Thursday October 13, 2005 - 2:46AM
It's been a little over three weeks since last i posted anything here. i offer my apologies. what else to galvanize me to action but a good bout of insomnia and a victory by trinidad and tobago over mexico 2-1 in port-of-spain i world cup football qualifying. that means that trinidad is now in a home and away playoff against bahrain for this region's final playoff spot.
football means the world - and feel free to see world as much larger than a metaphor here - to many many many countries. besides the fact that it is the planet's most popular sport, it remains the only major sport in which so called third world countries can consistently triumph over their first world counterparts. indeed, countries like brazil, argentina and mexico have long been world powers in the sport, and in recent years we've had cameroon make it all the way to the cup quarter-finals, while senegal, south africa, morocco, sth korea and nigeria (who has also made it to a cup quarters) have all pulled off stunning victories. this past year, greece won the european cup over such long-time powerhouses as france, england and germany (all previous world cup champions).
in fact, the United States had been non-existent in the world in the sport before the late eighties and early nineties when it started pouring millions of dollars into the development of the sport here, in a way that absolutely no other country in the world can afford to. as a result, it's risen to the top of the heap in the caribbean, borth and central american region (CONCACAF), though it is still an also ran on the world level.
enough of that, though. after-school has restarted and bless the children, they're eager and willing and writing and already i've managed two decent attempts at poems because of the exercises i've had to give them. i also have two brilliant motivated youth mentors in mya williams and jason julien who make me look good.
this past weekend, i got to hang out with maureen benson, too - high school principal and human being extraordinaire from the bay area (actually she's originally from staten island, but who claims that except the wu-tang? she's gonna kill me if she reads this) and her school the Youth Empowerment School in Oakland, is doing all sorts of wonderful, radical things in the world of education. getting to hang out with her was its own rush, but getting to talk about teaching and race and priveledge etc was re-energizing in a way i think i really needed - teachers of any kind on any level often need re-energizing.
Vision into Art stuff is also back on track and that's really cool because this time we're not doing one big multi-media project. we have a series of residencies and invitations to go to places and perform; and we get to work in smaller collaborations with other members of the company, so today i got to create some really different (for me at least) stuff with composer Milica Paranosic. she proposed using two different folks songs - we used one from trinidad and one from her native, serbia - combining them and blending them electronically to create something completely brand new and 'edgy'. so today she recorded me on djembe playing and singing a local folk song, which she then processed and made sound like i could actually play and shit, and layared a number of times and then had me play live over. it is exciting on a number of levels. i'm spreading my artistic wings, pushing my personal artistic envelope, in a way i couldn't have anticipated. i haven't thought of myself as a musician in almost 20 years (the last time i was in a choir). so now i'm scared shitless, because i have to go learn this one rhythm over and over and over again so i sound smooth when i have to play it live over other rhythms in a concert of some sort... and ooh! then she sang her own folk song and blended it with mine and it was like serious boogie down type funky and so, i'm real real excited about where this is going.
i'm also doing collaborations with lynne procope and pablo rieppi and paola prestini and mahira kakkar and i feel re-energized in that process too. there are other things to talk about but i should re-attempt sleep i suppose. tomorrow we get to have martin espada feature at acentos for us. i'll post pictures then.
It's been a little over three weeks since last i posted anything here. i offer my apologies. what else to galvanize me to action but a good bout of insomnia and a victory by trinidad and tobago over mexico 2-1 in port-of-spain i world cup football qualifying. that means that trinidad is now in a home and away playoff against bahrain for this region's final playoff spot.
football means the world - and feel free to see world as much larger than a metaphor here - to many many many countries. besides the fact that it is the planet's most popular sport, it remains the only major sport in which so called third world countries can consistently triumph over their first world counterparts. indeed, countries like brazil, argentina and mexico have long been world powers in the sport, and in recent years we've had cameroon make it all the way to the cup quarter-finals, while senegal, south africa, morocco, sth korea and nigeria (who has also made it to a cup quarters) have all pulled off stunning victories. this past year, greece won the european cup over such long-time powerhouses as france, england and germany (all previous world cup champions).
in fact, the United States had been non-existent in the world in the sport before the late eighties and early nineties when it started pouring millions of dollars into the development of the sport here, in a way that absolutely no other country in the world can afford to. as a result, it's risen to the top of the heap in the caribbean, borth and central american region (CONCACAF), though it is still an also ran on the world level.
enough of that, though. after-school has restarted and bless the children, they're eager and willing and writing and already i've managed two decent attempts at poems because of the exercises i've had to give them. i also have two brilliant motivated youth mentors in mya williams and jason julien who make me look good.
this past weekend, i got to hang out with maureen benson, too - high school principal and human being extraordinaire from the bay area (actually she's originally from staten island, but who claims that except the wu-tang? she's gonna kill me if she reads this) and her school the Youth Empowerment School in Oakland, is doing all sorts of wonderful, radical things in the world of education. getting to hang out with her was its own rush, but getting to talk about teaching and race and priveledge etc was re-energizing in a way i think i really needed - teachers of any kind on any level often need re-energizing.
Vision into Art stuff is also back on track and that's really cool because this time we're not doing one big multi-media project. we have a series of residencies and invitations to go to places and perform; and we get to work in smaller collaborations with other members of the company, so today i got to create some really different (for me at least) stuff with composer Milica Paranosic. she proposed using two different folks songs - we used one from trinidad and one from her native, serbia - combining them and blending them electronically to create something completely brand new and 'edgy'. so today she recorded me on djembe playing and singing a local folk song, which she then processed and made sound like i could actually play and shit, and layared a number of times and then had me play live over. it is exciting on a number of levels. i'm spreading my artistic wings, pushing my personal artistic envelope, in a way i couldn't have anticipated. i haven't thought of myself as a musician in almost 20 years (the last time i was in a choir). so now i'm scared shitless, because i have to go learn this one rhythm over and over and over again so i sound smooth when i have to play it live over other rhythms in a concert of some sort... and ooh! then she sang her own folk song and blended it with mine and it was like serious boogie down type funky and so, i'm real real excited about where this is going.
i'm also doing collaborations with lynne procope and pablo rieppi and paola prestini and mahira kakkar and i feel re-energized in that process too. there are other things to talk about but i should re-attempt sleep i suppose. tomorrow we get to have martin espada feature at acentos for us. i'll post pictures then.
1 Comments:
nice, cozy place you got here :)..
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