blowing bubbles1.0

I made a compilation of African music from the 60s and 70s. Stretching from Mali to Ethiopia, more or less along that latitude. The styles vary from really funky to really bluesy. The cover is a photo by the excellent Malick Sidibe.

Etats de l’Afrique
Various Artists

1. Rail Band - Duga (Bambara Version)
2. Africa Show - Ritmo da Ilha
3. Le Rail Band feat. Mory Kante - Mariba Yassa
4. Orchestre Régional de Kayes - Tèrèna
5. Bokoor Band - Onukpa Shwarpo
6. Alemayehy Eshete & Hirut Beqele - Temeles
7. Bokoor Band - Maya Gari
8. Feqadu Amde-mesqel - Asmarina
9. Orchestre de la Payotte - Kadia Blues
10. Orchestre Régional de Kayes - Nanyuman
11. Rail Band - Fankante Dankele

Download and enjoy.

This weekend marked the E tu! music festival here in Wellington. It was free and set up by caring people to shed more light on the amendment to the Terrorism Suppression Act that is being worked on by the New Zealand government. Recently a few people got arrested and were almost tried under that act. Some of these people were docile local activists who got dragged out of their houses at gunpoint, because of alleged associations with a “terrorist” who was planning acts of violence against the people of New Zealand.

In short, a lot of hoo-haa over small change, but people got put in jail and their lives and reputations were severely damaged. The New Zealand press also jumped onto the whole affair like vultures. Big scary headlines, and even a New Zealand flag with an AK-47 machine gun on it in the NZ Herald. I could almost feel our mothers trembling, their children hiding under their skirts.

So just to make sure that people think before they fall into the same trap of “fear justifies all” as in other countries, a nice community gathering was set up. People talked, listened to music, and enjoyed their civil liberties just that little bit more than usual. It once more made clear that if we want to survive as a community, we have to act like one.

PS.: I’ve only just noticed - call me thick - that the E tu! logo has two German SS logos behind it. I must say, that’s a pretty low blow. If you ask me, you don’t fight ignorance with ignorance.

Battles played here over the weekend, and it was swell.

Boogie to this, the video clip for Tonto, featuring work by United Visual Artists:

If you would like to see/hear an entire concert, check out this recording (30-3-07, Empty Bottle, Chicago):

Following a hiatus - during which I fell unconditionally in love with a woman who captures my soul in every way, and who in the spirit of true love married me, and I her - I am now planning to start writing tidbits again. Even if it’s only to practise writing shorter, more concise sentences. Although I guess there shouldn’t be anything concise about expressing love, now should there?

Thanks, Jo and others, for poking me in the ribs every now and then. I am back on the case.

PS: Baby is kicking!

Any time to bring up uncle Bill’s “Last Words Of Hassan Sabbah” is generally a good one. So here we go. A poem for today’s world.

You can read a transcript here.
More spoken words by William Burroughs at UbuWeb.

Four weeks ago I remembered the glorious cosiness of my old friend Olivier Debaecker and the way he went about his life taking pictures with his Lomo LC-A camera. It made me order a Lomo online and ever since it arrived a week later I’ve been taking it wherever I go.

Here’s a random pick from my flickr page:

In short I love the little camera. It’s got great focus and nice vignetting that makes the images produced feel like if they were seen through human eyes. It’s also really covert when taking pictures.

What I’d like to do now is take more portrait photos. Which brings me to the slight problem that I need subjects for that. Hopefully more visual news about this in the near future.

Oli, if you ever read this, I hope you’re still taking pictures every now and then. I love you man.

In that order films about these three architects were shown at the Jasmax Film Festival ‘06 - Celebrating Architecture, here in Wellington.

Mies van der Rohe’s work left me feeling somewhat bitter at the sterility and detachedness he implanted into society. It would have been nice if not everyone had started imitating with varying degrees of success his totally functional and “humble” approach. Too much of this and you get, well, this:

It’s the stuff that makes Monsieur Hulot flip out. God is not only in the details.

The film about Rem Koolhaas’ meanderings through Lagos offered an amazing if somewhat short view on the almost uncontrolled and explosive evolution of the city over the course of 4 years (1998-2002). One notable anecdote was that some market vendors had built their own little prison for detaining local criminals. No need for police and interviewed people seemed quite happy about this. Opportunity moves in mysterious ways.

No real conclusions were illustrated by the filmmaker however, which left some people wondering if Koolhaas and his students had actually reached them or if they had all been lost/negated during the intensity of the trip. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Godspeed, Mr. Koolhaas.

Which leaves me Santiago Calatrava’s work to bombinate about. And oh boy words fail me. All I can say is that if you like the pictures you see on the right and you haven’t yet experienced his work, then go and check it out. I’ve had the fortune of visiting two of his creations, the Gare do Oriente train station in Lisbon and Trinity Bridge in Manchester. Great moments.

Cet homme a plusieurs cordes à son arc!

More info:

• Sculptures by Calatrava

Just a quick post to bring the new EP of The Black Keys to attention. On it the two man band from Ohio travel through the mouth of the Mississippi Delta and sing the blues of Junior Kimbrough. Here’s a track called “Meet Me In The City” to enjoy.

You might also enjoy this nice portrait by Bill Steber titled African-American Music from the Mississippi Hill Country: “They Say Drums was a-Calling”.

You can buy the mp3 album at emusic.com or from your local record farmer.

Yes, this post is all about sandwiches. Beautiful sandwiches of different plumage that have been carefully crafted to ensure a supreme culinary experience. These sandwiches are for rods and cones.

Yesterday I ventured out with my trusty Bronica ETRsi and captured a few bits of Wellington on black and white film. It had been 6 months since I last took street photos and it was an invigorating experience. After taking the photos I decided to manually develop the film which was equally rewarding. It had been 6 years since I’d last done that. The feeling you get when you open the developing tank and you see that there’s something on the film is one of utter joy.

Here’s a selection of the 15 photos I took:

I still have to get the hang of it a little. I had pushed the film from 400 to 800 ISO to get more grain and I think that confused me so I didn’t develop quite long enough.
Only one way to get better: more practise!