St Brown

2006-11-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

St BrownNovember 1, 2006
An Interview with a Oaxacan Rebel
Hell is Rising in Oaxaca
By RON JACOBS
When I lived in Washington state, some of my closest friends were from
the Mexican state of Oaxaca. I have kept in touch with a few of them
and they have kept me in touch with the rebellion unfolding in the
streets of Oaxaca the past few months. After the escalation of the situation
there on October 27, 2006, when paramilitary forces shot and killed
four people (including Indymedia journalist Brad Will), I spoke with my
friends David Abeles and Hilaria Cruz who helped me contact some of their
people in Oaxaca city. Given the circumstances currently existing in
the area and the uncertainty of the immediate future because of the
military and police presence there, I felt that the best way to get
firsthand information out to the wider world would be to conduct an email
interview. The first interview is below. I hope to have another one ready in
the next couple days.
Ron: Hey Tomas. Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.
Would you be willing to introduce yourself?
Tomas: Hi, I would like to salute all the readers of this electronic
journal. My name is Tomas Cruz, I am a native from a community in Oaxaca
in the highlands. I was forced by the economic situation to migrate to
the States. Fortunately I gained an education at the Evergreen State
College. I also went the University of Texas for a graduate degree in
Latin American studies.
Ron: So, you've been in Oaxaca during the entire uprising? Can you tell
us the sequence of events as you see them up to now?
Tomas: I am a Oaxacan native with graduate training at the University
of Texas at Austin. I have been involved in diverse NGOs working for the
communities in Oaxaca up until the time of the Oaxacan uprising.
What we are seeing in Oaxaca is a breakdown of political system that is
completely corrupt and deliberately abuses its citizens at will, using
the legitimacy of the state to impose a government that only uses power
to advance a personal agenda and that of a very small political
oligarchy. Since the start of the present government it was characterized by
repression of political leaders, immediately killing them and imposing
its repressive mode of government.
The result of the events which are occurring as we speak began with an
every year demonstration by the teacherÂ´s syndicate. In the 14th of
June, the state police attacked the teachers which were at the zocalo in
a permanent demonstration.
The response from the citizenry was immediate, hundreds of people
joined the teachers strike and saw an opportunity to stop the continued
abuses from the government.
I can only describe what is occurring as catharsis of the population,
especially of the immense poor population of the city, which survive.
After the attack by the state and the immense response from the
population the most remarkable event in the politics of the movement has been
the formation of a popular assembly of the pueblos of Oaxaca also known
as APPO.
The APPO organizations have been capable of resisting all the attacks
from the state government, from spots attacking the protesters as a
bunch of radicals to the death squads sent to kill people that were
protesting at night.
The response from the APPO was to develop barricades to stop the death
squads. This resulted in a historical and animated political culture,
with also a strong popular support.
In the recent days, the violence escalated in one single day in which
the international reporter died at the hands of the mercenaries payed by
the governor.
Yesterday, there was an intervention from the federal police after the
multiple deaths and probably also after the international pressure
after the death of one international reporter. The federal police killed at
least 4 people and raped one woman in the intervention. The response
from the APPO is to maintain the protest until the governor resigns and
the political system is reformed.
Ron: What groups were involved that you know of? Also, I imagine that
many people were unaffiliated. What were their reasons for joining, in
your estimate?
Tomas: This movement is composed of the poorest section of the
population. Old housewives which think of this as a parallel to the revolution
of 1910 and are ready to resist for years, beggars which are tired of
the abuses by the police, or simply sympathize with the movement because
they see no hope and future in their lives. Mechanics, civil servants,
citizens from the neighboring neighborhoods which have had their
municipal presidents imposed on them. Citizens from the poorest sections of
the city.
Ron: From my understanding, PRI and its allies were responsible for the
shootings that killed several people on October 27th. Is PRI the only
party responsible for the situation in Oaxaca or are other political
parties also responsible?
Tomas: No, the PRI is seeing its last days and with it, it has resorted
to the only thing that they know, violence.
Ron: You're in Oaxaca right now. What the hell is going on?
Tomas: Hell is rising in Oaxaca, the force of the government against
teachers, students, housewives, mechanics, peasants. The whole city and
the whole state is filled with federal police, local police, military.
Ron: How are the spirits of those in the rebellion? Where do they get
their food and water?
Tomas: There is ample popular support for this uprising which results
in a steady flow of donations from communities and lay citizens that
donate at different points. Mainly this has been coordinated by using
radio stations. At this point theres is one station left which is being
broadcast through the internet at www.indymedia.org you can listen to what
is going on as we speak, (those that can speak Spanish)
The radio broadcasters which have little experience but a huge heart
receive the needs of the people on the barricades as to what is needed.
Yesterday for example they organized the installation of medical aid
stations because the red cross got instructions from the governor and its
director not to attend the flurry of people that were shot at by the
governorÂ´s police.
Ron: Do you think there is a potential for armed conflict (beyond that
seen already--which seems mostly to originate from the forces of the
state)?
Tomas: Hmm, if the state continues on its support of a political figure
which has lost completely popular support, especially from the poor,
then we will see an escalate on violence. because the demands of the
people after decades and some argue centuries have been unattended.
Honestly I think that this would continue in the same degree, as peaceful
opposition and hopefully we would see a more democratic state. Only if the
government continues on its escalate of violence we would see a
critical cyclical point in MexicoÂ´s history.
If the federal forces are able to quash the rebellion, what kind of
repression do you think will follow? Indeed, based on past experiences,
after the media leaves the region, what do you foresee happening to the
movement, its participants and supporters, and the region in general?
I think that the violence is going to be targeted at the organizers and
the leaders of the movement.
Ron: In the greater scheme of things, how would you relate this to
other struggles occurring in the Americas? What relationship do you see the
demands of the protestors have, if any, to the
anti-imperialist/anti-global capitalism movements in this hemisphere and around the world?
Tomas:This rebellion reminds me of Bolivia, because of it indigenous
component. As in Bolivia, once the indigenous population determines that
it needs to be overturned, we see that they gain a determination that
has caused governments to fall. In the case of Oaxaca, the most likely
scenario is that the governor is going to be overthrown. What we are
seeing also is a political scenario that changes everyday. The news today
is that the political parties at the national level are all calling for
the governor to resign.
If the movement maintains the level and determination that we are
seeing, then we have this movement playing an important role in the national
politics and possibly a shift in the neoliberal government of Mexico.
Ron: Anything more to add?
Tomas: I was in the scene five minutes before the reporter from
indymedia was killed. I remember hearing the shots, people running all over
the place, unarmed mechanics, housewives. There was a woman there, I do
not know if she was a teacher, I only remember her words " This is our
moment, we cant go on living like this, it is enough. I went to school
barefooted and It makes me cry to see what happens here. Our only future
is the border with the United States, I makes me sad to see our young
finish a University Degree only to work as taxi drivers. This is our
moment, we can't let them continue to oppress us."
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather
Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big
Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art
and sex, Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at:
rjacobs3625@charter.net

2005-12-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

The hills were eroded and stained with shades of orange and blue and grey and green. We had gone looking for pieces of pre-hispanic pottery. It was here Guadalupe collected the colored earth to make her dyes. Its like a 1000 year recycling plan; The colored earth beneath our feet was the powdered remains of colored pots and figures from the distant past and would now be re-incarnated into new dyes to tint Lupe's yarns. The town nearby is called "Tlalpalpan" which means place of colored earth in Nahuatl.
St Brown

2005-12-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

In Oaxaca
Last saturday The Cinema Domingo Orchestra accompanied a projection of mexican 'erotic films' from the 1920's. Its a special selection curated from the Filmoteca Nacional. There was nothing 'erotic' about these films they were pure porn in living black and white. Amazing how little has changed in porn films in 80 odd years. Of course the lugar was packed all ages and all sexes. When I thought about it later I realized it was quite daring on the part of the Centro Fotografico to put this on for general public in a city known for its catholic conservatism. Anybody strolling in off the street would have been greeted with jose getting a mamada on the big screen. I had suggested to the director of the center that we set up a dark room because people were going to 'tener ganas' after seeing this material. The center has its own dark room which would have served nicely. nobody took me seriously. At dinner after the event the director of the center told us the custodian had found 2 chavos getting it on in the bathroom. So I was right after all. And I finally put my recordings of frogs and thunder and ice cream trucks and fireworks to good use. (not to mention the waldorf!)

Meanwhile in Atzompa...
Mayor: Im going to build you a bridge. How about that!!
Pueblo: But Señor Mayor we have no river in Atzompa.
Mayor: Well hey I'll take of that too!!

St Brown

2005-12-01T12:14:00.000-08:00

I work out of fear of lonliness.
when you work you are less lonely
then when you dont work.
--Rainier Werner Fassbinder
When the acrobats equilibrium is threatened, we make a wish
and this wish is strangely double, and null
We hope he will fall
and we hope he wont
and this wish is necessary
we are incapable of not having it.
--Jean Luc Godard

2005-08-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

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ON JAMES WHALE and THe BrIdE of FRANkENsTEIN

No institution — society, religion, marriage, or heterosexuality — was safe from the penetrating queer eye of James Whale. Make way for the homosexual creator!

BY GARY MORRIS

James Whale's initial refusal to do a sequel to his immensely popular Frankenstein (1931) eventually faltered when he discovered a strategy for creating a commercially viable product that would also — in subtext — subvert existing mores. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), in the guise of a comic horror tale, assaults the notion of the sanctity of standard sex roles and "family values."

While hindsight is rightly suspect as a critical tool, particularly when it's a cover for revisionist views that expect an earlier era to reflect contemporary values, Whale's campy masterpiece almost demands to be treated as one of the historical high-water marks of sexual subversion. The Bride can be read from a modern perspective as a homosexual joke on the heterosexual communities Whale — a gay man — served and benefited from: his "masters" at Universal and the mass audience to whom he could present unconventional images and ideas and see them unknowingly endorsed and approved in the most direct way possible: from the moviegoer's pocketbook. This is not to suggest a diabolical, schematic plan on Whale's part — it's more that a genre effort like The Bride, full of fantasy and monster-outsiders, was clearly the perfect medium for indulging the most radical aspects of a gay sensibility, a fact the sophisticated Whale — judging from the mountain of evidence within the film — was aware of on some level.

The film teems with homosexual presences behind and before the camera and within the narrative itself. In addition to the director's well-known orientation, there are major characters played by gay or bisexual men: Ernest Thesiger, one of the most outrageous queens of '30s movie queendom, and the rumored bisexual Colin Clive. Even the bride's (Elsa Lanchester) true-life husband, Charles Laughton, was a noted gay masochist, a fact that fits her nicely into the film's schema of the camp assault. Secondary characters like the maid Minnie (Una O'Connor) come off like shrieking drag queens, while the only successful, loving (if woefully brief) relationship in the film is that between two unmistakable outsiders, both men — the monster and an old blind hermit (O. P. Heggie) — who set up house like the blissful married couple they might, in a more just society, be permitted to be.

Some critics have complained about the opening sequence, where Mary Shelley sits in a plush parlor sewing and chatting with her husband Percy Shelley and their friend, Lord Byron. This scene, allegedly irrelevant to the narrative, actually goes far in establishing Whale's tone of homosexual revenge on his patrons. The two men are heavily made up and look, talk, and act with an outlandish, caricatured femininity that has no discernible purpose except as camp comedy. The elegance of the interior, the high-pitched humor of the scene, and the relaxed, amused, adult relationship of the three present a model of what might be read as Whale's ideal family: two gay men and a sympathetic but sexually undemanding female; three intelligent, creative beings on an equal footing. It's significant that this scene which radiates not only archness but also wholeness, pleasure, and satisfaction, cuts — through Mary's storytelling — to one of heterosexual horror, a violent tableau of a mob wreaking havoc on a "monster" it can't comprehend.

The film posits Henry Frankenstein's experiments with resurrecting the dead as above all a threat to the "normal" functioning of the chief straight (at least theoretically) relationship here, that of Henry and fiancee Elizabeth. She states it plainly: "The figure of death seems to be reaching for you, as if it would take you away from me." The seductiveness of "death" threatens to part them. But "death" here can also be read as a heterosexist vision of homosexuality, a kind of barrenness, the inability — or worse, indifference — to producing children. Henry's crime, and his lure, is therefore: homosexuality.

When Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) arrives, he becomes part of a trio that echoes the opening scene of Mary, Percy, and Byron. Again, Whale shows us two "queens" — the mincing Pretorius and the emotionally overwrought Henry, whose attempts to marry and enter into conjugal hetero bliss with his wife are endlessly thwarted by the film. Thesiger plays the part as the grand dame he was in real life; in the film he is the diabolical ticket for Henry's re-entry into the demi-monde of fantastic homosexual creativity that finds its ultimate visualization in the stunning "creation of the Bride" sequence that ends the film.

Of course, society will not tolerate such stuff and Pretorius tells us, in typical smirking, superior homosexual style, that he was "booted out" of the university "for knowing too much." His dislike of conventional love is oft-repeated; when he shows Henry the miniature people he's created, he points to a king and queen and says, "Even royal amours are such a nuisance." His stance of amused disgust at not only straight relationships but the religious institutions that buttress them is revealed when, somewhat shockingly for a 1930s movie, he mocks the bible and says things like, "Sometimes I wonder if we'd all be better off being devils, and no nonsense about angels."

The "gods and monsters" of The Bride
relax and enjoy tea and art in this rare
shot from the film.

The monster (Boris Karloff) can be seen as the terrifying "child" of the unholy "marriage" of Pretorius and Henry — Henry the father in giving it life, Pretorius a mother-figure who nurtures it. The monster is society's paranoid vision of the logical outcome of a homosexual tryst. It is a child in many ways: inchoate, demanding affection and attention, unreasonable and violent when crossed. Like a child, too, his sexuality is unsettled, bisexual, his attentions captured equally by the male hermit and his possible female bride. Henry exhibits an overall revulsion toward his "child," alternately excited and repulsed by what he has produced; Pretorius is the monster's more involved, but manipulative, even abusive parent figure — the embodiment of society's fears of the vast damage the homosexual, nefariously moving into the role of domestic caretaker, teacher of social values and sex-role attributes, is capable of doing.

Whale's own Pretorius-like distaste for the heterosexual model of domestic bliss is evident in the sequence of the monster and the blind man. Their scenes together are extraordinarily powerful, resonant on several levels: as satires of the nuclear family, full of the little familiarities and comic-sympathetic interchanges supposed to be typical of families, and one of their chief pleasures; and as a bitter view of society's ultimate responsibility for seeing intelligent, sensitive people — read: homosexuals — as cripples and monsters. Whale moves brilliantly between pathos and humor in these encounters, with their ultimate effect being to cast the monster into a highly sympathetic light.

Unlike the censorious society around him, the blind man — the monster's first mate — is not judgmental. He assumes that Frankenstein is a criminal, or someone in trouble, but says, "You needn't tell me about it if you don't want to." He is in fact open and loving: "I have prayed many times for God to send me a friend ... I shall look after you, and you will comfort me." He even refers to the two of them as children, hence innocent: "Out of the silence of the night ... you've brought two of your lonely children together." No mistake — this is a marriage, and a viable one. The monster wants to learn, the hermit wants to teach, and both are driven by a need for acceptance and love. But Whale reminds us quickly that society does not approve. The monster — the outsider — is driven from his scene of domestic pleasure by two gun-toting rubes who happen upon this startling alliance and quickly, instinctively, proceed to destroy it.

The rest of the film continues to find Henry and Elizabeth separated. First it was Henry's supposed death that stood in the way. Then it was his obsession with death and forced friendship with Pretorius. Then it was Elizabeth's kidnapping by the monster. Finally, the film allows the relationship to proceed, but ironically only after offering another strikingly bizarre tableau of marriage: the bride in her tattered, bandagey version of a wedding dress, given away by substitute father Pretorius, to the tune of Franz Waxman's mock-wedding bells. The final shot of Henry and Elizabeth united outside the ruined castle cannot eradicate the fantastic vision of the bride's hissing hatred of her "mate," the monster.

Rejected by his betrothed, the monster in a sense grows up, becomes able to make moral decisions. He decides to dispatch himself along with Pretorius and the castle-laboratory. This allows Whale to return the world to "normal" as convention and his bosses at Universal would have dictated; it lets Henry and Elizabeth emerge finally as a successful — mated — couple. Still, Henry seemed much more at home as the hysterical scientist tampering homosexually with "God's plan" of creation.

The film's major set-piece is the creation of the Bride, shot (by John Mescall) in a spectacular studio lightning storm with dazzling forced perspectives, tilted angles, and wide-angle close-ups of the crazed participants. The mixture of comically portentous music and wild visuals create a symphony of creation — but of what? This is the final flowering of the Pretorius-Henry "forced marriage." They work together to "give birth" to a woman, two homosexuals replacing the heterosexual model of male and female parenting and replacing God — annihilating those noxious enemies of homosexuality, society and religion, in one blow. Whale's magical rendering of this scene, one of the greatest in Hollywood history, validates the power not only of Pretorius-Henry's homosexual creativity, but also of his own tremendous abilities as a gay artist. His orchestration of the creative elements of filmmaking — acting, music, camera, cutting — mirrors the orchestration of the elements of life by his stand-ins, Thesiger and Clive. The intense dynamism of this scene serves as Whale's reminder to the audience — his Hollywood bosses, peers, and everyone watching — of the majesty and power of the homosexual creator.

July 1997 | Issue 19
Originally appeared in issue 11 (1993) of our discontinued print edition
Copyright © 1993, 1997 by Gary Morris

2005-08-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

"Champions of the double moral, the right plans to impose on the (mexican or_______________write in your home country) society a system based on exclusion in the stead of inclusion,on the philosophy of soap operas in the stead of scientific knowledge, on intolerance in the stead of respect for the different, racism instead of human values, charity in the stead of justice, on the closet in the stead of manifest freedom, on hypocrisy in the stead of honesty...All told its the Middle Ages again , with internet and High-Definition TV."
---from Read a Video
subcomandante marcos

2005-08-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Storm in Amsterdam

Minutes before we began to play B expressed misgivings . He said he was nervous about singing this particular song. We were about to rehearse a piece from the Tuxedomoon repertoire with a group of Five teenage Moroccan musicians. We chose this piece as a possible second song to do because originally we had recorded it in the studio with two Moroccan musicians. And with its arabic feel it seemed a likely choice as a piece to rehearse together with the Moroccans for the next days’ performance. At a certain point in the song B breaks into a solo chant. On the record one of the Moroccans had sung this part. The chant is sung like a call to prayer a kind of incantation. Sometimes B will sing Allah Hu Akbar in the course of his solo. He had been greatly inspired by Sufi singers and in fact had himself lived in a Sufi commune in San Francisco. For him as a Sufi it was not extraordinary or of questionable taste to sing the Muslim call to prayer. As soon as it came to that part in the song there in our rehearsal space in the basement of a place called Illuseum in Amsterdam the first syllable of A l l a h came out and it dawned on me what B had been nervous about. I hadn’t even thought about him singing this above all at this place and time. Within seconds the leader of the group stood up and began shouting. The other boys didn’t seem the least bit upset but this one had to be followed and they all stormed up the stairs. B sitting on his amp, me behind the organ, P in other room with his bass, and Luc standing with his trumpet. The music stops. We stare as one of the youngsters the red haired wild one stops at foot of stairs and presumably trying to reassure us says they are taking a cig break. It was a half ironic gesture on his part, the more so since none of them smoked.
We remained frozen there for a minute. Later the boys were grouped across the street. Alex Ivanov the noble cameraman documenting our participation in the festival decides to go speak to them. It’s clear something must be done and the rest of us are immobile. B offers to go with him and would later recount what transpired. He had explained to the leader that he was a sufi and when he sings Allah Hu Akbar it is in earnest and with respect. The youth replies that you cannot sing this in secular music. (B would later refute this to us citing the example of Nasfrat Ali Khan) He recommends that B sing ‘Habibi Habibi’ instead if he wants to sing something in arab. Two different points of view in this mini religious congress on With de Witstraat in west Amsterdam. After their discussion the boys come back downstairs and we play music together. The leader takes over the piano and they play us some of their tunes. Quite interesting, a kind of Moroccan salsa. We rehearsed once more a TM song (different one) we were to do together the next night at the Melkweg concert ,bid adieu and that was the end of another long day in the Nieuw Atlantis Festival. A happy end to a very tense situation. It was indeed a noble move on their part when they returned to rehearsal after the outbreak. Everyone was relieved. They behaved in a mature way. But the day of the concert they didn’t show up. We heard later that they had called asking about money of which there had been no mention, and were referred to speak directly to us. They never did. Was this just a ruse to not show up? The real reason being religious based? Perhaps. Or simply a beginning bands bravado in action? Chalk it up as another arabesque in all our lives. What is true is that the explosive rehearsal took place on 8 July. Later we would learn that on 7 July a subway train and a bus were bombed by Al Quaida in London leaving some fifty dead.
Amsterdam
July 2005

2005-05-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

St BrownJust saw The Weather Underground a documentary film by Sam Green and Bill Siegel. I bought the DVD in US to see it and to play it with sp subtitles in Cinema Domingo in Mexico.
The immediate parallel I found myself referring to was the Cockettes Documentary. Stylistically they resemble one another--newsreel or amateur footage from the time, newspaper clippings,contemporary interviews with the survivors...In addition the time period covered was the same..late 60s to mid late seventies. I was thrilled and inspired by both groups. I worked in one of them (the Angels of Light...daughter of Cockettes) I think somehow in our own ways we believed that what we were doing was just as profound in a political social and cultural way as what the Weather Underground was about. For one thing the Angels were an anarchist vegetarian tri-sexual gender fuck commune or cadre . Visitors passing through regularly. At one point there were many many communes in San Francisco buying food from a food coop. there was a commune that ran a community off set printing press , another that baked bread, music communes, we did free theater, and simply groups of free spirits living together whose day to day lives were works of living art and hence political. Had the Weather Undergrnd had the same appeal as the Angels of Light I dont think I would have hesitated.
In the documentary the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton is covered. The film points out that Hampton was a powerful and dynamic speaker and rapidly galvanizing the black community. It was decided to take him out he was 21 when he apparently died in his sleep in his home at 4am riddled with police bullets. I saw Hampton speak at rallies in Chicago. This was the time of the Chicago 7 Conspiracy trials and there were rallies for that and against the war all the time in Chicago. I saw the young Jesse Jackson speak on various occasions. He was hypnotic and charismatic and sexy. A fotog friend of mine gave me 8x10 b&w prints of him once. Iwas 16 years old and living in the very white suburbs. Still I could feel the force resonating in the inner city. Iwanted to learn more..I really wanted to be a part of this energy this struggle for liberation for lack of better words. I took super 8 films of the rallies. I first saw the controversial new picasso in Chicago at a rally in front of the Federal Building.
In 1971 I drove with carload of student friends from Macomb Illinois to Washington DC to get arrested in the MayDay anti war -Shut Down D.C- demonstration organized by SDS president(?) Rene Davis. I made a film that I would show back at W.I.U. on 3 screens with stereo sound...
A few years later I was doing sci-fi drag musicals with a free theatre group in san Francisco.
Now looking back it seems a logical step.

2005-02-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

St Brown
INTHE BEGINNING

Inthe beginning God created heaven and earth, and the lights in the sky and the thundering seas and the beasts of the earth and air and water. And he created a man named Adam and set him in a fair garden and said to him: "Adam you are the crown of my creation . Your duty to me is to be happy but you must work for your happiness discovering that it is in work that happiness lies. Your work will be pleasant work, that of tending this garden wherein all manner of pleasant fruits and roots have been planted by my Divine Hand for your delectation and sustenance. And you shall overlook the lives of the beasts that none may pray wantonly on another. And this must be so death may not come to the garden, for it is a garden wherein immortality must flourish like the rose." And Adam said " I do not know these words death and immortality; what do they mean?" And God replied: "Immortality means that each day will be followed by another day and there will be no end to it. But death means that you would not be able to say: 'This I will do tomorrow', for the existence of death means the doubting of the existence of tomorrow. Do you understand?" Adam in his innocence said that he did not but God said it was no matter.
One evening when God was walking in the cool of the garden Adam spoke boldly and said "Lord I am lonely." the Lord exclaimed at that and said "Lonely? How can you be lonely that have my love, that were created to ease my own loneliness for in you I see the liniments of myself and in your voice hear something of my own voice." But Adam said . "Lord I would that you created one like to myself endowed like myself with speech one that could tend the garden with me and at day's end eat and drink and rest in companionship, two of one kind the one like to the other. And God said ,"It is right that I made you Adam because you conceive of things whereof I do not conceive. It shall be as you ask. Eat, drink, retire to rest and when you wake with the sun you shall find lying beside you one like to yourself who shall be as a companion to you and his name shall be Yedid whose meaning is friend."
And it was as God said for while Adam slept God took of the dust of the earth and breathed life into it and when Adam awoke there lay by him one like unto himself and in joy Adam was compelled to grasp his companion in love and kiss him with the kiss of his mouth. God saw this and wondered, for Adam had learned that fullness of heart for another that He the Lord God felt for Adam.

2005-02-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

The hands of time are about to mark the instant in which this agonizing society must die. The flames of discontent flare up with every breath of a tyranny ever more arrogant and cruel, in any country. Here and there fists are clenching and minds are opening, hearts are pounding violently and where it is not whispered it is shouted, everyone breathing for the moment in which the hands calloused by 100 centuries of labor must drop their fertile tool to lift the rifle that nervously awaits the hero's caress.
Compañeros this is a solemn moment. This is the prelude to the biggest political and social catastrophe of all time: the insurrection of all peoples against the existing conditions.
MANIFIESTO 16 MARCH 1918

Ricardo Flores Magón was one of principle framers of Mexican revolution and friends of those who would later form the 'revolutionary' government. At one point he was offered the vice presidency under the brief reign of Venustiano Carranza. Writing from the federal penitenciary in Leavenworth Kansas in the year 1920, 2 years before his death to his friend Nicolas Bernal:

My comrades from those days are all generals, governors secretaries of state, one even made it to president. They are all rich and powerful now, and I live in darkness, sick and almost blind with a number for a name, branded as a criminal, rotting amongst this herd of wretches stupid and ignorant enough to have stolen a piece of bread when virtue consists in robbing millions. But my comrades are practical men; I have to pay the price of being only a dreamer.
They've been the ant and Ive been the locust (grasshopper) ; while they were counting dollars I wasted my time counting stars. I wanted to make men out of human animals; while they, being more practical have made animals out of men, installing themselves as the shepherds to the flock. Never the less I prefer being a dreamer to a practical man.

St Brown

2004-12-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

ninerain fans can go here to download music: www.iguanamusic.com

2004-11-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

St Brown

Welcome to Israel
Papers please.
On the last step of the stairway descending from the plane
before setting foot on the tarmac,
flourescent clad airport personel single out Carlos B.
They are immigration not airport workers and they ask Carlos and only him
for Identification. Carlos is Mexican.
His skin is the color of the earth
welcome to the promised land.
machine gun bag checks outside restaurants
look around...
the choosen people
Lia our hostess is a human rights watcher in the west bank
and tells us of the horrors there. She is Israeli living in Tel Aviv, one of many captive
unwilling cogs in the hell-machine.
On the one hand you want to praise the fortitude, the strength, the courage in striving for an ideal involved in the social experiment
that is Israel.
On the other hand you see the reality of the situation
the price being paid...even now my thoughts self-immolate before making it to paper
Security Check
Happily rolling to check in counter for our SN Air flight back to Bruxelles and we are directed to DOOR 41.
It was too easy coming down from Bruxelles. Well versed in the Israeli Security game we had expected the usual thorough search and questioning before check-in and it simply didint happen.
Leaving T.A. the plane is full of Israelis and we get our money's worth. The State of Israel protects its own.
Now approaching the dreaded DOOR 41 we see curtained cubicles, an agent with plastic gloves emerges followed by a very pale young man.
We all silently groan.
No plastic gloves just questions: "So if you live in the USA why do you go meet in Bruxelles...?" etc. psycho-grilling..and all bags x-rayed and bar coded
At one point B and I have to convince Big Cop that a tipsy Bruce isnt going to blow up the plane. "He's just happy...to be leaving!" I bite my tongue.
Faced with the grim reality of the situation you find yourself reciting a litany of everything the jews have contributed to the world.
in culture
in art
in science
in jurisprudence
it is an impressive list
worthy of a chosen people.

2004-11-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

Universal All Star Rating

On this tour Carlos our tour manager succeeded in getting local promoters to provide us with four star hotels on the nights we played. In between concerts dates we had to pay our own lodging and naturally choose more economical ones; two or three stars...

The Universal Hotel Star Rating for Touring Bands and How it Works...

There is a logorithmic formula at work here to determine roughly how many hors a touring musician will spend in a given hotel.
You take the number of stars the hotel is rated, multiply by the number in the follwoing key and you are given the number of hours likely to be spent in that hotel.Here is the table:

Number of stars:

1...........................multiply by ..................8........................equals 8 hours to be spent in this hotel
2...........................multiply by ..................4........................equals 8 hours
3..........................multiply....................2.......................equals 6 hours
4..........................multiply by ..................1........................equals 4 hours
5..........................multiply by.....................05...................equals 2.5 hours

This theory was sadly confirmed (yet again ) in Moscow where, on paper at least, we were staying in the Hotel Ukrainia. This is the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. We learned that Stalin spent some time in New York City in the 40's and came back to build 8 of these over-blown Waldorf-style Xanadus in a ring around Moscow. 1000 rooms inside this massive white building with a dramatic central spire topped by red star. The entry hall is pure Ernst Lubitsch with a neo romantic painted rotunda depicting the glory of communism in delicious pastels complete with hammer and sycle. Hallways wide as 2 lane hiways and 24 hour room service..and naturally we had 3 hours to not fall asleep here.

2004-11-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

Modern Day Miracle

This latest Tuxedomoon tour has been historic for us and for Europe. 25 countries signed a treaty for the new European Constitution in Roma the day after we played there and the same day we played Rimini.

On Nov. 2 The day of the Dead and appropiately the day of the U.S elections we played Le Botanique in Bruxelles.

Historic for us also for being the longest tour we've done since the 80's and for playing Portugal and Budapest for the first time.

The tour was a dizzying haze of climates, languages and races...
All night Latin party of Madrid to a luxury nightclub in re-modeled barge on the Danube in grey wet Budapest, government sponsored trendinessin Paris to a scuzzy basement music club beneath the mystery green streets of London
arrogant anarchists and balmy breezes of Roma to abandoned beaches of Fellini's birthplace Rimini
Nancy Jazz Fest and standing ovation in art-nouveau theatre,shopping shopping in Vienna amidst old Europe Hotel-Cafe and modern construction forever erecting,
From tense steamy stinky streets of Tel Aviv to long strange night of Moscow...

To experience all of this and more in a scant 5 weeks is truly miraculous. All the aches and pains, mental and physical, the crowded planes and vans the sleepless days and nights must in the end be worth it.
To make the harmonic conversion complete this whole adventure begins and ends and begins again in the capital of this country called Europe...Bruxelles...

st Modern Day Miracle

This latest Tuxedomoon tour has been historic for us and for Europe. 25 countries signed a treaty for the new European Constitution in Roma the day after we played there and the same day we played Rimini.

On Nov. 2 The day of the Dead and appropiately the day of the U.S elections we played Le Botanique in Bruxelles.

Historic for us also for being the longest tour we've done since the 80's and for playing Portugal and Budapest for the first time.

The tour was a dizzying haze of climates, languages and races...
All night Latin party of Madrid to a luxury nightclub in re-modeled barge on the Danube in grey wet Budapest, government sponsored trendinessin Paris to a scuzzy basement music club beneath the mystery green streets of London
arrogant anarchists and balmy breezes of Roma to abandoned beaches of Fellini's birthplace Rimini
Nancy Jazz Fest and standing ovation in art-nouveau theatre,shopping shopping in Vienna amidst old Europe Hotel-Cafe and modern construction forever erecting,
From tense steamy stinky streets of Tel Aviv to long strange night of Moscow...

To experience all of this and more in a scant 5 weeks is truly miraculous. All the aches and pains, mental and physical, the crowded planes and vans the sleepless days and nights must in the end be worth it.
To make the harmonic conversion complete this whole adventure begins and ends and begins again in the capital of this country called Europe...Bruxelles...

st

2004-08-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Suaves Geografias
Oaxaca just hosted its first International film festival read video. 7 days of screenings and workshops, seminars and panels. Oaxacannes I was dubbing it to friends .It was great to be able to go and watch short videos and films everyday from all over for free. Hermetic electronic noisy from Canada…Quirky goofy from Rotterdam, Hilarious grand guignol from Tijuana, and scores of s.e. mexico documentaries from indigenous communities. In fact that is the origin of this regional festival called Suaves Geografias (soft geographies) begun 6 years ago in Merida Yucatan. Besides being a happy member of the the audience I also had the privilege of taking a seminar with Pierre Bongiovanni director of the legendary Centre Pierre Schaffer in Montbelliard France. I had signed up 2 months earlier knowing it would fill up soon.
Patrick De Geetere old friend and great artist ( ‘a genius’ fellow videaste Bruno says) had spoken to me highly of the center 4 years ago suggesting I might go there to work one day. The Center is based in a chateau and if you are lucky enough to get a residence there you are provided with food lodging and state of the art studios and technicians. Patrick had been living and working there since the beginning of this year. Bruno the local organizer of the festival here in Oaxaca introduced me to Pierre and his partner Anne at the press conference. We struck up a conversation in French and the first topic was ..Patrick.. I then learned that the center had been shut down the week before having lost their subsidy. I was stunned by this new casualty of capitalism sauvage where government funding of culture is the first to get the axe…even in France. Expressing my shock and sadness Pierre stoically said the center had lasted 12 years and now it was time for a change.
His workshop was held in the beautiful Santo Domingo Cultural Center.
As with any festival it was impossible to see and do all you wanted. Jesse Lerner maverick filmmaker(American Egypt,Frontierlandia) and archivist from LA was giving a seminar in experimental film-making and I did manage to duck in there one afternoon and hand develop a roll of super 8 film in a dark room.
I also met Shannon Kelly former curator of the Out Fest in LA and since 2002 working with the Sundance Festival. He is really savy in the film world and articulate and fun…we took a trip to some pre-hispanic sites together one day.
The opening night inauguration of the festival found me playing a live musical accompaniment for a documentary of the 1935 earthquake in Oaxaca directed by none other than Sir Gay Eisenstein…2 saxes, one clarinet, bass guitar, percussion and waldorf synth. One week later we were still getting compliments. This took place in the main patio of the stunning ex-convent Santo Domingo. On the last day of the festival Suaves Geografias, Saturday August 7, I was awaked by a very strong earthquake .It was 6:45 am I got up went out and looked at the sun just peeking over the mountains…I love earth quakes…and this festival started and ended with one.

2004-07-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

They gave me a lovely dressing room...
a nail.

--h.y.

2004-07-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

They gave me alovely dressing room...
a nail.

--h.y.

2004-07-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Report from Waterland.....on the first leg of Tuxedomoon's Cabin in the Sky European tour...

Arriving Zagreb airport after friendly 60min prop plane ride from Vienna, we all head for the exit with our 250k on various carts and of course we are stopped by customs agent and must put everything through x-ray machine. The uniformed man asks if we are all musicians.."Yes", we meekly reply. Then to our astonishment he says "Alright go on ahead!"
Thus with joy in our hearts we enter the magical independant republic of Croatia. Everywhere people are happy, friendly. At one point desperate for answers Luc will ask a street vendor flat out; "Why is everyone so happy?"...."We have our problems...we dont have much money...but a smile is free..."A response worthy of Readers Digest as Blaine will later remark.
The first night in the restaurant B, well into his cups is happily served glasses of wine by the waiters who seem to actually enjoy his behaviour. Everyone we meet speaks perfect american english and our young hosts are conversant in any topic that comes up. The club where we play is run collectively by some 20 or so young people. They are direct, assured ,even tempered almost smug but with no malice. The beer (pivo) which is drunk in profusion here is pure as spring water.[(One of the legends as to how Zagreb got its name refers to the well in the old city square; a viceroy calls out to a pretty girl collecting water;'Manduso Zagrabi (scoop)]'  The water from the tap is as good as bottled and one of the finest in Europe says my new pal Damian. Hence a theory is hatched in my mind: The precious fluid of which we are all made may hold a key to the Croatian's constitution....
    On to Beograd (white city)
Our driver speaks only serbo-croat and happily chirps to us through-out the trip. He tries consistently to buy us beers and pays for our chocolate and tea. But this man, Yura by name, really won us over at the Serbian border. We had been alerted about this border as it is a real one ...not so common anymore in these parts...Our host in Zagreb mentioning the fact that we had "no drums or amps in our van was a good thing" did little to asuage our fertile imaginations. Yura not only sweet-talked 6 American passports and a van full of gear over the border he even got a smile out of a border guard in the process!!! The scene was grim with big potential for more.. We all had the same thought : E Germany in the 80's But thanks to Yura we breeze through and make it to Hotel Parc in city center with 1 hour to spare before sound-check.
We play in old Tito-era student center. Dragan our host and promoter from B92 says the place is falling apart because no one oversees its maintanance anymore. This place could be a gold mine for a capitalist entrepeneur. The complex houses 3 venues of varying sizes,3 floors, a giant internet cafe with 2 full bars, shops etc. The show here is the last of this leg of the tour and is the best by far. This is number 5 and we are tight and relaxed at the same time. The Belgrade audience of course has everything to do with the succesful show as well. We actually rouse ourselves from dressing room to descend 2 flights of stairs and do something we rarely do: re-play a song from the set, having already played our roster of 5 encores. Belgrade only in Belgrade.
    Next day Dragan gives us a tour of the hill where fortresses have stood since pre-history. Not hard to see why; far below us flow 2 rivers; the Seva and the Danube.. 2 mighty arteries of Europe that join here in beneath the hill.

               Look out the hotel night window
                Babilonian Hapsbourgian Byzantium
               Where am I ?
                You're in Beograd
                What am I doing here?
                You came to play a concert
                But ...didnt we just play a concert?...when was that...?

Beograd airlines are as ruthless as their european counterparts and we are fleeced of 1/3 of our meager earnings in excess baggage charges. This coming on the heels of a 900 euro fine in Roma and then being denied passage through security to board our plane. Why? Too many carry-ons!!!! Our lamentations "We are musicians!" fall on deaf ears We literally sit down in front of x-ray machines in a daze as the long line of passengers files by.

We are flying from Belgrade to Bruxelles.
Belgium is famous for beer, chocolate and grey rainy skies. Peter and I smile as the cloud cover appears on our approach to Zaventem airport. Another green green country...No deserts here! On one of our days off a trip to the Ardennes...Foy Notre Dame (foy old spelling of foi or faith) church built in 1623 to commemorate the discovery of a small stone statue of the virgin with child inside a tree that a local boat builder had cut down. Beautiful wooden ceiling with hundreds of painted panels from the school of Rubens.
We climb 'The Millenium Tower' located a few km off the main hiway. this 60 meter tal tower of steel and wood was built in 2001 on a high wooded plateau that has seen 4 previous towers. In this region during the second world war, resistance fighters were dropped by parachute to wait in the trees for orders. From the summit of the tower one has a 30 km view including nearby France;
Go to Rochfort where I buy 10 different cheeses to sample and we all sit down to trappiste beers; The ex-brother-in -law of Isabelle, Alan, tells us water stories...
Bruxelles gets its water from the same water that flows in the river Meuse. Its filtered and has a most unusual quality control system...A trout is contained in a tank through which the filtered water passes on its way to the citizens of Bruxelles. As long as the fish is alive and well, Bruxelles gets her water.Should the trout die, it will float into an electrode on the end of the tank and set off an alarm shutting off the flow of H20. Alan explains: A trout needs very clean water to survive...
          No Trout Fishing in Belgium...
Im drinking an Orval trappiste beer. As we sit at the table Alan points out the logo of this beer on its label: a fish with a ring in its mouth. Well, there's a legend behind the logo. The princess of Orval was at the spring one day drinking from what would one day be the source of Orval beer, when she lost her wedding ring in the depths. Her husband was away and she is wrought with anxiety that he will return and see her ring-less thus anulling their matrimony. Then miraculously a trout appears in the spring with the ring in its mouth.
    We drive through beautiful Dinant build along the river Meuse in the shadow of towering cliffs. A fortress lords over the city above the cathedral and there is even a cable car to take you up the cliff. Reminds me a bit of Lyon. Here Adolph Sax was born.
    Next day we head for Spa where all things healthy connected to this word were born in roman times. Land of the blue gold... L'or bleu...waterland.
I drank spa water for years when I lived in Bruxelles..."L'eau qui petille" We have lunch in this bustling tourist town then go to the musee de les eaux and then head for the source of the source...4000 hectares of bog (Les Hautes Fagnes). Before the bog a dense forest of intensly tonifying pines..moist and cold and invigorating...we are at highest geografic area in Belgium...Carlos happily running around like a young deer, we all feel great. The bog is surreal; flat rolling meadows dotted with dwarf trees. A wooden plank walk way extends for kilometers over gentle swells in this landscape that could unexpectedly take hold of your leg and not let go.... dark masse of woods on distant ridge, a mist rolls in and temperature drops steadily...this is werewolf country to be sure... We seek refreshment in a resto adorned with stuffed heads of giant wild boars and deers. People are speaking a strange german dialect.. its a perfect setting for a scene from the werewolf movie.
Watching the water fall from the sky into the bog I realize Im witnessing a colossal water filtration plant in action. Spa water is born here: rain water filtering through meters of peat bog and ending up in bottles and glasses around the globe.
Spa Rouge or Rood with the red label was a favorite in the early days in Bruxelles. Delighted we were to eventually discover Spa Orange and Spa Citron...
    I had to pull myself away from Bruxelles and Belgium. This my second visit in two years, I find myself liking the place more and more...But I force myself to leave the familiar and head for the less so...Paris
The day I leave with Bruce and Bernadette and Peter whom we drop at Charles De Gaulle ariport, the weather holds the promise of a repeat of last summers scalding heat....
...There are no fat people in Paris...
...a suivre...
paris 11 june 04

2004-07-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

From the Critical Art Ensemble...

   The idea of passively existing one moment then being violently thrown into non-existance the next makes people want to give their soverignity to a protector. The police state offers the illusion of total order, a place where such happenings are seemingly impossible, whereas the opposite is true. The police state, in fact dramatically increases the odds of violent death. Unlike the non-rational (and hence unpredictable)sociopath, the police state has instrumental reasons for killing... for example ; its own self-perpetuation.

    Generally the assumption is made that a long and healthy life is good. Perhaps in a buddhist culture this is understandable: If enlightenment can be reached in a single lifetime, one would want to live as long as possible to accomplish this lofty goal thereby excusing oneself from a return visit to the vale of tears.    However in both the secular and christian west the desire for a long life arises from a bio-cultural fear of dying. While the elderly are canonized as saintly and wise, they have little or no relationship to production, do not form an important consumer group and so are relegated to managed areas of counter-production to wait for death....Why then are people worried about the precious gift of life??? Like most commodities health as a means to longevity was chosen for them.
    There is every reason to decide that pleasure---even at the risk of deteriorating the body--- is more desirable than health and longevity, but everywhere are forces that discourage such a decision. Most notably, laws prohibit pleasure--everything is prohibited from recreational drugs to sodomy so that those who challenge the notion that health and production are the leading values in life can be persecuted as well as prosecuted.
The Fear of Death
and the non-rational value placed on life provides the perfect market for extortion:
                              "I'm making you an offer you can't refuse; If you pay
                                you may have a long life---but if you refuse..."

    Empowering the police state is not going to solve the drug problem...its mission is not to win the war on drugs. The DEA ( a bureaucracy of self-perpetuation) only exists if the war continues... As the war on drugs continues along with the hysteria it causes, remember that our autonomy ( such as it is) is what the state hopes to steal in this artificial conflict.

2004-04-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Existen pocos remedios para la ansiedad mejores que la reflexion.
Al plasmar un problema por escrito o al aurearlo en una conversacion, dejamos que afloren sus aspectos esenciales y asi, al conocer su naturaleza eliminamos si no el problema mismo, al menos las caracteristicas secondarias que lo agraban: confusion, desubicacion, sorpresa.

LO QUE ES Y LO QUE NO ES ESENCIAL PARA LA FELICIDAD:

NATURAL Y NECESARIO

AMIGOS
LIBERTAD
REFLEXION
MUERTE
ENFERMEDAD
SUPERSTITION
COMIDA
COBIJA
ROPA
NATURAL Y NO NECESARIO
GRAN MANSION
BANOS PRIVADOS
BANQUETES
SIRVIENTES
PESCADO
CARNE
NI NATURAL NI NECESARIO
FAMA
PODER

EPICURO 341-270 AC

2004-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

2004-02-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

William James said in one of his essays that we ought not to be content with passively experiencing the emotions aroused by music, or drama, or literature,
but should always try to give some active expression to the feelings aroused by art as soon as we can find an opportunity to do so. You are made joyful by the beauty of a Mozart sonata or an impressionist painting-- then try to communicate some joy to other people, or at least use it for your own improvement by some conversion of energy technique.

2004-02-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

"Its a little bit embarrassing that, after 45 years of research and study
the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder
to one another."
--Aldous Huxley

2004-02-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

CINEMA DOMINGO Y CINECLUB EL POCHOTE PRESENTAN:

domingo 8 de febrero

19:30 hrs.

Plazuela del Carmen

La Venganza del Camarógrafo

1912, Ladislaw Starewicz
Hilarante y bizarra 'comedia moral' (morality play) con 4 insectos....

La Mascota
1933, Ladislaw Starewiczv
Genial antecedente de Toy Story... un oso de peluche atraviesa un universo de juguetes vivos y seres extraños en la búsqueda de una naranja para una niña...

Ladislaw Starewicz:
Uno de los primeros y más originales pioneros de “stop-action” animación.
Nació en Polonia en 1882. En sus películas extrañas y bellísimas figuran insectos, escarabajos, libélulas, ranas y animales --todos animados.

Historia Naturae
1997, Jan Swankemeyer

Caracoles, insectos, cuerpos fragmentados, ejecutando su coreografía óptica.

Jan Swankemeyer:
Nació en 1934 en Praga estudió escenografía y títeres en el DAMU (Academia de Artes Escénicas de Praga) Inspirado en Meyerhold, Vertov, Eisenstein y Oscar Schlemmer. Es un surrealista toda su vida.
"La animación para mi, substituye una suerte de magia que tenían nuestros ancestros.."