ustad allah rakha, father/teacher of zakir hussain, who in turn taught rohan singh bhogal. first video is 8 min, second 4 min, last one 1 min. all of them are awesome... in different ways. evolution, yeah?
i was reminded today of one of the weirdest people on the planet, manwoman. i originally heard of him the research's excellent book "modern primitives". he makes some art, writes poetry, but weirdest of all he is dedicated to saving the "swastika". for those who don't know, the swastika as a symbol goes back to neolithic times, with many beautiful meanings. the nazis really ruined it for everyone... hear's the nutty fellow explaining all the different historical uses for you... the swastika stuff starts about a minute in after his explanation of the third eye...
from my buddy, laurie trok, comes this gentle banger from illa j, "it's all good" (dilla's brother... who knew? not me...). i've always loved squarepusher's "port rhombus"... it's the type of tight jungle track that makes me feel i have superpowers, but it's gentle and pretty enough my ("gentle and pretty stuff"-liking) mom likes it.
and i mashed the two together, because the breaks just lined up nice... it's a quick ableton job... full bleed, no eq, but it works... the tracks are seperate mediafire links...
(mp3) illa j - "it's all good"
(mp3) squarepusher - "port rhombus"
(mp3) Illa j/squarepusher - "it's all good/port rhombus"
illa j track from "yancey boys"
squarepusher track from "big loada"
illa j/squarepusher image by yours truly.
my son river, aged 20 months, does some peacock/locust, some namasté hands (his version of the sun salutation) and some downward dog/forward bend here. he does a lot more, but this is the video his grandma shot of it...
the youtube page for this is here if you have trouble viewing the video...
my childhood/family friend kelly orr is doing some amazing work in kenya. and she blogs about it... here she is below with a flock of kids:
"The first project is collaboration with the SOTENI Local Management Committee of Kuria (a group of community leaders and elders) to build an orphanage for small children on land given to SOTENI by the Kenyan government. This project will include income-generating agriculture on about 10 of the 33 acres and will help sustain the project in perpetuity. Eventually, our hope is to also build a rescue center for girls fleeing the FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) ceremonies, which happen in Kuria every December. The land is bordered by the River Migori to the north, which makes it ideal for farming a variety of crops (we are talking about watermelon, maize, beans and eucalyptus) and has a great view of Masai Mara, which is an added bonus for our children."
"The second project involves meeting with and vetting orphans to participate in our sponsorship program. I am using the public schools as my starting point and have been asking administrators to prepare lists of the total orphans in their schools along with their performance records. The numbers of orphans in the communities here are staggering. AIDS and other poverty-related deaths have destroyed many, many families and the children are the most vulnerable to suffer. I have been all over Kehancha and surrounding towns (yesterday we were traveling by motorbike taxi because the roads were unfit for cars) meeting with children and their guardians, which are usually relatives or an especially generous teacher."
also, she notes "If you are interested in sponsoring one of SOTENI’s 12 children or another child in Kuria, please let me know!!!"
the band. can. (wiki) jaki leizebeit's drumming in this track is hot. guy dancing in the grocery to it is hilarious.
i keep hearing great palestinian hip hop on democracy now. i've been hunting for tracks i like for a while. carlos pointed me to slingshot hip hop, a documentary on the scene... the website has this large collection of artist links. hyla sent me a link to checkpoint 303 has a nice set of descriptions of their songs (with accompanying mp3 downloads) on their site.
here's the trailer to slingshot hip hop:
the torrent is here.
the female rapper featured in the preview is called arapyat... this is her myspace.
i still haven't finished my analysis post on the israel-palestine issue (cause it's COMPLICATED!), but in the meantime, here's a rap track with both hebrew and arabic lyrics, which according to one source is
"a song with politically-charged lyrics in Arabic and Hebrew, urging the Israeli and Palestinian youth to distrust their respective leaders and look towards forging a new, peaceful future together."
(mp3) balkan beat box - "ramallah tel aviv" from "nu made"
i'll update this post if i find any palestinian (or israeli) hip hop i'm in love with... in the meantime i'd love it if anyone could translate the lyrics from this track...
ever since listening to the erudite, funny and irreverant "grow more pot" by jello biafra, i've been a big advocate of industrial hemp. the more i learn about the specific uses of hemp, the more ludacris it's marginalization seems to me. the debate about the industrial (and medical) uses of marijuana/cannabis/hemp should supercede the debate over the psychoactive uses, in my opinion. the criminalization and over-regulation of the hemp industry is really stupid, and denies the world some truly excellent products. i shot these pictures in a hemp store in glastonbury, england. i wrote the captions underneath the photos so you don't have to click to read them.
"bast fibre - from the outer cortex of the stem are the strongest fibres in the plant kingdom, with a tensile strength 4 times greater than cotton. can be made into twine and rope, woven into fabric, made into fine quality papers (like bank notes) or used in insulating materials."
"hemp rope - did you know that henry VII passed laws making the cultivation of hemp mandatory for farmers? the hemp was used to make the rope, sailcloth and sailors uniforms needed for the royal navy which he set up."
"hemp hurds - from the inner stem very high in cellulose can be compressed into fibre board, mixed with lime and water to make 'hempcrete, pulped to make paper, processed into a wide range of plastics, or simply used as insulation or animal bedding."
"hempcrete brick - made from hemp hurds, lime and water. as it cures it draws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and petrifies the cellulose into stone. within 50 years it is solid as rock. this building technique is at least 2000 years old."
"hemp plastic sandles - compressing hurds at very high pressures extracts the cellulose that can then be used to make a wide variety of plastics. did you know that henry ford built a hemp plastic car and feuled it on hemp ethanol?"
hemp composite chair - this was really strong and smooth to the touch. it would make a great desk...
changed blog design... anyone hate it? our new spokesperson is below...
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