Guilty Pleasures...

I'm sorry. I know it's old. I know there's probably some kinda critique I should be serving up here, but I just don't want to. I friggin love this ridiculous song and I'm only slightly ashamed to confess my desire to learn the dance.

...Living in the memory of our song.

Okay, so this post might get me banned from the playground, but I'm really feelin Mariah tonight....

The Singing of our National Anthem

I wish I'd been more timely with this.

A few weeks ago, jazz singer Rene Marie fused the melody of the "Star Spangled Banner" with the lyrics of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" when asked to perform the national anthem at the mayor's annual state of the city address in Denver, CO.



Brilliant. Beautiful and brilliant in both concept and execution. Of course, Rene Marie's performance has been met with quite a bit of hostility and criticism. The language around this is telling. Said Mayor John Hickenlooper of the performance:

"We all respect artistic license and support freedom of expression," he said. "But in a tradition-laden civic ceremony . . . making a personal substitution for the national anthem was not an option. We asked for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and that's what we expected."

That shit's deep. He talks of "freedom of expression"--a constitutional right that is so evidently conditional and expendable. There are so many historical and contemporary examples of this that words like "irony" or "hypocrisy" don't even begin to cover it. Next, he talks about a "tradition-laden civic ceremony"... and I can't help but think of the legacy of commodity slavery that built this nation...the system that gave this country enough autonomy to fight for independence from England in the first place (and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air). And I think, why isn't that a "tradition" our nation ever cares to remember?

And suddenly Rene Marie's "substitution" is "personal." To me, her actions were SO beyond a personal substitution! Here, she has put the "(White) American National Anthem" into conversation with what is often considered the "Black (American) National Anthem." Her artistic choice here is so much bigger than just her. Her art is some century-spanning, race-bridging, powerful-ass work!

So though she will never read this, I have to say: Thank you, Rene Marie, for your voice, for your messages, for your art. I hear you.

Dream Girl

So about a week ago, I had this dream that I hooked up with Aishwarya Rai. It was kind of crazy, almost amazing, and then a bit creepy (when she turned out to be my half-second-cousin whose mom (my mother's aunt) followed us around to keep us from hooking up b/c she didn't approve of me "making her daughter gay."

I have to say, I was a bit proud of my dream, despite its incestuous aspects, simply because when does that every happen really? Where a beautiful superstar chooses ME, and I'm not actively day-dreaming the story's progression? Yeah. never. But it also got me to remembering the interview she did with Oprah a few years ago.



I believe Aishwarya was doing a promotional tour in the US for her then-soon-to-be-released Bride and Prejudice, but the film was never even mentioned by Oprah. Nor, for that matter, is most of her other work (except in the introduction).

It's difficult to even know where to begin. There are so many terrible things about this exchange between America's mammy* and India's native informant. The hypersexualization (Kama Sutra) and desexualization (Kissing), the cultural ignorance (Arranged Marriages) and appropriation (Saris), the exotification (um, YEAH) and alienation (singing in movies).

Props to Aishwarya for taking it in stride. I woulda straight laid the smackdown on Oprah. Anyway, just thought I'd share some of this stuff about my dream girl with y'all.

*This is not meant derogatorily. Rather, I'm referencing the way that Oprah is constructed in our media and in our society; the caricature that stands in place of the person.

Yes We Can

A group of stars headed by the Black Eyed Peas will.i.am made a music video dedicated to electing Obama. The Obama campaign says they had nothing to do with the creation of the video.

There are quite a few people in it: Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon.

Thoughts??


Look out for more election coverage soon!

Bush-isms.

I rarely write about Bush because I feel like his incompetence is so glaringly obvious that's it's usually a waste of energy. But Ima put me up on this, so enjoy:

Is our President an idiot? Or just inarticulate? You decide.

That's the Joint

Happy Friday, folks!

Jamaican in New York

From G:

We love Staceyann.

Here's why:

Weapons of Musical Dissent

For those of you who missed Weapons of Musical Dissent [1], I found some videos of the performances on YouTube. The line-up included Quetzal, Collective Purpose, Beau Sia, The Philistines and much more. It was hot.

Collective Purpose, San Diego-based spoken word group.

Beau Sia. If you don't know, you better ask somebody.
( This isn't a video of his performance at WMD which, by the way, was amazing. All of his work is on point, I just thought I'd share this open letter to Rosie O'Donnell):

[1] Weapons of Musical Dissent (WMD) is an annual student of color-sponsored music festival for social justice at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA.

One of Thousands

From WireTap:

Hometown Baghdad, the online project that followed the lives of three Iraqi twenty-somethings on Youtube, is preparing to air its last episode. WireTap originally covered the project a couple months ago with an interview with the shows 23-year-old producer Fady Hadid.

I'd like to post commentary or critique of the episodes, but I think the content speaks for itself. I just finished watching this gripping episode posted by Ausama have no words.