Category: Digital Realm

October 1st, 2009

Creative Mistakes and Social Music

In a post about the new iTunes LP covered here by Ars Technica comes the day after I tweeted about the label that’s been in the back of my mind since high school. There’s an official name, but the crew haven’t gotten there. It takes time to get people on the same page across three time zone using social media to touch base. Music, openness on the web, are both in the movement stages. The rules are new, the old ones took time to break, and now the whole mess might take longer to re-build.

I would pick up and leave or even dial the phone but the experiment and my role is to figure out how to connect the dots online. Since we have to keep up with the pace of change in music biz and on the Internet, the start-up grind happens at a Hampster dance tempo or the work is double the load.

Creative flow chart behind the new iTunes LP:

itunes

While a picture is nice and all:

Music is an experience too and isn’t online. I exit yor flow chart like I exit the freeway.

Paying to basically play around with the back-end of a blog post about music in iTunes is not adding any value to my day but more time online. The main problem I have with this is artists get inspired and create music, they don’t usually think about the experience in flow charts and diagrams and this isn’t how sound engineers think about music either.

A hip-hop artist doesn’t get attention or the mic for long if they don’t do their homework on the best and greatest artists before to keep an audience. Punks have nothing without a new message. Pop musicians mimic past icons and builds upon style and culture with innovation. You get the idea. If the point is a creative experience, then the artist should matter more than ads, mistakes, and failures online.

There’s a Fugee’s reference tucked in there to bring the point home. Artists know the genre and context and share it as well as express their story, message, heart, soul or whatever inspires them with listeners. The new context, if there’s one online, then inspires the music andgives the creative experience to customers in return.

The music and sound mean more at shows and online if people get jazzed on their own – the cool junk you see and sell matters but not as much as the people who are on stage. If fans create new content, participate in crowsourcing, and share in remix culture before a performance and geek out like real artists online, given the choice, they might want to make more than killer playlists as a virtual DJ on Blip or play pretend rockstar online.

I’ve met meet musicians this way but never had an experience with online media the other way around outside of a studio or the radio station. Online musicians don’t perform for listeners but can inspire them to pick up a mic too – share music with friends, videos, and blogs. We don’t need a stage or plan or network online, we need to build a bridge between cultures. We have to find a place in the music industry where genres intersect and bring new creative experiences online.

Posted in Digital Realm, Music | Comments

September 19th, 2009

Cultureal Sindicate: Taqwacore

I started thinking and writing about Taqwacore after someone at UW-Madison sent me an article from The Los Angeles Times titled “The Koran, punk rock and lots of questions.” At the time, I was blogging for a project called Inside Islam, a new media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio and UW-Madison and set out to find some answers. After a couple of months of research, I started talking with Imran Malik, drummer for The Kominas, on Twitter, and I wrote a follow-up post based on the conversation and other articles which also described Taqx as a concept called “punk Islam.”

From then on, I had my eyes peeled for people talking about Taqwacores and found a crew on Twitter. One of the crew is a guest blogger for Mideast Youth Daniela Kantorova. Here’s a set of photos she shared online with us from a Kominas show in Oakland this summer.

My friend and co-host Britny once said that, “Twitter is basically the most punk thing on the internet.” I agree, but I also think of it as the Red Light district for ideas, a place to be open and share thoughts, regardless of how polished and complete they are. For that reason, I think it’s the perfect place for working through a more coherent understanding of Taqwacore with a bunch of different people. It has become a starting point for tour dates, a place to share blog posts and now radio shows as well. Twitter shifts the #taqwacore flag from mere concept to fluid conversation among people across the US.

The #taqwacore hashtag is a way to mark tweets about bands and events in the scene, but it has also become a way to note where we’re breaking down a concept or abstract idea about culture or politics with references and thoughts related to Taqwacore. I could be talking about Nirvana and tag it with #taqwacore so that people know I’m making the connection.

It’s also connected me with others and given me an informal way to share my perspective. The conversations I’ve had about it in real life were mostly with my mother, Ellen Foley, a Pulitzer prize finalist and journalist for the past 30 years. Not that these credentials mean much, but it is the background I inherited and how I approached the whole movement at first. Actually, that’s kind of the point of using Twitter. Taqx have inverted the way I get information from top-down to bottom-up.

The bottom line is that telling the story of Taqx has never been a perfect process, and I’ve had to bring lots of other people into the conversation – interfaith leaders, journalists, other Kominas, my mom, and whoever else is willing to talk. In my mind, it’s a new story to be told whether or not it’s a woman, man, musician, journalist, or photographer articulating or tweeting what’s important. With any other subject the “who” would matter, but in Taqwacore we’ve taken our own roles.

For this show, we took the conversation offline and talked with Imran and lead singer of The Kominas, Basim Usmani, on air. We had a great time talking about Taqwacore music, social media, Mos Def, and life imitating art. To close this post, all I’ll say is I do hope we have more shows on Taqwacore and I’d like to point to The Los Angeles Times again since they had arguably the best article about Taqwacore I’ve read to date with “Nevermind the Islam: The Kominas are Punk” by Raja Abdulrahim. The title has two, count ‘em, two punk references! Rock.

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Click on the player above to listen to the show.

Show Playlist

1. Sharia Law in the USA by The Kominas
2. Teree Aisee Ke Tesee by The Dead Bhuttos
3. Miskeen by Al-Thawra
4. Chaku! by The Kominas
5. An audio piece by Micropixie
6. A Dog Called Ahkira by The Kominas
7. Evil Eye (Acoutastic) by Sarmust
8. Par Desi by The Kominas
9. Poppi Fields by Vote Hezbollah
10. Kane’s Injection – Guns & Dogs by Portugal. The Man

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Posted in Digital Realm, Twitter | Comments

September 16th, 2009

Women in Taqwacore and Twitter

For background’s sake, I started thinking and writing about Taqwacore after someone at UW-Madison sent me an article from The Los Angeles Times. At the time, I was blogging for a project called Inside Islam, a new media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio and University of Wisconsin-Madison, during a year-long appointment as online community leader. A couple of months after I wrote a follow-up post based on my research after reading the article, which called Taqx “punk Islam,” and talked a bit with Imran Malik from The Kominas on Twitter. I found him there when he was tweeting with a mutual friend at Harvard.

From then on, I had my eyes peeled for Taqwacores on Twitter and realized as my friend Britny did here in Madison (who’s not Muslim either but a total punk) that “Twitter is basically the most punk thing on the Internet.” I agree but I think of it also as the Red Light district for ideas, a place to be open and share thoughts, regardless of how polished and complete the thought is. For that reason, I think it’s perfect for working through a more coherent understanding of Taqwacore between a bunch of people, or at least that is what it has become to me. It’s a starting point for tour dates, blog posts, and radio shows now too, as well as a way to share them with each other under the #taqwacore tag.

As for the hashtag scene, I’ll keep it brief and finish with my thoughts about gender because it’s role is not really unique to Taqwacore. It’s a way to mark tweets about the bands and events but also has become a way to mark tweets where we’re breaking down the concept or abstract idea with references and thoughts related to it. I could be talking about Nirvana to use an actual example in a tweet and tag it with #taqwacore so that people know I’m making the connection.

As far as the participation of women in Taqx, which is a big question and an open one in my mind, I’m sure that Twitter is important but I’d have to think some more about the significance.

In my mind, it’s mostly a new media tool. I didn’t know much about punk music or visit any kind of scene until after connecting with people on Twitter. Media is my background and it’s how I’ve approached understanding Taqx. The conversations I’ve had about it in real life were mostly with my mother Ellen Foley, a Pulitzer prize finalist and journalist for 30 years. Not that these credentials mean much, it’s my big picture perspective that got me here anyway, but it is the background I inherited and how I approached the whole movement at first. Actually, that’s kind of the point of using Twitter, Taqx has inverted the way I get information from top-down to bottom-up, it’s connected me with others, and given me an informal way to share my perspective. There’s a connection here with the book and self-publishing that maybe that’s something to explore. I haven’t yet but it’s been on my mind and anyway, that’s getting a little off topic a little.

To answer the role of gender question for Twitter, telling a story about Taqx has never been a perfect process and I’ve had to bring lots of other people into the conversation – from interfaith leaders, to journalists, to other Kominas, to my mom, friends, and whoever else was willing to talk. In my mind, it’s a new story to be told, whether or not it’s a woman or a man telling it and whether or not it’s a musician or journalist or a photographer articulating what’s important to add or even tweet. I think with any other subject it would matter but in Taqwacore we’ve kind of taken our own roles.

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Posted in Digital Realm, Politics, Social Networks, Twitter | Comments

July 6th, 2009

Creative Agency

The New York Times published an article about graduates underachieving.

I don’t agree at all with defining either generations by parenting trends. There are myths of achievement that vary by cultural, ethnic, hippie spectrum, or whatever identity is handed down. Just watch an episode of Wife Swap. We aren’t defined by kids who did go to college, graduate, even though a lot did and considered it an accomplishment. I wish it was a bigger deal than a ceremony.

Who are these guys? Not my friends. We weren’t all all-stars in high school and to be honest, we were just serious about being ourselves, even if that meant wearing overalls every day of Junior year. I love them for letting me not think about fashion. I intervened when it was time to care and I’m still not really into fashion.

(more…)

Posted in Art in 2D, Digital Realm, True Stories, Video, Writing | Comments

June 10th, 2009

Here’s the Deal: There’s a New Deal

Today I changed the name of this blog. “Here’s the Deal” was actually a place holder until I figured out whether or not blogging was worthwhile. The amount of time I spent on the Internet this past year has been unreal but necessary to launch another blog and online community for a new media project about Islam.

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Posted in Digital Realm, Politics, True Stories, Writing | Comments

May 9th, 2009

Social Media and Politicians

Queen Rania of Jordan is a great model for how mainstream can use social media and how social media can be used politically. I know it’s not a perfect analogy; she is the queen after all. Still, I think in a global media type of world, the message has to be viral, virtual, and it has to be visual. Yes, I just made that up.

There’s a good reason, though. It’s not just a catch phrase. There’s still so much lost in translation and too many misconceptions that both words and an image will have a better chance of getting through. I think this is the only way for politicians to get the message through without a dialogue. More than that, I think it’s safe to say that the dialogue can be left to people online under these conditions: social media content is easy to post and accessible. How about big politicians work on changing copyright laws and mainstreaming creative commons instead? Deal.

In other words, I think social translation is a group project of the many online but politicians can add fodder for thought. Here’s my best entry about Islam to date. (more…)

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Posted in Commentary, Digital Realm, Faith, Politics | Comments

May 8th, 2009

Punk Music and Social Media

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about punk Islam to respond to “Islam, the Koran, and Lots of Questions” in The Los Angeles Times. Michael Muhammad Knight’s book about Muslim youth in an American punk music scene, The Taqwacores, and a band called The Kominas were mentioned in my post. Last week, I talked to Imran Malik, a Taqwacore and currently playing with The Kominas, for some answers.
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Posted in Digital Realm, Mainstream media, Music, Passing Notes, Politics, True Stories, Writing, media | Comments

May 5th, 2009

Disentangling Second Life from Digital Islam

So this is a touchy subject, because this project did a great job under a similar grant. However, the main issue that I have with Second Life is that while the good intentions are there, often lacks any possibilities for real world effort aren’t impossibly inauthentic. How else would an American person come to believe they could some how to begin to plan for social change, or a historical rebirth, let alone say what that change is, or even estimate how would will happen?

Even the virtual age is tamed by our human limits, but it can also be more easily shaped and molded by the changing attitudes of users who seem to synchronize in similar ways to their outside world.

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Posted in Digital Realm, Faith, Politics | Comments

May 2nd, 2009

Quote: Interfaith Love

I’m just going to quickly set this up. Read the whole context, if you like. The link below will take you to the article but first, a quote about two realities young Muslims face and that moderates fail to see:

One: at a time when youth are constantly engaging their minds to navigate the ocean of information flowing through the Web, it’s humiliating to be told you can’t think for yourself. Two: in our era of mass migration, young Muslims have more questions than ever. I draw strength from the most common remark sent to me through my Web site these days—”Can we, as Muslims, marry non-Muslims?” A hot 21st-century issue, interfaith love is helping to drive a new school of Islamic jurisprudence that reinterprets theology for Muslim minorities in the multicultural West.

Examining the fragile promise of Muslim diversity via Newsweek.

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Posted in Digital Realm, Faith, Lists, Mainstream media, Politics, Quote Arsenal, media | Comments