NEW YORK—According to an alarming new study published Monday in The Journal Of Applied Behavioral Science, the time-honored American activity of swaggering, an extremely arrogant manner of walking, has dropped by nearly 90 percent since 2007.
From The Onion article
For extra laughs –
Cindy McCain Claims She’s “Just Like Any Other Female Human”
Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans
Last minute blatant promotional alert. But consider it more of a service as the evening’s pretty well sure to be packed regardless. I’m going on at midnight- Andy is going on at two. Come say hello.
Flux Factory, a long-standing artists collaborative based in Long Island City, is pleased to announce The End of the End of the End of the End (To Be Continued…), a fundraiser and celebration of eminent domain. A giant party of performances of all stripes in fifteen rooms will take place at our collective living/work/gallery space on Thursday, October 30th. We will end the night with a collective final clean of the space, leaving it broom-swept clean with nothing remaining but the fixtures. This is because we are giving the keys to the Metropolitan Transit Authority the next morning, when they will seize our building through eminent domain for the LIRR expansion project.
Performances will be taking place in our seventeen former bedrooms. There’ll be fifteen rooms worth of fun, with a birthday party room, slam poets on stilts, heavy metal, dj’s, a video confessional booth, dance lessons VH1 style, interactive sound art, ballet, campfire stories, costumed buffoonery, oracles, musicians from far and near, and way more dancing, debauchery, music, participatory art, and party than you can handle with dozens of performers confirmed and more on the way.
I lived at Flux for a few months this past summer- they don’t really fuck around when it comes to this sort of event. When they realized they wouldn’t be able to have gallery shows this summer (about a third of their space is usually devoted to a gallery) they instead started renting out tour buses and letting artist bring guests to remote locations- while only providing a start and end time for the trip and wardrobe suggestions. The list of artists participating tonight is nearly 100 strong. So there should be a little something for everyone.
Directions, Etc
$10
potluck 6:00pm
party 8:00pm-4:00am
cleanup 4:00am-6:00am
Did you notice how cool Barack was in the last debate? Have you notice how much gray hair has popped out of Barack’s head over the course of his campaign? Is Barack able to be himself? Can you really even get angry while in fear of being angry?
In that same/last debate, did you also notice how John McCain was blinking about a hundred thousand times a minute? Did you see the bulge in his neck? He was visibly upset, and you can tell by the way he was interrupting Barack and by his jagged responses. Did you also notice in the second debate when McCain referred to Obama as “that oneâ€? All Barack could do was just smile (and you know that somewhere in his bones, he would like to say that “this is some BSâ€.)
Anger is a natural emotion, but if you are black, Latino, a person of color, there’s no space in these United States for you to be angry. It has taken me years to understand that as a black person, it is not acceptable to be angry in America. People will be terrified of you, but this is not about me, (I am still angry and trying to realize the difference between proactive anger and reaction anger) this is about Brother Barack.
I pray that Our Beloved Brother Barack has some outlet. I pray that he and Sister Michelle have some private conversations about black stress and internalized racism. Black stress and internalized racism can lead to heart attacks and high blood pressure. I hear that he’s smoking again, that can only accelerate the process.
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J. Edgar Hoover (FBI Director for a very long time) constantly referred to black people, specifically civil rights leaders (including MLK) as communists or socialists. In the last few days, McCain’s criticisms of Obama’s economic/tax policies of “spreading the wealth†as socialism echo those old attacks and accusations of black leaders. That is racist and hypocritical, after McCain voted for the use of government funds to bail out Wall St.
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Here’s what inspired this post… Brand new DB!
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/DavidBanner-WhenYouHearWhatIGotToSay.mp3]
David Banner – When You Hear What I Got To Say
David Banner talks Election ’08 with DJ Hyphen from DJ Hyphen on Vimeo.
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Tim Wise should not be one of the few white people in America who talk consistently about white privilege, but he is.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UJlNRODZHA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSVG7jRp_g[/youtube]
Imagine this, in a few weeks we may have a president who can comment intelligently on Jay-Z’s ‘American Gangster’, materialism in hip-hop and use slang like “Be down” and “Keep it real” without sounding ridiculous. It is a strange and amazing moment in America. Hip-hop generation indeed.
In nine days I think we’ll start talking a little more about non-political matters and more about music, etc but for now pre-election mania continues.
Also, for those that aren’t following. As it stands now Obama is kicking McCain’s ass! The Republicans may lose control of all branches of government in a historic rout. They’ve already formed the circular firing squad and started blaming each other for a loss that hasn’t happened yet. And a pet-peeve: I’m sick of people saying “I hope it happens but I’m not gonna be over confident”. You know what? If you care at all you know you will be utterly devastated if Barack doesn’t win. Go all in, we’re past that point.
Doug Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal went to Mississippi and found some black McCains. They’re descendants of slaves owned by the white McCain’s in their plantation years one hundred fifty years ago. I’m sort of surprised that no one has brought this up before. No political dynamite here but another interesting, complicated American story.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PI1CEniLIk[/youtube]
General Steele of the Cocoa Brovas (formerly Smif n Wessun, if you don’t know look ’em up) recorded this tune over a Kanye beat expressing his thoughts about Obama’s candidacy, with Dutty Artz crew member Jahdan singing the chorus. Jahdan and Steele are longtime collaborators going all the way back to the Smif n Wessun classic ‘Sound Bwoy Buriel’, viewable below. I’ve been meaning to write a longer post about some of the things that have been great and inspirational about Obama’s candidacy. The fact that he inspires both people like Steele, Colin Powell and David Brooks to speak highly of him is a pretty crazy starting point. This guy inspires people across party lines and levels of interest in politics. I’ve met tons of people who previously didn’t give a damn about politics who have become engaged, interested and motivated because of Obama’s run. The other details which help us understand this, in a quick list, are:
1) The incredible level of skill and competency he’s shown in running his campaign. His current 11 point lead in the polls (Gallup) and incredible fundraising advantage based on small, internet based donations from voters, not corporations or lobbyists are good examples here.
2) His application of an organizing type model to the structure of his campaign. Basically by trusting volunteers to run the campaign skillfully and focusing campaign money on training people rather than paying operatives he’s created an unprecedented, incredible grassroots ground team that I think will change the way electoral politics is played. To use a cliche he’s applied the ‘give a man a fish/teach a man to fish’ saying to politics and struck political gold.
3) He’s very, very smart and talented. He can speak, write, talk policy and do it in a way that people can relate to and understand. I read his book “Dreams from my Father” and it’s great. If you are on the fence about him, have some questions, etc, READ THIS. It was written before his career in politics and it shows. It’s a very honest, thoughtful, often painful account of his early years and is an absolutely unique American story.
Steele says:
One day I was inspired to do this song.I know alot of people have their opinion about the whole election especially Obama.No I do not look at him as the savior of the “black” race.I thinkhe does represent the potential of “black” people.So I say he is a positive role model win or lose.Say what you want to as you sit on the sideline of life…Get up and Live(qoute from Nesta).This is a Kanye track that he gave Weezy,and Cynical surfed for the images,and my boy Jahdan(Noble Society)is on the Hook,and Mantecha on background vox.It’s all expression.
Sound Bwoy Buriel video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSBxSPr0A_g[/youtube]
It’s been fascinating watching the economic crisis (why is this always the proffered term?) and realizing how abstract the superstructural/specific components of global finance have become. I’ve been obsessively reading up on all of this- with a kind of crazed glint in my eye- and while I seem to think I get it- my general understanding is no where near a 1-1 mapping of what the fuck is really going on.
[image: Lebbeus Woods, Lower Manhattan, 1999]
Trickle down economics didn’t work so well on the ascent- but we sure will be joining everyone on the ride down.
Back to Crisis- it comes from the Greek ‘krisis’ – a “turning point in a disease”- which seems perfect the more one explores the viral and ever adapting state of capitalism- with its imperative of growth and profit and ability to sneak into every corner of life with more oozing dripping efficiency then even traditional state-power.
One of the best pieces of media I’ve consumed dealing with any of the above is Naomi Klein’s recent speech at the University of Chicago – which was broadcast by the often annoying as hell, but sometimes amazing Democracy Now- you can watch the video at the DN Website.
I had the honor of hearing Naomi speak in Austin on Sunday- and she was one of the most powerful, informed speakers I have ever seen.
Here is the mp3 of her University Of Chicago lecture
[audio:http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn200810061.mp3]I listened to this late one night mixed with Flying Lo‘s latest on Warp- Los Angeles– It was perfect and beautiful, but im sure some other glitchy idmy shit would work just as well…….
[image: artist unknown, class warfare]
hey y’all – welcome to the dutty family UPROOT ANDY. he’ll be blogging here when inspiration strikes. new yorkers may be familiar with his uptempo, utterly infectious DJ sets (guaracharaca migration anyone?) which are loaded with homemade bombs & refixes. Y le gusta la salsa. – Rupture
Esau Mwamawaya and Radioclit just released this free mixtape to promote their upcoming album under the name The Very Best. How modest. But really this is very good. I got it at Ghettobassquake and I’m sure it will be all over the internet in a couple days, as it should be, I think it fits right in with the Dutty Artz sound and I wanted to make sure everyone got it over here. This is a mixtape only in the old hip hop sense, the rhythms having been pulled from different sources to carry Esau’s vocals, the thing plays like an album, the tracks are separate and unmixed. Highlights for me are the banging ‘Wena’ which uses a beat from the huge Kwaito producer DJ Cleo, and the beautiful ‘Hide & Seek’ which uses a beat from french electro hip hop group TTC produced by Para One.
Get it here (link restored)
Yes, we’re taking over YouTube.
The video for Reef by Baby Kites and Nokea, two young producers from the DA camp, directed by Panoptic is out. It’s a promo for DJ /Rupture’s new uproot CD (buyable). Thanks to the people at YouTube for putting us on the front page and getting us thousands of views, dozens of inane comments and spam and friend requests from random people in the past two hours of it being up there. The internet is a wild and wonderful place.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWx7s1S23Gk[/youtube]
Next is the official worldwide exclusive premiere of 77Klash’s new video for Mad Again (Whoa!) from his Code for the Streets EP (on iTunes) produced by myself Matt Shadetek. In case you were wondering, yes that’s reggae legend Johnny Osbourne in the video. He came and laid his classic whoa-yea chorus for us in the studio, it’s not a sample as some people have thought. The video shoot was a lot of fun. Watching the dancers from Ground Zero and Dancerz Blvd do their thing was crazy, Skerrit Bwoy brought his usual maddness to the set (that’s him with the ladder and garbage can, nuts as usual), Max Glazer, Gravy, Barrington, Mass Processor and both generations of Crazy Legs all made appearances (the young dancehall dancer and the vet b-boy). Check the video, directed by Jon Fine.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlYQxjOC0ag[/youtube]
