Virginia Woolf on "loneliness and creativity"

Born on a 25th of January in 1882, Virginia Woolf is still celebrated this day.
For her books and her unforgettable diary.

On her website, Brainspicking, Maria Popova chose to focus on this issue:

the Relationship Between Loneliness and Creativity

 


"...it is precisely the transmutation of loneliness into connection with the universal human experience that lends Woolf’s writing its timeless penetrative power".

From Virginia's words:

"Often down here I have entered into a sanctuary… of great agony once; and always some terror; so afraid one is of loneliness; of seeing to the bottom of the vessel. 

That is one of the experiences I have had here in some Augusts; and got then to a consciousness of what I call “reality”: a thing I see before me: something abstract; but residing in the downs or sky; beside which nothing matters; in which I shall rest and continue to exist. Reality I call it. 

And I fancy sometimes this is the most necessary thing to me: that which I seek. 

But who knows — once one takes a pen and writes? How difficult not to go making “reality” this and that, whereas it is one thing. 

Now perhaps this is my gift: this perhaps is what distinguishes me from other people: I think it may be rare to have so acute a sense of something like that — but again, who knows? I would like to express it too".

(August 1928)

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Read the whole article here: 
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/06/16/virginia-woolf-loneliness/

Paris honore 'Blue Lines'

Le Centre culturel Barbara, Paris 18e, rend hommage à ce magnifique album... L'occasion de parler métissage musical, révolution sonore et changement social.

C'est demain, mardi 24 janvier : 

Disco Alto #4 / "Blue Lines", 

Massive Attack


Bienvenue à une séance Disco Alto! On prend un verre, on se pose confortablement et on s'apprête à écouter un album en entier, en son haute-fidélité, présenté par un spécialiste.

L'ALBUM

Bristol, 1991. Dans une ville marquée par l’immigration et la mixité culturelle, la scène underground est en pleine effervescence, influencée par différents genres musicaux (reggae et punk notamment) et très liée à l’art du graffiti. 
Fer de lance de ce mouvement, le groupe Massive Attack sort son premier album, «Blue Lines», qui marque le vrai début des années 90 et l’acte fondateur d’un des courants musicaux majeurs de la décennie : le (mal nommé) Trip Hop.
Une ligne bleue passée laquelle se mélangent allègrement Disco, Soul, Reggae, Hip hop, Jazz et qui va placer Bristol sur la carte de la musique mondiale.
Retour sur cet album mythique à l’occasion de ses 25 ans.

L'INTERVENANT
Cette séance sera animée par Franck Descollonges : collectionneur de disques et fondateur du label indépendant Heavenly sweetness qui s’est fait un nom dans le Jazz et la Black Music grâce au succès d'artistes comme Anthony Joseph ou Guts, et les réeditions vinyles des perles du catalogue Blue Note.

LE SON
Enceintes haut de gamme: Focal Sopra 3 + ampli Octave V80SE
Fichier audio en haute qualité, format lossless.

INFO PRATIQUE
Entrée libre – SUR RESERVATION
Complet
https://www.yesgolive.com/fgo-barbara/disco-alto-seance-decoute-dalbum
FGO-Barbara, espace du hall
1, rue de Fleury 75018 Paris
Métro: Barbès-Rochechouart
Début de la séance : 20h

On BBC Radio Bristol - January 21st, 2017

Hello from Bristol!

Being in England this week, I accepted BBC Radio Bristol's invitation to be on their Saturday morning show, with Dr Phil Hammond, to talk about my book :) 

We mainly talked about the role of music in social change, from Patti Smith to Occupy London, and of course of Massive Attack.

You can listen here. I'm on for about 10 minutes - at 11:30am, just after's Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black'...

Link:

BBC Radio Bristol

Phil Hammond

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04nf548


-

And the 10 min interview on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/melissa-chemam/bbc-radio-bristol-interview-with-dr-phil-hammond-21-jan-2017

-

The show also started with R.E.M's song 'Losing my Religion', which, well, seems very timely for many reasons, politically and socially, etc.

Just sharing the lyrics...

Cheers,
m

"Losing My Religion"

Oh life, it's bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour
I'm choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
Consider this, the hint of the century
Consider this, the slip
That brought me to my knees, failed
What if all these fantasies come
Flailing around
Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
Try, cry, why try
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream, dream

New Arcade Fire feat. Mavis Staples

Well, same message Arcade Fire !
What a compensation for the birth date... Two of my favourite bands at work :) 

'I Give You Power'

Arcade Fire feat. Mavis Staples 

Published on 19 Jan 2017

It's never been more important that we stick together and take care of each other.
Love,
Mavis Staples and Arcade Fire
All proceeds go to ACLU
https://www.aclu.org/

New Gorillaz out today

Thank you Gorillaz, that's a great present for a birthday!! 

Especially a day sandwich by Theresa May's speech and Donald Trump's inauguration... 

And I love Benjamin Clementine ;) 

'Hallelujah Money' 

Gorillaz - feat. Benjamin Clementine

Published on 19 Jan 2017

Gorillaz returns after six years with the apocalyptic "Hallelujah Money" video, the first taste of their new record which is coming later this year. The band has issued this song on the eve of the Inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump to serve as commentary on a politically-charged, historical moment. #wearestillhumanz

Credits:
Director: Gorillaz & Giorgio Testi
Editor: Sebastian Monk

www.gorillaz.com
www.benjaminclementine.com

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Vidéo : Pourquoi c'est culte ? "Blue Lines" de Massive Attack

Très belle journée entre Londres et Bristol ce jeudi 19 janvier...

Découverte de ce soir :

Pourquoi c'est culte ? 

"Blue Lines" de Massive Attack

Ce pourrait être une parfaite introduction à mon introduction !

Sur mon livre : http://www.anne-carriere.fr/ouvrage_en-dehors-de-la-zone-de-confort-melissa-chemam-302.html

Extrait de la présentation :

Tout prend forme lorsque qu’un jeune graffeur anglo-italien du nom de Robert Del Naja signe du pseudonyme de 3D sa première œuvre de rue sur un mur de la ville en 1983. 

Avant de fonder le groupe Massive Attack en 1988 avec les DJs Grantley Marshall et Andrew Vowles, il rencontrera sur sa route les pionniers du post-punk de Londres et Bristol, les passionnées de reggae antillais du quartier de Saint Pauls, puis la chanteuse Neneh Cherry et le rappeur Tricky. Creuset inattendu mêlant hip-hop, reggae, soul et guitares rebelles, le premier album de Massive Attack, Blue Lines, sort en 1991 et provoque une révolution dans la culture populaire britannique. 

Massive Attack devient l’incarnation du succès d’un métissage à la britannique, et parviendra à toujours se renouveler, tenter de nouvelles révolutions et durer au-delà de nombreux mouvements musicaux des années 1990 et 2000, telles la Brit Pop, l’electronica et le drum and bass.

-


Page Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/massiveattacktobanksy/

"Lucky" or Not. About the appalling state of journalism in Europe

 A day that start by listening to Radiohead's Thom Yorke screaming these lyrics cannot be denied as a defining day....

"It's gonna be a glorious days"...

I feel these lyrics were premonitory.

"We are standing on the edge...
The head of state has called for me, by name
But I don't have time for him.
It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck could change".

Such a strange feeling.

It's a very important week for myself, with all my defining dates, and such important meetings.

And yet, it's also a disastrous week politically, announcing horrible changes, starting from Theresa May's speech yesterday and ending with Donald Trump's inauguration, a day after my birthday. 

"Pull me out of the aircrash
Pull me out of the lake
'Cause I'm your superheroin"...

What can we do from here?
Where can we go?

Am I the only one feeling like screaming for a continuous stream of hours?

I see some fellow journalists, former coworkers, getting ready to cover Trump's inauguration from Washington, and they don't have other things to say that "hey, look, I'm here, I'm a star", anything else to show that flags in close shots and selfies...

How did we get so low?

When I was freelancing from Miami in 2008, covering the election of the first "African American" president, selfies did not exist. I was working freelance and barely reimbursing the money I spent on travels. Covering the disenfranchisement of Haitian American citizens in Little Haiti, the two-tier policy on immigrants from Cuba and Haiti, the subprime crisis.

I hate what journalism has become. It is now almost impossible to get published if you write on real issues. 

When I travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan in May, last year, editors in chief replied to my proposals that displaced people were not news, that the battle in Mosul would be news when it would start. So they can now read in their cristal ball what will be, AND decide what will be news at the same time, months in advance.

Same story in Calais / Grande Synthe. Not news. Though when I travelled to Dadaab in 2011 one of the largest refugee camps in the world, I was already told that half a million Somali / Sudanese / Congolese people stranded without rights were "no news". I managed to get the story published, though, on the radio, in different papers.

Now, this year, nothing. Not on Brexit, not on the refugee crisis and the appalling situation in Paris where war survivors are sleeping under the railway.

And correspondents in America are getting ready for their selfies.

I know that our leaders, our editors in chief, our dormant silent majority just want people like me to give up, to stop telling them that there remain things terribly dysfunctional. 

But we cannot. We have the obligation to continue.

But don't you just feel like screaming sometimes?

Music screams louder than I will ever be able to... And people do listen. So I let you scream for me.

And then I'll choose. I'll choose to be "lucky". Cause I will.


-

Radiohead - 'Lucky' 

(acoustic)

"Lucky"

I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll
This time, I feel my luck could change
Kill me Sarah, kill me again with love
It's gonna be a glorious day

Pull me out of the aircrash
Pull me out of the lake
'Cause I'm your superhero
We are standing on the edge

The Head of State has called for me by name
But I don't have time for him
It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck could change

Pull me out of the aircrash
Pull me out of the lake
'Cause I'm your superhero
We are standing on the edge

We are standing on the edge

"Incantations"

'Incantations' 

('Everywhen')

My love
Your light
Incantations
Struck stars
Like tears fall
The sequence ends

Downtime
God speed
Everywhen
We concede
The sequence ends
And begins

Everything
You think you know
Everything
You think you know
You think you know

Blood ties
Blood ties
The sequence ends

BRISTOL A SAINT-OUEN

Bonjour à toi, monde francophone :)

Si l'envie vous prend d'entendre parler - en personne - dans une librairie ! - de ma passion pour Bristol, je serai à la Librairie de Saint-Ouen, Folies d'Encre, le dernier samedi de janvier, le 28, à partir de 17h30.


Voir l'annonce sur le site de Télérama Sortir :

http://sortir.telerama.fr/evenements/conferences-debats/melissa-cheman-en-dehors-de-la-zone-de-confort-bristol-de-massive-attack-a-banksy,231187.php?ccr=oui

Débat

Melissa Chemam : "En dehors de la zone de confort" - Bristol, de Massive Attack à Banksy

Le 28 janvier 2017
Librairie Folies d'Encre - Saint-Ouen


Melissa Chemam, journaliste globe-trotteuse indépendante, a récemment publié En dehors de la zone de confort, un passionnant ouvrage sur l'histoire et la vie artistiques de la ville de Bristol. 

Construit autour du parcours du groupe Massive Attack et de son leader Robert Del Naja, elle y explore, à travers une foule de témoignages, les florissantes scènes musicale et le street art d'une cité qui a hérité, de son passé complexe et parfois peu avouable, un métissage d'une richesse inouïe. 

A l'occasion de cette rencontre, l'auteur abordera le thème du rôle social de la musique depuis les 60s, notamment par le biais de l'exemple bristolien. 
Prometteur.

-

Quelques infos sur le livre :

Présent dans toutes les bonnes librairies de France, Belgique et Suisse.

Par exemple, Paris 10e, à la librairie Nordest :

https://www.librairienordest.fr/livre/10061843-en-dehors-de-la-zone-de-confort-de-massive-atta--chemam-melissa-anne-carriere


Qu’ont en commun le Pont suspendu d’Isambart Brunel, l’acteur Cary Grant, le groupe Massive Attack et l’artiste de rue Banksy ? Ils sont tous originaires de Bristol, une ville moyenne de l’ouest de l’Angleterre. Une ville marquée par une histoire riche et complexe, mais encore jamais racontée ! Marquée par une fortune précoce liée à l’ouverture de l’Angleterre vers l’Amérique, elle devient aussi un des points névralgiques du commerce triangulaire. C’est justement cette histoire qui va nourrir, de manière inédite et radicale, la génération d’artistes éclose à Bristol à partir de la fin des années 1970.

Tout prend forme lorsque qu’un jeune graffeur anglo-italien du nom de Robert Del Naja signe du pseudonyme « 3D » sa première œuvre de rue sur un mur de la ville en 1983. Avant de fonder le groupe Massive Attack en 1988 avec les DJs noirs Grantley Marshall et Andrew Vowles, il rencontrera les pionniers du post-punk de Londres et Bristol, les passionnées de reggae antillais du quartier de Saint Pauls, puis la chanteuse Neneh Cherry et le rappeur Tricky. Creuset inattendu mêlant hip-pop, reggae, soul et guitares rebelles, le premier album de Massive Attack, Blue Lines, sort en 1991 et provoque une révolution dans la culture populaire britannique. Massive Attack devient l’incarnation du succès d’un métissage à la britannique, et parviendra à toujours se renouveler, tenter de nouvelles révolutions et durer au-delà de nombreux mouvements musicaux des années 1990 et 2000, telles la Brit Pop, l’electronica et le drum and bass.

Dans le sillage de cette créativité débridée mêlant musique, art et implication sociale profonde, naissent aussi les groupes Portishead et Roni Size, les mouvements nommés trip-hop et dubstep, et le génial Banksy, inspiré dès son plus jeune âge par les graffitis de Robert Del Naja. Depuis, la profondeur artistique de ces artistes et leur engagement n’ont fait que se renforcer, tout comme leur lien avec leur ville. Ce lien va devenir le tremplin qui les porte jusqu’à l’autre bout du monde, de l’Amérique à Gaza. Il pousse aussi très tôt Robert Del Naja à se mobiliser – contre la guerre d’Irak, pour les droits des Palestiniens ou, plus récemment, pour l’accueil des réfugiés jetés sur les routes européennes. 

Rébellion, art, musique, engagement, Bristol synthétise ainsi une autre histoire du Royaume-Uni. Une histoire qui amène au sommet des charts et sur le devant de la scène de parfaits autodidactes, et la part plurielle et afro-antillaise de la culture britannique.

"The Desperate Kingdom Of Love"

PJ Harvey

'Desperate Kingdom of Love'

"The Desperate Kingdom Of Love"

Oh love, you were a sickly child
And how the wind knocked you down
Put on your spurs, swagger around
In the desperate kingdom of love

Holy water cannot help you now
Your mysterious eyes cannot help you
Selling your reason will not bring you through
The desperate kingdom of love

There's another who looks from behind your eyes
I learn from you how to hide
From the desperate kingdom of love

At the end of this burning world
You'll stand proud, face upheld
And I'll follow you, into Heaven or Hell
And I'll become, as a girl
In the desperate kingdom of love

--

Album version: