change for cuba?

The EU has dropped their embargo against Cuba. Read more here.

This comes on the tail of big changes since Raul assumed presidency in July 2006... what does it all mean? I'm asking you, seriously, what does it mean?

Trip to Cuba anyone? I fear it will soon become an island unlike the Cuba I recall...

the age of free package-free music?

well i think it's coming.

i went to a last gang records show last week and asked if EPs were for sale and the fella behind the table said "Nope, but these are free," pointing to cds and lps with six tracks compiled by last gang. Not a joke - free. brilliant! because we all know people are going to rip anyways, why not throw your logo all over the packaging and give it away? Recipients will end up sharing while singing the praises of a record company that freely distributes their artists' goods - in this spirit, here is my new music game mantra: give the people what they want.

now the question becomes how? are cds finally going out of style? are digital downloads the future of your cumbersome cd collection? no disc, no case, no slipcover with track list - you might get a lil' ol USB stick instead or just a link if we're really lucky...

Girl Talk is a DJ who is doing something very interesting with his new album Feed the Animals (aside from the fact that his music is atypical to say the least - he's taken the simple sample to the nth degree... but i admit it my head was bopping in places.) You'll find that the link from his myspace page leads to a page where you decide and manually enter what you are going to pay. there's somewhat of a sliding scale in that you get more for paying a little more but basically you are free to enter '0' and pay nothing as long as you tell why (there's quite a list of possible responses) and you never had to leave your desk or remove that hinky wrapping that infuriate cd-consumers.

Check out his label Illegal Art.

sunshine

i hate cities
cities cast too long a shadow
giant shadow oblitarates urban sunlight
catch it on a corner for a fleeting moment

concrete and steel make for grey weather
form wind tunnels, sharp corners
encourage cold

how to help the sunshine take hold?

i suspect
outside the city
the sun shines freely.

Adbusters at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform

Watch this clip and you can consider yourself informed or be intrigued to know more - in which case...

Learn more about the NCMR event here.

Learn more about Adbusters here.

Learn more about media democracy here.

And here's a Canadian group working towards media democracy and an American one if you get so excited you want to sign a petition or something.

anti climactic

i am sad
it's no fun

i am mad
i can't come

i am jealous
full of spite

i am static
must take flight

but i am sad
change won't come

i am mad
what can be done?

terry lynn live -

Outside the bar, perched on a ledge is a thin frame under a lowered fro. She is casual in jeans, heels and sunglasses - i suspect it's 'her,' but I'm unsure, so I go inside (she's can't possibly be on time, can she? is that her? isn't she taller?) and wait for the show. Of course, it was Terry Lynn; I know this when the same solitary woman saunters on stage, peers into the crowd, stretches out one hand and proceeds to rock tha mic.

With support from Toronto's own Ro'Dolla, Terry Lynn dropped her original style on an entirely unsuspecting crowd - little do they know this female, jamaican act is about to blast through the industry's sensibilities, beat down the audience's median expectations and blow up the international music scene.

Remember when we first heard grime? The newness of the beats with the heavy speed of the lyrics disturbed hip hop heads - showed 'em how across an ocean a completely different context can breed equally ingenius music - this is it all over again, but better because there's no genre yet, just terry lynn, standing alone between electronic sound and JA DJ flow, holding the two together with everything she's got.

And she's got it all. you know that 'it' they talk about? terry, with her hard chat and delicate features, with her dark shades and broad smile, with her waterhouse broughtupsie and worldly sense is bringing kingston logic hard - shut your mouth and listen, "dream it, plan it, chance it, risk it, bring your guns, machete, ratchet..."

Don't be afraid, fusion is the future.

say what raul?

i love castro... when i say castro i mean fidel.

and this makes me think he's really dead.
doesn't matter how many times chavez claims it ain't so.
dammit.

remembering medgar evers

On this day in 1963 Medgar Evers was shot dead by the white citizens council -

canada cuts checks to residential school survivors

harper signed off on some big dollars and
stood up in the front of the house and
talked for ten plus minutes...

a step forward for repatriations?
a sign of change?
a show of lipservice?
a strategic move in the game?

i can't sleep anymore

i can't sleep anymore...

dammit. shit. f*ck me.
i shoulda never said a word
should've just sent off my
application -
now i wish you never heard
I wish i never told you
just how bad i wanted it.
I wish i never got so excited.
I wish I never wished for it.
cause now i cannot
look you in the eye
"any news?" you ask
i know i'll cry if i sigh
so instead i smile and laugh,
"nothing yet,"
and traipse away
leaving a faint trail
of everything i couldn't say -

"no i didn't make it,
well, i haven't heard back,
it appears my application
wasn't quite right
wasn't entirely on point..."

here's where you jump in
with what you think is a
helpful suggestion -
something about eggs and a basket
something about endless potential
but i'm tellin you now
i can't handle it!
dammit please just be gentle!
cause your kindness is killin
it's stealin and robbin
any glimmer of hope
left in my heart, in my head
i just feel trashed, thrashed and
left for dead
so, now is when
you tell me again,
something about
there's always
a next time
friend...

queen ifrica - reggae raising issues

Salute to Queen Ifrica for releasing singles that create conversation around practices that are widespread and taboo, namely skin bleaching and child abuse.

Now, bleaching or lightening skin is common practice from asia to africa. In the west indies, all that cultural mixing has made for a color scale that is embedded into society. My aunties give me bleaching cream both because and inspite of the fact that they love me.

In Jamaica there is an interesting twist; "homophobic" sayings are littered throughout dancehall music and particularly at a dance there is a certain amount of related audience participation (flash you lighter if yuh no battiman or lesbian, etc.) BUT there will invariably be present a few groups of young men dressed in flashy jewelry (fake diamond earrings and rhinestone beltbuckles), tight pants (acid wash, tapered perhaps), sunglasses (bejeweled maybe,) stylized hair in patterns or designs and nasty, patchy, blotchy bleached out skin - standing around sipping guinness looking like strange, iffeminate, freaky ghosts ("gay" by western standards - true, our norms are pretty limited; in cuba heterosexual men can sit on each others laps). Either way, their dress is a little incongruous to "burning down" or "burning out" gays. Note that I love dancehall and have spent a post explaining the cultural context that could breed anti-homosexual attitudes. Check out the video

The next video is more self explanatory - there have recently been more and more reports of child abuse across the west indies. When I was last in Trinidad a mother and her boyfriend were arrested after it was found that both were running a sex operation with her young daughter for years including male family members and men in the neighborhood. Child abuse is especially taboo - the explicit nature of her lyrics and the video is all the more outstanding - good works, Queen Ifrica, good works.

impeach who?

kucinich, take him down!!

i want to explode, burst into invisible fragments and disappear

i turn to myself and i ask myself, i say, 'self'
then i turn to myeslf and i answer myself, i say, 'what'
i say, 'i can't love you any better than this...'
-Languid Libretto, Carl Hancock Rux

genius and truth (as spoken by friends)

"you know TO media is anti heat, right?" - Nikkhil. local news and radio stations put the fear of god in city-dwellers when the summer finally arrives by (a) exaggerating the forecast; i swear to god some days they claim it's 23C and it can't be warmer that 15C (b) broadcasting heat and smog warnings that effectively demand you remain indoors from sunrise to sunset... ("uh, excuse me, sorry, what? you musse mad. kiss me backside an' g'way." Jamilah)

"the history of music is the white man stealing the black man's sound but it started much earlier than elvis, jamilah, we began with the 4x4 beat - this originally african beat provided the musical basis for all classical music, the waltz..." - Warren. check warren and his lovely band at Not My Dog (Parkdale, TO) open mike nights most every wednesday.

"in alota ways, the planet still operate on some the-world-is-flat type philosphy; dated and plain wrong..." - Moses. i'm paraphrasing slightly here but you get the gist.

"Stick with me, kid." Nehal. nuff said.

good people party

well you can't deny it sounds like a good time. let me confirm formally - it was.

imagine a steamy saturday night on queen street west
imagine a room full of beautiful, familiarish faces
imagine a roster one dozen plus strong

some belong to the honour rebel society
a relation of the district six family
zaki opened with improvisational soul
tanika held it down - she ain't back up no mo'
boonaa - wow. straight blew my mind,
obie dropped something new inna reggae style
kush stayed low key on the bass in the back,
grimace love's flow remains tight on the track,
nana kept the vibes all night
brendan demanded silence and he was quite right.
to those i didn't mention, thank you - the night was a delight
too many acts to name and not a single fight
but Theo 3's bag stolen meant no USB
hope you get it back, still the acapella was a treat
on the whole no ill words, just love in the room
if you saw the ladies, oh, they'da made you swoon
i'll tell you it was the evening of the long dress
betcha didn't know ankle length could make a man sweat...

going back to cali

often flabbergasted by new hip hop,
i am glad to find that the west coast
continues to represent -

U.N.I. and Pacific Division are worth checkin out

in a handbasket

how can we
be blind
to the signs

under no circumstances -

do not curse the heat
do not sigh or mutter
do not hem n' haw
do not curse the heat

i have survived the winter
i have been submitted to the cold
i have decided to leave
bag lady
alone

so i will stay the summer
but leave before the winds return
and i won't have you disturbing
the heat that i have earned

the heat

today the heat came dirty - the way it does on the east coast; humid, muggy, intense heat - beautiful. i love it. it's like a gift. it's like good behavior leave after serving a long sentence of solitary confinement. and now is when we all enjoy it - later, people begin to hate the heat and wish for breeze and cool - i will still love it. make it 31 everyday. make it hotter. make it so hot i have to bathe in the evening. like i did this evening, take a short nap just to get dolled up again.. the streets are cooler now.. perfect for walking to a party... how could i not head out to a jam known as 'the good people party'...

new meaning to the word ruckus

i love the word ruckus, it connotes noise and strife and rebel and especially taking action because one must make a ruckus, they don't just exist independant of action, you gotta push and pull and make, throw, raise, cause a ruckus.

so I seriously enjoyed this democracy now report about the Ruckus Society, a group that trains citizens in civil disobediance in today's world with a focus on media; a great place to start in my opinion - we are a people consumed by misinformation and disinformation, a people abused by an absence of quality information, news and commentary - listen to democracy now and read the guardian, if you fear daily that news is dying (like I do.)