Riverstories web site is up.

This new web page is the home of a collaborative effort called Riverstories, connecting along the Mississippi from Minnesota, through St. Louis and on to New Orleans.

Now, if I could only get my cat to do this.

Wright on, Rev.

I only caught the last half of his Q and A at the National Press Club, but Rev. Jeremiah Wright made me whoop in my car as I was driving up the parking ramp at noon today. He called it imperialism. It is.
Here's the audio on MPR. Excellent, excellent answers to questions that were possibly sincere, but some of which were truly appallingly stupid.
Here's the transcript, because the spin that is being given by the news reports is incredible, as usual.

I was so tired of all the tippy-toe B.S. about this. If people want to blame Rev. Wright for their own racism, they can, but even if I think he's wrong about HIV, I can't argue with most of the rest of what he said.

Here's Bill Moyers' interview.



Some bits from the transcript:

MODERATOR: In light of your widely quoted comment damning America, do you think you owe the American people an apology? If not, do you think that America is still damned in the eyes of God?

WRIGHT: The governmental leaders, those — as I said to Barack Obama, my member — I am a pastor, he’s a member. I’m not a spiritual mentor, guru. I’m his pastor.

And I said to Barack Obama, last year, “If you get elected, November the 5th, I’m coming after you, because you’ll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.” All right? It’s about policy, not the American people.

And if you saw the Bill Moyers show, I was talking about — although it got edited out — you know, that’s biblical. God doesn’t bless everything. God condemns something — and d-e-m-n, “demn,” is where we get the word “damn.” God damns some practices.

And there is no excuse for the things that the government, not the American people, have done. That doesn’t make me not like America or unpatriotic.

So in Jesus — when Jesus says, “Not only you brood of vipers” — now, he’s playing the dozens, because he’s talking about their mamas. To say “brood” means your mother is an asp, a-s-p. Should we put Jesus out of the congregation?

When Jesus says, “You’ll be brought down to Hell,” that’s not — that’s bombastic, divisive speech. Maybe we ought to take Jesus out of this Christian faith.

No. What I said about and what I think about and what — again, until I can’t — until racism and slavery are confessed and asked for forgiveness — have we asked the Japanese to forgive us? We have never as a country, the policymakers — in fact, Clinton almost got in trouble because he almost apologized at Gorialan (ph).[my note: the transcriber has never heard of Gorée Island, the main African point of departure for slave ships]. We have never apologized as a country.

Britain has apologized to Africans, but this country’s leaders have refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I’m not going to keep stepping on your foot and asking you, “Does this hurt? Do you forgive me for stepping on your foot?” if I’m still stepping on your foot.

Understand that? Capiche?.
...
MODERATOR: Can you elaborate on your comparison of the Roman soldiers who killed Jesus to the U.S. Marine Corps? Do you still believe that is an appropriate comparison and why?

WRIGHT: One of the things that will be covered at the symposium over the next two days is biblical history, which many of the working press are unfamiliar with.

In biblical history, there’s not one word written in the Bible between Genesis and Revelations that was not written under one of six different kinds of oppression, Egyptian oppression, Assyrian oppression, Persian oppression, Greek oppression, Roman oppression, Babylonian oppression.

The Roman oppression is the period in which Jesus is born. And comparing imperialism that was going on in Luke, imperialism was going on when Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that the whole world should be taxed. They weren’t in charge of the world. It sounds like some other governments I know.

That, yes, I can compare that. We have troops stationed all over the world, just like Rome had troops stationed all over the world, because we run the world. That notion of imperialism is not the message of the gospel of the prince of peace, nor of God, who loves the world.
...

MODERATOR: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but through me.” Do you believe this? And do you think Islam is a way to salvation?

WRIGHT: Jesus also said, “Other sheep have I who are not of this fold.”

(APPLAUSE).
...
MODERATOR We’re going to end with a joke. Chris Rock joked, “Of course Reverend Wright’s an angry 75-year-old black man. All 75-year-old black men are angry.” Is that funny? Is that true? Is it unfortunate? What do you think?

WRIGHT: I think it’s just like the media. I’m not 75.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Writing about dance

I love the fact that there is more dance on TV: Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Best Dance Crew. But these are reality shows about dance competitions, and there is little room for the display of expertise, whether through the judging or most of the writing about the shows one finds in the press or online. In some of the message boards, like those on Television Without Pity, one can occasionally find the voice of a dancer, teacher or critic who is kind enough to explain something about the different dance styles or techniques to the rest of us fans, but for the most part, we are talking about what we like or don't like, without much regard for the actual standards of aesthetics or technique that are being used by judges, choreographers, or even casting directors.

Joan Acocella writes about ballet and modern dance for the New Yorker. She has a piece on Dancing With the Stars she's right on, both about the dancing and about the gender drama of the show. As she says, the show plays with gender stereotypes (homosexual anxiety for the men, the expectation that women will dance better than the men, and how they are quite anxious about being judged as unfeminine). I just discovered that there is a podcast associated with the piece. It's an interview, not just her voice reading her article. She and her interviewer Blake Eskin watch some clips together and talk (about the first episode). She puts ballroom dancing overall into a historical context, and has some smart things to say about the dynamic of the show, the stereotyped characters played by the judges, and the narrative arc of the show as a reality show, rather than a real dance competition. When they are through, she says she won't be watching again, that the show is trashy. Well, we likes our trash! But even if the show is not to her taste, as a critic in this podcast and article,she contributed something valuable to my way of watching the show, and I enjoyed listening to her. I haven't always agreed with Acocella about dance (I think she was mistaken in her discussion of Bill T Jones, for example), but she isn't afraid to take a strong view and defend it vigorously. That is one of the virtues of her writing.

In this Dance View Times article "What Critics Do", Acocella talks about the work of the dance critic, or the art critic in general. She advocates for the kind of criticism she has been able to practice: uncompromising. But how much space is there for this kind of writing about dance anymore?

Our local dance critic Camille LeFevre has a great piece called "Culturally Relevant? A Dance Critic Looks to the Territory Ahead" in for MNartists.org about the disappearance of salaried dance critics in print journalism, the tension between the Olympian grande dame style of critics like Acocella and the transformation of journalism today. Apparently most major papers, daily and weekly, have fired or eliminated the positions of dance AND film critics; arts writers are going to have to work free-lance, and there is less room for writing that is not puffery. What this will mean for arts writing, in the age of the blog, is not clear. Perhaps we will be able to find the great dance critics and writers online, and perhaps not, but the professional dance community and the general public are the losers for the loss of visibility and credibility that the arts pages have given to forms of dance that are not part of popular culture over the last forty years.

Axle of evil

File under DUH!

Estelle

I saw Estelle perform her new single American Boy on the Letterman show last night: hot! Great vocals, hot band, tremendous presence.
She tells her story in her first single, 1980, of growing up in West London.
This is an early single "go gone" where she winks at Tina Turner.
I love this live performance of "Shine".

ROFL Con

Where I wish I could be this weekend: at the ROFLcon, organized by the uber-geeks at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society

Mix up a bunch of super famous internet memes, some brainy academics, a big audience, dump them in Cambridge, MA and you've got ROFLCon.

The conference is slated for April 25th and 26th of 2008.

It's a group dissection of internet culture. What makes it work, why it works, how it works. We'll talk about where internet culture has been and where we think it's going.

Then, there'll be parties. A music show, with memes performing their work live. And then a big blowout party at the end, with everyone dancing and rocking out.

Needless to say, this might be the most important gathering since the fall of the tower of Babel.

Instead I am attending a (great) conference on Human Rights in Latin America. Super interesting, but not funny at all.

ZENON Dance Company celebrates 25 years

Zenon founder Linda Z Andrews introduced the five pieces I saw last night at the Southern Theater for the last performance of Zenon Dance Company's spring program, celebrating their 25th year as a modern dance company in the Twin Cities. The quality of dancing was insanely good. A couple of the dancers are young and newer, but Greg Waletski has been in the company for 16 years, and anchored the show, dancing in four of the five pieces. I absolutely loved the the intensity of Susana Tambutti piece "Octopus" (tango deconstructed) and the playful back-and-forth in "The Secret Life of Walt and Kitty," both partner dances, both suggesting the social and ballroom dance worlds in ways we mere mortals could only dream of dancing them. ALL the dancers blew my socks off.

The first piece was "Men in Motion," commissioned from choreographer Seán Curran to be a showcase for the men of the company. I loved the music, opera arias by Haendel sung by counter-tenor David Daniels. "Ombra mai fu" has such stately phrases and such piercing beauty. Each dancer was given room to shine.

The Schubert Theater has created a web project about the process of creating "Men in Motion". There are video clips with interviews and footage that detail each step in the process from commission to performance. How does the company find a choreographer? how does the choreographer get to know the company? what about the costumes, lighting? the theater space? how is the dance created? who are the dancers, and how do they work with the choreographer? what is a rehearsal like? how hard is it to find work? \ After seeing their performance, I loved this clip with interviews of the four men of the company: Greg Waletski, and Bryan Godbout, Stephen Schroeder, and Eddie Oroyan.

Star Trek TOS parodies: gender and race on the Starship Enterprise

Fresca has watched all of Star Trek ("The Original Series" or TOS as I see it is called!), and wrote this fascinating post about the whole genre of K/S slash fiction. This reminded me of a very long graduate student conversation in a cheap restaurant on Telegraph avenue about why women wrote these fantasies. I've been talking to some graduate students lately about Carlos Monsiváis, Roger Bartra, and the mixed feelings that some academics have about popular culture. Monsiváis is both a fan and a cheerful analyst while others either don't experience the pleasures of pop culture or feel they must hide it.

In Fresca's honor, I post this Carol Burnett parody of Star Trek, in which something odd happens to the crew:


And this version by In Living Color, with Jim Carrey as Captain Kirk, is more daring than anything on TV these days:


And here is "The Really Last Voyage"


t

Urban geography

The blog Twin Cities Sidewalks presents fine, fine pictures of the sidewalks, lampposts, and streets of the Twin Cities, with informative and witty writing by an urban geographer. At the end of this post on the lampposts of St Paul was a little added bonus, a video presenting the lampposts of London, set to the 1812 Overture!

"Engineers Explain Cats"

Cat yodeling at the end: priceless.

I found this via a comment from Cute Overload, where some people were arguing about whether or not posting a cute baby rather than an animal was desirable or not (whatEVER). I sometimes wonder what Leo would do if we brought home another cat. Probably pee on my bed.

Juliet Schor talk on consumption: The Social Death of Things"

I am going to hear Juliet Schor speak today about consumption and sustainability, something that has been on my mind for a long time. I have tried to be more thoughtful about my consumption habits now that I can afford to consume eat organic and local, buy used whenever possible, recycle, reduce, reuse. If we don't all do these things to some degree or other, we will not be able to buy our way out of global warming with carbon credits or increased mileage in our vehicles. It's why Governor Pawlenty's attacks on public transportation are so heinous.

Here's the description of her talk, and something about her:

The public debate about ecological sustainability has mainly been focused on technological change, such as alternative energy or green design, and shifting out of damaging products, rather than the scale of consumption. In this talk, Professor Schor will argue that sustainability in the US cannot be achieved without slowing down the rapid increase in the scale of consumption. She will present new estimates of consumption volume, a parsimonious indicator of ecological impact, over the period 1998-2006, and relate them to what she calls the "social death of things." This refers to a change in process that confers social value on products. Schor will further discuss how consumers have changed their habits of acquiring and discarding items, and how the retailing environment has been transformed in ways that are ecologically damaging, and relate this to contemporary understandings of the sociology of consumption.

Juliet Schor is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Boston College. Schor's latest book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner, September 2004), which has been translated into six additional languages. Schor is author of the national best-seller, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (Basic Books, 1992), The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need, and Do Americans' Shop Too Much? published by Beacon Press in 2000. She is currently working on issues of environmental sustainability and their relation to Americans' lifestyles. She is a co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream (newdream.org), a national sustainability organization headquartered in Maryland.

Annie Lennox, artist and activist

My admiration for Annie Lennox grew even greater when I saw her perform this song: no fancy costume, make-up, dancers, lights. Just her and the piano. She sings with artistry, but I always believe every word she sings.

"More manic Idols-on-phone zaniness, followed by more naked-eyed Bono earnestness, followed by a video of the wonderful Annie Lennox in Tanzania. Of all the people who appear on this show, she's one of the few who I can see doing this kind of thing when the show's not on. She accompanies four young boys on a trip to get tested for HIV, celebrates with them when they're negative, and horses around with them afterwards. She weeps as she talks about them -- not TV crying but actual hiccupping sobs. Then she takes the stage in Hollywood and performs "Many Rivers To Cross," and then the whole show shuts down and they send the Top 8 home and declare there will be no American Idol this year because of the shame."

Thus declareth the Television Without Pity recapper, and I concur.


Her website is called The House of Me, and it's a work in progress. Her work with SING to raise money and awareness about mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus in South Africa, and what needs to be done to alleviate suffering through access to drugs and care, as well as prevention, is of a piece with her earlier commitment to environmental and human rights work.

"O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!"

Our Governor, Lord Farquaad, has used his line-item veto in an patently malicious, spiteful, mean-spirited and hateful way. His cuts were especially vindictive toward the City of Saint Paul, public transit projects, and (as usual) the poor. I am going to let TC Sidewalks blogger speak for me here because he does so eloquently: "Pothole Pawlenty's Putrid Politics" and because I am incoherent with rage at the way Pawlenty has systematically ground down what were once the pride of Minnesota: the schools, the parks, services to the poor and needy. I wish we could recall his slimey ass.

Organizing for peace, sustainability and justice in the face of the RNC's primary

I've been seriously bummed out by the fact that the Republican National Convention is going to be held in the Twin Cities this year. (The UpTake is doing great coverage of this lead-up). The idea of swarms of people gathered here for the express purpose of furthering the failed Republican agenda nauseates me.Some local folks are preparing their welcome for the RNC (love the visual ref to the storied Revolutionary Anarchists Bowling League!). Bloggers will be welcome, in the "media workspace" but protesters will not(thanks again, UpTake). Groups have to apply for permits, but have not yet been told where they will be allowed to march, or even if they will be allowed close to the Excel Center where the convention will be held.

Since I am too chicken to be a lightning rod for a police beatdown, or perhaps I should say, for one of the newly purchased tasers, I will find a different way to protest.

I have discovered that there will be a parallel event held in the Twin Cities to draw attention to an alternative agenda, (and No, I don't mean the Democratic Party's national primary). Called Peace Island: Hope in a Time of Crisis--A solutions driven conference, it will bring together
speakers and organizations, national and local, to share ideas on the themes of Global Peace and Nonviolence, Energy and the Environment, Justice and Human Rights. Some of the names are familiar because they are people I know from the peace and justice coalitions of Minnesota; others are nationally known.

Here is the organizers' statement:

At the time of the 2008 Republican National Convention, national and world attention will be focused on the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Peace Island will convene a solutions driven conference to promote and celebrate peace, justice, harmony, nonviolence and care of the earth. Nationally known speakers have been invited to participate in panels and discussions relating to their field of expertise.

Background
Peace Island was conceived by Friends of Coldwater founder Susu Jeffrey of Minneapolis. She was joined by Dennis Dillon in October of 2006, and shortly thereafter most of the current committee members joined in the planning and organizing.

The Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) became official sponsor of the conference in October 2007.

Many on the committee are members of organizations that belong to MAP. The group includes Dick Bernard, former MAP President from 2005-2007. Other organization affiliations include AlliantACTION, ELCA Synod Committee, Hawkinson Foundation, National Night Out, Saint Mary's Basilica, St. Joan of Arc, Twin Cities Peace Campaign - Focus on IRAQ, and Women Against Military Madness.

St. Joan of Arc Church has provided a financial grant to Peace Island.

I think I will plan to attend--better yet, volunteer--as a way to do more than complain about the bad karma that will be gathered here on those dates.

AlliantACTION is the new incarnation of the Honeywell Project, formed when Honeywell spun off its weapons division as AlliantTec (new name, still death merchants) but their mission is the same: AlliantACTION works tirelessly to draw attention to the fact that cluster bombs are manufactured in Minnesota that kill and maim civilians around the world. It also makes depleted uraniam munitions that poison people and the environment. I understand the rage that motivates some of the folks who are looking forward to confrontations with the police, but I think I will try to reinsert myself in a more active way into the groups whose work has been important over the long haul.

Pink, "Dear Mr.President"

PINK LYRICS

"Dear Mr. President"
(feat. Indigo Girls)

Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?

Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?

Dance on video at VOXDANCE

Another season of Dancing With the Stars, my guilty pleasure. Yes, there's a lot of silliness, but I truly enjoy watching people fall in love with dance, sometimes in spite of themselves, and the pro dancers are terrific. And this evening they had the Alvin Ailey Dance Company do an excerpt from "Revelations"! FABULOUS! I saw this performed about 30 years ago, when Artistic DirectorJudith Jamison was still dancing with the company. It was one of the most exciting, ecstatic dance experiences of my life.

The site VOXDANCE posts video "abstracts" of classical ballet, modern dance, flamenco, Indian dance, and belly dance. I can't wait to have the time to explore it!