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Brothers on the block knowing
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Sisters at the crib knowing
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Preachers at the church knowing, we still get by
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Teachers at the school knowing
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Ladies on the block knowing
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Junkies on the corner knowing, but still get high
(from this point on it only gets rougher!)
Congressman Charles Rangel, Lila Downs, former UN Commissioner of Human Rights (and former president of Ireland) Mary Robinson, Baaba Maal, The Sinikithemba Choir, Nitin Sawhney, and Kofi Annan on video feed, spitting the facts. Perhaps when we "win" the war on terror we can get back to Africa, where the 21st century's real crisis lie.
All of Chekhov's plays are sad, but there is something about "Three Sisters" that is so resigned to the melancholy of life as to turn one mega-disheartened. The Wooster Group's deconstructed, "post"-version throws in a lot of humor but preserves the melancholy. Originally staged in '91 (reading about it in Interview magazine back in the early nineties was one of those things about New York City life that fascinated me and played a hand in me eventually moving here), "Brace Up!" ups the ante by having some of the performers from the original production who have died since it was originally performed continue to perform with the current troupe by use of the video parts used the first time around. Kate Valk, sister Masha as well as the narrator, casually relates that the person playing a particular character is no longer "with us" as that person, on video, concurs and proceeds to perform along with everyone else. These motherfuckers are geniuses. Awesome. Sick.
I'm infamously on record as saying I couldn't get into 50, thought he might very well be the devil himself (this might still be the case). My introduction to him, like many, was that underground track "40 Ways to Rob A Industry Nigga", which was so creatively brilliant and funny as to maybe be an all-time classic. But then he hooks up with Em, who I've never really gotten into, and Dre, who has just been slinging beats like buying stock these days, and the first track they drop is "In Da Club", which I despised. It is such a mediocre tune than was so pounded into my skull (Happy Ending might as well have been a hip-hop club for a while) that I derided it any chance I got-and I got a lot of chances. But then "21 Questions" flipped the script. I read someone say somewhere they only liked the joints that 50 sings on and I tend to agree. By the time "Many Men" dropped I'd started peeping the record, strong if not brilliant in places (though still mediocre). More effort went into building a compelling narrative in the "Many Men" video than go into 70 percent of feature films out of Hollywood. It is an abstract, ghetto gangster movie epic. I don't know what film the storyline is actually aping ("King of New York"? "Godfather II"? "State of Grace"?) but it is riveting. 50 inhabits a role he was made to play-up and coming gangsta left for dead by enemies (read: the industry) who comes back to exact revenge and conquer. When he sings, "Have mercy on me, have mercy on my soul, somewhere my heart went cold. . ." you feel it. The Nas versus Jay-Z thing becomes moot, 50 claims the mantle, for better or worse. He may indeed be the devil, but I'm listening. Forget all the bullet holes and wars, just check the issue of XXL he guest edited to check the man's seriousness. I just might stand corrected.
Over forty hours of comedy, vaudeville, and performance art by U.S. Senators, this grandstanding filibuster session by Republican Senators angry over Democrats blocking a handful of President Bush's judicial nominees was nonetheless instructive into the true nature of the political process. As surreal, monotonous, and silly this display often was, it in its own way kind of crystallized the political and philosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans in 2004, perfectly-an unintended result I'm sure (if anyone was actually watching on C-SPAN).
Along with guitarist Ian this flamenco and Latin singing duo produce some of the most lovely, mesmerizing music you will hear, astounding. Incessant rhythmic hand clapping and foot stamping along with beautiful guitar arpeggios and trance-inducing vocal shouts, wails, and cries. The singing is wonderful, night after night they blow me away. Maria can sometimes reach such a fever pitch that one feels she is about to levitate and blow the roof off the ceiling. Intensity, spirit, awe.