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A link cut from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Chain...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 22:07:00 -0400

A link cut from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Chain Music .

notion

In March, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, I felt that I had to advocate peace over war, so I started this little web project.

Even though the 100,000-plus Iraqi civilian and the 3,000-plus US military lives lost to date can’t be brought back, I want to keep this project alive and open until the war has ended, until peace comes to Iraq.

The idea is to chain musical pieces from one artist to another, like a chain letter.

The purpose is to musically mark the passage of time that Iraq is in a state of war, to mark the steps to peace, to take each day that there is war and build a musical memorial to the desire for peace as well as to mark off the time of war.

So far 35 artists have contributed their musical pieces, adding on to the existing work vertically as well as horizontally, overlaying or extending the existing creation.

There are no rules how to contribute musically, except that the contributor must not eliminate any of the existing music as he or she adds to it, because the existing music is the result of the artistic contribution of the other artists.

Photo

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:43:00 -0400

Axmed Naaji Sacad - Gabdhahaan Gacalkoodaa

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:41:00 -0400

Axmed Naaji Sacad - Gabdhahaan Gacalkoodaa

"Lovers’ (or Sentimental) Rai is the least studied and least appreciated style of Rai outside of..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 21:15:36 -0400

“Lovers’ (or Sentimental) Rai is the least studied and least appreciated style of Rai outside of Algeria. It had none of the markers of the other Rai styles that captivated Western audiences and commentators — it was not “traditional,” a “music of protest,” and did not show “World Music eclecticism” — but it was the most popular style of Rai in the ’90s in Algeria.”

- Pop Culture Transgressions

Some “Sentimental Rai” songs:

Cheb Nasro - Ndirek Amour

Cheb Hasni - Dak El Marhoum

"Lao-Tzu said ‘the five colours make a man blind, the five tones make a man deaf,’..."

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:55:00 -0400

“Lao-Tzu said ‘the five colours make a man blind, the five tones make a man deaf,’ because if you can only see five colours, you’re blind, and if you can only hear five tones in music, you’re deaf. You see, if you force sound into five tones, you force colour into five colours, you’re blind and deaf. The world of colour is infinite, as is the world of sound. And it is only by stopping fixing conceptions on the world of colour and the world of sound that you really begin to hear it and see it.”

- Alan Watts - Lecture on Zen

Alex loves rape and Beethoven: what do you think that...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:50:45 -0400

Alex loves rape and Beethoven: what do you think that implies?

Stanley Kubrick: I think this suggests the failure of culture to have any morally refining effect on society. Hitler loved good music and many top Nazis were cultured and sophisticated men but it didn’t do them, or anyone else, much good.

"There is something I recognize about religion that us evengelical atheists haven’t really..."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:04:44 -0400

“There is something I recognize about religion that us evengelical atheists haven’t really grappled with yet, which is that it gives people a chance to surrender. What religion says to you, essentially, is: you’re not in control. Now, that’s a very liberating idea.”

- Brian Eno

"Celebrity is like bad sex. Celebrity calls into existence the virtual aspect of our nature, its..."

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:31:12 -0500

“Celebrity is like bad sex. Celebrity calls into existence the virtual aspect of our nature, its ability to be something different, something beyond what we expect of our species. The intercourse of public and celebrity draws attention to one thing that breaks the spell: the complete incompatibility of the public’s desire with that of the celebrity. The sordid fact is that both jerk off on the other, but can never come together.”

- McKenzie Wark

When King Faisal had hemorrhoids

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:49:00 -0500

‘I want you to make sure tomorrow’, said Faisal, ‘that the people are told precisely what operation I’m having. The Minister of Health will probably dress it up with long medical words, but I want the announcement to use the words that everyone understands – bawassir , piles.’

Robert Lacey – The Kingdom: Arabia & the House of Saʻud

On the possibility of making contact with extraterrestrials

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:36:00 -0500

Perhaps we shouldn’t be so enthusiastic about making contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. Scientists point out that on the earth, there are two types of animals: predators like cats, dogs, and tigers (which have eyes to the front of their face, so they stereoscopically zero in on their target) and prey like rabbits and deer (which have eyes to the side of their face in order to look around 360 degrees for the predators). Typically, predators are more intelligent than prey. Tests show that cats are more intelligent than mice, and foxes are more intelligent than rabbits. Humans, with eyes to the front, are also predators. In our search for intelligent life in the heavens, we should keep in mind that the aliens we meet will probably have evolved from predators.

Michio Kaku: Hyperspace

The Origin of Children

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:18:50 -0500

Slavoj Zizek:

“From my own youth, I remember a fantasy concerning the origin of children: after I learned how children are made, I still had no precise idea on insemination, so I thought one has to make love every day for the whole nine months: in woman’s belly, the child is gradually formed through sperm - each ejaculation is like adding an additional brick…”

The Aka People:

“The Aka, are … convinced that semen is a nutritive substance that enhances fetal development and leads to healthy babies.

….

The concept of “seminal nurture”—that semen is a kind of milk for developing embryos—is found in many other cultures across the world as well, most notably in South America.”

"One day the Hodja went to the well to draw some water. There he saw the moon’s reflection...."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:46:22 -0500

“One day the Hodja went to the well to draw some water. There he saw the moon’s reflection. Thinking it fallen into the well, he said, “I will have to pull it out immediately.” He took a rope with a hook fastened to one end and lowered it into the well.
The hook caught on a rock, and the rope broke, causing the Hodja to fall onto his back. Lying there he saw the moon in the heaven and cried out, “Praise and honor Allah! I injured myself, but at least the moon is back where it belongs.””

- Nasreddin Hodja Rescues the Moon (Folktales)

"Ken Saro-Wiwa’s “Robert and the Dog” conveys the poverty of the mass of Nigerians..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:55:58 -0500

“

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s “Robert and the Dog” conveys the poverty of the mass of Nigerians by the powerful device of Bingo, the dog of Robert’s European wife:

Try as hard as he could, he could not dismiss from his mind the fact that the dog was doing better than himself. And he detested this state of affairs. He could understand a dog being invited to eat up an infant’s faeces. He could understand a stray, mangy dog with flies around its ears being beaten and chased away from the dwellings of men. He could understand a dog wandering around rubbish heaps in search of sustenance. But a dog who slept on the settee, a dog who was fed tinned food on a plate, a dog who was brushed and cleaned, a dog who drank good tinned milk, was entirely beyond his comprehension. On one occasion, the lady took the dog to a doctor. And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

All that day, Robert felt his stomach turn. And when he got home in the evening and saw his children with distended stomachs gambolling in the filth which simmered in a swollen stream at his door, and watched them hungrily swallow small balls of “eba,” he asked himself, “Who born dog?” And all of a sudden he developed a pathological hatred for Bingo the dog, his master’s dog. All night long, he saw in the eye of his mind, the dog cuddled in the warmth of the settee which he would have to clean and brush in the morning. And he asked himself again and again “Who born dog?”

”

- Source

"STORY OF HATIM TAI Hatim Tai possessed a horse whose fleetness was as that of the morning breeze...."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:30:40 -0500

“

STORY OF HATIM TAI

Hatim Tai possessed a horse whose fleetness was as that of the morning breeze. Of this was the Sultan of Turkey informed.

“Like Hatim Tai,” he was told, “none is equal in generosity; like his horse, nothing is equal in speed and gait. As a ship in the sea it traverses the desert, while the eagle, exhausted, lags behind.”

“From Hatim will I request that horse,” the king replied. “If he be generous and give it to me, then shall I know that his fame is true; if not, that it is but the sound of a hollow drum.”

So he despatched a messenger with ten followers to Hatim. They alighted at the house of the Arab chief, who prepared a feast and killed a horse 17 in their honour.

On the following day, when the messenger explained the object of his mission, Hatim became as one mad with grief. “Why,” he cried, “didst thou not give me before thy message? That swift-paced horse did I roast last night for thee to eat. No other means had I to entertain thee; that horse alone stood by my tent, and I would not that my guests should sleep fasting.”

To the men he gave money and splendid robes, and when the news of his generosity reached to Turkey, the king showered a thousand praises upon his nature.

”

- Source

"The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but..."

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:05:35 -0500

““The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years… If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white, and our hair blonde.””

- Den Fujita, Founder of McDonald’s Japan

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:58:51 -0500

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Belle de Jour (1967)

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:21:00 -0500

Belle de Jour (1967)

"As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The..."

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:24:00 -0500

““As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated and even missed when absent.””

- How the android Data defines friendship. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode: Times Arrow, Part 1)

"Who built Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the names of kings. Did the kings..."

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:58:00 -0400

“

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?

In the books you will find the names of kings.

Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?

And Babylon, many times demolished

Who raised it up so many times? In what houses

of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?

Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished

Did the masons go? Great Rome

Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom

Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song

Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis

The night the ocean engulfed it

The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.

Was he alone?

Caesar beat the Gauls.

Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada

Went down. Was he the only one to weep?

Frederick the Second won the Seven Year’s War. Who

Else won it?

Every page a victory.

Who cooked the feast for the victors?

Every ten years a great man?

Who paid the bill?

So many reports.

So many questions.

”

- Questions From a Worker Who Reads by Bertolt Brecht

Reaction

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:58:52 -0400