tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78952121925506345202024-03-05T09:33:06.132-09:00The Rebel KindDavid Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.comBlogger346125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-52682329700262606162016-02-13T21:27:00.000-09:002016-02-13T21:27:02.394-09:00Happy Valentine's Day! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Song: "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti</div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-28364937430010847152013-02-04T20:59:00.001-09:002013-03-10T18:30:34.013-09:00I've Moved To A New Webpage!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://alldaybliss.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonU8ASiWrb_ITjqqx-gOi10mhrc9GTzvHJpWkgx6N7W9keqXEB5Tae-Lx4niMHPOS04GwQ3ZQ8lZheSHjG0tjH9nosZzVKvNjz1LX1KfEMpNWF7ABEklotrWIb9mGCloZP13yVEXGgNlQ/s400/banner-alldaybliss.gif" width="368" /></a></div>
Visit <a href="http://alldaybliss.com/">ALLDAYBLISS.COM</a></blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-29675517727311424912013-01-29T22:38:00.000-09:002013-01-29T22:43:22.045-09:00Gabor Maté: Toxic Culture<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://drgabormate.com/" target="_blank">Gabor Maté</a> knows how to attract a crowd. Today the "world-renowned physician and writer" gave a <a href="http://globaled.ualberta.ca/InternationalWeek/KeynotePresenters.aspx" target="_blank">Keynote Presentation</a> at the University of Alberta that the police had to shut down. Not for anything he said or did, but because too many people swarmed into the Telus Centre to hear him. Someone complained and forty-five minutes into his presentation the organizers had to arrange another room for the overflow. Maté looked stunned at first but quickly adapted. He's used to adjusting to sudden shifts in his environment. Much of his research depends on identifying the influence of surroundings on our physical and mental health.
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The crux of his argument was a refutation of conventional scientific wisdom. For too long the medical community in the west has treated mental health issues as separate from physical ones, which are then further isolated from wider environmental or social concerns. All the evidence points to the combined influence of these factors on the well-being of an individual's total health. To isolate one area from another is essentially an ideological position that ends up exacerbating illnesses of all kinds, leading to what Maté calls our "toxic culture."<br />
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According to Maté, humans need attachment and authenticity. We're wired to be attached to others and to express ourselves authentically without fear. That gut feeling you ignored? That's what Maté calls "a denial of authenticity." He goes on to identify sociologist Erich Fromm's "myth of normalcy" as a source of society's problems. Rather than attachment and authenticity, society values appearance, behaviour, and life circumstance as measures of success. <br />
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One of the ways to remedy this malpractice is to accept the science and not the ideology, which wrongly attributes only biological or genetic sources for illnesses. The main cause, according to Maté, is our environment. When we cease dividing mind from body, or the individual from society, the toxins in our collective system will wither and die. Only then will Karl Marx's so-called "four alienations" - from nature, others, work, and from ourselves - be finally resolved.
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-87609579917687921412013-01-25T22:30:00.001-09:002013-01-26T13:59:45.868-09:00Idle No More: Emancipatory Politics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"What is required is a theatre without spectators..." ~ Jacques Rancière</i></blockquote>
Idle No More has inspired a movement that's not only responsible for some cool art by <a href="http://ictmncdn1.tgpstage1.com/article/idle-no-more-posters-dwayne-bird-birdwire-media-146469" target="_blank">Dwayne Bird</a>, it has also been challenging traditional hierarchies everywhere, within and without native communities. As <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Ranci%C3%A8re/e/B001JOTTZ8" target="_blank">Jacques Rancière</a> would say, it's a form of <i>dissensus,</i> or a dissent from inequality, and an <i>insensibility</i>. By not adhering to conventional methods of protest, Idle No More has been reconfiguring the sensory apparatus that permits participation in legitimate political struggle. The movement is located beyond the pale of acceptability and thus appears as irrational and insensible in the best way possible.
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Employing an aesthetic that recalls <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Shklovsky" target="_blank">Viktor Shklovsky's</a> notion of "defamiliarization", Idle No More has forced a new way of seeing by embodying the unfamiliar as a way of enhancing perception of the familiar. At its core, this is essentially revolutionary and absolutely emancipatory. It traverses what Rancière calls the <i>partage,</i> or partition, that separates the legitimate from the illegitimate, and generates genuine hope for substantial and lasting change.</div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-54812878997628195462013-01-20T20:17:00.001-09:002013-01-20T20:17:27.691-09:00Phil Ochs: The Chords Of Fame<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>“If there’s any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there’s any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara” ~ Phil Ochs</i></blockquote>
One of the great unheeded lessons <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ochs" target="_blank">Phil Ochs</a> left behind was to avoid mistaking celebrity fame for political substance. This drove him crazy as he yearned to be as famous as Elvis or Dylan. <br /><br /></div>
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<i>"Phil Ochs was the political songwriter Bob Dylan should've been" ~ Billy Bragg</i></blockquote>
Ochs seemed oblivious to the fact that celebrities are ultimately commodities celebrated by fans who place consumerism above other attachments, especially revolution. Most fans have already bought into the system and have relinquished any commitment to fundamentally changing the status quo. <br />
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<i>"God help the troubadour who tries to be a star"</i></blockquote>
By the time a "<span class="st">Presley</span>-Guevara" hybrid emerges, the fan's priority becomes obtaining a piece of the product, not engaging in any form of social change. In the end, maybe this is what killed Phil Ochs - a fan of both Elvis and John Wayne - the realization that he had been playing the chords of fame, mistaking celebrities for revolutionaries.
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<i>"So play the chords of love, my friend <br />Play the chords of pain <br />But if you want to keep your song<br />Don't, don't, don't <br />Don't play the chords of fame"</i></blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-81806282933275484922013-01-15T21:58:00.000-09:002013-01-16T18:40:56.771-09:00Canada's Mosaic: Shifting Patterns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Over the past few years a movement has emerged to reconfigure Canada's relationship to multiculturalism. It's been a subtle but determined effort to alter minority access to justice. This past June, <a href="http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/proactive_initiatives/hoi_hsi/qa_qr/page1-eng.aspx" target="_blank">Section 13</a> of the Canadian Human Rights Act was <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/07/tories-repeal-sections-of-human-rights-act-banning-hate-speech-over-telephone-or-internet/" target="_blank">repealed</a> by Harper's Conservative government in response to what proponents called strengthening freedom of expression. As <i><a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/06/19/five-years-two-tribunals-a-raft-of-secret-hearings-a-supreme-court-challenge-how-the-battle-for-free-speech-was-won/" target="_blank">Maclean's</a></i> wrote:
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<i>"The effect of killing Section 13 will be debated for years among anti-racist groups and civil libertarians. But it is undoubtedly a turning point. Since 1999, Canadians who felt aggrieved by material transmitted online have been encouraged to seek redress under federal human rights law, which targeted material 'likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt' based on grounds of discrimination like race, religion or sexual orientation. Storseth’s bill repeals the provision outright, leaving the Criminal Code as the primary bulwark against the dissemination of hate propaganda by electronic means."</i></blockquote>
Section 13 read:<br />
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<i>13. (1) It is a discriminatory practice for a person or a group of persons acting in concert to communicate telephonically or to cause to be so communicated, repeatedly, in whole or in part by means of the facilities of a telecommunication undertaking within the legislative authority of Parliament, any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Interpretation
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(2) For greater certainty, subsection (1) applies in respect of a matter that is communicated by means of a computer or a group of interconnected or related computers, including the Internet, or any similar means of communication, but does not apply in respect of a matter that is communicated in whole or in part by means of the facilities of a broadcasting undertaking.</i></blockquote>
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The Criminal Code doesn't allow minority voices equal access to the instruments of justice that the Canadian Human Rights Act was designed to ensure. It's no surprise that the Canadian Bar Association, representing 37,000 jurists, lawyers, notaries, law teachers and students across Canada, was opposed to repealing Section 13. As CBA spokesperson Shelina Ali <a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2012/07/hate-speech-and-amendments-canadian-human-rights-act" target="_blank">wrote</a>: <br />
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<i>"The CBA notes that the evidentiary standard under the Criminal Code is high; the offence must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. By contrast, the Human Rights Act provides a lower standard of proof, the civil standard based on a balance of probabilities. The lower standard offers protection to individuals and groups who are the target of hate speech that may be very damaging, but does not meet the criminal law standard. According to the CBA, Section 13(1) 'protects minorities from psychological harm caused by the dissemination of racial views which inevitably result in prejudice, discrimination and the potential of physical violence.'
<br /><br />The CBA reiterates the Supreme Court's position that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute and limits to this right can be warranted."</i></blockquote>
This last point is crucial: in Canada, unlike in the U.S. where the First Amendment prohibits restrictions on freedom of speech, Section 1 of the <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html" target="_blank">Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a> actually places "reasonable limits" on freedom of expression. Canada has learned through its own history the value of protecting human rights to ensure that diversity flourishes, but Harper's regime is devoted to clawing back these hard-won victories. Section 13 may have needed to be reformed, but it was a national crime to kill it. </div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-44539729483387115652013-01-10T07:17:00.000-09:002013-01-10T22:22:15.442-09:00Peter Tosh: The Toughest <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of Peter Tosh's earliest singles was "I'm The Toughest" and he did his best to live up to that reputation for the duration of his 42 years...even on a unicycle...
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For much of his career he played guitar and sang alongside Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston in the legendary Wailers until they split up after releasing the 1973 classic, <i><a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/burnin-mw0000200157" target="_blank">Burnin'</a></i>. Before they parted ways, Marley and Tosh collaborated on the seminal, "Get Up, Stand Up."
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The two shared a Lennon/McCartney-type relationship, with Tosh playing the angry John to Marley's sweeter Paul. When Marley sang of "One Love" Tosh eventually countered with "No Peace" from his amazing solo album, <i><a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/equal-rights-mw0000196108" target="_blank">Equal Rights</a></i>. <br />
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So it blew my mind recently when I found myself at the gates of the Tosh Memorial Garden in Belmont, Westmoreland on Jamaica's south coast.
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A giant Rasta named Pablo greeted me with a fat spliff and led me to Tosh's tomb.
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Tosh was murdered at his Kingston home on September 11, 1987, shot in the head by a "maga dog," or an ungrateful thug from Trench Town who he had once offered a helping hand.
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Pablo then pointed to the house further up the hill and said I could go meet "the mother," 96-year-old Alvira Coke.
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All this happened unexpectedly, a serendipitous event on the road between Montego Bay and Treasure Beach. <br />
<blockquote>
<i>"Live for yourself, you will live in vain
<br />Live for others, you will live again...
<br />Pass it on"</i></blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-56634135795653372542013-01-05T09:26:00.000-09:002013-01-23T17:12:43.876-09:00Django Unchained: Tables Turned <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>“Kill white people and get paid for it? What’s not to like?”</i></blockquote>
I've just returned from a trip to Jamaica, a country that celebrates slave revolts through such "national heroes" as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sharpe" target="_blank">Sam Sharpe</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bogle" target="_blank">Paul Bogle</a>. When I saw Quentin Tarantino's new flick <i>Django Unchained</i> in Ocho Rios, just down the road from where Christopher Columbus landed and Marcus Garvey was born, the predominantly black audience was vocal in its support of Jamie Foxx's bloody vengeance during the film's final climax. Jamaica is a country that harbours no illusions when it comes to the blunt violence necessitated by the "shitstem" of slavery. It's also a reality that Tarantino has confronted throughout his career<span class="st" dir="ltr"><i></i></span>. <br />
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<i>"Slave driver the table is turned
<br />Catch a fire, you're gonna get burned" ~ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpR4oEtO_G0" target="_blank">The Wailers</a></i></blockquote>
Tarantino makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. He's a persistent nag that won't let anyone off the hook for past injustices, a constant reminder of the debt that continues to plague the culture. That he pulls it off with panache and biting humour is all the more reason to celebrate his work. Enter <i>Django Unchained</i>. <br />
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Along with including <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y60d05PhqXQ" target="_blank">Jim Croce</a> beside <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYtNnLrARc" target="_blank">Rick Ross</a> on the soundtrack, the singular achievement of <i>Django Unchained</i> is its recasting of slavery to allow its horror to be realized in a contemporary vernacular that speaks to the present. It's no surprise that most Americans find Spielberg's tidy reminiscences in <i>Lincoln</i> more palatable, but it's Tarantino's rude intrusions that they really need. <br />
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The film succeeds in mixing pop humour and Shakespearean drama with schmaltzy clichés like the spaghetti western to create a deliciously novel, riveting tale. Leo DiCaprio embodies a grotesque combination of Macbeth and Daffy Duck as he relishes the ghoulish task of smashing a skull with a hammer, while Samuel Jackson's fevered portrait of the "house boy" is enough to cheer for his untimely demise. <br />
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The film resonates with righteous justice and vengeance. Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Django has a tense earnestness that provides the still center for the rest of the action to spiral around. DiCaprio, as plantation owner Calvin Candie, is the warped loon swinging from the chandelier, while bounty hunter Christoph Waltz, the foreign eye offering the Old vs. New World contrast, is removed, literally un-American and ironically civil. In the end, the barbarity of the "New World" bleeds through and stains all, participants and witnesses alike.<br />
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-58581565763013848982012-12-28T19:05:00.000-09:002012-12-30T06:33:52.171-09:00Pure Irie: Pelican Bar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've been searching far and wide for a bamboo bar perched above tropical waters and I finally found it with the help of a trusty guide, Kanute. It lies just off the southern coast of Jamaica between Black River and Treasure Beach. Floyde, a local fisherman, dreamed up the idea about twelve years ago and then had to rebuild in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan wiped out the original. Thank Jah he did.<br />
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Pelican Bar stands on a shallow sandbank about half a kilometer from shore and gets its name from the great flocks of pelicans that hang out there. Kanute, an Abbott and Costello fan, ferried us in his skiff, "Why You Ask," from Billy's Bay in Treasure Beach about forty-five minutes away.
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Along the way we passed a pod of dolphins lazily breaking the surface like floppy tires under the blazing sun. Once at the bar we tucked in for a plate of delicious curried lobster and a couple of Red Stripe stubbies. Pure <i>irie</i> was achieved by all.<br />
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-89940811895252909102012-12-24T14:17:00.001-09:002012-12-24T14:17:11.226-09:00Merry Christmas!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7DVCmzspyayHKVhHlwmDXOQwZPUDqHcawuu56-sRd6qOjBk3vaeXNOAVlewLRBwO82YvkctK-ZOED8eiThRuU3jw1V6HTC1cC_DTQTT1jDhM-8V4AdYfnmfwynMWfZsgemEzIn6xUDC2/s1600/149700_10151146342200672_1017311430_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7DVCmzspyayHKVhHlwmDXOQwZPUDqHcawuu56-sRd6qOjBk3vaeXNOAVlewLRBwO82YvkctK-ZOED8eiThRuU3jw1V6HTC1cC_DTQTT1jDhM-8V4AdYfnmfwynMWfZsgemEzIn6xUDC2/s400/149700_10151146342200672_1017311430_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-9298822483804625542012-12-21T05:59:00.001-09:002012-12-21T13:28:59.245-09:00A Design To Kill: Guns <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3kRjtDURMDpFwWl8H5JdReBr-sgX0IwDjNmkaPA5PqUb0LV4zB6baLak82iJzDgXf8xJWLtTynC7LsTNR6TapJj6LwZczHb0kJsNjkSCvX4mcaQ7U7J-dvkulffkpR2ZpNL5j80GFFpZ/s1600/Guns%252Band%252BGod%252BGiven%252BRight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3kRjtDURMDpFwWl8H5JdReBr-sgX0IwDjNmkaPA5PqUb0LV4zB6baLak82iJzDgXf8xJWLtTynC7LsTNR6TapJj6LwZczHb0kJsNjkSCvX4mcaQ7U7J-dvkulffkpR2ZpNL5j80GFFpZ/s400/Guns%252Band%252BGod%252BGiven%252BRight.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Guns kill. Pencils write. No imbecile could use a gun to write a letter and if he tried to kill someone with a pencil, he might inflict a slow demise by lead poisoning. As any designer knows, the way something is made will determine its use. I can't eat breakfast with a pencil and a gun won't mow my lawn.
The gun is a tool specifically <i>designed</i> to kill. That this seems obvious is all the more painful in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, yet the old ruse, "people kill, not guns," continues to obfuscate. As George Orwell <a href="http://orwell.ru/library/articles/nose/english/e_nose" target="_blank">wrote</a>, <span class="st">"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2ohvyfpneStPmansyEKogrEo2bIfDOXNhP7bhi8B7cey_gd_6A1D-841FhpTcKFEAO6Ci7fa_DrjMWj2cINKrQ2aOj5vP2DEk394WsjhBDWoCnz3dePKcyS_CPlqHyiEEK6snvM81aEf/s1600/8132552193_62899fa256_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2ohvyfpneStPmansyEKogrEo2bIfDOXNhP7bhi8B7cey_gd_6A1D-841FhpTcKFEAO6Ci7fa_DrjMWj2cINKrQ2aOj5vP2DEk394WsjhBDWoCnz3dePKcyS_CPlqHyiEEK6snvM81aEf/s400/8132552193_62899fa256_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<i>("The Knotted Gun" - Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, United Nations, NYC)</i></blockquote>
Is the U.S. capable of opening its eyes wide enough to tackle gun violence? Or will the N.R.A. continue to hold it hostage with dreamtime fantasies? </div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-56240800233152370952012-12-16T20:32:00.002-09:002012-12-18T06:18:09.682-09:00Celebration Rock: 12 From 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguOGv_C2NFzifgZZb6KhZlvunibDjCoGTL9K5ClD4Sg78rlyyEzmYarhV52RamS6qtr3ChmB-y35gpdSU8-oqpgz08Wbk7P_ZNb2RB8r2tAtp5bCCa1ZPMyHQxqzRT-k3hN-N6emJGJEeS/s1600/il_fullxfull.185820606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguOGv_C2NFzifgZZb6KhZlvunibDjCoGTL9K5ClD4Sg78rlyyEzmYarhV52RamS6qtr3ChmB-y35gpdSU8-oqpgz08Wbk7P_ZNb2RB8r2tAtp5bCCa1ZPMyHQxqzRT-k3hN-N6emJGJEeS/s400/il_fullxfull.185820606.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This has been a great year for music. Yuko and I drove to <a href="http://therebelkind.blogspot.com/2012/04/coachella-day-1-week-2.html" target="_blank">Coachella</a> in April to experience Radiohead and Tupac's hologram; we saw Lucinda Williams at the Bowery Ballroom in New York and the Knights at the historic <a href="http://www.naumburgconcerts.org/artist.php?view=cal&year=2012&month=7&submit=GO&monthsel=2&yearsel=1&cid=9665" target="_blank">Naumburg Bandshell</a> in Central Park, then <a href="http://therebelkind.blogspot.com/2012/08/rebels-without-pause-public-enemy.html" target="+_blank">Public Enemy</a> in Brooklyn's Wingate Park...back to Edmonton for <a href="http://www.thetallestmanonearth.com/" target="_blank">The Tallest Man on Earth </a>with the phenomenal <a href="http://strandofoaks.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Strand of Oaks</a> supporting; then <a href="http://therebelkind.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-golden-voice-leonard-cohen-in-edmonton.html" target="_blank">Leonard Cohen</a>, <a href="http://therebelkind.blogspot.com/2012/11/high-life-macca-in-edmonton.html" target="_blank">Paul McCartney</a>....and we're ending the year on a high note in Jamaica following some crazy riddims. Here are 12 of my fave tunes from the year:
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1. Japandroids: "The House That Heaven Built"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TRVCtbfuDqw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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2. First Aid Kit:
"Emmylou"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PC57z-oDPLs" width="560"></iframe><br />
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3. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Only In My Dreams"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ta46M5rksBk" width="560"></iframe><br />
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4. Alabama Shakes: "Hold On"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iQXbf1i24C8" width="560"></iframe>
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5. Grizzly Bear: "Yet Again"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AuG9i5cwGW0" width="560"></iframe>
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<br />
6. A.C. Newman: "I'm Not Talking"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ezGy4aprOK0" width="420"></iframe>
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7. Kishi Bashi: "Manchester"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3BdPAItm_ks" width="560"></iframe>
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8. Rufus Wainwright: "Montauk"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cyBfja_ysQI" width="560"></iframe>
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9. Grimes: "Genesis"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1FH-q0I1fJY" width="560"></iframe>
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10. Low Cut Connie: "Boozophilia"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rBAAm7DQMWY" width="560"></iframe>
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11. Leonard Cohen: "Going Home"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VPNkUZCsgOo" width="420"></iframe>
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12: <span class="st"><i></i></span>Himanshu: "Womyn"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xauKgEX7PeQ" width="420"></iframe>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-36461431750691764422012-12-12T21:55:00.001-09:002012-12-12T21:55:57.319-09:00Beneath The Surface: A Telling Silence <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
Minus twenty degrees in creaky-cold Edmonton...another reason to look back to the West Coast. Here's one of mine from a few years ago that was published in <i>The Antigonish Review</i>:
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<blockquote>
<i><b>Beneath The Surface</b>
<br />
<br />
Shadows rub against the surface <br />
of the lake like ghosts at a window.
<br />
They move towards me on the
<br />
shore - tangles of orange, black, flashes
<br />
of red. A rubbery mouth yawns from <br />
the depths groping for a mayfly or the soft
<br />
belly of wet bread. A frog pops from the
<br />
mud; dragonflies veer left and right.
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The wind is silent in its telling.
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<br />
I close my eyes and feel
<br />
a breeze through my veins stretching
<br />
into a gale. I remember days blind
<br />
as a Vancouver weather
<br />
forecast, English Bay, slow
<br />
coffee - faces at a window.</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioj6cfokGj3gC2qRLv7R_-R4wMyXHCI9S6SreXkAJHMYVDOn_nRpXO_yEzbiWeQxPYI1i2xv0xVxrzF24nMLz9JvVxifxybxN2uV3ulVsVNExz1VW40p-8uppGbSeZyV2msBruz_KqXi-S/s1600/1275455115_eb7f0d858e_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioj6cfokGj3gC2qRLv7R_-R4wMyXHCI9S6SreXkAJHMYVDOn_nRpXO_yEzbiWeQxPYI1i2xv0xVxrzF24nMLz9JvVxifxybxN2uV3ulVsVNExz1VW40p-8uppGbSeZyV2msBruz_KqXi-S/s400/1275455115_eb7f0d858e_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
(<i>photo by <a href="http://sooperweb.com/edmonton/" target="_blank">Yewco</a></i>)</blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-28743260716512124832012-12-07T21:31:00.001-09:002012-12-08T07:46:37.021-09:00K-Tel: Tinsel And Trash <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is the time of year when I get nostalgic for the tinsel and trash of my childhood holidays. Christmas was when the <a href="http://www.ktel.com/index.php" target="_blank">K-Tel</a> schmaltz factory would infiltrate my cartoon afternoons with commercials hawking the "hits" from the likes of Mac Davis, Mouth & MacNeal and Donny Osmond...<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k7oVP-NWJxQ" width="420"></iframe>
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But for my seventh Yuletide I caught the buzz from another K-Tel classic compilation: <i>Superstars</i>! The year was 1974. I was in grade two at HT Thrift in South Surrey and I was ready to rock to the sounds of BTO, Paper Lace and...The Three Degrees. I begged my parents for the album, declared that I was going to be a "rockstar," and on that magical morning when I ripped open the tinsel trash *voila!* <i>Superstars</i> awaited. <br />
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It wasn't until years later, after my double album and my collection of 8-tracks had disappeared, that I learned K-Tel was a Canadian company founded by Philip Kives, a native of Saskatchewan. K-Tel got started in the late 60s with blockbusters like <i>Twenty-five Polka Greats</i>, which, according to their <a href="http://www.ktel.com/about.php" target="_blank">website</a>, "sold a million and a half in Canada and [<i>sic</i>] USA." <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5OuGNkMgSKo" width="420"></iframe>
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<br />
Those were much simpler times, indeed.
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-2676375901085535952012-12-02T21:22:00.001-09:002012-12-02T21:22:42.307-09:00Eden Robinson: Nuyem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7G3RiTdn13_5plk8vpoLZ1a9FgErgG5Rggsm6vWNYauEZ8tAc15O_siyoulwSEQ1VHtiSyiIPuny2EMZMPppvekua2S0xrp5wKdX0vyCOf4qnpbDUhyphenhyphenwv59j_HB2vIj8lfkf0XiQZCSk/s1600/180929253.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7G3RiTdn13_5plk8vpoLZ1a9FgErgG5Rggsm6vWNYauEZ8tAc15O_siyoulwSEQ1VHtiSyiIPuny2EMZMPppvekua2S0xrp5wKdX0vyCOf4qnpbDUhyphenhyphenwv59j_HB2vIj8lfkf0XiQZCSk/s400/180929253.JPG" width="233" /></a></div>
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The Haisla concept of <i>nuyem</i>, or the handing down of protocols, suggests a universal pursuit common to all centers of cultural production. In the case of <a href="http://www.mcclelland.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=25830&view=full_sptlght" target="_blank">Eden Robinson</a>, it refers to the customs of the Haisla from the Kitamaat territory of B.C.'s northern coast. Nearby Kitimat also happens to be the area where the Enbridge Pipeline Project
wants to set up shop. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNPjHZk13ONkHXQG2iYRWkmWE7XWU9WQf1vKpPW_bvOaA3ZzmRfo8yOvLxUvHrAtagKT1Uof-3l_juyL5Tj9I-bkVMJsZUUbTioYlQAsN6GPPIsHGAKvytDAGt-p5c-JSB0iY7oAoVxgf/s1600/05-2-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNPjHZk13ONkHXQG2iYRWkmWE7XWU9WQf1vKpPW_bvOaA3ZzmRfo8yOvLxUvHrAtagKT1Uof-3l_juyL5Tj9I-bkVMJsZUUbTioYlQAsN6GPPIsHGAKvytDAGt-p5c-JSB0iY7oAoVxgf/s400/05-2-map.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>
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Protocols can take on many different forms and lurk beneath the most innocuous of intentions. Enbridge and the Harper government suggest the pipeline will be a boon to the economy and transform Canada for the better. The so-called benefits will create a legacy that will sustain future generations. As for any local protocols, however, only the strong can survive. In <i>The Sasquatch at Home: Traditional Protocols and Modern Storytelling</i>, Robinson provides a response:
<br />
<blockquote>
“As clear and complete as we want this discussion of our <i>nuyem</i>
to be, it is important to recognize that the Old People realized that
some things cannot be shared. This was and remains a way of preserving
our culture. In times past, it was recognized that whatever the
missionaries knew about our culture, they tried to suppress. The less
they knew, the safer our traditions remained. Nowadays, we simply
realize that there are aspects of our traditional perspective and values
that non-Haislas would never be able to understand.”</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<i>(<a href="http://www.royhenryvickers.com/gift_shop/product/500" target="_blank">Roy Henry Vickers</a>)</i> </blockquote>
This strategy of exclusion, one limited to the Haisla community and those close to it, is seen as essential for their survival. Any "Canadian" protocols, such as those advocated by Harper or Enbridge, are simply neoliberal economic assumptions - other forms of cultural imperialism - masquerading as national virtues. For me, someone sympathetic to the Haisla <i>nuyem</i> but outside their community, I wonder how any strategy that concludes the "other" is beyond understanding is sustainable in the long run. As Robinson realizes after taking her mother on a trip to Graceland:<br />
<blockquote>
“You should not go to Graceland without an Elvis fan. It’s like Christmas without kids – you lose that sense of wonder...In each story was everything she valued and loved and wanted me to remember and carry with me. This is <i>nusa</i>." </blockquote>
This "nusa," this way of teaching, is a conversation I want to be a part of, yet I know that history stands in the way. Can it be undone?
</div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-87192365356539363332012-11-29T19:48:00.002-09:002012-11-30T14:52:27.031-09:00High Life: Macca In Edmonton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>"Let's go, let's go
<br />Down to Junior's Farm where I wanna lay low
<br />Low life, high life, oh let's go!" ~ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEil2e_bUvg" target="_blank">Junior's Farm</a></i></blockquote>
I knew we were in for a good night the moment Sir Paul hit the stage dressed in an iconic collarless suit with red-piping while clutching his 1963 Höfner bass in his left hand. No Beatle boots, alas - just a pair of sneakers. Times change.
<br />
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<br />
As the woman in front of us leapt to her feet waiving her neon-yellow sign exclaiming, "I've Waited 50 Years To Meet You!" the band kicked into "Magical Mystery Tour." The temperature may have been an icy -16<span class="st">°C</span> outside, but inside it was just right.<br />
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</div>
<br />
Highlights included jubilant romps through "All My Loving," "Band on the Run," "Back in the USSR," as well as tributes to Jimi Hendrix (a "Foxy Lady" jam), John Lennon ("A Day In The Life/Give Peace a Chance") and George Harrison ("Something" on ukelele).
<br />
<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>(Back in the USSR)</i></blockquote>
The first Beatles album I owned was <i>Let It Be</i> and to this day George's blistering solo on the title track still feels like pure euphoria and guitarist Rusty Anderson nailed it. The pyrotechnics on "Live and Let Die" were so intense we felt the heat in our seats and when the Edmonton Police Pipe Band joined Macca for "Mull of Kintyre" I didn't know if I should weep or wail.
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pQBfbgwgZog" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
For the first encore Paul invited a fan onstage to grant her her wish - an autograph on her torso for "the only tattoo her father would allow" before the band launched into "Day Tripper" and "Get Back."
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<br />
The evening finally finshed over three hours later with Paul, Rusty and Brian Ray trading riffs on the classic medley from <i>Abbey Road</i>: "Golden Slumbers/ Carry That Weight / The End":
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>"And in the end
<br />The love you take
<br />Is equal to the love you make"</i></blockquote>
<span class="userContent">Not too bad for a 70-year-old Beatle in suspenders. <br /> </span><br />
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<br />
It was McCartney's first time in Edmonton and the city rolled out the red carpet with Mayor Stephen Mandel making an <a href="http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/festivals_events/celebration-for-sir-paul-mccartney.aspx" target="_blank">official proclamation</a> in honour of his visit. The "On The Run" tour wraps up in Edmonton with its second show Thursday. <br />
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<blockquote>
<b>Set List</b>
<br />
<br />
Magical Mystery Tour
<br />
Junior's Farm
<br />
All My Loving
<br />
Jet
<br />
Got to Get You Into My Life
<br />
Sing The Changes
<br />
The Night Before
<br />
Let Me Roll It / Foxy Lady
<br />
Paperback Writer
<br />
The Long & Winding Road
<br />
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
<br />
My Valentine
<br />
Maybe I'm Amazed
<br />
I've Just Seen A Face
<br />
And I Love Her
<br />
Blackbird
<br />
Here Today (For John)
<br />
Dance Tonight
<br />
Mrs. Vandebilt
<br />
Eleanor Rigby
<br />
Something
(For George)<br />
Band on the Run<br />
O<span class="st">b-La-Di, Ob-La-Da<i></i></span>
<br />
Back in the USSR
<br />
I've Got A Feeling
<br />
A Day In The Life / Give Peace a Chance
<br />
Let It Be
<br />
Live & Let Die
<br />
Hey Jude
<br />
<br />
<b>Encore</b><br />
<br />
Lady Madonna
<br />
Day Tripper
(Paul signs a woman's torso for her future tattoo)
<br />
Get Back
<br />
<br />
<b>Encore 2</b>
<br />
<br />
Yesterday
<br />
Mull of Kintyre (w/ Edmonton Police Pipe Band)
<br />
Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End</blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-11097883185224083342012-11-23T20:02:00.001-09:002012-11-24T10:10:15.822-09:00W.B. Yeats: Lapis Lazuli <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>Now that my ladder's gone
<br />I must lie down where all ladders start
<br />In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart. ~ "The Circus Animals' Desertion"</i></blockquote>
What can be said for art in a world of market values? Why pursue the muse when she's courting Wall Street? Yeats would have called me hysterical for even contemplating such questions. There's no worth in the while; time or money buy nothing in the rag and bone shop of the heart. When all clamoring and climbing is cast aside, life finds itself in the act of creation. Only those gripped by the mundane panic of routine fail to notice the transfiguring power of art, the supreme vitality of song to heal the wounds of a blast.<br />
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<blockquote>
(<a href="http://nefdesfous.free.fr/peinture.htm" target="_blank"><i>Olivier De Sagazan, Transfiguration 8</i></a>)</blockquote>
Yeats wrote "Lapis Lazuli" as the Nazis were pursuing the black arithmetic of a "Final Solution" and Europe was courting destruction. In the crucible between depression and war, when everyone weighs the purpose of a poem against the force of a rocket launcher, Yeats answered the critics and uncovered a piece of eternity in a carved stone of lapis lazuli. <br />
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<b><br /> Lapis Lazuli (1938)</b>
<br />
<blockquote>
I HAVE heard that hysterical women say
<br />
They are sick of the palette and fiddle-bow.
<br />
Of poets that are always gay,
<br />
For everybody knows or else should know
<br />
That if nothing drastic is done
<br />
Aeroplane and Zeppelin will come out.
<br />
Pitch like King Billy bomb-balls in
<br />
Until the town lie beaten flat.<br />
<br />
<br />
All perform their tragic play,<br />
There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,<br />
That's Ophelia, that Cordelia;<br />
Yet they, should the last scene be there,<br />
The great stage curtain about to drop,<br />
If worthy their prominent part in the play,<br />
Do not break up their lines to weep.<br />
They know that Hamlet and Lear are gay;<br />
Gaiety transfiguring all that dread.<br />
All men have aimed at, found and lost;<br />
Black out; Heaven blazing into the head:<br />
Tragedy wrought to its uttermost.<br />
Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages,<br />
And all the drop-scenes drop at once<br />
Upon a hundred thousand stages,<br />
It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
On their own feet they came, or On shipboard,
<br />
Camel-back; horse-back, ass-back, mule-back,
<br />
Old civilisations put to the sword.
<br />
Then they and their wisdom went to rack:
<br />
No handiwork of Callimachus,
<br />
Who handled marble as if it were bronze,
<br />
Made draperies that seemed to rise
<br />
When sea-wind swept the corner, stands;
<br />
His long lamp-chimney shaped like the stem
<br />
Of a slender palm, stood but a day;<br />
All things fall and are built again,
<br />
And those that build them again are gay.
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2321jyCR-PVHcsDYtO5tqh__a02VdWZvNbua43TROrRLMwWk4YoJ07RquI_4Juj4s1yDHO49sBeAif3vBZ_425dP0qZUxx5Ee44ESfKy8ngwSmjF3TPDZJRcSja0NSFcOid9XsQwpRoJ/s1600/12322033_1_x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2321jyCR-PVHcsDYtO5tqh__a02VdWZvNbua43TROrRLMwWk4YoJ07RquI_4Juj4s1yDHO49sBeAif3vBZ_425dP0qZUxx5Ee44ESfKy8ngwSmjF3TPDZJRcSja0NSFcOid9XsQwpRoJ/s200/12322033_1_x.jpg" width="108" /></a><two a="a" behind="behind" br="br" chinamen="chinamen" them="them" third="third">Two Chinamen, behind them a third,<br />Are carved in lapis lazuli,
<br />
Over them flies a long-legged bird,
<br />
A symbol of longevity;
<br />
The third, doubtless a serving-man,
<br />
Carries a musical instrument.
<br />
</two><br />
Every discoloration of the stone,
<br />
Every accidental crack or dent,
<br />
Seems a water-course or an avalanche,
<br />
Or lofty slope where it still snows
<br />
Though doubtless plum or cherry-branch
<br />
Sweetens the little half-way house
<br />
Those Chinamen climb towards, and I<br />
Delight to imagine them seated there;<br />
There, on the mountain and the sky,
<br />
On all the tragic scene they stare.<br />
One asks for mournful melodies;<br />
Accomplished fingers begin to play.<br />
Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,<br />
Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay. </blockquote>
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-79858540831492443802012-11-19T18:37:00.002-09:002012-11-19T18:37:43.357-09:00A Golden Voice: Leonard Cohen In Edmonton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>"I was born like this, I had no choice</i> <i><br />I was born with the gift of a golden voice" ~ Tower of Song
</i></blockquote>
Leonard Cohen knows how to celebrate the sacred and profane - with elegance and style. Last night he gave it all, including three encores. I've never seen the man live before, but after his gorgeous 3.5 hour performance at Edmonton's Rexall Place I've renewed my membership in the "Broken Church of Leonard" with a profound sense of gratitude and fulfillment.
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Throughout the evening Leonard bowed, kneeled and often doffed his fedora after one of his bandmates executed yet another soulful solo. He thanked the crowd at least three times, expressed his gratitude for being back in his homeland (Canada!), and literally came skipping back to stage for the encores. Not bad for a 78-year-old "lazy bastard living in a suit."
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"Sisters of Mercy" was especially poignant as he explained it was written here "in a hotel next to the North Saskatchewan" in 1966. His band was smooth and supple, modulating gracefully with the different mood each song required, and the crowd, made up of mostly balding, greyheads - we were among the youngest - lapped it up.
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<b><br />First Set</b>
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Dance Me to the End of Love
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The Future
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Bird on the Wire
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Everybody Knows
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Who by Fire
Darkness
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Ain't No Cure for Love
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Amen
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Come Healing
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In My Secret Life
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A Thousand Kisses Deep
(Recitation)
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Anthem
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<b>Second Set</b>
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Tower of Song
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Suzanne
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Sisters of Mercy
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Waiting for the Miracle
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Anyhow
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Heart with No Companion
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Democracy
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If It Be Your Will
(performed by the Webb Sisters)
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Alexandra Leaving
(performed by Sharon Robinson)
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I'm Your Man
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Hallelujah
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Take This Waltz
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<b>Encore 1</b><br />
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So Long, Marianne
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First We Take Manhattan
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<b>Encore 2</b>
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Famous Blue Raincoat
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Going Home
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Closing Time
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<b>Encore 3</b>
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I Tried to Leave You
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Save the Last Dance for Me
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-64584528341806159082012-11-17T23:01:00.001-09:002012-11-21T18:40:52.770-09:00A Masquerade Of Universality: Rousseau<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>“I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.” ~ from Émile </i></blockquote>
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau makes it all sound so decent and <i>reasonable</i>. His advocacy for a social contract that emphasizes a "common good" based on mutually recognizing a "common self" in others sounds ideal. It's essentially the golden rule - love your neighbor. Yet there remains an insidious paradox at the bleeding heart of this version of liberalism. It leaves little or no room for differentiation, for disagreement or particularity. Any form of dissent - any attempt to recognize difference - is heresy. As Charles Taylor has <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Multiculturalism-Examining-Recognition-Charles-Taylor/dp/0691037795" target="_blank">written</a>, Rousseau conjures a particularism masquerading as a universal. <br />
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I encountered this inanity while living in Hong Kong. Despite the banal fact that foreigners differ in many ways from local Hong Kong citizens, any attempt at accommodation (ie: decrees or laws prohibiting racism) was seen as an unfair advantage bestowed upon a minority. If everyone is equal there can't be room for difference; racism doesn't really exist when Rousseau's quaint illusion of universality is to be maintained.<br />
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To be fair, "citizen" for Rousseau was fundamentally different than "human." A contract was a necessary evil needed to regulate citizens governed in a society of laws. As Hannah Arendt has pointed out, the problem with Rousseau is that society is made up of a plurality of humans and not a singular human collective. Rousseau made the mistake of suggesting that the plural can be substituted with the singular. The notion of "common good" is therefore nothing more than a particular viewpoint imposed on a plurality by a powerful elite. It's no wonder David Hume <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=poqbnNBhkDEC&pg=PA432&lpg=PA432&dq=jean+jacques+rousseau+%E2%80%9CHe+is+plainly+mad,+after+having+long+been+maddish&source=bl&ots=ChbPNFVOV5&sig=EuIJxtinDsQeWEmxtp4ER83-Jos&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3gupUP2fBMmzyQGtsIDgDQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=jean%20jacques%20rousseau%20%E2%80%9CHe%20is%20plainly%20mad%2C%20after%20having%20long%20been%20maddish&f=false" target="_blank">concluded</a> Rousseau was "plainly mad, after having long been maddish."
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-5495919249786698902012-11-12T19:26:00.001-09:002012-11-12T19:27:43.340-09:00Winter Or A River: Edmonton, Sometimes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<blockquote>
<i>Poetry arrived<br />
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where<br />
it came from, from winter or a river. ~ Pablo Neruda </i></blockquote>
These are days when breath rises from beneath the snow. Life has gone underground. The rabbit tracks in the front yard confirm the transition. I relish the morning chill curled in our sheets, while the sky unloads another blanket.<br />
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Adjusting for the weather, I take on my surroundings the way a snow leopard mirrors the elements. There's a bridge and my shoulder blades arch up; a path and my fingers curl into paws. When a yellowy light foams across the horizon, my bones crack into branches. <br />
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I can't promise more than what the day brings. Edmonton is like that, sometimes.<br />
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-28290995180648322912012-11-08T21:20:00.001-09:002012-11-08T21:33:05.966-09:00Defeat Trumps Victory: The Death Of A Con <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Since the election on Tuesday, I've been celebrating the defeat of Willard Mitt Romney. I can't bring myself to celebrate Obama's victory. Sure, I can appreciate the difference his reelection will make in the lives of millions with regards to basic healthcare, pay equity, marriage equality and choice. I can also feel smug he was reelected by a majority that resembled the diversity of my own country. But the overwhelming pleasure has been witnessing Romney, Rove, Adelson, Trump, Ailes, and all the other cretins of angry, whitefogeyAmerica get a swift kick in the teeth. That they're still reeling is an absolute delight.<br />
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Now <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57547239/adviser-romney-shellshocked-by-loss/?pageNum=1&tag=page" target="_blank">reports</a> are emerging that the Romney campaign was getting so high on its own supply that it began to believe its own con, even going so far as publishing a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/whoops-romneys-transition-website-spotted-blogger-1C6918824" target="_blank">"transition" website</a> (see above) on election day. Whoops. The bubble the Republicans have been inhabiting is a ghoulish wonderland, full of phantasms and hookah-smoking specters who vaporize any semblance of truth. <br />
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It's always a great day when the dark side succumbs. But it's especially sweet when a turd blossom like Karl Rove gets stomped despite his billion dollar pie.
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So for me, defeat trumps victory. I celebrate the revenge of the 47++ percent - Lord Vader and his cretins have been vanquished by the "help."<br />
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-44648310181811866562012-11-04T21:39:00.001-09:002012-11-05T06:30:30.074-09:00Obama: The Best Of The Worst<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Four years ago today, I was convinced that Barack Obama had to win the US presidency and was ecstatic when he did. As a Canadian, my main concerns were US foreign policy and international law. Obama had pledged to shut Guantanamo, seek dialogue with old adversaries, roll back the perpetual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and address climate change. His victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago was the culminating moment of a long struggle to reclaim the American project back from the dark forces represented by that two-headed hellpanda, McCain/Palin.
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New possibilities and new intensities were being revealed that evening. It was a celebration of Kant's "true enthusiasm...directed exclusively towards the <i>ideal</i>, particularly towards that which is purely moral." Out of Obama's victory emerged a preview of what was to come during the Arab Spring and Occupy movements and what Alain Badiou refers to in <i><a blank="blank" href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/1124-the-rebirth-of-history" target="_">The Rebirth of History</a></i> as the "<i>inexistent</i> of the world":
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"<i>The inexistent has risen</i>. That is why we refer to <i>uprising</i>: people were lying down, submissive; they are getting up, picking themselves up, rising up. This rising is the rising of existence itself: the poor have not become rich; people who were unarmed are not now armed, and so forth. Basically, nothing has changed. What has occurred is restitution of the existence of the inexistent, conditional upon what I call an <i>event</i>."</blockquote>
Such events open up new possibilities and contain elements of "prescriptive universalities" in which the entire world can recognize itself.
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Then change turned rancid. Obama took his mandate and elided it with what had come before. He not only reneged on the core pledges I care about, he forged a bipartisan normalization and legitimization on issues related to war and national security. The long list involves prosecuting whistle-blowers, criminalizing WikiLeaks, extending the Patriot Act and conducting an illegal war in Libya and very likely Yemen. Obama's victory also silenced the critics that had been vociferous under Bush-Cheney. As Matt Stoller argues in <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/the_progressive_case_against_obama/" target="_blank">"The Progressive Case Against Obama"</a>:
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"Under Obama, because there is now no one making the anti-torture argument, Americans have become more tolerant of torture, drones, war and authoritarianism in general. The case against Obama is that the people themselves will be better citizens under a Romney administration, distrusting him and placing constraints on his behavior the way they won’t on Obama. As a candidate, Obama promised a whole slew of civil liberties protections, lying the whole time. Obama has successfully organized the left part of the Democratic Party into a force that had rhetorically opposed war and civil liberties violations, but now cheerleads a weakened America too frightened to put Osama bin Laden on trial. We must fight this thuggish political culture Bush popularized, and Obama solidified in place." </blockquote>
If that's the best US democracy can deliver, then something has to change. The best of the worst still stinks.
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-10894878114150181802012-10-29T22:00:00.001-09:002012-10-31T18:43:36.764-09:00Ondaatje, Carson & Nietzsche: Ressentiment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>("Friedrich Nietzsche" by <a href="http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/edvard-munch/friedrich-nietzsche-1906" target="_blank">Edvard Munch</a>, 1906)</i></blockquote>
Both Michael Ondaatje’s <i>The Collected Works of Billy the Kid</i> and Anne Carson’s "The Glass Essay" push poetry into new articulations in order to liberate content from old conventions. It's possible to read these works as expressions of what Friedrich Nietzsche refers to <i>On the Genealogy of Morality</i> as “<i>ressentiment</i>.” This is essentially an active or kinetic reaction to a repressive paradigm, or in this case, expectations about what constitutes “poem” or “poetry.” As Nietzsche writes:
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<i>The beginning of the slaves’ revolt in morality occurs when ressentiment itself turns creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of those beings who, being denied the proper response of action, compensate for it only with imaginary revenge. </i></blockquote>
Ondaatje and Carson’s poems embody the aesthetics of a slave revolt, or a rejection of the status quo. But rather than turn inwards and dwell on “imaginary revenge,” they harness the imagination to create new alternatives. Both long poems can be read as an assault on the conventions of orthodox verse, a <i>ressentiment</i> against any suffocating paradigms that prevent new forms from emerging.
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Ondaatje does something truly remarkable – he allows the reader to inhabit Billy's skin and see the world through this wild outlaw’s eyes. The mental and physical worlds of William “Billy the Kid” Bonney pierce the consciousness like a knife into flesh. Here's Billy observing a lover in his room:
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<i>traces the thin bones on me
<br />turns toppling slow back to the pillow
<br />Bonney Bonney
<br /><br />I am very still
<br />I take in all the angles of the room </i></blockquote>
Throughout the poem Billy is imbued with an animal grace. Ondaatje has him sniffing around like a dog, acting on instinct, and seeing/hearing things others can't. These convergences blur the boundaries between species and raise questions about humanity. It's this decentering of the “human” and the emergence of the “animal” that provides the impetus for a <i>ressentiment</i> to reconfigure past orthodoxies. <br />
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Anne Carson’s "The Glass Essay" is an extremely personal work that lives up to its name. Like glass, Carson disappears and becomes transparent in the telling of the tale. Nothing is too intimate to be revealed. Here's the narrator describing her desperation for her lover’s affection:
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<i>…I found myself
<br /><br />thrusting my little burning red backside like a baboon
<br />at a man who no longer cherished me.</i></blockquote>
One of the compelling qualities of "The Glass Essay" is its bold approach to structure and its unique form. It embodies all the essential attributes of narrative prose fiction, non-fiction and poetry. While it looks like poetry and addresses a personal or subjective topic, it's called an “essay” and includes many of the qualities associated with one. It has a thesis, a methodology; it cites other critics and quotes directly from primary sources. The language resembles prose, but it's also infused with flashes of lyrical symbolism and metaphor. By blurring these genres together, Carson demonstrates the power and prolific malleability of poetry/prose. The poem is a prime example of <i>ressentiment</i> striving for new values to articulate an alternate vision of reality that old forms fail to provide. </div>
David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-88830889191809024962012-10-25T20:46:00.004-09:002012-10-26T09:45:31.374-09:00Baron Black of Crossharbour: Plaguy Proud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"He is so plaguy proud that the death-tokens of it</i> <i><br />Cry 'No recovery.'" ~ from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida</i>
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There's more to Canada than Nickelback and tar sands. With bloviating pomposities like former citizen Baron Black of Crossharbour (<i>né</i> Conrad Moffat Black) sprouting from our soil, Canada has so much more to offer.<br />
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His <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9763576.stm" target="_blank">interview</a> today with Stephen Sackur on the BBC's <i>Hardtalk</i> was truly a sight to behold. The Baron shared that he never once scrubbed a toilet while wallowing in the poky, only a shower stall. It was the closest I've come in a while to what Jon Stewart calls a "Schadenfreude-gasm."
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<blockquote>
<i>(Mugshot from 2007)</i></blockquote>
The Baron's Order of Canada, awarded in 1990, currently hangs in the balance. Based on the self-pitying audacity on display in the <i>Hardtalk</i> interview, Canada should get down on bended knee and award him another.
It was quite the performance. As the CBC <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2012/10/25/conrad-black-hearing-bid-order-canada-dismissed.html" target="_blank">reports</a> today:
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<i>Former media baron Conrad Black's request to Federal Court for a hearing before a panel examining whether he should be allowed to remain an officer of the Order of Canada has been rejected.
<br /><br />Black was found guilty by a U.S. jury in 2007 of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, but he was acquitted on nine other charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud, racketeering and tax fraud.
<br /><br />An Appeals Court later overturned two of his fraud convictions, but allowed a single fraud conviction and the obstruction of justice conviction to stand.</i></blockquote>
How the mighty have fallen. The <i>Hardtalk</i> episode isn't online yet, but this one with Jeremy Paxman from a few days ago in which he exclaims to the Baron's face, "You're a criminal!" will suffice.<br />
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895212192550634520.post-48958987911408283912012-10-20T21:44:00.002-09:002012-10-21T06:56:50.369-09:00Dreamin' Wild: The Emerson Brothers <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"'Baby' has been a staple on just about every playlist/mixtape I’ve assembled in the past 3 years. It is nothing short of sublime." ~ Ariel Pink</i></blockquote>
How could it fail? Start with a couple of rock and roll farmers from Fruitland, Washington, dress them up in Elvis leisure suits embroidered with their own names and - voila! - you'll set the world on fire. Well, sort of...or maybe not. Originally "released" in 1979, <i>Dreamin' Wild</i> by brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson didn't catch on until 2011 when collectors like <a href="http://www.yogarecords.com/" target="_blank">Yoga Records</a> founder Douglas McGowan started raving about it after discovering the LP in a Spokane antique shop. As he notes in the reissue from <a href="http://lightintheattic.net/releases/705-dreamin-wild" target="_blank">Light In the Attic</a> records, "I love the Emersons because the album looks so goofy that you almost feel sorry for it - and then the music is basically perfect."
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That last bit about the music may be true, but if you were coming of age during the late 70s and early 80s in suburban North America, the "goofy" part actually looks pretty cool from this vantage point. It's because that's what the hip kids in my town looked like and aspired to do - date Marcia Brady and star in our own episode of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_Are_People_Too" target="_blank">"Kids Are People Too"</a>.
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The magic of this homespun gem is that it embodies a motley panache of yacht rockers like Pablo Cruise and Chuck Mangione, along with MOR castaways the Hues Corporation ("Rock the Boat") and Boz Scaggs ("Lowdown"). It's not surprising that Ariel Pink has been performing "Baby" for a couple of years and even included a cover of the "sublime" tune on his latest, <i><a href="http://therebelkind.blogspot.ca/2012/08/ariel-pink-sinking-battleships.html" target="_blank">Mature Themes</a></i>.<br />
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Ghost melodies and rhythms haunt the album like vapor trails dripping from some gauzy horizon or rhizomes sprouting between the grooves. It all amounts to a hauntology that is both seductive and elusive, and above all, ever-present.
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David Kootnikoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12057923454805780408noreply@blogger.com0