06/09/2015
Toni Morrison on Primo Levi
Talent writing about talent...
Must read.
American Nobel Prize and wondrous author Toni Morrison reviewed the complete work from Italian writer and thinker Primo Levi for the Guardian.
Here are a few lines and poems she quotes - in English:
"For this articulate survivor, individual identity is supreme; efforts to drown identity are futile. He refuses to place cruel and witless slaughter on a pedestal of fascination or to locate in it any serious meaning. His primary focus is ethics".
(...)
"Melancholy and sorrow reside more in his poetry than in his prose. There, we find insects, accusatory ghosts and the sadness of place. In two of his poems, “Song of the Crow I” and “Song of the Crow II”, desolation is an inner reality monitored by a malevolent companion".
In the first, memory and sorrow are fixed and eternal.
I’ve come from very far away
To bring bad news.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To find your window,
To find your ear,
To bring you the sad news
To take the joy from your sleep,
To spoil your bread and wine,
To sit in your heart each evening.
The second “Song of the Crow” is even more redolent of despair.
What is the number of your days? I’ve counted them:The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein, is published on 17 September as a Penguin Classic.
Few and brief, and each one heavy with cares;
With anguish about the inevitable night,
When nothing saves you from yourself;
With fear of the dawn that follows,
With waiting for me, who wait for you,
With me who (hopeless, hopeless to escape!)
Will chase you to the ends of the earth,
Riding your horse,
Darkening the bridge of your ship
With my little black shadow,
Sitting at the table where you sit,
Certain guest at every haven,
Sure companion of your every rest.
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Read the article article here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/05/primo-levi-holocaust-survivor-the-complete-works
05/09/2015
Greek graffiti
June 2015:
© Capture d'écran, compte Twitter @KimKaosDK Free
La chancelière Angela Merkel apparaît particulièrement souvent sur les murs des villes grecques
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Inspired anyone?
04/09/2015
'In Prison My whole Life'
Snoop Doggy Dog / 100 Suns
‘Calling Mumia’
In Prison My whole Life - trailer:
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"A well-meaning but unfocused documentary attempting to bring new attention to the long-running (but hardly unremarked) controversy over the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The former Black Panther organiser has been on death row in Pennsylvania since 1981 after being convicted of murdering a policeman".
The Guardian
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More here: http://www.inprisonmywholelife.com/
The first ever documentary to be awarded the Amnesty International Secretariat stamp for the accuity of its research, In Prison My Whole Life was selected to numerous film festivals, including Sundance, Roma, London, Geneva... It won awards at the Paris and Geneva Human Rights Film Festival, at the Berlin Black Film Festival... Click to watch In Prison My Whole Life online or order the DVD.
03/09/2015
More on Banksy from Run The Jewels
Well, this is just too good to be true :)
Run the Jewels set to play
Banksy's 'brilliant' Dismaland
Original story here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34133680/run-the-jewels-set-to-play-banksys-brilliant-dismaland
Run the Jewels have told the BBC's Newsbeat programme they signed up to play Banksy's bemusement park this weekend without even knowing what it was.
"We were in the studio with Massive Attack, hopefully working on a record that we're going to get to finish with them," said Killer Mike.
"They asked in the process of us being there, 'would you guys be interested in doing Banksy's festival?'
"We didn't even know what it was but we were like 'absolutely'."
The hip-hop duo will perform at Dismaland in Weston-super-Mare on 4 September, while Massive Attack play on 25 September.
"I am a big fan of Banksy for artistic and political reasons," says Killer Mike.
Banksy describes his art installation at a former amusement attraction as a "family theme park unsuitable for children".
Guests are welcomed by miserable looking staff wearing Mickey Mouse style ear-hats, and get to play games such as trying to topple an anvil with a ping pong ball, or hooking a plastic duck out of mucky water.
"What Banksy is doing it's the anti-distraction," says El-P.
"It's the idea that we should be looking at what's happening and not creating some kind of falsified mirage of happiness that no-one can ever legitimately live up to.
"The old, 'I'm going to be a princess one day', well you know here's a duck in submerged oil.
"There's your cute little duck. It's heavy handed but it's brilliant and it's deserved, so I'm going [to Dismaland] with bells on."
When the ticket website kept crashing last week because so many people were logging on, some questioned if that was supposed to be part of the Dismaland experience, although a spokeswoman for Banksy denied that was the case.
Killer Mike shares his band-mate's enthusiasm for the artist, even going as far to say he feels Banksy is creating "the most noble work that mankind is producing".
"He [Banksy] did a [homeless] shelter residency [in New York] where he went in, bought a piece of art for 20 bucks, painted over it, signed it, put it back up, left, called them a few weeks later saying 'hey you might want to have that art looked at'.
"So they get it appraised. It's a Banksy piece. It contributes to the betterment of people who need it there."
Killer Mike also feels the fact Banksy makes street art "validates a segment of hip-hop graffiti".
"Kids who have been doing graffiti since the 1960s or 1970s and dying on trains and being chased by cops when art should be free," he says.
"Art shouldn't be locked and confined in museums."
"He still does art outside for all the public to see and it's very hard to own it and put it in your home and hoard it. I think that that's just a dynamic social statement also."
As Banksy's identity remains a mystery, Run the Jewels say they've only been in contact with him through "intermediaries".
"We communicated through cryptic emails so far," says Killer Mike.
"That's about it. It's real Mission Impossible. Or you could have met him and wouldn't have known, honestly."
"We did that interview with him where there were questions of his mostly," continues El-P.
"But we haven't, as far as we know, met him. But if we do meet him, we're not saying anything."
Not even if we ask nicely?
"No snitching," says Killer Mike.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram,Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat
Grim days
It's hard to concentrate today. The news are so grim; the refugee crisis is reaching every day a new level and our help respond is coming way too slowly.
Trying to remain focus.
A few links that can help.
Reading and watching a lot of interesting ideas today. So many inspiring artists, writers and filmmakers.
Just sharing:
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/03/germany-refugees-munich-central-station?CMP=fb_gu
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Refugees welcome? How UK and Germany compare on migration
Berlin has proposed a quota system, thousands of Germans have volunteered to help refugees, and press coverage has been more balanced – but there have also been more violent incidents in GermanyThe numbers
More than 4 million refugees have fled Syria since the war there began in 2011.According to the UN’s refugee agency, almost 1.8 million have gone to Turkey, more than 600,000 to Jordan and 1 million to Lebanon – a country whose population is just 4 million.
On Monday, Angela Merkel said Germany expected to take at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year. The figure is likely to go up, and could hit 1 million, Berlin says. In 2014 the European nation that accepted the largest number of refugees in proportion to its population was Sweden. Hungary, Malta, Switzerland and 13 other countries accepted more asylum applications than the UK, according to Eurostat.
Between June 2014 and June 2015, the UK took 166 Syrian refugees. They were resettled from camps in Jordan and other neighbouring countries under a new government scheme. The “vulnerable persons” relocation initiative began in March 2014. Under it, the UK has taken 216 people. In June David Cameron said the scheme would be “modestly expanded”.
The Home Office says that since 2011 almost 5,000 Syrians including family members have been given asylum under normal procedures. However, the figure includes many Syrians who were already living in the UK, and who were unable to return home because of war. Britain is the second biggest bilateral donor of humanitarian aid. It has pledged £900m, the Home Office says.
(...)
Media
Two newspaper cuttings have highlighted the differences in tabloid attitudes between the UK and Germany. Writing in the Sun, Katie Hopkins likened refugees crossing the Mediterranean to cockroaches. By contrast Bild, Germany’s bestselling title, ran the front-page headline “We are helping” above a picture of two refugee children.
Arguably, neither gives an accurate picture of media coverage. The German press may traditionally be more restrained when it comes to anti-immigration rhetoric, but Bild in particular has run articles implying that refugees get an “easy ride”. One said the Hamburg transport authorities waived fines for refugees caught without a ticket on the underground, for fear of provoking bad headlines – something the authorities deny.
(...)
Germany has unilaterally lifted the Dublin protocol. It says the regulation clearly isn’t working, as tens of thousands of refugees head north through the western Balkans towards Austria and Germany. Britain also believes that the convention is now effectively inoperable. If everyone who entered the EU through Italy or Hungary was sent back to those countries, they would be unable to cope.
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Will the image of a lifeless boy on a beach change the refugee debate?
National newspaper front pages run pictures that humanise the crisis of people travelling to Europe to flee the conflict in Syria
Roy Greenslade
Most of Thursday’s UK national newspaper front pages were dominated by pictures of a policeman lifting the lifeless body of a three-year-old boy who had been washed up on the Turkish shore.
Similar pictures were shown on UK television news bulletins the night before. It also appeared on other global TV outlets and in many papers across Europe, in Turkey, and in many Middle East countries.
According to Turkish media, the boy was Aylan Kurdi, from Kobani in northern Syria, and was said to have died with his five-year-old brother. They were among 12 Syrians who drowned while attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos.
This is the kind of iconic image that will surely be republished for many years to come because it encapsulates, in a single frame, the tragedy of people fleeing from oppression and willing to take extraordinary risks in order to reach safety in the west.
(...)
It may be naive to suggest that the image of his body on a beach will change minds, but I like to think that it will.
Read the whole column:
--AND A BIT OF MUSIC...
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood Subject of Paul Thomas Anderson's New Documentary
Anderson filmed Greenwood's album recording sessions in India
By Jeremy Gordon on August 21, 2015 at 12:28 p.m. EDT
Earlier this year, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood revealed he was working on a new album in India with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur. That process is the subject of Junun, a new documentary by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood), as The New York Times reports. Junun will debut at the New York Film Festival, which takes place September 25 to October 11.
Greenwood previously wrote the scores for Anderson's Inherent Vice, The Master, and There Will Be Blood.
A description on the NYFF's website reads:
Earlier this year, Paul Thomas Anderson joined his close friend and collaborator Jonny Greenwood on a trip to Rajasthan in northwest India, where they were hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhpur, and he brought his camera with him. Their destination was the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort, where Greenwood (with the help of Radiohead engineer Nigel Godrich) was recording an album with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and an amazing group of musicians: Aamir Bhiyani, Soheb Bhiyani, Ajaj Damami, Sabir Damami, Hazmat, and Bhanwaru Khan on brass; Ehtisham Khan Ajmeri, Nihal Khan, Nathu Lal Solanki, Narsi Lal Solanki, and Chugge Khan on percussion; Zaki Ali Qawwal, Zakir Ali Qawwal, Afshana Khan, Razia Sultan, Gufran Ali, and Shazib Ali on vocals; and Dara Khan and Asin Khan on strings. The finished film, just under an hour, is pure magic. Junun lives and breathes music, music-making, and the close camaraderie of artistic collaboration. It’s a lovely impressionistic mosaic and a one-of-a-kind sonic experience: the music will blow your mind.
Watch Greenwood and Ben-Tzur perform together in 2014:
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'Future Proof'
I know, we've heard that song here before. Simply a magical version of a powerful track.
Massive Attack - 'Future Proof' - live in Bristol Academy,
February 2005
'Future Proof'
Borderline cases
Reinforced glass
Absent friends
Passport photos
An elastic past
Empty pocket
They think it is all...
They think it's soul
All wrapped up on a swollen lip
He draws the warm pipe.
Chemicals
Chemicals captured in winter's grip
Turn us on
Separate the leper
Hungry ghosts
Hungry ghosts
Another imprint
In borrowed clothes
We can be numb
We can be numb
Passing through
Blow blow blow blow
Borderline case
Future proof
Real thin air
Real thin air
Real thin air
Reinforced glass
Absent friends
Passport photos
An elastic past
Empty pocket
They think it is all...
They think it's soul
All wrapped up on a swollen lip
He draws the warm pipe.
Chemicals
Chemicals captured in winter's grip
Turn us on
Separate the leper
Hungry ghosts
Hungry ghosts
Another imprint
In borrowed clothes
We can be numb
We can be numb
Passing through
Blow blow blow blow
Borderline case
Future proof
Real thin air
Real thin air
Real thin air
02/09/2015
September
Hello people, here in Paris, it's 'La Rentrée'. September is always a new beginning, almost the real New Year's month, like in Ethiopia...
Personally, for me, July and August 2015 have been two of the most beautiful months of my life, travelling in Europe, from Bristol to Naples, and spending happy days in Paris, mostly writing. Paradise and my dream life. Or maybe it's just me being really happy this year.
I wish this summer could never end...
But September has always been one of my favourite months, transitional, still carrying three weeks of summer softness but already bringing an inch of melancholy entailed in the coming Autumn.
In Naples' MADRE museum:
It has a particular feel, nourished by many memories.
Paris, 1997 and 2002.
Prague, 2003.
Nairobi, 2010.
London, 2011.
Mexico DF, 2012.
Just a few of them...
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September 2015, welcome.
Paris, thank you for this softness:
Bristol, see you soon.
01/09/2015
Banksy on " not ignoring real world issues"
Quote of the day:
Banksy said he was "fascinated" to see people not ignoring
real world issues.
Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/issue-Disney-8211-Banksy-claims-Dismaland-theme/story-27703878-detail/story.html#ixzz3kQgsd9SN
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The quote originally comes from an interview the artist gave this weekend to The Times, in England:
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Banksy: A tantalising brush with the Rat King
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