Broken Hallelujah // Independent Arts and Culture

Sunday, July 9, 2006

All Roads Lead To Music

At times I may be totally immersed in music which leads to endless reading, researching and downloading. I've been obsessed lately since my last computer died taking my music along with it before I took the time to save it.

My musical mining abates somewhat when I run across an outstanding photograph or piece of artwork and I head off to explore all things beautiful to look at.

Next I might be entertained by the meltdown du jour, starring Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. I'm distracted by this latest clusterfuck until I discover something good like the leaks from The Mars Volta's August 22 release, Amputechture, which sends me right back into music mode via slsk and bt.

All roads lead to music.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

RAPED: Shocking Eyewitness Testimony Of US Rape, Murder In Iraq

The neighbor of the martyred family told the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Isla the following:

"Then I went into 'Abir’s (she was born in 1991) room. Fire was coming out of her. Her head and her chest were on fire. She had been put in a pitiful position; they had lifted her white gown to her neck and torn her bra. Blood was flowing from between her legs even though she had died a quarter of an hour earlier, and in spite of the intensity of the fire in the room. She had died, may God rest her soul. I knew her from the first instant. I knew she had been raped since she had been turned on her face and the lower part of her body was raised while her hands and feet had been tied."

"By God, I couldn’t control myself and broke into tears over her, but I quickly extinguished the fire burning from her head and chest. The fire had burned up her breasts, the hair on her head, and the flesh on her face. I covered her privates with a piece of cloth, God rest her soul. And at that moment, I thought to myself that if I go out talking and threatening, that they would arrest me, so I took control of myself and resolved to leave the house calmly so that I could be a witness to tell the story of this tragedy."

This brings up so many emotions. Sadness and disgust mainly.

link

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Soma: An Anarchist Therapy

With difficulty walking, and half-blinded from torture by the Brazilian military dictatorship, 79 year-old Roberto Freire continues to develop somatherapy, completing his life's work. Incorporating the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, the politics of anarchism, and the culture of capoeira angola, Soma is used by therapists organized in anarchist collectives to fight the psychological effects of authoritarianism. Nick Cooper travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Bahia, and São Paulo to find the exercises, principles, voices, and movement of somatherapy. back story

The Soma Documentary is currently touring the country.

Saturday, July 1, 2006

'Fairy Door' Phenomenon

For many, they are merely a passing flight of fancy, flittering about the childhood imagination and dissolving on impact into skeptical adulthood. Who in their right mind believes in fairies? Well, for fairy researcher Jonathan Wright, a 46-year-old storyteller and illustrator, and fellow residents of the quaint but quirky Michigan town of Ann Arbor (all of whom are in full control of their mental faculties), fairies are as real as the tiny doors that have been mysteriously popping up around town - numbering at least 20 to date.

There is a brief history of how Jonathan became involved with the Urban Fairies. There are links to local publications about the Urban Fairy phenomenon. Jonathan is currently writing several books on the fairies in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen, who coincidentally has found a fairy door in her kindergarten classroom.

Ann Arbor, MI, which happens to be one of the coolest cities on the planet, is not surprisingly home to many of these 'fairy doors'.

link

Rickie Lee Jones just returned from her tour through Denmark and Norway. They recorded her show in Copenhagen on June 19th and it is now available on Rickie’s web site on CD and MP3.

This is the first live show that's been released in three years and her website says it's worth the wait and that the Copenhagen show was awesome.