The song in that video is by Santigold and she will kick you in the gut if you say her music is hip-hop or R&B. Rightly so, it isn’t at all – she’s not really like Britney Spears or Brandy either. She’s more like Betty Blowtorch if anyone. That’s the whole point. Actually, next up is a hip-hop weird dream team.
Category: Politics
June 7th, 2009
“God is Dead” – Say Wha?
Our visible moral qualities, and especially those that we believe to be visible, take their course; and the invisible ones, which have the same names but are neither ornaments nor weapons with regard to others, also take their course: probably a totally different one, with lines and subtleties and sculptures that might amuse a god with a divine microscope. For example, we have our diligence, our acuteness – all the world knows about them – and in addition, we probably also have our industry, our ambition, our acuteness; but for these reptile scales, no microscope has yet been invented! At this point the friends of instinctive morality will say: ‘Bravo! At least he considers unconscious virtues to be possible – and that’s enough for us.’ Oh, how little you are satisfied with!
The Gay Science, page 34.
Nietzsche pretended to know the world just like all philosophers do so they can think and know things other people don’t. This knowledge, when put into language, can only be understood as much as words have shared meaning. For Neitzsche, I think the trouble with language was that he could not manifest true friendship by speaking directly to what it means.
June 7th, 2009
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a waste of space and annoys me to no end. In the time I’ve been on it, there has only has one incentive and that is to join. There’s no reason to stay or come back regularly. To be honest, it is not professionalism that turns me away but the fact interaction is uncomfortable. Stiff is not professional. Online you can’t just be a suit.
June 6th, 2009
Feminism and Girl Punk
Saint Mary's College - 2003 - Friends
I’m not skilled at talking about feminism and had to come to terms with it the hard, crash into the authorities way in college. After two years at a the same Catholic women’s school my mother attended, I found it much more interesting to try and understand stories about gender than delve into a the feminist consciousness.
Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods–My Mother’s, My Father’s, and Mine is one memoir, written by Noelle Howey, about a relationship between a daughter and her dad: transgendered, lesbian, and father. I already understood that process of coming to terms with being an individual without moving into a feminist world. The story is profound, honest, and human.
May 11th, 2009
Punk Music and Graffiti
I’ve been writing a new post about Muslim punk bands for the past week. I started with this post. All I have to add are a couple bands and some songs to share soon. There’s nothing fully formed yet but a couple of thoughts to follow up on why I’m all about the music.
You may have to forget about everything you’ve heard about Islam and everything you know about punk music for it to get though. All the statistics, the hijab, the social movements, and politics. The punk scene with drugs, sex, and rebellion. The fear about Muslim immigrants coming to convert the masses. Panic, rage, and all the history. Or you can listen, let it break your heart, not make sense, and ultimately, let it go if that’s what it takes.
Music doesn’t fix religion or any of those complicated issues. But religion plays a big role in the way we talk about a lot of problems that simply aren’t going to go away on their own. Ideological mindsets, global crisis, race and gender politics, and other social issues into dilemmas because they are happening on such a scale that they can be stamped “unsolvable” without a second thought. I can appriciate the fact that Taqwacores can’t just let this happen.
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…)
May 8th, 2009
I just say I’m below the heavens
This song is my week. Just was. The whole album has a just has crazy good story to tell, and here’s a review with some other lyrics too. Blu is way talented. I first heard through Jay Smooth from Ill Doctrine that it might be the best hip-hop album of the year.
I only talk from my heart
so open yours when your listening
every man has his own heaven
the difference is the way that he envisions it so….
if you make your heaven pictureless
by the time you die youll be drifting in an imageless fieldso fill your heaven full of blessing thoughts
thats real
you could stress it or just let it walk
I got a question if a man can make his own heaven
then can he make his path to get to it too
And, if you haven’t seen yet: Robert Putnam said that young people are losing their religion, but in terms of people’s lives I know this has been going on for years. And not an easy change. So, I’m not sure how important it is that Putnam says it, too, because it’s already happening. Welcome to the “knowing this is happening club.” It didn’t happen like that for me; and it kind of sucked to be there alone for a while. As for what’s happening now, I think people are building back up social capital in innovative ways; I’m guessing that’s the innovation he’s talking about in the article.
People, it’s time to come out of the woodwork…
President Obama: Cairo Speech
I literally cannot believe President Obama pulled off the speech as well as he did. This one’s for the blog:
Well, Mr. President, here’s a start…
(more…)
Tags: Cairo, Election, President Obama, taqwacore
Posted in Commentary, Faith, Politics, True Stories, Writing | Comments