GQ: If you discovered that there were aliens controlling your brain and they were reason why you rapped so well, then…
Gucci: What would I do? Well, I don’t know, what could I do? What are my options?
Nature visible: Bodega cats
Thanks to Dallas Penn and the Internets Celebrities for this lovely film. Check the rest of Dallas and Raffi’s vids and posts. A+
Filed under Animals, art, capitalism, nature
Crane protest for South Korean labor rights
In 2003, after waging a three-month vigil to protest working conditions, Kim Ju-ik, a 40-year-old father of three, hanged himself in the crane’s control room. His suicide note proclaimed, “This is a country where a laborer has to risk his life to live like a human.”
Kim Jin-suk has no intentions of suicide, instead vowing to stay put until workers win back their jobs.
On the ground, dozens of private security officers roam the fences around the yard, which have been buttressed by spirals of concertina wire.
For her protection, fellow activists monitor Kim’s movements via a camera in a nearby apartment building — footage that is broadcast on the Internet 24 hours a day.
In June, officials cut off electricity to the crane’s control room. Each day, as her body weakens, Kim says, she thinks of the deceased activist for the willpower to continue her protest.
“I am sitting at the place where Ju-ik sat. I sleep where Ju-ik slept and I see the last view of the world Ju-ik saw before passing away,” she wrote in a letter. “And I am going to do it, the thing that Ju-ik wanted to do so much but couldn’t do at last: Walk down the crane of my own free will.”
via South Korea activist’s protest on cargo crane to enter 8th month – latimes.com.
Filed under human rights, protest
Jail the protesters: it’s where we belong
An Indian government attempt to head off a political crisis by arresting a key anti-corruption activist appeared to backfire Tuesday when parliament walked out and demonstrations broke out across the country.
Approximately 20 plainclothes police surrounded activist Anna Hazare, 73, early Tuesday morning as he left his house to begin a hunger strike against alleged widespread corruption, reportedly forbidding him from leaving the premises. When he defied them, they took him into custody on peremptory charges of “breach of peace.”
Filed under colonialism, human rights, protest
Rap and riots in the U.K.
Someone is paying attention . . . oh yeah, the Guardian. Thanks.
The most extraordinary of the bunch is also the most full-on. They Will Not Control Us, a snarling litany of dispossesion and rage against politicians, police and the media, will be a bit strong for some stomachs – and not only because of the wailing chorus lifted from the Muse track Uprising. By a little-known rapper called 2 K Olderz, it’s nothing if not direct. “Dear Mr Prime Minister …” it begins, “was you travelling on London transport the day the bombs went off?/ How about you go and pay rent to the landlord, earn shit money doing a labouring job?/ We’re living like shit in this country, while you’ve got your feet up living nice and comfy/ Well we know where the problem is, the people acknowledge this: stand up to the politics.”
via Rap responds to the riots: ‘They have to take us seriously’ | Music | guardian.co.uk.
Filed under colonialism, documentary, hip hop, protest
Capitalism visible: cosmetic surgery in Brazil
Interesting article about one of Brazil’s most famous plastic surgeons, who also a 2-bit philosopher. I enjoyed the write up and noticed a few interesting moments.
1. Capitalism is seldom visible. But the cultivation of desires, and the normalizing of those desires can be noted.
When a good life is defined through the ability to buy goods then rights may be reinterpreted to mean not equality before the law, but equality in the market. One young man who lived in an area notorious for police violence said he longed to buy an imported car. While there is nothing unusual in this wish, what he said next surprised me: “That’s my dream. Rights for all.” This is perhaps a new idea of citizenship: social belonging depends on access to a particular standard of living.
via A ‘Philosophy’ of Plastic Surgery in Brazil – NYTimes.com.
2. These changes are exceptionally fast. Victorians believed cleft palette would ‘build character.’ To move from a normal space for a body to inhabit to an illness that needs remedy is pretty amazing.
Victorians saw a cleft palate as a defect that built character. For us it hinders self-realization and merits corrective surgery. This shift reflects a new attitude towards appearance and mental health: the notion that at least some defects cause unfair suffering and social stigma is now widely accepted.
via A ‘Philosophy’ of Plastic Surgery in Brazil – NYTimes.com.
Filed under capitalism, disability, health
Graham Bond organization
Sunday morning. Thinking about british freak beat tunes.
Clip worth it’s weight in gold. (What do internet video clips weigh anyway?)
Filed under funk & soul
Big bank takes little bank: blocking cell reception of protesters in SF
SAN FRANCISCO — Transit officials blocked cellphone reception in San Francisco train stations for three hours to disrupt planned demonstrations over a police shooting.
Officials with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, better known as BART, said Friday that they turned off electricity to cellular towers in four stations from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. The move was made after BART learned that protesters planned to use mobile devices to coordinate a demonstration on train platforms.
The tactic drew comparisons to those used by the former president of Egypt to squelch protests demanding an end to his authoritarian rule.
via San Francisco Transit Blocks Cellphones To Hinder Protest.
If you want to know what cops have learned since Oscar Grant. Perhaps “Game recognize game” would have been a better articulation.
Filed under communication, human rights, media, protest
Onions and eggplant: the essence of life
India is ground zero for the intellectual property rights fight over food. At this point, it’s basically corporations vs. the humans of the world. Oops, Supreme court decided that corporations are people too. But keep an eye on your nation’s key foods, cuz in India the fight is about onions and eggplants.
Now the National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) has dealt another blow: it has decided to sue the US biotech giant Monsanto and its Indian collaborators who developed the Bt brinjal.
The extraordinary decision by NBA is based on a complaint filed last year by the Bangalore-based Environment Support Group (ESG), alleging that the developers violated India’s Biological Diversity Act of 2002 by using local brinjal varieties in developing Bt Brinjal without prior approval from NBA. Leo F. Saldanha of ESG says his group is hopes NBA will not only launch the legal proceedings soon but also stop processing Monsanto’s recent application to work with two varieties of Indian onions.
via Nature News Blog: India’s biodiversity agency to sue Monsanto.
Filed under capitalism, food
Kingmaxwell on 2011 Reggae Festival and Potluck album
Two new articles by Maxwell for the North Coast Journal.
1. Review of Potluck’s new album: Rhymes and Resin.
With Rhymes and Resin Potluck manages to take risks and still affirm their position at the top of Humboldt’s rhyming hierarchy. Confidence in their own capabilities and a willingness to share the stage with other local artists make them the grandparents of Humboldt hip hop.
via Rhymes and Resin | North Coast Journal | Humboldt County.
2. Review of the 2011 Reggae festival.
Seun Kuti grew up in the liberated zone of Kalakuta in Nigeria. His father Fela Anikulapo Kuti had declared a small section of the city of Lagos to be an area where good music could be heard, cannabis could be smoked, dissident politics were welcome (so long as you didn’t criticize Fela), and sexuality wasn’t so controlled. Some obvious similarities exist between Kalakuta and the 27-year Reggae on the River concert tradition. At Benbow State Park July 17, headliner Seun Kuti brought this year’s temporary autonomous zone celebrations to a head with his powerful Afrobeat orchestra: Egypt 80.
via Reggae on the River Goes International | North Coast Journal | Humboldt County.
Life of refinement 