Music and Politics: Remembering The Clash

"Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here
Go straight to hell boys"

Lyrics

"Straight to Hell"

If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys

Y'wanna join in a chorus
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says

You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says-

PSSST...
HEY CHICO WE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YA...
VAMOS VAMOS MUCHACHO
FROM ALPHABET CITY ALL THE WAY A TO Z, DEAD, HEAD

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys

THE OTHER ART FAIR: Soon in Bristol

The Other Art Fair is firmly established as the only event art buyers of all experiences and tastes need to attend to buy directly from 70 of the most talented emerging artists.

We are delighted to present the inaugural edition of The Other Art Fair in Bristol at the prestigious Arnolfini. Buy direct from 60 of the best emerging artists, hand-picked by our esteemed selection committee including Paul Hobson (Director of Modern Art Oxford), Helen Legg (Director of Spike Island), Cherie Federico (Editor of Aesthetica Magazine) and Bristol’s very own Sickboy. 

Celebrated for its unique visitor experience, The Other Art Fair Bristol's first edition will feature a fantastic talks programme, anthropomorphic taxidermy classes, immersive theatre, a 'kids create' area with the magical House of Fairy Tales, live music, a limited edition print from guest artist Sickboy and much more.

Book your tickets now: http://bit.ly/1PqQEnG

• June 5 - June 7 Jun 5 at 5:00pm to Jun 7 at 6:00pm in UTC+01

• Show Map Arnolfini 16 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA Bristol, United Kingdom

Opening Hours:

Friday 5th June 2015: 5pm - 9.30pm (Private View)*

Saturday 6th June 2015: 10am - 7pm

Sunday 7th June 2015: 10am - 6pm

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Press says:

"If you feel Frieze has lost its edge, there’s always this younger, hipper artist-led alternative" Daily Telegraph

“Overflowing with creative talent” Time Out

“It’s worth the hype” The Independent

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With the artist line-up now live here is a preview of 60 of the finest emerging artists exhibiting at the Arnolfini 5 - 7th June 2015. More artists added each week! http://bit.ly/1A3Z7Mi

Book your tickets now: http://bit.ly/1PqQEnG

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More soon from Bristol.

Spring colours in pictures

 They're not especially good or interesting but I just love taking pictures!

And I love looking at the world around me, at details, at skies, even here, home, a place I've know for decades now...

Here is today's colours in Paris, from the 10th to the 11th arrondissement, through the 12th.



Daytime:

‪#‎Paris‬, you're beautiful in the ‪#‎sun‬ ‪#‎Paris10‬ ‪#‎spring‬ ‪#‎flower‬ ‪#‎church‬ ‪#‎stones‬‪#‎bluesky‬

Nighttime:

‪#‎Paris‬ between ‪#‎blue‬ and ‪#‎orange‬ ‪#‎NoFilter‬ ‪#‎nightlight‬ ‪#‎sky‬ ‪#‎Bastille‬‪#‎colours‬ ‪#‎lights‬ ‪#‎aftershow‬ ‪#‎Paris12‬ ‪#‎Paris11‬

About colours and colour blindness

  Since I was a little girl, I've had this interest for colours, like most children, and these never-ending thoughts to try to figure out if we all see all colours identically. Hence I developed a passion for the causes and effects of colour blindness. I had this intimate conviction that colour blind people could see somehow differently, surely, but also more deeply, or in a different way, or maybe see things that we, or at least I, would miss.

Incidentally, I happen to have a very good vision, 12 out of 10 have always said the eye doctors, "you should have been a air pilot!", insisted one. But I haven't really used this ability for technical or artistic skills. 

But I have developed an interest for art and images and other people'a painting. I've spent my youth battling in my head to figure out which job is the most endearing and passionate: painter or musician... Yet, I'm lucky enough to spend a large part of my life interviewing some of them.

--

Here is a very beautiful article from the BBC website about art and colour blindness:

How the colour-blind see art with different eyes

By Tim MastersArts and entertainment correspondent, BBC News

• 21 June 2014

In its latest exhibition, the National Gallery examines how generations of painters have created and used colour. But how do people who are "colour-blind" view art?

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27884975

--

Extracts:

To anyone who has a colour vision deficiency, commonly known as colour blindness, the bold reds that dominate the Degas work may look very different.

The subject of colour blindness is tackled in an interactive part of the exhibition devoted to the science behind colour vision.

Claude Monet's Lavacourt under Snow (1878-81) is also part of the exhibition

The retina at the back of eye contains light sensors called cones. The three cone types - red, green and blue - are stimulated by different wavelengths of light.

Most colour-blind people have three types of cone, but they are sensitive to a different part of the spectrum.

By Tim Masters - who has first hand experience of colour blindness

The earliest sign that I was colour-blind was, according to my parents, when I drew a picture of Doctor Who's Tardis - and made it shocking pink.

When I tell people I'm colour-blind some assume I see the world in black and white.

That's far from the truth. I can see rainbows. I just don't see them in the same way as most people.

Walking around the Making Colour exhibition, I was dazzled by the ultramarine blues and daffodil yellows.

But was that a big patch of green in Degas's La Coiffure? The sign said it was red, but my eyes said something different.

Apart from a fashion faux pas involving some burgundy trousers, I've never found my colour blindness to be much of a problem. It's never detracted from my enjoyment of art.

--

According to the Colour Blind Awareness organisation, colour blindness affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women in the world.

In Britain there are approximately 2.7m colour blind people, most of whom are male.

Am I colour blind?

Can you see a number in the image above? If not, you may suffer from colour blindness.

Take a colour-blind test

Most people inherit deficient colour vision from their mother, although some people become colour-blind as a result of disease, ageing or through medication.

Most colour-blind people still see a world of vibrant colour. The most common form results in confusion between red and green.

Does it matter that they don't see works of art in exactly the same way as others?

"Art is about individual taste," says Kathryn Albany-Ward, who founded Colour Blind Awareness.

"Everyone knows someone who's colour-blind and think they get on fine."

Her concern is that a lack of knowledge about the condition in schools can lead to colour-blind children feeling a lack of confidence in the classroom - especially when it comes to art.

"If they haven't had their crayons marked up with the right colour they might colour the sky partly blue and partly purple.

"It's that kind of issue that can make people embarrassed. Children at school can be laughed at and it puts them off art potentially."

--

As the science experts at the National Gallery point out, people shouldn't really be called colour-blind - they just "see the world differently".

Making Colour is at the National Gallery in London until 7 September

--

Beautiful conclusion! 

Owiny Sigoma Band returns

 Music can surely be named the art that brought the greatest joy into my life, so easily, so constantly, from my tenths, and in every journey, trip, here and everywhere.

But some music also came through out of travelling.

Here is the new track of one of those bonds, formed between Western Kenya and London, UK, named Owiny Sigoma Band.



Here is the new track:

Owiny Sigoma Band Premiere ‘Changaa Attack’

MAY 26, 2015

London-Nairobi’s Owiny Sigoma Band, a revolving collective formed by Western Kenyan musicians and UK artists, come through with “Changaa Attack,” the new single off their forthcoming third album Nyanza. Recorded in percussionist Charles Owoko and nyatiti player Joseph Nyamungu‘s home of Nyanza Province, Owiny Sigoma Band’s new full-length LP seeks to explore the intricacies of Luo music.

What do you think?

The hypnotizing “Changaa Attack” — named after the potent Kenyan homebrew ‘changaa’ (which is rumored to contain jet fuel and also goes by ‘Goodbye Mum’) —  offers a complex blend of modern bass and synthesizers with Luo-influenced rhythms. The single was recorded in Kisumu by Nyamungu, Owoko, keyboardist Jesse Hackett, bass player Louis Hackett, and drummer Tom Skinner. Stream our premiere of “Changaa Attack” below and look out for the track on Owiny Sigoma Bands upcomingNyanza album, due August 28 from Gilles Peterson‘s Brownswood Recordings

LISTEN HERE:

http://www.okayafrica.com/news/owiny-sigoma-band-changaa-attack/ 

 or here :

https://soundcloud.com/brownswood/owing-sigoma-band-changaa-attack/s-CmH7b

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More about the band and my favourite track here: 

Owiny Sigoma Band - "Harpoon Land"

http://youtu.be/-j37zk4Mddo

All we need is...

 All I need to live fully is art, music, engaging political and social discourses, mind-changing literature and of course friendship.

All of these precious sources of fulfillment are almost free... The rest is more or less pointless.

Today, in my thoughts, Jean-Michel Basquiat:

Two weeks in Paris

Paris' street, may 2015.

Photos by myself and my iPhone 4.



Art and photography by collective 'Back to the Streets":

Paris 9ème, Trinité d'Estienne d'Orves :

South Pigalle :

Square d'Anvers:

What I baptised "mobile street art", street painting on trucks, new trend in Paris:

View from Avenue Trudaine:

My local café, Square d'Anvers:

Anvers vers Montmartre :

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Anvers vers Barbès:

Paris 18e

Music: "Four Walls"

Music and images: 

Massive Attack v Burial - "Four Walls" 
(10/10/11) https://
youtu.be/dpr9tf-Hf8Q  

Everything in here is beautiful...

Music&Politics: Jupiter & Okwess International - "Congo"

 Talking about politics in music is not about writing openly political lyrics or expurgating anger on guitars, it often lies in deeper concerns, genuine stories, about the authenticity of a career path.

Jupiter epitomises it perfectly. As he ends in this amazingly beautiful tracks, in the last sentence of the lyrics: "l'histoire nous jugera". History will judge us. 

Please listen here below - this track is features on Jupiter and his Okwess International orchestra's first record, Hotel Univers:

Jupiter & Okwess International - "Congo"

Music and Politics: Listening to "Master of War" by Bob Dylan

"Masters of War" is a song by Bob Dylan, written over the winter of 1962–63.

It was released on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in the spring of 1963.