comments or commenting on your posts. I've been feeling very pessimistic the past week and not good for the past several weeks.
I'll leave the details for a private email (which I'll send to your yahoo account, since, I guess you didn't get my gmail message eh, and you've been stating in one or two posts that your gmail is not accessible to you at this point.
Yeah, the SkaVinci Code is funny as heck!
Don't get depressed. Well, you well, in any case. But, really, if people turn against you, and a couple of their friends do too, what can you do. It's happened to me.
It's happened to a few people I know who aren't even our generation, but who are much younger.
Blame the alienation of the current culture (even in a global sense). People in Taiwan can be just as shallow, sometimes even more.
People are the same almost everywhere, I am sure. If you don't belong to the right clique... If you don't espouse the same anti-religious views... Or the same evangelical views... Or belong to the right artistic set and mode and way of approaching their little tiny issue. Etc. Etc. and beyond.
Don't sweat it. Although you have more tolerance, and far far more than I have.
I miss Canada and Montreal so so so so much now.
Gosh! I feel such a pain in my heart. Such division! After all, I have a girlfriend here. And I need the artistic, freewheeling, multi-cultural climate that exists in Montreal.
Although, you never know. I...or we...might...just might...end up living in Vancouver.
I was born there after all.
I might even consider Toronto. I do love the grandness, the lakeside, the space, the big parks, the places to run and cycle, and see theatre. And slighly less grand New York. A bit more uptight and business-like than Montreal. But there are more opportunities. The cost scares me though. Not that Vancouver is much better.
Anyway, the real grit will come in my Snoffolopolis (how do you spell it? I can't even spell it when I've not had two beers and it's not 3 in the morning!) like email.
Geo: Birks would not fly at work, sorry to say. Supervisor is a stickler for the cop shoe thing. Fluvogs are just not me. I'd like to get Daytons but the people running it now just make crap. It was a made in BC boot that rivalled Doc Martins, but now they are aiming for the wanna-be biker bad-ass crowd. Cheap and crappy.
Thoth: The former friend comment wasn't diurected at you. This friend is local and could easily call. Something is up on that end, maybe just a growing apart... who knows. But me brief encounter with some friends from that circle let me know that something more is going than just my friend being caught up in family business.
My tolerance ends with Toronto, its a Westerner thing. Pack the GF up and bring her here.
Once I have my teaching certificate I am seriously considering either Halifax, Saskatoon or Regina as my in Canada options. If I could get in at the Coquitlam or North Vancouver School Districts I would consider staying in BC and would probably try for a place in Pitt Meadows or Dollarton. Other than that I start looking at UK options - Cardiff, for instance.
I would consider Halifax or St. John's, Nfld, too. Both have milder climates.
Saskatoon? Magnus, man, are you flippin' kiddin' me? Aside from the oddball intelligent person, saskatchewan is filled with hicks. Now I know the NDP support is traditionally there. Not any more though. It's all Tories, now.
Actually the anti-Toronto thing is not just a Western thing (and I was born and brought up in the west, so I guess I would know), but it's also a Montreal thing. For all the Montrealers: get over it.
As for BC'ers, well...at least Toronto doesn't have Doug Collins. It would be nice to live near someone I know though. But since you don't know where you'll end up. Although, some of your friends demographic situation will have an influence. Don't live in the U.K. Actually, you might hate it.
I am sure you would do well to just study there for two or three years, eh?
You discover what you like or dislike when you live abroad for a good deal of time. Like I have. You discovered you liked Montreal. I suspect there's going to be more and more jobs there, soon enough. There are already, but not for middle range jobs, only for ridiculously high-range jobs. Like who can be a U.N. liaison. Who has forty years of experience?
Would be impossible to teach high school in Quebec, given how poor my French is. A private school maybe. As for Saskatchewan, just Geo if it is full of hicks? She was born there and still lives there. (get Him G.) I like Saskatchewan. I was there for two years and found that I liked the people there.
As for the UK, it's the experience of it. I have heard all the horrid things there are to hear from a whole host of Britons. Many have been quite adamant.
One thing that they never think of - they are close to the Continent. Teach there and then holiday in either Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Faeroes, France, Spain, Czech Rep, Hungary, the Netherlands, Greece, etc.
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