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| December 2006 »
Thoughts while watching Fernando Trueba’s documentary El Milagro de Candeal on the Candeal neighborhood in Salvador, Bahia, where Carlinhos Brown led a transformation effort. It’s the neighborhood and Afro-Bahian culture viewed through the eyes of a Trueba favorite — Bebo Valdés, the Cuban pianist who won numerous awards for his recent recordings on Trueba’s Spanish record label.
The links between Afro-Cuban music and culture and Afro-Brazilian culture are many. The religious roots are similar — Shango, Oxum, Oxala, Yemanja are all worshipped in both countries, with some variation. Musically, rhythmically, the son and the samba are, for example, quite different, but the way the music is organized is very similar, so there is a lot of jamming together in the film.
John Cage goes Funky
Here (above) either Bebo or Brown comments on the rhythmic clickety-clack and thrum as they cross a bridge in the rural town of Cachoeira.
Carnival and musical groups are seen filling the streets. There are connections here with the “saints”, too — the Afro-Atlantic gods and goddesses. One senses, just watching a street procession, a kind of openness, a generosity, an embrace of the universe.
When I was there shooting my own little documentary I felt this non-judgmental religion and ethos, which is maybe something many have sensed in Buddhism and other eastern philosophies, but here it is funky, sexy…and loud!
Maybe here is a god (or Gods) without God. A prayer to that which is greater than ourselves.
O mia Pae (oh, my father) sings a vocal group in a church built by slaves. But it’s not necessarily the Christian God they are singing to — though he’s welcome to join in as well.
A song to the mystery, to that which is beyond out comprehension, and biologically will ever be thus — I suspect that our brains are not built for understanding everything, evolutionarily it’s not necessary.
And there is acceptance that there are things we will never understand. Many call it God, but I prefer Mystery. It could be called “father”, in the sense that nameless ethereal whirligigs made us, begat us, formed us and the world, but that is a metaphor — it is certainly not necessarily a literal male, a man with a long white beard. Another common metaphor is Mother, and often Africa is invoked as the mother of us all — our evolutionary mother and spiritual mother. That’s where we all came from and that’s where what we are was established.
Musically, here is Africa in Spain, in Brasil, in North America, in Cuba — the roots of RnB, samba, rhumba, son, funk, rock and roll, swing, hip hop, humor, language, cool, digital culture — improvisation and innovation.
Here is Brown’s Mae de Santo (mother of the saints) and mentor, Dona Angelina, as she goes into a trance following Brown testifying to what she and the saints have done for him and the community.
The mysterious may be things we suss the mechanism of, the parts and the mechanics, but which still remain marvelous in their existence.
The awesome power of the sea, of the air, wind, of the earth below us, of ourselves — even of those psychological forces we acknowledge, whose mechanics we sort of think we understand, but whose manifestations are, and remain, like water and air, like a bird or a tiger — somehow still beyond our deep comprehension….and certainly beyond our control. Drugs, therapy and surgery may throw up roadblocks and signposts — but we’re never really in control, like the Gnarls Barkley song says.
Here are Brown, Bebo and Marisa Monte singing together. What does this have to do with the rebirth of a neighborhood? Maybe everything.
Yeah, I think I do. The obvious question, however, is “But what if the actors in this drama (Iraq) don’t believe it’s about oil?”
My response is, just like in our personal lives, we often deny and suppress our true desires and intentions — from others, and from ourselves. Sure, it’s a Freudian interpretation of politics and world events, but is that possible? I think it is. Increasingly I think one can easily and clearly see what motivates nations if one ignores what their leaders say. Just look at what they are doing and it’s clear as day.
The president’s speechwriters may go on about promoting democracy and ridding the world of evil, and Simple George may come to believe his own pronouncements (not uncommon at all for that to happen in a powerful person) but his court and ministers agree that the invasion was “to make an example of Hussein….so that no one would have the temerity to acquire destructive weapons …or to flout the authority of the United States.” [Quote from Ron Suskind via NYRB.]
The American Century doctrine, to which all those guys signed on, in a nutshell.
What’s left out of this doctrine is any emphasis on nation building, promoting democracy or self rule for nations. It’s about knowing who’s boss.
Though oil is never mentioned it seems obvious to me that the biggest practical advantage to being boss in that part of the world is to control the resources that lie underground. The continuation of the U.S. as a power depends on it — our dependence on foreign oil makes a certainty of that. So of course the Alpha dog looks after its own best interests, that’s its nature, and a dog can’t be faulted for being a dog. But we can at least see it for what it is, without all the nice wrapping, and ask if it really is in all of our best interests, of if in this case the dog claims it’s acting for all the pack, in all our interests, but it has in fact been swept away by a fever of self-importance and self-righteousness.
There can indeed be dual realities. The reality of events — chaos, death, fear — and the reality of the imagination — progress, idealism and faith. Fiction and storytelling are stronger than fact — we “make” facts out of fiction. We use fictions to order and interpret evidence. The imagination runs the senses. Until the disconnect is overwhelming and we search for a new story.
We do this in our personal lives and in politics. Nations are people, a person even, and the storytellers guide us to realize our secret desires and wants. It feels better if we all tell the same story. The most gripping fiction feels inexorable, inevitable.
I’m obsessed with all this — with how we can do what, either in retrospect or in the cold light of day, is obviously wrong, counterproductive and harmful — both to ourselves, ultimately, and to others. I guess some of the interest is research for the Imelda project, which portrays a person acting out her childhood needs and wishes on a global scale. Again, a Freudian view, to some extent — in that it seems to adhere to his formulations of repressed desire (not just sexual) and unconscious needs acting as a hidden hand, guiding our behavior and decisions. I sense that women have pretty much always accepted the idea of secret and unconscious desire motivating action — it might be harder for men to accept — to men it might seem like spiritism. I’m not interested in his Oedipal theories — though more than one person has mentioned Bush Jr.’s relationship to his dad as a motivating force. I think maybe Sigmund might have been fishing with some of that stuff, or maybe he made up those stories in order to tell to himself.
It is held up as a Norman Rockwell ideal — that we should be picture perfect in our love of each other — but I sense that as a Protestant nation (at least in part) that kind of closeness does not come naturally. It was either never there or was discouraged by that Northern mindset. Showing and displaying affection is viewed as distasteful, tacky.
More Southern sensibilities — Baptist, southern Europeans, South Americans, and Africans — may traditionally have a familial closeness Northerners cannot access. However, America may eventually breed that out of its close-knit Southern immigrants as well. The TV, the Great Parent and Teacher, shows us how we should be — or at least it shows us how society expects us to be. We still bring our parents’ (and their parents’) values to the table as well but we know by watching the tube what is acceptable. Kids know the world is not really like Grand Theft Auto (I include video games under TV) but they might sense that on some level those values might be secretly acceptable. If you can get away with it, this is OK.
The two mindsets — Northern and Southern — might both be equally valid, though being Northern by birth I tend to want to have more and be more like what I perceive I lack. Who wants what they already have? This could be more personal that I am making it, and maybe I am exaggerating the historical and religious aspects, but whatever. I tend to discount and devalue the worth of Northern “coldness” and maybe overvalue Southern “warmth”. Maybe, however, together they might work like checks and balances. Both might have been perfectly suitable survival mechanisms in their geographical places of origin, but they are now displaced, uprooted, mixed with one another. Behavior without context. The Modern condition.
On the bright side, hope lies in each contributing its own values and psychology to the greater hive. Each available to be drawn on by society when needed. Each counterbalancing the extremes of the other. White teenagers dancing to R&B. Black kids dressing in preppy attire. (Admittedly, this second example might have been a trend that passed with Tommy Hilfiger’s stock value.)
I bring a little digital camera to the Thanksgiving afternoon and Malu takes lots of pix of the twins — she also pulls out her Holga, which she is using for photography class. She seems comfortable and self-assured using the cameras — it’s really nice to see.
My sister drives Malu and me to the train station. We drive towards the Capitol building and the DC train station, past boarded up buildings and ghetto folks moving to and fro. It’s a bright sunny afternoon. The sun shines on the broken bottles and the gratings over the windows. The Capitol building dome looms in the distance — the road points right to it. A neo Greco-Roman temple (though white, like the Greek ruins look now, not as they looked then) towering over chicken shacks and plexi gated liquor stores. A buffer zone of housing projects appears as we get closer, and then we drive through a half dozen blocks of granite and concrete government bureaucratic buildings and offices. White people on bicycles pass by and others wander — visiting their nation’s capital on the holiday — and then we’re at the train station.
From the train as we leave DC:
2 men in the woods by the side of the train tracks, crouching together in a piece of overgrown unused land, sitting by a small fire, sharing a 40 oz. Urban camping, of a sort. Behind them, beyond the thinning fall foliage, one can see a busy street. Huck Finn and Jim. Hidden in plain sight. A parallel invisible world.
In writing this observation it may seem a too blatant a criticism of America, heavy handed, clichéd, unfair. But that IS what one sees from the trains — the backsides of houses and industry, the overgrown parcels of land and dumping grounds. It’s always a shock. Malu observes that all the towns look the same from a train.
The Cuban flag:
The Puerto Rican flag:
Sam D. and I had a talk over dinner last night. He recently attended a Council on Foreign Relations meeting meeting with Clinton Initiative folks where the International Energy Agency delivered their report. They are part of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes Japan and Russia as well as the United States.) These are high-level folks — World Bank, major investment companies, etc. — who are now very interested in going “green”. That’s Sam’s business interest as well — ethanol, wind power, etc.
Tied to the urge for going green might be a realization of the obvious. Climate change, yes, that’s coming for sure. But before that really kicks in there are lots of political and economic facts that will play out very very soon. If one lays the facts on the table the scenarios that might become reality become glaringly clear.
As China’s economy (and others — India) expands and booms their need for energy will too. They have no large reserves — so they are building huge dams (as has India) for hydropower, and are gearing up for coal consumption. I guess they have coal reserves and will soon be the great smoky continent. (I remember visiting my granny in Glasgow in the late 50s and early 60s — the city was black from soot and coal dust covering everything and the air smelled, always, of burning coal.) The great Asian dams seem to be short range thinking too — they will eventually eliminate the arable farmland downstream; the source of food production will have been plugged up. What will then feed these billions? Do they expect to purchase their food with their new industrial products as western nations have done?
China also has no hesitation or compunction about dealing with warlords, dictators and lunatics if they have the goods that China needs. One senses some possible run-ins from this policy in the near future.
Combined with the above, the only really massive oil reserves are, this study claims, where they are now known to be — Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He who controls this resource flow can maintain his economy and lifestyle (and world power) — for now. He who doesn’t, will either get lucky with alternative power, will turn to nukes, to burning coal or trees or will shrivel up. I asked — “Aren’t there large reserves in Kazakhstan etc.?” Yes, but not like in the Middle East…out there they are mostly gas reserves.
O.K., so one can easily see why Iraq was of such intense interest. We all now know, if it wasn’t obvious before, that the pretenses for the invasion were just that — pretenses to control the flow of vital oil. From a generous POV one could say the U.S. (and the UK, so believes wee Tony) are just looking after their own interests, securing their political and economic future — something any being would do, who can blame them? (But at least admit that is what is going on.) Poor Tony Blair — does he really think Bush and Halliburton and Co. will divvy up the spoils and allow the UK to survive the coming shortages along with the U.S.? “Help me now gather wood and you can share my burrow when the snow comes? Be on my side now and I’ll throw you a bone when times are tough?” Is that what he was thinking? Have these guys, the Neo Con team, ever shown any generosity in the past?
Now, what if China, or Russia, decides that they too are entitled to these reserves that are being tapped, which are more or less on their doorsteps? What if they ask themselves, “Why should the U.S., the most energy inefficient and wasteful country on earth, be entitled to control OUR futures?”
Russia may not be able to do much about this inequity, being an exhausted giant, but China — China holds the U.S. debt (a debt the Republicans and corporate America ran up SO quickly) and has, so far, needed the U.S. as a trading partner, so they have been reluctant to play this debt card — to call in all the trillions that the U.S. owes. But threatened with lack or energy and stifled growth they surely will use that power if they have to. They can effectively bring the U.S. to its knees almost instantly — all they have to do is decide to call in these debts (they can also simply stop buying the Treasury notes and the U.S. will not be able to finance its economy via debt) and the American Century stops. Talk about looking after national security — the Republicans and the corporate lobbyists have practically given it away — we’re completely at the mercy of the Chinese. SUV and air con now for, well, groveling and certain urban unrest down the road. The U.S. is now a hollow trading partner, allowed to live as long as it serves China’s need (and that of the oil producing countries.) A consumer who buys the goods that China produces and racks up more debt. Of course, China wouldn’t want the U.S. to collapse — then its holdings of debt and assets would be devalued. It wants a flourishing U.S., but we will see how far that present practical consideration can be pushed when the oil gets tighter. History shows that when the going gets rough the behavior gets dicey.
I see more wars ahead — and larger ones — as the oil and other resources (like clean water) get tighter. The claimed justifications for these wars will be just as spurious and fleeting, as they are now, but the real reason will be, as always, survival. Immediate and massive reallocation of research and money away from oil and a debt economy are a way out — maybe — and things are not hopeless or inevitable. But if steps are not taken, then they surely are inevitable, it seems to me.
This all seems painfully obvious once one looks at the plain simple facts — and if one can ignore the fog of intentionally confusing and obscuring rhetoric and wordplay. But the obvious is always easy to deny and ignore, and we have a born genetic capacity to do so. Don’t we? We must! Sometimes it seems like the smarter a person is the better they are at deluding themselves…and deluding others, of course. Intelligence, combined with will, gives one the ability to analyze and reason — but simultaneously confers an equal ability to lie and deny, to ignore and deceive. Combine with a little charisma and dinner is served.
This is why intelligent people can be religious. That’s an arrogant statement — it presumes that religion and intelligence are incompatible, that anyone with any sense wouldn’t believe in unproven supernatural faith-based scenarios. But of course that is not the case. I personally might believe (believe!) that many religious beliefs are irrational and verge on lunacy — but I can both see their efficacy — their attraction and usefulness — and sense their beauty. One does not have to be a Catholic to stand in awe of the Sistine Chapel ceiling; be Muslim to hear the lure of the soulful cry of the muezzin and sense the power of the mass dance of the faithful in prayer; be Hindu or Jewish to read and enjoy a text that is often chock full of amazing and surprising metaphors and analogies. These dances, music, images, metaphors are, I sense, deep-rooted — they are like the neural propensities for grammatical structures that Chomsky goes on about — and are therefore similarly genetically inheritable. The dance that is religion has evolved within us, to be released and expressed in a thousand different forms, none of which make logical sense, and all of which, if looked at literally, require a large helping of denial. God is in the wiring, bequeathed by the genes.
To me, this is why the current (tiny) wave of atheism — the recent books by Dawkins, Dennett and Harris, for example — are also in denial. They deny that this propensity for people to believe is innate. Yes, they admit that religion offers many comforts and assurances, security and community — very attractive and seductive — but they stop short at admitting that we are genetically predisposed to believe, that it is in our very nature, a part of what it means to be human. Maybe an illogical part, but that all our innate evolved characteristics are not practical forever (context changes, the world changes) or even rational, from some points of view (does the peacock’s tail have to be THAT big? Isn’t all that just a wee bit of a wasteful allocation of resources?)
Rationalism can never win on pure sense and logic alone. Granted, religions are regularly used to justify horrors and despicable behavior, throughout history and this will never change — and rational thinking tells us these kinds of beliefs need to be wiped out — judged from the POV of the society or world at large at least these religiously justified behaviors are simply evil, counter to the survival of the species and commonly accepted morals — and in those cases maybe yes, religion needs to be smacked down. But what if the benign effects of religion are intimately tied to the dark side? What if you can’t have the good without the bad? What if the shared sense of community, for example, is tied to the belief that God has given this community a personal mandate, a moral rightness above all others? Is it even possible to mold and deconstruct the religious impulse so that only the socially and personally beneficial effects result?
I just finished reading the Jon Krakauer’s book Under The Banner Of Heaven, about a murder of a women and her baby (and others) by fundamentalist Mormons. The murders were ordered by God, it was claimed. The book also traces the history and origins of Mormonism — truly amazing stuff. Anyway, near the end the killer is on trial and the defense suggests an insanity plea as the only way to avoid the death penalty. However, as psychologists testified, the killer’s beliefs, while irrational, are no more irrational than the religious beliefs of other Mormons, or of those of almost any other religion. Mere irrational belief does not — in our current world — imply insanity. If it did, then half the U.S., at least, would be deemed mentally unfit. (Judging by the last presidential election I would tend to agree.) But that, pragmatically, is not going to happen, so the killer cannot be crazy.
(In a possible answer to the previous question — can religion be molded to fit a larger society? — the Mormon official LDS church capitulated over the years on some of their less acceptable — to the U.S. — beliefs. Polygamy was outlawed and blacks were allowed to into the priesthood. However, like a tube of toothpaste that got squeezed too much with the cap on, the pressure to had to find a vent — and radical and fundamentalist spin-off cults emerged, as they have with other religions that have attempted to conform.)
I think these crazy illogical leanings — faith, denial, belief — are not neurosis (unless one is the only one in town to have such feelings) but are survival mechanisms that have evolved within us. They may have outlived their practical use — like an appendix they may be “organs” whose use is questionable and marginal, but that are still with us, still used by us and using us. 
Although I quoted from some article a week or two ago that claimed that believers — the faithful — live longer, happier lives (which wouldn’t be surprising) here are some excerpts from a recent paper that claims pretty much the opposite. If G. Paul is on the right track, then a lot of what I say above might want revising — because there would be, if this article is right, clear and practical incentives to abandon religion — besides the fact that it is fiction. According to this not only is religion disruptive, it is as dangerous as a burst appendix.
Thanks to 3quarks daily for the link to this. Gregory Paul's article in The Journal of Religion and Society
Introduction
Two centuries ago there was relatively little dispute over the existence of God, or the societally beneficial effect of popular belief in a creator. In the twentieth century extensive secularization occurred in western nations, the United States being the only significant exception. If religion has receded in some western nations, what is the impact of this unprecedented transformation upon their populations? Theists often assert that popular belief in a creator is instrumental towards providing the moral, ethical and other foundations necessary for a healthy, cohesive society. Many also contend that widespread acceptance of evolution, and/or denial of a creator, is contrary to these goals. But a cross-national study verifying these claims has yet to be published.
Further on: In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies. The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner [Benjamin] Franklin predicted. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly. The view of the U.S. as a “shining city on the hill” to the rest of the world is falsified when it comes to basic measures of societal health. Youth suicide is an exception to the general trend because there is not a significant relationship between it and religious or secular factors. No democracy is known to have combined strong religiosity and popular denial of evolution with high rates of societal health. Higher rates of non-theism and acceptance of human evolution usually correlate with lower rates of dysfunction, and the least theistic nations are usually the least dysfunctional. None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction.
And further…. the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have, for the first time in history, come closest to achieving practical “cultures of life” that feature low rates of lethal crime, juvenile-adult mortality, sex related dysfunction, and even abortion. The least theistic secular developed democracies such as Japan, France, and Scandinavia have been most successful in these regards. The non-religious, pro-evolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator. The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.
Conclusion
The United States’ deep social problems are all the more disturbing because the nation enjoys exceptional per capita wealth among the major western nations Spending on health care is much higher as a portion of the GDP and per capita, by a factor of a third to two or more, than in any other developed democracy (UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). The U.S. is therefore the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health. Understanding the reasons for this failure is urgent, and doing so requires considering the degree to which cause versus effect is responsible for the observed correlations between social conditions and religiosity versus secularism. It is therefore hoped that this initial look at a subject of pressing importance will inspire more extensive research on the subject. Pressing questions include the reasons, whether theistic or non-theistic, that the exceptionally wealthy U.S. is so inefficient that it is experiencing a much higher degree of societal distress than are less religious, less wealthy prosperous democracies. Conversely, how do the latter achieve superior societal health while having little in the way of the religious values or institutions? There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European It is the responsibility of the research community to address controversial issues and provide the information that the citizens of democracies need to chart their future courses.
Saw Marisa Monte’s sold out show at the Beacon last night. (Full disclosure: I have a duet/collaboration with her on one of her new CDs.) She is a Brazilian artist, with one of the most beautiful voices in the world, who stages her shows as if they are art events. The sound was impeccable (the musicians and Marisa all were using in-ear monitors, which allowed the acoustic instruments: cavaquinho, bassoon (!), violin, cello, acoustic guitars, etc. to not bleed into one another via the usual stage monitor speakers.)
Marisa has released 2 CDs simultaneously recently — one a record of acoustic sambas — new and old — and the other more “electronic”, where keyboards and programming dominate. Emblematic of a generation that doesn’t want to lose its culture, its past, but is at the same time contemporary, Marisa’s 2 CDs make that schizophrenia concrete, in a good way. The samba CD just won a Latin Grammy.
Anyway, the show of hers that I saw a few years ago was staged in collaboration with artist Ernesto Neto, who has an exhibit in a gallery here now. He’s known for gauzy tent-like structures that feel like a white hazy version of the inside of some creature. I recall the whole stage on that tour was a kind of tent.
On this tour she wanted to be integrated more with the band, for starters. In most cases, during rehearsals a singer faces the band, standing or sitting in their midst, so that everyone can see and hear one another. Then, as rehearsals turn into “show”, the singer usually turns around and steps downstage, with his or her back to the band — physically and symbolically separate, slightly distant and “above” the musicians. Marisa wanted to find a way to retain the integrated rehearsal feeling, to ask why not let that be on stage and why assume the singer has to be out front.
The typical setting for this kind of samba band would be in someone’s house, backyard, or around a table at the beach, with beers and comings and goings. Like a country or folk music gathering up north here — which would also be in a living room, a porch, patio, around a campfire picnic table with beers and maybe tequila, if one is in Texas. That’s what Marisa wanted to present, capture and preserve — so with her manager she began to devise a staging that would reflect that.
For much of this show she was in the center of the musicians, mid-stage, on a platform that rose up and down from time to time. The musicians closest to the audience were the violinist, cello and bassoon players — but the lighting, all of which was shades of white, privileged Marisa, so it wasn’t like she was trying to hide back there.
There were set elements, which I suspect were added later by the artists and designers (one of whom is a film director — the lighting was very movie-like): minimal slabs that moved slowly back and forth and lit up on one side, a massive slab suspended overhead, almost as large as the entire band, that glowed on its big surface, cranes that moved over the band with film lights clustered at one end, panels with video screens built in and even a robot-driven “moon” — a huge glowing cloth sphere that moved right to left behind the band supported by a little robot vehicle.
There was none of the usual pop band lighting; almost all the light came from lighting instruments visible on the stage — only occasionally would a pin spot from above pick out Marisa, and sometimes just her face. No colors or vari lights, no flashing pulses of light — all very “natural” but very theatrical at the same time.
Photos by Renato Lopes:
Sat in at Joe’s with Mauro’s band, Forró In The Dark, last night. It was a show to celebrate the release of their record [see Voice review] so all the guest artists who appeared on the CD were on stage — Bebel Gilberto, Miho Hatori and myself. Forró (pronounced: foe ho) is a style of Brazilian regional music, linked to the harsh life of the sertao — the plains of the northeast. It sounds a little like Zydeco, the style from Louisiana that is also accordion-driven and wildly danceable. In Mauro’s group the accordion is replaced by flute and sometimes pifano (a wooden flute).
On Mauro’s record I sang 2 songs, one of them a translation of a Brazilian standard, “Asa Branca”. (See Gonzaga and Humberto Teixeira entry back in Sept.) Denise, Humberto’s daughter, is shepherding a film crew who are shooting a doc on Teixeira — and Mauro’s gig is part of that story — so there were 16mm cameras everywhere. The film is being directed by the director of Baile Perfumado, a film that took place in the Northeast (of Brasil) and featured the late great Chico Science and his band Nação Zumbi. Bebel sang a famous forró song — in English — a version previously recorded by Peggy Lee (!). The words had been changed completely in the English version (and I hear there are some publishing “issues” as well.) It sounded lovely — so she sang it again! Miho did a famous forró song that had been translated and recorded in Japan after WWII — again the lyrics were changed considerably — the Portuguese lyrics say something like “Paraiba women will kick your ass!” while the Japanese version is about a lonely farmer.
Photo by Vladimir Radojicic
I sang “Asa Branca” and “I Wish” — the latter song emerged out of a jam. I was warming up with some chord changes and Mauro suggested during the recording session that we all improvise around those chords. The result was surprisingly good — but, maybe because I can, I suggested that with just a few words added, with a vocal, the song might be more focused. The lyrics and vocal turned it into a vaguely Country outpouring of pain, anger and loss — which maybe made explicit the link between forró and north American country music.
After putting Malu and her friend in a taxi I joined some friends for drinks — while Mauro and Co. regrouped for a late set at Nublu, where they got their start.
From the NY Times: Studies suggest that people who speak in tongues rarely suffer from mental problems. [See religious faithful and evolution post.] A recent study of nearly 1,000 evangelical Christians in England found that those who engaged in the practice were more emotionally stable than those who did not.
Went to vote at the elementary school on 11th Street and my name was mysteriously not on the list. I did a write-in instead — hope they don’t throw it out. As someone who doesn’t trust this government one inch I wouldn’t put it past them.
Glancing at the headlines this AM I see the Dems have at least taken a few seats back, maybe enough to give them a majority vote in the house. I sang “This Land Is Your Land” to myself as I rode my bike downtown — I got choked up and started to cry. Maybe it will be the people’s land again, someday.
I sense that the balance of power in the house and senate and the rollback of the neocon agenda is only part of the job ahead, as the country has been inundated with bully culture, the culture of greed, for at least a dozen years. For many young professionals, that’s all they know in their working lives — the attitude of winner takes all, bigger smashes smaller and do it if you can get away with it. It might take a while to allow another more humane culture of getting along and nurturing each other and benefiting from each other’s skills and knowledge to rise from the ashes. At present ashes are pretty much all there is. Social animals know better than this — they seem to instinctively know that there are limits to what the bosses and the alpha males can get away with, and that cooperation within the group is how the group survives. Checks and balances — something that’s been missing for a while.
I sense this culture every day, on the streets and in the media. Every time a cop car from my local precinct runs a red light or speeds down a one way street the wrong way (just because they can, no other reason) and every time an SUV with darkened windows muscles other cars, bikers, old ladies and kids out of way — sometimes narrowly missing pedestrians as they run a red light — well, it’s all been sanctioned by Bush and Cheney and the senators and congressmen who allied themselves with these bastards. They reflect and encourage one another. Push in line, build your building right in front of someone else’s, destroy a neighborhood, be a winner, a survivor. To me, those reality shows “teach” bully culture — that’s the lesson that is imparted — and that includes ones like Laguna Beach, which seems to promote backstabbing, lying, duplicitous behavior and entitlement — all in a world where no one works.
If these are the Republican ideals (and judging by the rampant corruption and entitlement in congress and elsewhere one would have to say it is) then changing the politicians will not clean the sheets. Not overnight.
Op-Eds in the various armed forces newspapers have called for Rummy’s removal. At last. They themselves — the military — cannot directly effect political change, but surely in the pragmatic interest of protecting the boys they will send an incredibly strong message. As someone who lived through the Vietnam era and grew up suspicious of the military (I thought of them always as the bad guys, the ones who justified agent orange, massacres and outright lying) in this case they are appearing as the voice of reason. Reason from their POV. They sense that they, the military, at least know how to do their job, and they stake their lives on it — and Rummy and the others have proven that they are incompetent and are jeopardizing the lives of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.
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