Quote of the Day
It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
- Dizzy Gillespie
Blogged with Flock
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Quote of the Day
A Jazz Thing
So, I have been reading and researching a lot about Jazz lately, and I have been absolutely facinated with the brilliance of the minds of many of the jazz artists we know and love primarily from name only. I mean we have the album A Love Supreme, but we wouldn't know a flatted fifth from a G7, or an Eric Dolphy solo from a John Coltrane one. I used to think jazz was all about feeling and emotion, but I have come to learn that these great artists are able to express their innermost being so well because of the highest level of musical training, a rigorous practice regiment, and a highly creative mind bent on coming up with solutions to problems they have with self-expressions. For example, Charlie Parker has so much to say but the prevalent model for improvising limits his ability to express Himself. So, he devises a way to improvise based on the chordal structure of the composition instead of basing the solo on the melody. He comes about this discovery because of his knowledge, music training, and his intellectual curiously. He is able to pull off the performance of this ideas because of his musical training and incredible work ethic. The manifestation of all these elements into a solo is an incredible expression of the being of Charlie Parker, and we, the hearer, experienc the deep emotion in his expression without understanding all that is behind it. Thats that Jazz. Check out youtube for all kinds of videos of footage of vintage jazz performances and documentaries on Jazz. Here's couple samples:
Show/Hide TextBlogged with Flock
Friday, January 11, 2008
I am a winner!
I am a winner !
I can't even believe it, somebody pinch me because I think I am dreaming. See, I never win anything, when I sign up for contests, donate to charity drawings I never win anything. Well, things change. Okay, so I am a member of facebook the social networking site, I hear through either mashable or digg that the new smartpen Livescribe, which I have heralded here at thehallelreport, has started a group on facebook and is running a contest. The contest states that they are going to pick two people from their facebook group everyday to get a new Livescribe pen until its official release on January 28,2008. All you have to do is sign up for their group on facebook
to be elligible. So, of course I go over to their facebook group
to take a shot at a free smartpen, whichl I argue is the coolest of the utilitarian gadgets to come out since the tablet pc (maybe because I am into writing and am fascinated with digital ink). Anyway, I get this message from facebook that some unknown cat wants me to add him as a facebook friend. Like I normally do when I get an anonymous, random, friend request I click the person's name and go to their profile page and check them out to see how we might be connected. Nothing, I don t know this guy, could have never have known this guy, different political views, different coasts, different career paths, not one friend in common. I am thinking, ''who is this guy?" When I go back to my profile page I see I have one message in my inbox, which was distinct from the friend request. And there it was a gorgeous message from the same guy who requested to be my friend stating that I was one of the winners of a Livescribe smartpen. Oh yeah, I am a winner baby. So now I only I have to buy one pen (when I was going to buy two one for me and one for my wife who is in school and will really be able to use one of these pens). I am so excited, I can't wait till the 28th to get my pen. You can bet I am going to be blogging with it, I think it is going increase the number of ink bloggers by a couple of orders of magnitude, its supposed to have this easy blogging feature. I am already getting used to blogging with a digital/smart pen. lately I have been blogging exclusively with my Logitech Io2 pen. The Io2 can't hold the Livescribe pen's jockstrap (metaphorically speaking) if it lives up to all the hype, and does what they claim it will do. In the meantime, I am just counting the days till I get one of the hottest new gadgets to hit the market, and free!
Blogged with Flock
Saturday, December 8, 2007
A New Way to Ink Blog
You won't believe this but I found my Logitech Io2 digital pen. I remember when I misplaced it, I was heartbroken and couldn't believe I lost it. I thoughts I left it in one of my jacket pockets, I checked every pocket (at least I thought I did) two of three time and still no pen. Well, low and behold I put on my peacoat because it is cold enough to where it in North Caolina Now and there it was right in the pocket. So, what is the first thing I try to do, see if I can write an ink blog post with it using Sumocat's build 52. If you see this post I guess it worked.Show/Hide Text
Blogged with Flock
Friday, November 23, 2007
jazz requiem for revolutionary poets
Been thinking poetically a lot lately, which is one reason I haven't been blogging much around here. This is poem I have been working on for the last few days. Check out my recitation of the piece as well. I strongly believe that poems are meant to be read and heard. I think poets should give just as much attention to the written form as the spoken or performed form. Eventhough I say that this poem short on form, that is to say I didn't spend a whole of time on form, but then again this poem is about 90% done, I still have some fine tuning to do. I am hope to workshop this piece and have it rigorously critiqued. If you can help I am open to criticism, email me.
jazz requiem for revolutionary poets
For Amiri Baraka and Yeshua ben Yosef
there is no finer art
than revolution.
sublime, syncopated turning
liberated riff
radical act motivated by
thought liberated
from hegemony
thinking collective
not digging on nobody's exploitation
art is banal,
light repellent
burning on the surface only
without revolutionary goals;
in mind and regime changing mellifluously
like chords in a coltrane solo.
hear the beautiful struggle
as siren
as transcendent and elegant
marrow piercing
honest
as poetry as
words are to me,
i'd rather write
the constitution
rewrite it rather
give it
arms legs hands
teeth feet mouth
a whole, black man
living improvising
dauntless
incarnate dialectic
incapable of shutting down dialogue
open to inquiry
for who the question
is almost always the answer
a variation on a theme
of an aristotelian standard
this man is a revolutionary animal
poem.
positively bureaucratic.
but reluctant to govern
as less is more is the motto
matter is neither created
nor destroyed
only changes form is the constant
and the mantra
well-acquainted with suffering
not-opposed to death
As comfortable with chaos
as this poem is intimate
with the imperceptible power
infinitesimally smaller than a quantum
larger than the universe
forever expanding
like the piano bass and drums
jamming,
in the spirit
of prophesy
ezekiel bebop
a little crazy
and just credulous enough
to preach in cemeteries-
this is why you write poetry:
to cry onto the four winds
to give breathe to the revolution
baba zu zat zu zat zu zat. Amen
© 2007 michael penman. All rights reserved.
Blogged with Flock
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
My message yesterday came to me in a dream last week. The dream was like I was having a conversation with God and he was telling me some answers to things I have had questions about recently. In the dream I was talking to people and God was like the Director or Narrator, because he would explain the meaning of the scene, but I could also communicate with his voice. I woke up covered in sweat with this
tremendous feeling of being in someone's presence even though I was in the house alone. Then as I got up and started walking around I heard the voice say to me "are you bitter or better?" And that that was a message for people to hear and ponder.
I came from Ruth 1:19-22 and James 1:2-4. By way of introduction, I talked about how unpredictable life often is, and how it is often filled with disappointments, setbacks, and unexpected turns. Such was the life of Naomi; I suggested that Naomi's life was almost as tragic as Job's. Naomi's life definitely didn't turn out as she expected or wanted. So, when life doesn't turn out they way you want it to, when you life is assailed by unexpected tragedy how do you respond to it? Do you get bitter or better from these misfortunes? I gleaned three points from Naomi's story that inform us about how to be better instead of bitter. In this story, we see that Naomi grows bitter from her tragedy, she says as much to the village women as she returns to Bethlehem-Judah, {Ruth l.20), whereas Ruth gets better. Further evidence that Ruth grows better while Naomi grows bitter is that bitter people are often difficult to get along with; they shun human companionship. This might be said of Naomi (Ruth 1.11). Naomi seems to have given up hope at this point and becomes bitter.
The first point we glean from the story is that bitter people focus on what they have
lost, So, don't focus on, what you have lost.
The second point we illustrated was realize you never had what you lost. One way to not focus what you lost is to realize you never had it in the first place. It is an illusion that things can be possessed. All material things are temporal, in flux, and deteriorating. They cannot be possessed; people, cars houses, jewelry, money cannot be possessed. Once we know this it should not be so difficult to let these things go when they are lost. The third and final point of the message was be thankful for what you still have. Ruth is thankful for what she still has, a relationship with Naomi, and this is why she clings to her.
I concluded the sermon with James's entreaty in 1.2-4 to embrace troubles trials, and disappointment. In fact, rejoice, don't be sorrowful, because enduring these things make you more spiritually mature -- better.
Blogged with Flock
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
