Thursday, October 15, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
"Fighting on the Lie"
HBO’s Mutiny Against the Police Drama
On June 2nd, 2002 the Home Box Office network premiered their groundbreaking and in some ways revolutionary series, The Wire. The program was of the type that would easily defy passing definition as it transcended the genre of police and crime drama; the show itself was, after all, about much more. Over time, The Wire remained a little known, highly appreciated and yet unrecognized chronicle of the plight of an entire city, it presented Baltimore through the eyes of an amazingly diverse group of characters and stories. Though the show itself went without being honored with its due, during its run, it truly became a certain kind of cultural phenomenon among a few, as the work to which people looked when it came to depicting reality, complexity and hardship entering the realm of overdetermination as masterpiece. The Wire, was not only a mirror, in the unflinching examination of a city in the throes of rapid self destruction, but also a reaction to the lack of reality and sociopolitical accountability on network television and the news media in general. The Wire exists specifically to deconstruct the somewhat irresponsible myths popularized as reality by most television entertainment.
Over the course of its five seasons, The Wire strove to depict the human condition in its truest urban form, therefore maximizing the potential of television as the “People’s machine… a populist apparatus [which, at its best] subverts patriarchy, capitalism, and other forms of oppression.” (Miller and Johnson 265) Treating its characters as family members and embracing the deep fundamental flaws in good people and the warmth and creativity among the bad, all the while refusing to let any character be defined by either adjective. The Wire begins, following a group of police officers and the criminal organization that they are pursuing, it continues on, making a statement about its postmodern intentions with each season, by adding equally complicated worlds and expanding its universe to encompass the lives of heroin addicts, judges, shipping union workers, politicians, teachers, students, social workers and finally newspaper reporters. What may be the true antagonistic focus of the show are the particular bureaucracies that restrict each and every character in every world that The Wire examines, even down to the criminal enterprises. In short, The Wire, is a show about adults from a perspective that is intensely professional and adult in its detail and focuses, being completely within the perspective of the breathing environment that is Baltimore.
Television, as a medium is certainly no stranger to the genre of police drama. The genre has continually been defined and redefined with the onset of several so-called revolutionary series. A prime example of this re-designation is the CBS program CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which premiered in 2000 and has since remained atop the critical and popular pedestals as one of the best shows on television. The years before The Wire premiered, network television audiences were captivated by “gritty” programming such as NYPD: Blue, and CSI, which depicted a specific amount of realism in their respective worlds, deciding cases in single episodes and maintaining a fairly simple morality among their characters. It was precisely this “neatness”, perhaps forced upon these series by the parameters of network television that creator David Simon hoped to work against, he writes about The Wire,
Suddenly, the police bureaucracy is amoral, dysfunctional and criminality in the form of drug culture is just as suddenly a bureaucracy. Scene by scene, viewers find their carefully formed presumptions about cops and robbers undercut by alternative realities. Real police work endangers people who attempt it. Things that work in network cop shows fall flat in this alternative world. Police work is at times marginal or incompetent. (Simon 36)
The market of dramatic entertainment is built on the idea that those who are chosen to be followed in these series’ are individuals who are quite clearly the best at the jobs that they do, especially in the police force. With The Wire, the audience is faced with a group of officers at its center who are foolish, brash and very admittedly, the individuals who were deemed undesirable to their own divisions.
Criminals are neither stupid nor cartoonish, and neither are they all sociopathic. And the idea-as yet unspoken on American TV-that no one authority has any reason to care about what happens in the American ghetto as long as it stays within the ghetto… (Simon 36)
David Simon, the so called “Angriest Man In Television” (Bowden) is a retired newsman from the ranks of The Baltimore Sun. Simon, in an interview for The Atlantic was quick in focusing his anger, and probably his inspiration toward the “editors and corporate owners of [The Baltimore Sun who had, in his view] spent the past two decades eviscerating a great American Newspaper.” (Bowden).
Television’s mad creation also owes a great deal to David Simon’s writing partner, Ed Burns. Burns, was a police detective for twenty years and soon after his retirement, he wrote a book with David Simon and subsequently went into teaching at an inner city school. In an interview given with HBO, Burns compares his experiences, teaching in the Baltimore Public School district to his preparation for Vietnam. His observations concerning the fact that the vast majority of the pre-teens in the school had not only been criminally neglected by the school system, to the point that they were, for the most part unable to read anywhere close to their age level; but they had also by en-large been emotionally scarred by their experiences at home or in the streets. “Lots had been stabbed. All of them had been abused, one way or the other. So when you put them in a classroom with a curriculum that doesn't compute with their world, everybody has a way of surviving, right?” (Burns) In this, the realization of anger that speaks to the restriction of power at the hands of knowledge, the shameful economic drawbacks of urban environments are mentioned, undeniable in their purpose.
It is precisely the anger and confusion that both men display that lends The Wire its realistic, cynical and responsibly objective stance. The Wire is a supremely logical step from Simon & Burns’ book, turned Emmy Award winning HBO miniseries, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, which chronicles the tribulations of a family of drug addicts on the streets of Baltimore. During the run of The Wire, Burns and Simon would collaborate with the accomplished likes of writers such as David Mills, Richard Price (Clockers) & Denis Lehane (Mystic River); in addition to attracting directors like Ernest Dickerson and Clark Johnson.
Instantly as the series begins, even in the first conversation of the pilot, the audience is faced with an idea, that what follows is to be witnessed and considered but will not be simplified, digested or explained at length. The conversation is between a police detective and a witness in the murder of a man known as “Snot Boogie”. What is demonstrated is a very certain brand of logic that defies logic. This logic is not, however without its own meaning and truth, it is simply that it has remained unseen or perhaps unexamined on television or cinema. It then becomes the audience’s plight to move forward with the series in hopes if grasping the several kinds of logic and natures at work, herein lies much of the genius of The Wire.
For the spectator, the series exists as a kind of assault of representation of a culture of destruction, manifested in every facet of the community, even those who strive only to improve it. It can be said that it is at times difficult to understand, precisely because of its sense of authenticity which is quickly achieved by the fact that it refuses to decipher its codes; from the vernacular of the street, to the show’s lack of explanation of the bureaucratic events unfolding, such as the labyrinthine lengths that officers must navigate in order to acquire the necessary means to do their work.
In this spirit of hardship and reality, The Wire manages to establish itself completely against the trends of television police drama. Post CSI, in an effort to breed success, nearly every police drama was either based in forensic science (CSI Miami, Crossing Jordan, NCIS, Cold Case) or on an obscure crime-solving technique involving recreations, unique skills and precise tests (Numbers, The Mentalist). Liberated by the so-called “Digital Revolution” television was able to augment and visually sensationalize the world of criminal forensic science. Filmmakers of all kinds found that, “instead of building a miniature spaceship, practitioners could create one on the computer and it could then be [animated] on the computer and finally composited on the computer.” (Berger and Hollander 587) It seemed to be almost a protest when two detectives, McNulty & Moreland (Dominic West & Wendell Peirce) play out an entire scene, examining an old murder, using nothing more technologically advanced than a pen and a marker.
What is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the show is that every character in the show is intelligent enough to recognize the problems and the causes of Baltimore’s social decline, but even those in the positions of most influence and power are utterly unable to do anything about those problems because of red tape, monetary limitations or urban politics. It is then perhaps most fitting that the new subject of the final season of the show is the news media which would ideally be reporting and commenting on the troubling phenomena at the center of the city’s problems. It is a testament to the minds at work that it is made especially apparent that each world is very firmly connected to each of the others which adds an epic scope to the spectacle that is difficult to find even in film.
True to form, however, the fifth estate is not the original or sole sources of insight. The Wire tends to comment on its worlds subversively; entire concepts and ideas, frustrations held by all can be expressed by people who are on the outside of each respective world. In a way, it therefore refuses to establish an ideology, thus allowing the audience a simplistic morality. Capturing the essence of the continuum, a character by the name of Slim Charles once said, “It’s what war is, you know? Once you’re in it, you’re in it. If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie!” (Glover) Charles’ quote is very specific to his particular situation; however it can also be compared and applied to nearly every character that graces the vast stage of The Wire. A particular example of this concept occurs in the third season, in which the mayor, desperate to improve the numbers in terms of murders committed, issues an order to produce those numbers by any means necessary. In doing so, the police Majors are forced to massage the numbers, or in the case of one of the city’s worst districts, the Major strikes an agreement with the drug dealers, creating a place that becomes known as “Hamsterdam”. “Hamsterdam”, is a section of a neighborhood in which the police agree to allow the sale of illegal drugs in exchange for the promise that no violence will occur among the murderous organizations that plague Baltimore’s streets. Though the legality of the area is of course non-existent, it’s very concept is one that raises countless controversial problems concerning ethics, none of which are necessarily simple enough to simply dismiss the specific benefits of the action.
It is not in spite of the fact that things are messy and criminally handled, but perhaps because of this fact that the soldiers put forth by each group must charge ahead. All of the characters have found themselves in the middle of something, at times they cannot understand the beginnings in terms of the necessity for things as they are, what is known is the immediate circumstance and the means that must be utilized for their survival. This understanding, or perhaps lack thereof, makes The Wire dirty, but that honesty can yield the kind of truth that is often missing, “what the public wants, unfortunately is the blonde who gets lost in Aruba, rather than the daily grind of agony in the slums of the city.” (Klien)
That is not to say that it is any secret to even the masses that the information given by most news organizations is digested and sensationalized at best, at worst it is generally trivial and narrow in focus, completely ignoring the ugliness that many people of affluence are able to ignore. The information presented to those who can avoid being confronted with the grime clinging to the masses seems to be more about the forays of “decent people” into war with that filth. For instance, a moment indicative of the opinion held by The Wire about the brass of the Baltimore police, in which a commanding officer, Lt. Daniels orders his unit to stage a large scale raid on a number of possible stash houses. The commanding officer makes this order because of pressure exerted upon him to produce visible results in the war on drugs, yet knowingly almost ensuring that the true progress of the case would be hindered because the Barksdale organization would be made aware of the police interest.
The series offered an extremely progressive look into life, especially in its representations of characters that would otherwise be "token" in nature, marginalized or made into undue spectacles. In addition to employing perhaps the largest African American cast onscreen in television history (somewhere around 60-70%), the series offers large roles to its addicts, on the edges of every society and it pays particular credence without special treatment to its characters of another kind, namely, “queers”.
A perfect example of this is a character named Omar, played by Michael K. Williams. Omar appears in the universe of The Wire in the third episode of the first season, known as a criminal who robs drug-dealers in a bullet proof vest, a trench coat and from behind a sawed-off shotgun. Instantly distinctive, Omar has a long defined scar that crosses his face. Though details of Omar’s personal life were never shielded from audiences, actor Andre Royo, who portrays “Bubbles”, revealed that after the third episode aired, he was approached by a number of men, “hard cats” identifying themselves with Omar’s profession and style. It wasn’t until subsequent episodes that many of these individuals would renounce their personal similarities with the character upon the discovery of his homosexuality. (Royo) According to Williams, it was made clear to him that Omar was a character who was intended to be limited to the first season; however, the writers found themselves bringing the character back to play substantial roles in each of The Wire’s five seasons. (Williams) This is a clear statement because the series refuses the marks of conventionality, seemingly at every turn by working completely against whatever stereotypes may arise for each character.
Another of these clear protests is one of the show’s most beloved characters, a man known as Stringer Bell, played by Idris Elba. Stringer is the second in command of the Barksdale crime organization. At first glance, he seems simply to be a quiet observer, unwilling to trouble himself with the bloody business of heroine beyond its financial element. As the show continues, the audience discovers that he is in fact somewhat of a genius, taking business classes in his free time and applying the techniques of his study to legitimize the money of the enterprise. Bell’s efforts are set toward the aims of betraying his gruff nature. His partner, Avon Barksdale, on the other hand, aims specifically to stay within the parameters of his nature, sealing himself within the tragedy of the world which he could have potentially escaped at the hands of Stringer Bell. Though Bell is a mastermind, he is not stereotypically omnipotent he is more of a man without a country. (Harris) Though his intellect and temperament gains him entry into new strata of legality, in the third season, he finds himself the victim of a white collar scam, which ultimately leads to his demise.
The last element of the “perfect storm” of contributions to the shows creation is, of course the existence of the Home Box Office network (HBO). Being that the station is a cable network, it is effectively un-restricted in comparison to network television. Because it does not suffer from the content restrictions of an NBC or CBS, its shows are free to explore the darkness and vulgarity of their worlds. It is this element that allowed The Wire to be so truthful. In terms of its structure, it allowed the show to progress at a much slower pace than would be tolerated on a non-cable station but was imperative in order to establish the amount of detail that gives The Wire its emotional power and bite.
Research within the television industry suggests that most viewers typically only [see] around 1/3 of the episodes of a favored series, and that event ardent fans could not be guaranteed to see more than 1/2 of a series during its first run. Thus producers realized they could not assume that a viewer had seen previous episodes or were watching a series in sequential order, leading to a mode of storytelling favoring self-contained episodes and redundant exposition. (Mittell)
Because of HBO a narrowcast media station, the writers of the show were therefore able to assume that the episodes of the series would be shown several times and that the series would be released on DVD and VHS so that even the most uncommitted viewers would have multiple opportunities to view and fully appreciate the details at work. In fact, since the creation of HBO On Demand viewing, The Wire had, in 2007 been one of the top performing series ever to be displayed in that particular format. (Kaufman 20)
For the most part, the critical reception of The Wire has been uniformly favorable, but not only has the show been praised, it has been rested on a pantheon unseen by almost any work; all without receiving television’s top prize, the coveted Emmy Award. Ken Tucker, of Entertainment Weekly wrote, after viewing part of the third season of the show ““Game done changed,'' says a character early in the third season of The Wire. ''Game the same,'' comes the reply. ''Just got more fierce.''” Tucker continued, “They're talking about running drugs, eluding cops, and staking out gang territory in inner-city Baltimore. But these words also apply to the series itself, an on-going thriller packed with street-smart socioeconomic theories; it's TV's richest, most satisfying experience.” (Tucker)
The unabashed praise, however, truly reigned in with the arrival of the fourth season of the show, in which the focus is shifted to include four inner-city eighth graders who are caught in a system that does not serve nor understand them. With this addition, though The Wire made a clear statement as to its aspirations as an anthropological text (Russell, Duffy and Leonard) with its second season, the show truly solidifies its own relevance, if not in the lexicon, in annuls of television history.
When television history is written, little else will rival "The Wire," a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few. Layering each season upon the previous ones, creator David Simon conveys the decaying infrastructure of his hometown Baltimore in searing and sobering fashion -- constructing a show that's surely as impenetrable to the uninitiated as it is intoxicating to the faithful. In its fourth year, the program adds the school system to cops, drugs, unions, the ailing middle class, and big-city politics. Prepare to be depressed and dazzled. (Lowry)
Interestingly, the largest complaint with the show is how densely it packs its story, at times moving at a deliberately slow pace and at times remaining somewhat exclusionary in terms of the edification of the viewer. It cannot, however, be said that those who watch The Wire are unwilling to engage the program, even within material that they do not understand.
Among the much relevance brought through the text of the show itself, there have been several instances in which people have used the show in order to educate or begin discussion on the political, legal, and socioeconomic matters of the day. For example, with the coming of The Wire’s final season, New York Times columnist Sudhir Venkatesh began a series, titled “What do Real Thugs Think of The Wire?” in which he enlisted the help of several individuals who are identified as “gangland acquaintances.” Over the course of the columns, Venkatesh conducts a group interview as they view episodes of The Wire, revealing countless accuracies and nuances taken for granted by the average viewer, revealing the show to be authentic, and the men to be savvy and much more informed than the normal person might think (somewhat reflecting gangland counterparts on screen).
Perhaps the most remarkable development to come from the run of The Wire is a college course, at Middlebury College in Vermont. The course is entitled “Urban American & Serial Television: Watching The Wire” the goals of which are to examine The Wire in the context of television and to use the show as the groundwork to examine social problems in urban America such as the economy, urban education, urban journalism, urban politics, American racial politics, and the drug war. (Mittell, Watching The Wire: Course Info)
Though The Wire may never have reached its rightful, award winning pantheon as a crowning achievement in television during its run, to those who chose to follow it, it has served as an irrevocable triumph. The show, in its five, short seasons, has not only managed to captivate the hearts of its followers, but it has dared to take hold of their minds as well, creating a world that is every bit as complicated, muddled, confusing, hilarious, heartwarming, cold, calculating, untrustworthy and poetic as any world, on or off screen. All that remains is for those on the outside, to “Tap In.”
Works Cited
Berger, Lee and Richard Hollander. "The Digital Revolution." (n.d.): 587.
Bowden, Mark. "The Angriest Man In Television." The Atlantic January 2008.
Burns, Ed. A Teacher in Baltimore HBO. 3 November 2006.
Kaufman, Debra. "The Wire: Too Black to Be A Hit." Television Week (2007): 20.
Lowry, Brian. Variety.com. 7 September 2006. 5 May 2009
Miller, Toby and Mariana Johnson. "Gilda: Textual Analysis, Political Economy, and Ethnography." The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies. n.d.
Mittell, Jason. "Watching The Wire." 3rd February 2009. Middlebury College. 28th April 2009
—. "Watching The Wire: Course Info." 10 October 2008. Middlebury College. 5 May 2009
Russell, Ernest Roberts, et al. "Watching The Wire." 4 March 2009. Middlebury College. 4 May 2009
Simon, David. "Letter to HBO." Alvarez, Rafael. The Wire: Truth Be Told. New York: Pocket Books, 2004. 36.
The Wire. Prods. David Simon and Ed Burns. 2002.
The Wire. Perf. Anwan Glover. 2004.
The Wire. Perf. Wood Harris. 2004.
The Wire Odyssey. Perf. Andre Royo. 2007.
The Wire Odyssey. Perf. Michael K. Williams. 2007.
The Wire: The Last Word. Perf. Joe Klien. 2008.
Tucker, Ken. "The Wire." Entertainment Weekly 17 September 2004.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Call for Papers: Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture
The editorial staff of Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop
Culture seeks high quality manuscripts, literature, poetry, book reviews
and artwork for a general topic issue to be published in July 2010. We
invite innovative submissions that consider hip-hop music and culture
from a wide range of critical perspectives. In-depth studies of
individual artists and texts are welcome. In particular, works from the
fields of ethnomusicology, gender studies, interdisciplinary studies,
cultural studies, technology and sociology are encouraged. We also
accept research on areas that influence our work as academics, including
hip-hop pedagogy and curriculum, as well as the place of hip-hop studies
in the university. Additionally, Words. Beats. Life welcomes
provocative essays that will stimulate thought on the current and future
role of hip-hop culture and music in the 21st century.
Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture is a
peer-reviewed, hybrid periodical of art and hip-hop studies published by
the 501(c)(3) non-profit, Words Beats & Life, Inc. The Journal is
committed to nurturing and showcasing the creative talents and expertise
of the field in a layout that is uniquely hip-hop inspired. We publish
issues twice a year with the intention of serving as a platform where
the work of scholars and artists can appear in dialogue with one
another. Since 2002, Words. Beats. Life has devoted its pages to both
emerging and established intellectuals and artists. As the premier
resource for hip-hop theory and practice, we hope that the scholarship
we publish will serve as a resource for the field of hip-hop studies and
the work of hip-hop non-profits, helping each to elevate to the next
phase of their respective growth in America and around the globe.
Words. Beats. Life adheres to APA style. The maximum length for articles
is 5,000 words. Complete guidelines for contributors can be found in
each issue of the journal as well as on our Web site at
http://wblinc.org/Journal_callforsub.htm.
Please send any questions and submissions to submissions@wblinc.org.
Deadline: January 4, 2010
Graham Eng-Wilmot
Editor-in-Chief
Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture
1525 Newton St. NW Washington, D.C. 20010
T 202-667-1192 | E graham@wblinc.org
http://wblinc.org/Journal.htm
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Constructing the Blueprint for Black Male Success by Demetrius Walker
Prior to September 12th 2009, had someone told me the blueprint for Black male success would arise from the state of Iowa I would have labeled them mentally deficient. Invited to share my expertise on the topic “The New Grinding: Expanding Your Consciousness as Your Life’s Work,” I was nonetheless excited to impart the merits of entrepreneurship to a group that seldom receives this message. It mattered not that this Fall retreat, titled “What’s Stopping Us Now?”, was being hosted for an assemblage of less than 50 students. I was eager to participate in The Hubbard Group’s revolutionary approach to fostering a sense of Black collegiate community.
Read the rest of the story.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Dat Mixtape Project for New Media Literacy
In “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” Henry Jenkins, Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robinson, and Margaret Weigel report on new media literacy and participatory culture in the digital age. New media literacy is defined as “cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape.” Jenkins et al’ provide a list of eleven new media skills including appropriation and distributed cognition; both of which are central to this project. I use appropriation and distributed cognition to evaluate the generative potential of www.datpiff.com, an online free mixtape website. I have two guiding questions for this analysis. First, how do mixtapes utilize appropriation at the juncture of history, memory, and time? Second, how can datpiff be used to promote distributive cognition in the digital age? To answer these questions I first explain musical sampling in hip hop and the role it plays in mixtape creation. I then provide numerous mixtapes from datpiff.com on my blog in order to make a case for their importance to distributive cognition. By placing them on my blog, I am providing a public forum for people to openly engage and discuss their interpretations of what is being done on these mixtapes. It is similar to the comment function of datpiff, however my comment section reflects what aspects of these mixtapes can help class exercises.
Throughout this project I include various multimedia clips to illustrate my method, and I offer no definitive conclusion. Rather, I present the reader/listener with a productive space for his/her own mediation in the continuation of this endeavor.
Datpiff is an online free mixtape download community dedicated to promoting hip hop music. The name, datpiff, meaning “that superior” is meant to position the website as THE mixtape authority. Generally, datpiff is aimed at the free circulation/distribution and evaluation of mixtapes. Guests may browse the entire site, but uploading and downloading privileges are reserved for registered users. Uploaded mixtapes are created by professional deejays (djs) and producers as well as amateurs. The mixtape upload feature helps level the professional playing field for up-and-coming djs and producers because their work is not separated from the more experienced artists. Also, underground, or independent, producers can showcase instrumental beats while artists provide users with remixed and unreleased lyrical verses. I am analyzing datpiff because the free content, in conjunction with sampling websites and free audio software, provide free educational tools for classrooms in the digital age. There is no “standard” mixtape on datpiff, thus my analysis is not meant to be exhaustive. Rather I use datpiff to present an “opening” of what the website offers for classroom media literacy.
Dat business
When the datpiff homepage loads, the advertisement at the top of the page offers a bit of irony. The ad is for www.Lawyers.com. This specific ad highlight’s divorce (although it seems plausible to place copyright at the center of the ad). Other advertisements on the homepage are powered by videoegg which is a rich media ad company . Red Robin family restaurant and Superpages use the same ad space at different times. Whenever the user holds the mouse over the ad for three seconds a multimedia commercial loads. Refreshing the page, however, exposes the user to a new set of ads. A Suntrust ad replaces the Lawyers.com ad and videoegg is replaced with an interactive ad where the user can make Susan Boyle slap herself by clicking her hand as she cries.
The left side of the homepage is roughly divided into five sections which provide users with a list of featured mixtapes and videos. The first section features three mixtapes that may not gain the exposure of mainstream rappers and djs. These mixtapes feature more local/underground rappers. The second section promotes the eight most popular mixtapes of the last 24 hours. The next section highlights the top eight videos for that day. The fourth section focuses on the top eight mixtapes being steamed live and reloads every five minutes. The final section highlights the week’s top videos. Users can also vote on mixtapes with a 1-5 star rating system.
Dat Techne
As an interactive endeavor, this project seeks to engage readers/listeners and provide spaces for their input. The aim of this section is to define terms and ideas that are key to making this project generative: remix, blend/mash-up, sample, and flow.
A remix is an altered version of a song. An authorized remix, in the popular music genre, includes added lyrical verses from featured guest artists, but it can also contain a reconstructed instrumental track . Also, popular music remixes tend to be very similar to the original song. A blend, or mash-up, is an unauthorized remix that has been created from a variety of sound resources in a collage-like fashion to invent a new product . Sampling refers to “the act of taking a portion…of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song.” Sampling makes blends/mash-ups possible:
“Unpack the meanings, unstuff the fragments and the logic remains the same: the part speaks for the whole, the whole is an extension of the part. It’s a holographic thing” DJ Spooky
Adam Haupt argues that “hip-hop artists make informed artistic and political choices when using samples during the construction of new music texts.” Haupt politicizes hip hop sampling practices too quickly, for not all sampling choices are political. According to 9th Wonder, a major hip hop producer, Haupt’s claim is not always true: click here for Soul Culture Video
Haupt generalizes the complexity of the sampling practice by making it SO political. In fact, it is the contentious relationship between samples and historical configurations of identity that make samples important, and not all songs containing samples have such political complexity.
Samples typically make up the core of the song, yet they augment, diminish, loop, or fragment aspects of the original composition so that something new might be created. Some samples, though, change the pitch and/or tempo of the original song and change the lyrics. This is the case with “My Way Home” by Kanye West featuring common. In “My Way Home” Gil Scott-Heron’s song “Home is Where the Hatred Is” is the core of the composition (audio clip).
Kanye West and Common - "My Way Home" (instrumental)
Gil Scott-Heron - "Home is Where the Hatred Is"
The Kanye West track is a slowed down version of Gil Scott-Heron's song. A more complex example is "Fragments" by Wu Tang featuring Del Ta Funkee Homosapien samples Marvin Gaye's "Flying High"
Wu Tang and Del The Funkee Homosapien "Fragments"
Marvin Gaye "Flying High"
A major term in this datpiff techne is flow.
“Flow. Machines that describe other machines, texts that absorb other texts, bodies that absorb other bodies. It’s a carnivorous situation where any sound can be you, and where any word you say is already known. Flow, counter-flow. The idiot as processing device, slave to the moment, outside of time because for him there is only the moment of thought. No past, no present, no future” DJ Spooky
“Rembrandt, Rouke, I am art with the flow…the way I put it together tear em’ apart wit the flow” Jay-Z
“There’s something bout the way the Nina Simone piano flow. It's like a Michaelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou and gave it to a sick poet for the antidote. If music gets you choked up, this is the tree and the rope" Kanye West Get By (remix)
Flow, or the term formally known as appropriation. To Flow is to play with language and time. In terms of hip hop and sampling, flow results in a composition of linear fragments and looped recordings which come together on a sonic terrain. Flow diminishes historical chronology and memory because it respects neither. In fact, flow operates on two levels. On one hand, flow is about the creative moment which seeks not to bring forth some nostalgic iteration, but to relish the potential of NOW. When DJ Spooky writes that flow has “no past, no present, no future” the present is assumed to be an arbitrary descriptor of one’s embodied position. On the other hand, flow is FIXED in time because it provides continuity in rap music. With flow, the arrangement exists in a temporal chamber of fluidity and continuity. Without the temporal rhythmic balance, or the beat, flow fails. Flow’s chronological discontinuity can create a rhetorical moment. It can also “open” a space for new ideas which I explore below. One debate that is continually rehashed in American culture is the way in which the Civil Rights Movement leaders are represented in contemporary black popular culture, especially in hip hop. In 1999, the rap duo Outkast was sued by the managers of Rosa Park’s estate because they named a song after her.
Likewise, cartoonist Aaron McGruder received scathing criticism for his use of Martin Luther King Jr in the animated series The Boondocks.
Two issues are at stake in both scenarios. On one hand, members of the Civil Rights Movement are fighting to maintain their legacy. On the other hand, a generation of artists are claiming and reimagining history on their own terms. In addition to the two scenarios described, I remixed a song by rapper Jean Grae by incorporating a clip from a Studs Terkel interview with Martin Luther King Jr. I use King’s statement on hate and haters as an introduction to Grae’s song titled “Hater’s Anthem.
Analyzing mixtape mash-ups often requires knowledge of sampling and remixing, which I have provided above. In addition to the terminology, I have found and utilized free websites and programs for this particular project. Since datpiff is structured around free access to digital materials, these same free tools should, and could be, incorporated into a classroom. It is with this “free” logic that I used the following websites and software as resources for engaging creative work using mixtapes:
the-breaks (sample info)
whosampled (sample info)
youtube
Audacity –music editing software
Windows Movie Maker
Your TURN
Prior et al’s Cultural History Activity Theory, or CHAT, emphasizes how activity is positioned within a network of systems which are both concrete and discursive, so understanding activity depends on how people, institutions, materials, and language position a person(s). Activity is central to CHAT. Prior et al state that in mediated activity “action and cognition are distributed over time and space and among people, artifacts, and environments and thus also laminated, as multiple frames or fields coexist in any situated act. In activity, people are socialized…as they appropriate cultural resources, but also individuated as their particular appropriations historically accumulate to from a particular individual…[which] opens up a space for cultural change, for a personalization of the social.”
The reader/listener’s task is to interpret, evaluate, and comment on the embedded mixtapes below. Your feedback will work like the comment section on Datpiff. The main difference between datpiff’s comment section and my comment section is you are expected to analyze each original song as well as the mixtape hybrid. So, for instance, how does “Fools Rush In” differ from “Ten Crack Commandments”? What happens when both songs are blended? The intent here is to create a pool of evaluations and try to form a general consensus. Why comment? Your engagement and feedback is part of a large endeavor called distributive cognition which uses technology to expand cognitive processes. So, by using technology to think through and evaluate this material, we are DOING new media literacy.
Blue Eyes Meets Bedstuy
Frank Sinatra - "Fools Rush In"
goes with...
Biggie - "Ten Crack Commandments"
Hannibal King Presents American Gangsters
Starring: Jay-Z and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra - "Glad to Be Unhappy" goes with "Pray"
DJ Swindle Presents: AlMatic (Al Green and Nas)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Author E. Lynn Harris dies at age 54
By JOSH L. DICKEY (AP)
LOS ANGELES — E. Lynn Harris, a pioneer of gay black fiction and a literary entrepreneur who rose from self-publishing to best-selling status, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 54.
Publicist Laura Gilmore said Harris died Thursday night after being stricken at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, and a cause of death had not been determined. She said Harris, who lived in Atlanta, fell ill on a train to Los Angeles a few days ago and blacked out for a few minutes, but seemed fine after that.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said only that a man matching Harris' name and date of birth had died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which was confirmed by hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer. Gilmore said an autopsy would be performed Monday or Tuesday.
An improbable and inspirational success story, Harris worked for a decade as an IBM executive before taking up writing, selling the novel "Invisible Life" from his car as he visited salons and beauty parlors around Atlanta. He had unprecedented success for an openly gay black author and his strength as a romance writer led some to call him the "male Terry McMillan."
He went on to mainstream success with works such as the novel "Love of My Own" and the memoir "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted."
His writing fell into several genres, including gay and lesbian fiction, African American fiction and urban fiction. But he found success in showing readers a new side of African American life: the secret world of professional, bisexual black men living as heterosexuals.
"He was a pioneering voice within the black LGBT community but also resonated with mainstream communities, regardless of race and sexual orientation," said Herndon Davis, a gay advocate and a diversity media consultant in Los Angeles. "Harris painted with eloquent prose and revealing accuracy the lives of African American men and the many complicated struggles they faced reconciling their sexuality and spirituality while rising above societal taboos within the black community."
Harris published 11 novels, 10 of which were on The New York Times best-seller list. There are over 4 million copies of his books in print, according to his publisher, Doubleday.
"We at Doubleday are deeply shocked and saddened to learn of E. Lynn Harris' death at too young an age," said Doubleday spokeswoman Alison Rich, his longtime publicist. "His pioneering novels and powerful memoir about the black gay experience touched and inspired millions of lives, and he was a gifted storyteller whose books brought delight and encouragement to readers everywhere."
In an interview last year, Harris recalled the first time he realized he was poor, when as a young boy his family was invited to the housewarming of a well-to-do family in his hometown of Fayetteville, Ark. Fresh from an afternoon of playing outside, he tried desperately to tuck his bare, dusty feet underneath the sofa after another guest remarked on his appearance.
"I didn't grow up in the kind of environment that my characters grew up in, or the kind of environment that I live in now," he said. "It was one of the things that I always aspired to."
His 1994 debut, "Invisible Life," was a coming-of-age story that dealt with the then-taboo topic.
"If you were African American and you were gay, you kept your mouth shut and you went on and did what everybody else did," he said. "You had girlfriends, you lived a life that your parents had dreamed for you."
Harris was not living as an openly gay man when "Invisible Life" was published, and could not acknowledge the parallels between himself and the book.
"People would often ask, 'Is this book about you?' I didn't want to talk about that," he said. "I wasn't comfortable talking about it. I would say that this is a work of fiction."
Harris said that the courage readers got from the book empowered him to be honest about himself. He continued to tell stories dealing with similar issues, to tell black middle class readers about people they knew, but who were living secret lives.
For years, he was alone in exposing the "down low," but the phenomenon exploded into mainstream culture in 2004, a decade after "Invisible Life." That year, J.L. King's "On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep With Men" hit bookstores and the author appeared on Oprah Winfrey's TV show.
His 10th novel, "Just Too Good to Be True," focused for the first time on a straight relationship, telling the story of a 21-year-old football star, his mother, and his cheerleader love interest. Harris taught writing classes at his alma mater, the University of Arkansas, and leaned on his students there to gather material for the book.
The last book Harris published, "Basketball Jones," focused on a hidden relationship between a successful business professional in New Orleans and an NBA star.
Janis F. Kearney met Harris when the two were among a handful of black journalism students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The two became fast friends and their relationship deepened as they both evolved into authors. Kearney, who now lives in Little Rock, Ark., recalled Harris' huge heart.
"I've seen him help so many people," Kearney said. "He was very open, very giving, very caring, someone you felt so fortunate to have in your life. He's just one of those people I'll never stop missing."
Associated Press Writers Bob Jablon and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles; AP Writer Michelle Locke in San Francisco; AP Writer Errin Haines in Atlanta; AP Writer Noah Trister in Little Rock, Ark.; and AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Black Camera: An International Film Journal
ISSN: 1536-3155
E-ISSN: 1947-4237
Black Camera is devoted to the study and documentation of the black cinematic experience and is the only scholarly film journal of its kind in the United States. It regularly features essays and interviews that engage film in social as well as political contexts and in relation to historical and economic forces that bear on the reception, distribution, and production of film in local, regional, national, and transnational settings and environments.
In addition, Black Camera includes research and archival notes, editorials, reports, interviews with emerging and prominent filmmakers, and book and film reviews and addresses a wide range of genres—including documentary, experimental film and video, diasporic cinema, animation, musicals, comedy, and so on. It challenges received and established views and assumptions about the traditions and practices of filmmaking in the African diaspora, where new and longstanding cinematic formations are in play. While its scope is interdisciplinary and inclusive of all of the African diaspora, the journal devotes issues or sections of issues to national cinemas, as well as independent, marginal, or oppositional films and cinematic formations.
Volume 1, number 1 will be available fall 2009.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sizzling African American Literature
“Pleasure” by Eric Jerome Dickey
Ladies and gentlemen, I thought I had a favorite author. I was 100% sure that “he” was the best. I had read all of his books and I was hooked! That is until his latest novels seemed as if they were trying too hard. They no longer sparked a curiosity in me. They no longer kept me excited, intrigued, and wanting more. So I set off on a mission. I was determined to rekindle that flame and desire to read. I was determined to find that addicting brain food we call literature. I stepped out of the box and read pieces that friends suggested. They were okay, however they didn’t come to life for me. I had heard the author Eric Jerome Dickey thrown around a few times so I decided to see what he was about. This became my most pivotal moment in reading.
When I read one of his novels for the first time, I no longer wanted to call it “reading.” I wanted to call it living! His novels came to life right in front of my eyes. It was as if I were apart of the situations and I knew the characters personally. This man is truly gifted you guys! I struggle to put these feelings in words as I type this. His novels paint pictures, tell stories, and pull you in strong and hard! The day I stared reading his art is the day that I truly found my favorite author. Ever since then I have read each and every single book that he has written, each one topping its predecessor.
Here recently I have read his latest called “Pleasure.” This is clearly the best book he has written thus far. (I’m sure his next will top this as well) This steamy, fantasy filled romance will have you up, late night reading, when you have to be up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning for work! It will have you sneaking a peak at the next page while you’re at work or home preparing dinner!
The novel is about a woman named Nia Simone Bijoux, a ghost writer of erotic novels, living single in Atlanta
Indulge yourself in this breathtaking, page turning, eye popping drama. I read this book in a few days while juggling my home life and my full time career as a high school teacher. This is truly a treat worth making time for. Eric Jerome Dickey is a phenomenal writer and will take you on that long awaited vacation that you’ve been yearning for. Allow him to do so! If you are looking for an author to stick by who will satisfy your brain food craving each and every time, “he” is you man ladies and gentlemen. Start with “Pleasure” and I promise you won’t regret it! I’m heavily anticipating his next!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Obama's Education Reform Leaves Little Room For Optimism
"I read yesterday the Free Press' brief account of Obama's response to the education crisis, and found myself a bit concerned. A couple of his direct quotes stood out to me when reading the article. Obama explained, 'The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens.' He then further explains,
'We have everything we need to be that nation ... and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us.'
I think, first of all, that this identification of a problem - several problems - that has catalyzed the education crisis is myopic in nature. He in no way addresses systemic inequities that have perpetuated the failure of teachers and students to perform at specific levels of success and enabled to structural compromise of many of the schools that deteriorated. Moreover, he has overlooked financial mismanagement - and for what purpose this mismanagement has occurred - that also enabled this deterioration. I also believe that, as I will address in a minute, he has placed an unfair onus of responsibility on the shoulders of individuals who are now being told to be responsible for the crises they face rather than exploring creative, alternative methods for everyone to be responsible for one another. At the end of this quote, Obama explains that 'other nations outpace us' in terms of education production. I suppose my assessment could be off-base, but it seems that the same stimuli that have led to the crisis we are now experiencing are the driving factors successful educational production internationally. Seemingly, students are continuing to be trainined in vocational and technological skill-sets so that they can take over production responsibilities for consuming nations. It appears that transnational outsourcing of resource production has, in part, led to the need and desire for 'successful' academic performance. The incentives that once existed in this country to satisfy literacy and math requirements in order to pursue industrial labor is now, seemingly, paralleling incentives elsewhere to academically succeed. If our standards are to be examined comparatively with the endeavors of others nations, the ultimate result will seemingly be an extension of the problems that catalyzed the current predicament."
I realized that I neglected to assess the other half of this puzzle. Obama's assessment of other nations' academic output is not comparatively one-dimensional, but an expression of how this achievement will save our economy. Once again, Obama explains that "the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens." The simple fact behind this statement is that the President is equating economic recovery with educational performance; or, quantifying our youth in terms of economic utility as opposed to socially conscious citizens. These proposals are in no way a reform, but rather a perpetuation of the current state of systemic commodification and how to most effectively maximize its utility. In order to address the paradigmatic shift this country needs to make - educationally, politically, economically, environmentally, etc...... - we cannot continue to remedy a system that has been failing for years upon years. We need to address to core concerns by shifting away from an automatous redress of those problems to a more humane one.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Conservancy is not a traditional option...
One of the most explicit – ostensibly – contradictions of these initiatives was: 1) the idea of creating, at the very least, a socialist economy (definitely moving courageously towards communism) during World War II; 2) the correlation between patriotic fervor and the perpetuation of this socialist-communist state; and 3) the combination of the first two principles in order to more effectively combat communism. However, I believe that in order to reduce the impact of this contradiction, an ultimate goal antithetical to this type of economy needed to be in sight. That ultimate goal was the maintenance not only of "democracy," but, more importantly, of capitalism.
Generally, I was amazed at the level of capital sacrifice this country was willing to make in order to preserve "democracy" at home. This level of sacrifice largely surpassed textile and food conservation, but even led to Roosevelt's signing of XO 8802 (desegregating defense industrial plants) and eventually the desegregation of the armed services - both unprecedented in nature. Again, however, I believe that this sacrifice was only mandated insofar as it was economically sensible. I was curious in understanding why this same level of sacrifice is not being espoused contemporarily as it was during the "crisis" of the 1940s. I have come to the hypothesis that this is simply a matter of “sacrificial endurance” – that is, promulgating a political and economic policy through the temporary sacrifice of capital and resources. Responding to today’s crisis (crises), there would be no goal of a return to capitalist values and their application to democratic principles. Such principles would need to be redefined and capitalism abandoned, and many are unwilling to accept this inevitability. I am in no way concluding that the situation is hopeless, but certainly a reversion back to those ideals espoused during the World War II era would only extend the simple fact that our political and economic system is dying and cannot be resuscitated. I see this reversion in the AmeriCorps program and benefits extension, comparing revisionist initiatives to those similar to the G.I. Bill. The domestic incentives, though, after civil-service "troops" return from fighting on the home-front will not exist as they did in the mid to late-1940s. Industrial and vocational jobs will not be available, educational institutions will not be accessible, traditional domestic work will nowhere near be what it was and certainly not typified. The dramatic changes that seemingly need to occur are not being addressed, and it is rather troublesome.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Sound of the Times: Glam Hop :_(
Hiphop has finally publicly sold-out to white kids. And you can quote me on that, but only if you give some kind of detail on my explanation.
Honestly, I wouldn't care if that didn't include some kind of bizarre disdain for the white people themselves. I've met a wealth of white kids who have a encyclopedic knowledge of Hiphop...the kind of depth of knowledge that inclines me to think that, if a rapper were pandering to them, Hiphop would be much better off than it is. But rappers aren't appealing to these proud examples of sonic integration--they're appealing to the kids they don't really like, the ones they want little to do with: the B*tches and the W*ggaz. Hiphop is appealing to the white kids whose only contact with black people involves sneaking off and watching Oz in the wee hours of the night or slumming on BET. They're appealing to the white kids who genuinely believe that there is a way to "act black" and that the two or three black kids at their school aren't really "black" enough to serve as examples of the "black experience" in America.
In short, rappers are stereotyping their audience as white-flight produced, suburban white kids--and forsaken me!
Thus far, I sound like I'm the only one doing the stereotyping, right? Not the rappers, they're doing what they do best: entertaining. Right?
Wrong! Consider one of my favorite rappers, Jay-Z, and his best album, "The Black Album." I'm not enough of a conspiracist to believe that the title was a conscious statement that this is an album made for his black audience--but it was the last album he ever made which consciously included the scrutinizing black audience which had once been the core of Hiphop.
"If you can't respect that, your whole perspective is whack, maybe you'll love me when I fade to black?"~ December 4th
Jay-Z more than frequently uses double and triple meaning in his lyrics and that line, after he returned to rap with "Kingdom Come," stood out to me. I wasn't sure how to take it. I realize that in context he's merely saying "don't judge me for my past" and that you have to respect his rise from the dirt. But the question is who is he speaking to? Who is the audience? And regardless of the audience, does that line gain some meaning upon his return?
My answer is yes. He did "fade to black" and many people do "love him" now that he has. He receives all of the same praise, but he's clearly downgraded his lyricism--the quality which the core audience cares the most about. But, I contend, the core audience is a transracial (as in transcendent of race--alternately post-racial) group. The core audience isn't just black, and it hasn't been since Run DMC "Rock[ed] This Way." But if we grant meaning to that particular line, and the title, and consider the quality of Jay-Z's work since then, it would seem that he's "fad[ed]" to his core "[honorary] black" audience.
Yeah, he has a right to expand his audience. Please do. I want to see Hiphop grow and evolve as much as any 'head, but not this way, Hov. Not this way.
I'm not done though. I'll give you another example of one of my favorites. Cee-lo.
How many people listened to Cee-lo before he became the bizarre lead singer of Gnarls Barkley? I did. How many Gnarls Barkley fans realize that Cee-lo is a member of the "Dungeon Family" which happens to be led by Outkast? How many Gnarls Barkley fans know that Cee-lo's career began with a group called Goodie Mob, in which he was the bizarre character--similar to Andre 3000 of Outkast? Probably quite a few know all that now, but it has probably become a bizarre bit of Gnarls Barkley trivia which is quickly becoming unfashionable to acknowledge.
Cee-lo's been weird. And I actually LOVE Gnarls Barkley. So my beef isn't with the lyrics as much as what Cee-lo has had to sacrifice to be on top--and who he sacrificed to get there.
"Their god's only a graphic, the sky's computer blue/ There is a moral malfunction, what will the machine do to you/ They maliciously monopolize the mass/ Niggas sleep rap and fuck they surprise you last/ when you sell them your soul they supply you cash/ But you can die for all they care, with your expendable ass/ Because they know a new nigga, a brand new nigga/ Will jump right in them tap shoes even if his feet bigger/ Ain't shit sweet nigga, it's deeper than the street nigga/ You and I just a virus they gonna delete nigga/ Some people say go on and join what you can't beat nigga/ I won't take the mark so I can't eat nigga/ Holla if I'm talking to ya, (AH!)"~ Microhard from "Pefrect Imperfections"
Or better yet, consider this one:
http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)">"Let's get started shall we, cause you know it's time gone/ Every time these niggaz rhyme wrong/ So uhh, lights, camera, action I'm on/ I'll have them standing in line to get their mind blown/ I'm selling soul/ Rapping and singing and screaming and yelling soul/ Manufacturing, marketing, pricing, packaging, and e-mailing soul/ With no rehearsal, this one verse'll whole hearse you/ Now a commercial, but what I must first do/ is make my presentation a bit more personal/ Everything must go - for a small price you can have the heart of me/ There is no part of me that can't be calculated into a commodity/ My musings amount to a milestone a million miles above monotony...But isn't it amazing, how the antenna ain't nothing but a sinner...And I give it to you at God-speed, but yet it's gentle/ And when I rhyme I make reading fundamentals/ or even black and white/ My lyric is live in living color/ my flow is fluorescent/ Like scripture highlighted in bright yellow/And all this for $9.99, shit that's wonderful/ And the great thing about it is, if you disagree you're money's refundable/ But there's always something rewarding, about every Cee-Lo Green recording/ Cuz even after all your expenses people still aspire affording/ It's incredible how convincing I can be with a camera pointed at me/ But really sometimes rapping feel like tapping to make a cracker happy/ But when the ??? play and the beat get bumping like adolescent acne/ It's kinda sad but it's SHOWTIME/ my sentiment exactly/ So don't get mad, everybody's doing it/ You know you wouldn't mind a commercial with your own tennis shoe in it/ Whether you're selling a dream, selling a scheme, or playing a role/ Like it or not we're selling soul"~ I am Selling Soul from "Cee-lo Green's the Soul Machine"
This is coming from the album that begins with Cee-lo saying he's literally the "soul machine" and that you should push his button to "start him up." Cee-lo makes it more than abundantly clear where he is being pushed for economic success. The following album wasn't a solo album, it was Gnarls Barkley. This is not to say that he has completely downgraded his talents, but merely shifted gears. His songs have become more obtuse and radio friendly. If you haven't noticed, when Gnarls Barkley dresses up for photo shoots, Cee-lo, more often than not, dresses up as some white guy from pop culture. He's actively chosen to minstrel for the hoards of white kids who don't want to hear the true depth of his music.
Or as Andre 3000 said: "You don't want to hear me/ You just wanna dance!"
What it amounts to, to my white readers, is that rappers know you're out there. They are making music "for you." Or at least they think they are. I would like to think that you are all smarter than that. In fact, I know that a lot of you are--because a lot of the Hiphop audience left for Indie Rock; it's gotta mean something, right? It implies that they don't think very highly of you. They hate you--in a way. But they'll take your money. Just like black entertainers always have when they have no other choice to survive in their field. If they want to continue making music, they have to pander to you. And really, it's not entirely the artists--though in the case of Jay-Z and Cee-lo, I think it is--but also the labels and their "market research." They've turned you into a mindless-horde demographic. They assume that you'll buy anything that makes you move, without ever questioning where it comes from or what it means. And far too many of us have. We all share the blame somehow. But anymore, the power rests in the hands of that cinematic stereotypical crowd: 3-4 white kids and the token. When you all turn your backs on the insults lodged at you from the music industry, Hiphop will be resurrected.
Or you'll bury it for all eternity...like ragtime or something.
And so it was.
As exemplified by these two titans of Hiphop, rappers had to downgrade their talents in order to succeed. They had to appeal no longer to their core perceived-black audience, but to the bubblegum popping, colorblind-by-ignorance, "speak so well" suburban white young adult audience. (If you'll pardon my malice and vitriol.)
I've watched in anger as Jay-Z, Cee-lo, Common, and many of my favorite rappers gave way to 50 Cent (who measures the greatest rapper by profits), Kanye West ("pop is a good thing. you're popular!), Soulja Boy (OMG!), and now Flo Rida (have you seen that video! does that sh*t make ANY sense?).
And so, what I think has happened, is that Hiphop--my beloved genre--has transitioned into its creative dark age (linguisitic irony! pun not intended). It has become Glam-hop. It will someday be remembered as an embarrassment to the genre, much like hairbands are to rock fans today. I hope that real Hiphop heads will partition this phenomenon out of our minds.
(I realize I'm a little all over the place here. I'm placing the blame in a lot of places. I'm really not blaming "white people"--it's just that "white kids" are the demographic I feel certain the labels are speaking to anymore. What else could explain the creation of Flo Rida's "Right Round"? Which means the problem/solution lies in the source of that perception. I imagine there's a grain of truth in there somewhere, so how can we as fans answer that?)
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
CFP: Obama-Mania
Title of manuscript: Obama-Mania: Critical Essays on Representations of President Barak Obama in Popular Culture
Contact:
ObamaInPopularCulture@gmail.com
Editors: Derrais Carter & Nicholas Yanes
Publisher: McFarland
Deadline for Abstracts: May 25th, 2009
Description of the Book:
The 2008 Presidential Elections was one of the most intensely debated and commented on race in modern history. The passionate standpoints expressed in this election not only stems from ideological conflicts, but from Barack Obama’s uniqueness as a Presidential candidate. This book collects specific examinations of President Obama in popular culture with the hope of creating a scholarly record of Obama’s presence in popular media free of historical revisionism. With this in mind, Obama-Mania will bring together essays that examine how Barack Obama’s image has been used in comic books, music, television shows, movies, and how talk shows and radio programs have commented on Obama’s campaign and election. In short, the focus of this book is not specifically on Obama and the politics surrounding the 2008 Presidential election, but on the conversation between popular culture and President Obama.
Expectations for Proposals and Essays:
Ideal proposals will contain a clear thesis, an abstract which is two to three paragraphs long and a list of potential sources. Additionally, we want a clear thesis, not an overview of a medium. For instance, if one is to talk about Obama in comic books, we will not accept a paper discussing every Obama comic book appearance. Additionally, if a person wants to write about the President’s influence on music, we will not accept an essay simply documenting every song which was used in the campaign or that makes reference to Obama. We are looking for papers of academic quality.
The collection will include 10 to 12 essays between 6250 and 7500 words - this includes each work’s bibliography. Essays need to be in MLA format – parenthetical citations, not footnotes. And it is up to the author(s) to get permission to reprint copyrighted material.
Proposed Topics:
1) Comic Books & Science Fiction: Depictions of Obama as Superhuman
2) Music: How have musicians addressed Obama and the 2008 Election
3) Television and Film
a. Movies: The Cinematography of Change
b. Scripted Fictional Television: How Escapist Television Predicted and Has Been Influenced by Political Reality
4) Non-Fiction Political Programs: News Shows and Radio Programs
5) Internet: To Obama Girl and Beyond
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A New Way of Responding to Crisis
“This is a breath of fresh air. It's a new way of looking at a crisis,” Frank Hammer explained as he introduced the film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil at the February 21st. Swords into Plowshares' “Living with Scarcity, Visions of Hope” meeting.
The film depicts how Cuba's adapted to a lack of oil following the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990 by replacing large scale industrialized farming with small urban farms that empower the community.
“In a way,” Hammer continued, “this [response] by the Cuban people is an advanced example of what people all over the world will have to do.”
When Cuba was no longer able to count on an unending supply of oil, Cuban agronomists recognized that large scale farming, involving the chemical treatment of crops, the use of air-conditioned and media-equipped tractors, and the transportation of nationally-produced crops domestically and/or internationally, was no longer a viable option. As a result, subsistence urban agriculture supplanted industrial government farms, transforming the farmers' relation to the land and with each other.
In the last few decades industrialized agriculture created in the global south by corporations from the global north has dominated food production, single-handedly destroying not only the subsistence of local communities but the earth's fertility. This was also taking place in Cuba until it was no longer able to depend upon oil from the Soviet Union and found it necessary to create another model in which local, private farms are primarily responsible for agricultural production. Now, “in small cities and towns, urban agriculture provides 80-100% of food needed.”
An agricultural revolution of such magnitude in Detroit would not only provide the stimulus our city needs. It would also resolve a slew of problems from obesity to interconnectivity.
After watching the film, panelist Malik Yakini, director of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, opened his presentation with a similar conclusion. “It is my hope,” he said, “that we can use the urban agricultural movement to empower people. We are not just victims; we can begin to reshape our society.”
Malik explained the goals of his organization: farming, policy work, and food co-operatives designed to strengthen communities through re-building our relationship to the land. For more on Malik’s views and activities, I recommend the interview with him on “A Breath of Hope, ” the current issue of FLYP which can be found here.
Lisa Richter, a panelist representing the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Earthworks Urban Farm, emphasized the power of cooperative relationships, especially in urban agriculture. She pointed out the need to create interactive learning environments in Detroit in order to strengthen and further build the urban agricultural movement. “ We need to learn from and teach others in our communities so that the evolution of cooperation in urban gardening can be maximized. There is more than enough opportunity for everyone to contribute. If communal and individual transformation is to occur, everyone must contribute in some capacity. “ “A Breath of Hope” also includes an interview with Lisa.
Before the floor was opened up for discussion, Malik pointed how “Cooperation gives us a mirror, a way of looking at ourselves.”
The opportunities for reflection provided by urban agriculture cannot be over-emphasized. A few months before his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a little book “Where do we go from here?”whose title reminds us of the urgent need for reflection in this period.
It resonates in the indefatigable dedication to pursuing communal and individual transformation at the Boggs Center in Detroit . It is echoed in organizations such as Friends of Detroit in the Hope District, Detroit City of Hope, and the Catherine Ferguson Academy. Each in its own way demonstrates our growing need to develop our relationships with each other and the Earth.
Let us reflect on where we have been and move towards a healthier, more communal, more sustainable way of life.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Community (Dis)Service
The (Un)Sustainability of Community Service: A Service Worker's Assessment
As we witnessed a historic presidential election, one devoted to, among myriad other platforms, national service, I embarked on a one year commitment to Detroit and its surrounding communities via AmeriCorps. Primarily, my job would be tutoring students in Detroit's public schools in hopes of creating a functional and quantitative parity between Detroit's students' cognitive development and national averages. As the program progressed, it became apparent to me that the notion of “community service” was merely a concept of utility. Seemingly, the premise is designed for an individual to satisfy a temporary commitment to communal values, then pass the proverbial torch on to another individual or group. Performing “community service” has become as mechanical as assembly production; in my case, tutoring a child from 8-5 is ostensibly no different than the robotic production of any commodity. Consequently, community values such as mutualism and interdependency are absent from community-based volunteer service. More disturbingly, though, is the absence of humanism from what has turned out to be a statistically-oriented sector. Ultimately, my program's litmus for success is quota satisfactions: teams are placed in schools assigned with the tasks of increasing students' grades through tutoring and enticing them to attend after-school programs; at the end of the year, each category is compared against minimum–corporate–statistical standards which determine whether or not specific teams receive funding and are invited back the following year; if an invitation is not extended, or corporate sponsors philanthropically withdraw, the schools receiving service become jetsam, left for decay amongst other jettisoned community buildings in order to maintain institutional financial buoyancy.
Contrary to my program's proclamation that its primary concern with combating systemic impediments prohibiting students' “potential” is its collusion with systemic inequities that perpetuate the growing problem of drop-outs and collegiate unpreparedness. In addition to the problem of quota prioritization, an equally, if not more, eminent concern is the concession to pedagogical impotence. As teams enter their schools, team members' primary focus is shadowing classroom pedagogy in tutoring sessions. Rather than having the latitude to relate to students in ways that are uniquely applicable to their communal and environmental circumstances, tutors must replicate the monolithic indoctrination of students with mind-numbing information. Unfortunately, the concept of educating students is predicated on repetition and mimesis. Learning basic skills is important and in order to do so often involves repetitive learning; unfortunately, curricula beyond early cognitive development do not break from this pattern. It is no wonder, then, that students, as many have before our current generation, prefer more stimulating alternatives to memorizing facts that serve no purpose in their lives. While, indeed, government subsidized community service is an important aspect in fulfilling humanistic obligations, its misdirected nature tends to both arrest the development of meaningful community relationships and promulgate a diffuse social climate (note: I should point out that the concern expressed with my government program does not imply all similar programs are deficient; just the same, I believe that there is a lesson to be learned regardless of their competence or incompetence).
The point of contention underlying automatous government programs is seemingly veiled behind the notion that a simple one or two year contract filling vacant jobs or dedication to ailing economies is part of a collective panacea in resolving social issues. However, a collective group of national volunteers being placed in community homes, schools, and offices in an effort to either enhance employment qualifications, react to sympathy, minimize leisure time, or simply contribute to “the cause” can often times possess a superficial aura. In my experience with AmeriCorps since the job began, the work that is accomplished daily tendentiously perpetuates this superficiality: it is not sustainable, but rather a maintenance of the institutional deficiencies that continue, for example, to promote poor academic performance and academic apathy. A veteran Detroit activist aptly explained to me recently that one of the program's biggest flaws is that it is remedial. As a result, it is more inclined to regress and eventually stagnate because its primary focal point is retrospective. Until recently, I also ascribed to remediality in attempting to address and resolve social problems. What has become apparent, though, is how inadequate this approach truly is. This is not to say that engaging in historical legacies and inequities is malapropos, but it is to suggest that historical recovery is not what is needed in pursuing progress. Contemporization of social problems that have hypertrophied due to historical neglect is much needed at this nexus of history and future. Recognition of what has not worked in the past in order to move forward is how history should be addressed. We are in need of creative dynamisms that will propel developmental progress, even if that means the disruption of pre-existing systems onto which many of us still grasp. Education is one field in desperate need of this transformation. In order for sustenance to be realized, programs such as mine must pursue new paradigms that will impede the stasis it is maintaining.
One of the primary factors contributing to the terminal nature of the service I perform is that, again, there is no immediate goal identified to buttress the students' performance. As high-school drop-out rates continue to rise at exponential rates, a greater level of importance needs to be associated with education beyond anachronistic explanations that suggest making these motions is the only option available if one is to be successful. These blanket statements, though, neglect the possibility of more meaningful education. As technology grows and plays a larger part in our daily lives, incorporating technological advances into school curricula would be one emendative option that associates greater significance to the material being learned. Indeed, technological equipment is expensive and difficult to acquire, especially with a drying resource budget. However, incorporating cinematographic media in developmental learning, or at least granting students the flexibility to respond visually to assignments, may enhance the value placed on education. Moreover, moving beyond archaic pedagogies that produce proficiencies in histories, mathematics, and language arts that are inapplicable to students' lives is of immediate importance if education is to be considered worthwhile. These subjects must not be grappled with abstractly, but concretely: how do they apply to the students' daily lives at home and in their communities? Most importantly, the lessons must not be restricted to traditional classroom settings; they must be conducted outside of the classroom, in local and peripheral communities within the city's radius. Lastly, providing students the opportunity to teach their lessons, establish their pedagogical styles, will create a more dynamic, engaging, and developmental class from which all–faculty included–will benefit.
Beyond attempting to overcome pedagogical inadequacies, my program has made little effort in transcending the systemic contradictions that preclude meaningful communal transformation. Moreover, its participants–myself included–have been effectively eliminated from contributing to a positive transformation. Despite numerous efforts to understand and work with my program's philosophy, those of us interested enough in seeing it become better than it is have simply been silenced. While this is indeed frustrating, such experiences lend further credence to the ineffectiveness of government sponsorship. At an orientation session during the early stages of my program, one of the directors explained that in pursuing the program's mission, its goal was to create the most effective, idyllic democracy in order to maximize its objectives' efficacy. Similar rhetoric was espoused during my interview, during conversations with recruitment managers and other volunteers, and continues to be articulated on websites and other promotional media. Not only do such conceptual abstractions leave one confused–as I have been–as to how to reify success, but the question to be asked following such lofty articulations is: whose democracy, and how is democracy defined? Given the democratic failures of so many individuals and communities, is the gratuitous development of democratic principles appropriate, and will it be effective? Indeed, democratic values and principles effectuated the blighted conditions many Detroit public schools experience and the reason my program exists in the first place. Are democratic principles truly the foundation on which service organizations should be built? Or possibly, this democratic promotion is in the interest of government subsidized programs as blight secures jobs and revenue. As democracy in the critical context is correlative with capital gain, is profiteering and, its counterpart, exploitation, a sustainable service for communities' welfare?
In addition to abstract manifestations regarding realizing success, the program appropriates the values of notable figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi in its endorsement of community-based work (i.e., “the beloved community”) and embodying love (i.e., “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”). While on paper the program's values seem to match mine in numerous ways, its praxis, paradoxically, contradicts its theory. As many of us have learned, though, the pen of the law and spirit of the law do not always parallel one another. The (mis)appropriation of committed humanitarians such as King and Gandhi has created a sour taste in the mouths of quite of few of my co-workers as they question whether or not its utilization of these images can possibly be idyllic or merely a matter of duplicitous exploitation. Unable to maintain King's ideological beloved community, my program's commitment to the communities in which it is placed is negligible, rarely working outside of the schools served to build the strong community relationships it suggests is important to forge. In the name of “being the change we wish to see in the world,” the question I pose to my program is how can you possibly catalyze change while simultaneously satisfying corporate financiers, who themselves have no obligation to the communities in which they are embedded? How can mere words, not action, produce a meaningful transformation in any community?
In attempting to resolve the dichotomy between actively developing community relationships and promoting community sustenance, and perpetuating the machinations of impersonal community interactions, I believe it is important that government subsidized community service programs devote significant time to a tripartite agenda:
- Create a venue for honest, meaningful discourse, that will identify both the incipient and immediate missions of the organization, and how those missions will be able to immediately impact the communities with whom the organization is working, as well as build a foundation for moving forward.
- Narrow the scope of the mission so that it is not as abstract, diffuse, and incapable of being realized; goals should be established, but ones that are easily attainable within the duration of the program's contract. It is important to keep in mind that these goals should be concrete, not intangible concepts such as promoting and perpetuating an “effective democracy.”
- Most importantly, government subsidized organizations must work with existing programs in communities that are being “served.” One of the most vicious agents of division is the sense of anonymity, arrogance, and self-interest (e.g., directors at my program recently acknowledged that my program was the premier service organization in Detroit; not only is this statement hyperbolic, but it is illegitimate as my program neither collaborates nor is familiar with all community-based programs in the city). Government sponsored community service programs must understand that in order to transform the communities in which they work, such an arduous task presupposes the cooperation with all other community organizations and members. Additionally, the discursive venues that are created should be open to all organizations and members, and the missions of the subsidized organizations should be synchronized with those groups and individuals.
While government sponsored volunteer programs are positive steps towards progress, they also have the potential and tendency to inhibit the type of progress that must occur at this point in post-industrial history. Institutional processes are mechanistic, like rotating cogs, so maybe it is not terribly surprising that government subsidized “community service” programs are mechanical as well. However, in order to humanistically enhance such programs, there must be greater collaboration amongst all communal agents; there must be a contemporary assessment of the direction of these communities, and of this country; and there must be a greater commitment to conflating the espousal of ideals and their practice. In order to fully benefit from the programs that we will see in greater prominence over the next few years, there must be increased accountability amongst these programs, not just to their federal and corporate sponsors, but to the communities they serve.
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