My day started out awful today…

I woke up at 7:00 to get to my gym class, took a shower then spent forever looking for Mike because he said he’d come with me. Ha, turns out he’d already left and so I arrived to my gym class a few minutes late. My professor told me that I should start getting there “on time” and that it’s already happened twice. Not to mention I still had to make up two gym classes with her. I don’t stand too well with her, I’m sure. At the end of the class she offhandedly apologized so I went to English feeling a little bit better. My 6 page paper was due – the rough draft. I had it done! But it wasn’t looking so hot in content. I arrived a tad late for that class too because of printing issues – but Kurt (My english Prof) is always super nice and understanding. He helped my day out a lot. We got to peer review and he looked over mine giving me great tips. Sure, I have to rewrite a lot of it – but it’s worth it if it’s 40 % of my English grade.
~I’m a little bit tired  from last night – Nathan’s brother, Nick, came over; he was a lot of good fun. We went to Garvey (The cafeteria) and then played some games, talked about the army and listened to some music. Apparently he’s big into gaming…
Mike said he’d start doing some photography for my blog – I always forget to bring my camera when it matters so maybe this could be for the better.

As of late, I’ve had some major sleeping issues. It turns out that I hardly ever get sleep and none of it feels restful even if I do. I’m  contemplating takeing sleep medication – I think a lot of it is stress. But writing this blog is two-fold, it helps me relieve stress and it helps me remember parts of my life that I never want to forget. Hopefully my sleeping problem will get better – I want to exhaust everything else before I go to sleep medication; I hear it’s bad for you.

Beatus Vir Qui Suffrent Tentationem

.Rin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Ashwood_Garvey

Amy Ashwood Garvey

Amy Ashwood Garvey (10 January 1897 – 11 May 1969) was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist activist and the first wife of Marcus Garvey.^[1]

Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica as Amy Ashwood, she spent some years living in Panama, but returned to Jamaica to found the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) alongside Marcus Garvey in 1914. She organised a women’s section of the UNIA, and in 1918, she moved to the United States, where she worked as Garvey’s aide and as Secretary of the UNIA’s New York branch.^[2]

Ashwood became a director of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, and founded the Negro World newspaper^[2] before divorcing Marcus in 1922.^[3] She then moved to Britain, where she struck up a friendship with Ladipo Solanke. Together, they founded the Nigerian Progress Union, and she later supported Solanke’s West African Students’ Union,^[4] but in 1924 she returned to New York. There, she produced comedies with musician Sam Manning. Among these was “Brown Sugar,” a jazz musical production at the Lafayette Theater, which featured Manning and Fats Waller and his band.^[5]

In 1934, she returned to London, and with Manning, she opened the Florence Mills Social Club in Carnaby Street,^[6] a jazz club which became a gathering spot for supporters of Pan-Africanism.^[2] She was also involved with establishing the International African Service Bureau and the London Afro-Women’s Centre. She returned to New York and then Jamaica, where she organised the J. A. G. Smith Political Party.^[3]

In 1944, Ashwood again returned to New York, where she joined the West Indies National Council and the Council on African Affairs, and also campaigned for Adam Clayton Powell Jr. She moved back to Britain to organise the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress.^[3]

In 1946, Ashwood moved to Liberia for three years, where she began a relationship with the country’s president, William Tubman. She then returned to London, where she founded the Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.^[3] In 1959, she chaired an enquiry into race relations following the murder of Kelso Cochrane,^[2] before returning to Africa in 1960, then touring the Americas and finally returning to Jamaica.^[3]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Jacques_Garvey

Amy Jacques Garvey

Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey (December 31, 1895–July 25, 1973), born to George Samuel and Charlotte Henrietta (South) Jacques, in Kingston, Jamaica. According to the African American National Biography, Volume 3, and PBS, her birth year is 1896.

Amy Jacques Garvey was one of the pioneer Black women journalists and publishers of the 20th century, a fact that is often overlooked by historians. She came to New York in 1917 and soon after became involved with publishing of The Negro World newspaper in Harlem from its inception in August 1918. She became the second wife of Negro World publisher, Pan-Africanist and UNIA-ACL President General Marcus Garvey when they married on July 27, 1922, having been Amy Ashwood’s bridesmaid at Marcus’ first wedding. During her tenure from 1924 to 1927 as a Negro World Associate Editor, Amy Jacques Garvey added a page called “Our Women and What They Think”. She is mother to Garvey’s two sons, Marcus Jr. and Julius.

Amy Jacques was primarily responsible for the publication in the 1920s of both volumes of the Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey. After her husband’s death in 1940, she became a contributing editor to a journal, the African, published in Harlem in the 1940s. Even after Garvey’s death, Amy Jacques persevered and remained true to the on-going quest for African liberation championed by her husband, writing countless articles and letters.

In November 1963 Amy Jacques Garvey visited Nigeria as a guest of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was being installed as that nation’s first Governor-General. She published her own book, Garvey and Garveyism in 1963, as well as a booklet, Black Power in America: The Power of the Human Spirit in 1968. Her final work was the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey volume III, written in conjunction with E.U. Essien-Udom.

Amy Jacques Garvey died on July 25, 1973, in the city of her birth, Kingston and is buried in Saint Andrew Parish Church.

External links

• Amy Jacques Garvey at UNIA-ACL.org
• Chapter 1 of biography, The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey
• Amy Jacques Garvey at Find-A-Grave

Categories: 1895 births | 1973 deaths | UNIA members | Negro World contributors | Pan-Africanism | African American writers | Jamaican journalists | Jamaican women writers

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By Priscilla Lynne Young

 It is a May-December romance. She is 47 and he is 74. And they say that their spouses approve. That is because the romance that Christine Garvey and Charles Andrews share is with the beauty and still waters of Greenwich Cove as they row their scull boats.

On a warm August morning, Garvey and Andrews were finishing up a rowing session that began at about 7:00 a.m. A typical morning might be to row their sculls – or shells, as they sometimes are called – from the south end of the cove at Anderson’s Boatyard to the Goddard Park Beach and back. Andrews said that takes about an hour-and-a-half.

Though just past 8:30, the south cove was still calm. Birds flew overhead or floated on the mirror-like surface as a kayaker quietly dipped his oar in and out, in and out of the shimmering water.

31 July is African Heroes Day in the Africanist calendar. This is a day to commemorate and honour the founding fathers and mothers of the African liberation struggle.

Anton Mziwakhe Lembede passed on six decades ago in 1947 at the early age of 33. Lembede was a firebrand youth leader who pioneered the historic 1949 Nation Building programme. It is therefore fitting, as we commemorate the heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle, to pay special tribute to Lembede, who is regarded as the father of Africanism.

At the time when the liberation movement was docile and lacking in direction, it was Lembede and his contemporaries who breathed life into the liberation movement by putting forward a clearly defined Programme of Action which talked to relevant issues of the day – to fight for the freedom of the African masses from settler colonialism. It is this programme that also inspired the formation of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959.

The 21^st March 1960 anti-pass campaign which resulted in Sharpeville-Langa massacre was also part of the unfolding implementation of the 1949 Nation Building programme of action. All historical turning points of the Azanian liberation struggle have a chain-link to this programme.

We must forever salute Lembede for his remarkable contribution to the liberation struggle and pass on this history to generations of African children. Most importantly, we must continue the good work that he has started.

We must also acknowledge epic wars lead by gallant heroes such as Shaka, Bambatha, Sekhukhune, Makhado and other kings of the traditional African community. Their fighting spirit against colonialism lives in generations after generations. Our duty is to carry on fighting for the creation of an Africanist Socialist Democratic society in Africa, and an end to exploitation of man by man, passing on the fighting spirit to the next generations so that they can consolidate and defend the gains of the struggle.

It is equally our duty to defend the legacy of our heroes and heroines so that their selfless contribution is not in vain. It is at this juncture that we must pause and ask ourselves if the party of the poor African masses, the PAC, is living up to the expectations of our heroes and heroines – those who are late and those who are still alive.

It is our view, shared by many PAC members and the public alike, that the PAC has not lived up to its historic tasks. We must all rally around a common objective to correct this worsening tragic situation. In recent times, the PAC has allowed “a captured leadership, no longer with the ranks of the liberation movement”, in the words of the Pan Africanist Manifesto, to lead the PAC. This culpable group led by Letlapa Mphahlele, continues to wage a relentless war and inflicting grievous harm on the entire legacy of the party, veterans, party structures and its ideology. It is in the hands of the PAC to put an end to this carnage.

As we pay tribute to heroes of the liberation struggle: Sobukwe, Mda, Mothopeng, Masemola, Pokela, Madzunya, Biko, Phama, Poqo–APLA combatants and all freedom fighters, we must recommit ourselves to the struggle for liberation from landlessness, poverty and economic exploitation. We must also pay tribute to Garvey, Nkrumah, Lumumba and other African heroes across the African continent and the Diaspora.

The road ahead, as with all roads to freedom and economic justice, will be tough and bumpy.   The future of PAC is in the hands of its members and so is the future of the suffering poor African working class masses. We must turn the PAC into a revolutionary vehicle of the poor African working class masses and complete the noble revolutionary tasks started by our heroes and heroines.

Issued by the Pan Africanist Youth Congress (PAYCO)

Garvey Ink now available in store. We have 2 sizes available. Only classic violet in stock at the moment. Not to be used for tattooing.

Una selección de anuncios de bebidas alcohólicas españolas, pero de hace ya bastante tiempo.

nico, bodegas terry

patty shepard, fundador

garvey

tio pepe

<-Vivie, Sydney & The Den of Inequity     A Loose Cannon & The Catholic Church–>

Some might say that dysfunctional would be an appropriate word to describe my mother’s family, but I prefer the word colourful!  Mum had described her family to me as high Catholics, a phrase I have never understood the meaning of, but she would say it with such pride and a complete lack of irony, which amused me, particularly when I heard about some of the things the family got up to and which went completely against the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

For example they practiced Obeah – a form of witchcraft which was illegal and, if found guilty of practising it the penalty was flogging and/or imprisonment.

Some of them were involved in an illegal gaming club where prominent Jamaican men could be entertained by women in private rooms upstairs in the Den of Inequity – isn’t that called a brothel?

My Aunt Vivie was having an affair. 

My Aunt Chickie had an illegitimate son called Maurice.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that illegitimacy was the norm in Jamaica at that time, but it certainly wasn’t as frowned upon in Jamaican society as it was in England where the stigma attached to unmarried mothers was huge. 

My Aunt Gwennie had a very unpleasant boyfriend, Keith Rousseau, who used to beat her up and ended up in Court on a charge of causing her bodily harm.  The Daily Gleaner reported that he was fined £15, which I thought was a huge amount in those days – early 1930s.   His mitigating circumstances were that he had had too much to drink and couldn’t help himself! 

There were to be many more revelations in store for me on this journey discovering my Mum’s past – some not good at all, but some great, like hearing from Mum about my grandfather Henry, or Pops as she called him.  My grandfather was a bit of a rogue, by all accounts, and I have no idea whether we bore any similarities.  However, we did have two things in common.  We both had the same hero – Marcus Garvey and we both disliked my Great Aunt Martha, my grandmother’s (Becky) sister.  

 Olga’s Diary (Continued)

                 Pops:     My Pops lives in one roomed shack behind the meat market now that he doesn’t live with us any more.  Mammie threw him out because of his womanising ways and drinking.   He has a meat stall in the Victoria Market down on the harbour side and every Saturday morning, regular as clockwork, I have to go down there and collect the meat for the weekend.

                 We always have a little talk before he hands over our meat.  You see, that’s Pop’s way of contributing to the family.  He always asks after Mammie.  I feel sorry for him, he’s all alone and I think he still loves Mammie.

  My brothers and sister don’t often see him.   I think it’s because he’s black.  To be honest, I don’t like being seen with him really either, but he is my Pops and I do it because Mammie asks me to.

In spite of his drinking, Pops is a proud and dignified, but lonely man who collects his memories in a big thick scrapbook;   things that have a special meaning, like the letters Mammie wrote to him before they were married.  He says when he reads them they remind him of how much they were in love and how they thought they could break down the colour prejudice barriers that there were because a black man and a white woman “had the temerity” to marry. “

“That was what people said” he’d tell me.   Pops likes to mimic the posh British accent.

“Mammie and I had the temerity to marry, Olga, isn’t it simply awful, my dear”.  He can be very funny sometimes.

Pops has a big stamp collection as well and, do you know, I have no idea where he gets those stamps from because the only people I know who live abroad are my sister, Birdie and Aunt Martha and I know Birdie doesn’t write to him and Aunt Martha and Pops don’t even speak to each other let alone write, they hate each other so.   Pops knows I want to go to England for six months so I can study at the same dance school as Birdie and Mammie will only agree to my going if I stay with Aunt Martha. 

It was my Pops who first called Aunt Martha the “White Witch of Paddington” hinting that she was like Annie Palmer, a well known, but evil woman, from Jamaica’s past. 

Annie Palmer was known as the “White Witch of Rose Hall” and married John Palmer who owned a Great House, called Rose Hall, which had been built at great expense on a hillside overlooking their vast plantation and the Caribbean. 

Annie Palmer practised Obeah, smoked ganja, drank heavily and was often seen dancing naked in the moonlight.  She also tortured her slaves, murdered three previous husbands – poisoning one, stabbing another and then, if that wasn’t enough, poured boiling oil into his ears, and she strangled the third husband.  Eventually one of her slaves murdered her in her bed.

I didn’t think there was that much similarity between Aunt Martha and Annie Palmer, except maybe their height, Annie Palmer was 4’ 11” and Aunt Martha’s not much more, but Pops said if I was ever unlucky enough to get to know Aunt Martha better,  I’d be able to work out for myself the similarities between them.

“Don’t trust her, particularly if she’s being nice, because she’s bound to be plotting something” he once told me.

On the front cover of Pops scrapbook are photographs of all of us at various stages in our lives, usually to do with a religious occasion. 

There’s one of Birdie being confirmed, Chickie cradling her son, Maurice, after he had been baptised, and a separate one of Dolly, Ruby, Pearl and me, after we’d made our First Holy Communion wearing our long white dresses with wreaths in our hair, and a beautiful wedding photograph of Boysie and Minah and all the family outside the Holy Trinity Cathedral.  But in pride of place, right in the middle of us all is a cutting from the London Evening News.

Pops’ hero is Marcus Garvey.  He gets his cuttings from the supply of old newspapers he keeps to wrap the meat in that he sells.

Extract from Marcus Garvey’s Speech to an audience at The Royal Albert Hall, London, 1928 

“….you can enslave as you did for 300 years the bodies of men, you can shackle the hands of men, you can shackle the feet of men, you can imprison the bodies of men, but you cannot shackle or imprison the minds of men.  No race has the last word on culture and on civilisation.  You do not know what the black man is capable of; you do not know what he is thinking and therefore you do not know what the oppressed and suppressed Negro, by virtue of his condition and circumstance, may give to the world as a surprise”

We all know Marcus Garvey.  He’s a bit of a troublemaker.  Mad as a hatter going round preaching and stirring up trouble.  The first time I heard his name was a few years ago and I’d gone down to the market to pick up our meat. Wherever I looked on the docks there were hundreds of red, black and green flags tied to everything and anything, all waving in the wind.  Pops told me that all the decoration and bunting was for a “glorious man” The Hon. Marcus Garvey, D.C.L. who was arriving from the United States.  When I asked him what D.C.L. stood for he said “Distinguished Coloured Leader”. 

Garvey is Jamaican and from a big family too.  His parents were poor and as a child he knew about hunger and colour prejudice and some people say that’s why Garvey hates white people.  But he says what he hates is the system in Jamaica which keeps the poor man down and the poor are mostly black people. 

Pops says black people lack self-esteem and Garvey wants them to have sense of pride in their race, colour and country.  Garvey encourages them to “study hard and go into business and unite and help each other and become independent of white Jamaican society who have created two Jamaicas, one white or near white and wealthy and the other black and poor”.

 Sydney hates Garvey and says he’s a troublemaker, a swindler, a crook only wanting to get rich quickly and Vivie says he practises Obeah. 

Well, honestly, doesn’t everybody?

Garvey holds political gatherings in Edelweiss Park where he puts on entertainment, shows, dance contests, musical presentations, plays and boxing for the benefit of the black people in Kingston.  Ruby, Dolly and I were forbidden to go to his rallies, but in true Jamaican tradition, we go in secret. 

<–Vivie, Sydney & The Den of Inequity             A Loose Cannon & The Catholic Church—>

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This place is A-MA-ZING. Located right next to Los Angeles City College, Scoops is the go-to place for tasty, homemade (and vegan!) ice cream. Two scoops for under $3!

They’ve been known to have some crazy-sounding flavors like strawberry balsamic vinegar and goat cheese with fig. I decided to stick with pistachio rose water on my first visit. No lie, my roommate and I were almost brought to tears of joy. We’re huge pistachio ice cream fans, and SC rarely ever stocks pints of pistachio Haagen-Dazs, so Scoops definitely hit the spot. They also let you submit suggestions for new flavors. I’m rooting for pumpkin pie!

If you’re ever near Koreatown or Los Feliz, do yourself a favor, and check out Scoops. This place is like a mini Willy Wonka factory.

And the Monterey Park Daikokuya has arrived! They’re in their “soft pre-opening” stage, since they have yet to obtain official licensing from the health department. For now, they’re open only for dinner, which starts at 6 PM. This location doesn’t have the combination deals (sad face), but it’s still good. 

Please note that it’s in the three-story building located on the corner of Atlantic and Garvey in #241 (the north side). Hopefully you all aren’t directionally challenged like I am; it took us literally 30 minutes to find this place during a previous visit. Wow.

I just wanna take the time to acknowledge and show appreciation to some forerunners of Balck Revolutionary thought, for whom without them this world would not have the same structure it has today.  I know yall dont like to read  ya Black Facts but I couldnt find any video on these brothas cuz they were too revolutionary….so I’ll try to make it brief. Hope you ready for this science I’m about to drop!

Imma start with Toussaint L’Ouverture. For those who don’t know who he is he’s probably the most prominent Black figure of the late 18th and early 19th century. Born a slave to the Breda plantation on the island of Santo Domingo (which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Toussaint lead a life not like many other slaves. He had the favor of his master and was given a formal education, a move considered very controversial at the time.  Marcantilism was the root of every Caribbean economy, with sugar plantations fueling much of the development in the region. The isalnd of Santo Domingo is the third largest in the Caribbean, but as far as production went, it was one of the most fertile of the islands, second only to Cuba. This is no wonder why the British, the French, and the Spanish all fought for it’s control. In 1790, withthe help of rebels, slaves , and guerillas who resided in the mountains, Toussaint L’Ouverture began the Haitian Revolution against the French, defeating the forces of Napoleon, twice. Although he decieved and eventually arrested as a war criminal, the revolution carried out in his honor and the Haitians were victorious, gaining their independence in 1804, becoming the first black independent nation in the Western Hemisphere. The Revolutionary thought of this man inspired the likes of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, leaders in Spanish Americas fight for independence.

Next is Marcus Garvey, one of the leaders of Pan-African philosphy. Marucs Garvey maintained that  Africa could become as technologically, and scientifically advanced, as well as advance in many other ways, as other nations around the world.This could only be possible when Africans arounf the world united in that common goal. He encouraged Blacks to migrate back to Africa for this purpose, a view that many Black Americans detested., most notably W.E.B. DuBois. These two men were clear cut opponents when it came to the ideology of the Black race, but at their time, no two were more influential. Garveyism would go on to inspire Black Nationalism in the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and the Rastafrianism movement, which regarded him as a prophet.

Last but most definately not least, is none other than Emperor Halie Selassie of Ethiopia. He is believed to be a drict decendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and was believed to be God incarnate to the Rastafarian movement. Prior to World War II Selassie promoted multilateralism and collective security, the founding principles of the United Nations, and its predecessor, the League of Nations. He spoke out against the use of chemical warfare, which at the time was used by fascist Italian forces to eradicate his people. As a member of the Orthodox Christian Church, which has endured a longhistory in Ethiopia, henever denied or acknowledged his being God incarnate, but supported the Rastafari and sent much aid to Jamaica and the Caribbean. He was a prolific thinker and is responsible for the following quote.

“That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained and until the ignoble but unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique, and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and goodwill; until all Africans stand and speak as free human beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty; until that day, the African continent shall not know peace. We Africans will fight if necessary and we know that we shall win as we are confident in the victory of good over evil”

For more on these guys google their names, but do not rely on Wikipedia for most of its information is inaccurate at best.

The latest rumor in the industry is that Jane Garvey may be tapped as Deputy Transportation Secretary.

Many in the press have criticized the choice of former Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood for Transportation Secretary because of his lack of transportation experience.  As a former FAA Administrator, Garvey would bring some executive FAA experience to the Office of the Secretary.

Although Secretary LaHood has very little aviation experience, he does have significant experience working with Congress and forming coalitions across the aisle.  He also has a good working relationship with the President.

«Ockham y su naranja» Tabla mameluca del s.XIV

Filosofía y frutas: una mágica ecuación que nos ha dado grandes satisfacciones a los espíritus inquietos que lejos de conformarnos con cubrir nuestras necesidades primarias, cultivamos el conocimiento y gustamos de la meditación y el estudio. Cuestiones de importancia trascendental como el libre almendrío, la ya clásica naranja de Occam, el estado de cereza filosófica del que tanto dudaron los escépticos, por no mencionar a los sabios alquimistas en busca de la pera filosofal, han despertado nuestro más apasionado interés y nos han ayudado a responder a los grandes interrogantes de nuestras, en ocasiones, atormentadas almas. Pero (ay) cualquier dicha es efímera, las parcas siguen hilando en su rueca infernal y mientras nos recreamos con nuestras insignificantes frutas como cerdos en el lodo, la muerte planea sobre todos nosotros y puede lanzarse en picado en cualquier instante. Es más, lo hará.

Por eso y porque la historia de la humanidad ha sido prolija en vidas insulsas, que han dado como resultado muertes idem, creía necesaria esta galería de muertes estúpidas de mentes privilegiadas. La belleza universal, la que resiste a cánones estéticos pasajeros y moralidades con fecha de caducidad, es la de lo disparatado, lo imperfecto y lo absurdo. Toda esta lista de cadáveres torpes, irracionales y esperpénticos tiene como fin animaros a añadir el vuestro propio a la pirámide que la historia construirá algún día con todas estas muertes insensatas. Que los humanos que hayan destacado prediquen con su ejemplo y sus muertes sean el molde de las piezas con las que se construya. Da igual si las generaciones futuras nos colocan en los cimientos del edificio o en la cúspide, nuestras anécdotas pervivirán en un monumento imaginario a la estupidez humana, eso que ni los ingleses de la Edad Media nos pueden quitar y que los de los 70 tan bien aprecian.

Empédocles y Crísipo. Junto a estos dos griegos porque estoy deseando acabar con la serie; la calidad del texto restante os lo demostrará. Empédocles se lanzó al interior del Etna (por entonces activo) en el 430 AC para demostrar a sus coetáneos que estaba tocado por los dioses. Del ala también. Crísipo se murió de risa en el 207 AC al ver a su burro, al que previamente había emborrachado, intentado comer higos. Ha pasado tanto tiempo que muchas de las muertes de los clásicos pueden ser difamaciones deliberadas de sus enemigos después de que muriesen, o incluso errores de traducción. Dicen que aquella cita surrealista de Jotacé “es más fácil que pase un camello por el ojo de un aguja que un rico entre en el cielo” es en realidad un error de traducción y que ese “camello” en griego en realidad quería decir “soga”. Lo dicho, vete a saber.

Moliére (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) Amigo de Lully y dramaturgo como Esquilo, Moliére es uno de los pocos franceses que las personas decentes tenemos en alta estima. Fíjense además que de los escasos que podrían salvarse de una necesaria yihad cultural al norte de los Pirineos, la mayoría no eran franceses. Marat era suizo, Chagall bielorruso, Tristan Tzara rumano y Josefina de Martinica. Xenofobias aparte resultado de una miserable beca Erasmus que casi vuelve loco al que escribe (hola si estás leyendo esto), Francia está muy bien porque si no existiera, Moliére habría nacido en otro sitio. El brillante autor de “Tartufo” o “El burgúes gentilhombre” la espichó en escena, debido a que, además de escritor de comedias y francés, era actor. Mientras interpretaba al protagonista de “El enfermo imaginario” sufrió un violento y letal ataque de tos. Qué elegante es a veces Tána-tos. Gracias, gracias; mi libro está en el escaparate.

Harry Houdini En cambio Estados Unidos sí que es un gran país. La bulliciosa Nueva York, el encanto cajún de Nueva Orleans, Miami y sus playas, San Francisco con su mezcla de gays y policías duros, Oakland con sus negros adictos al crack y Seattle repleta de antiglobalización y grunges. Ajeno a todo esto Houdini nació en Hungría,  pero pronto enmendó su error y con cuatro añitos ya residía en la sin par Wisconsin. Una vez allí se convirtió en el mago y escapista más famoso de la historia. Un detalle de su vida que suelen olvidar los ikeres y similares cuando explican sus hazañas es que dedicó sus últimos años a una cruzada para desenmascarar a los supuestos espiritistas que se aprovechaban de la credulidad de la gente (y de los cadáveres aún calientes de la I Guerra Mundial) para llenarse los bolsillos. De todas formas, quien tuvo retuvo y Houdini no desaprovechaba ninguna oportunidad para lucirse. Una noche en la que había bebido demasiado, invitó a que le pegaran puñetazos en el estómago porque “sabía contener el dolor”. Lo que desconocía es que tenía un principio de apendicitis; le reventaron el apéndice y murió de hemorragia interna.

Alexander Bogdanov Hace relativamente poco convocaron una votación popular en Rusia para elegir al “ruso de la historia”. Salió Alexander Nevsky, al que todos los cinéfilos tenemos manía desde que Einsenstein, alias “monto-super-bien-pero-mis-pelis-son-un-coñazo” le dedicase un biopic. En cambio, nos llena del más tierno e infantil regocijo que en tal concurso el padrecito Stalin quedase en tercer lugar, aunque partiese con el handicap de ser georgiano y no ruso, chisquilloso inconveniente que sin duda le impidió ganar por amplia mayoría. Pero por mucha simpatía que nos despierte el azote del POUM primero y el conquistador de Berlín después, nuestro voto al ruso universal habría ido para Alexander Bogdanov, feroz bolcevique también y posiblemente el ejemplo más refinado de muerte idiota de esta recopilación.  En el transcurso de sus investigaciones sobre el rejuvenecimiento a través de las transfusiones sanguíneas, se inyectó a si mismo la sangre de un voluntario que sufría tuberculosis y malaria. Nosotros nos decantamos por pensar que fue un EPIC FAIL, pero los historiadores juguetean con la idea de un posible suicidio.

Marcus Garvey Cuidado con reírse de este caballero porque para los rastafaris, esa estupenda religión que afirma que las cuchillas de afeitar, las tijeras y los peines son inventos de Babilón y por tanto completamente despreciables (no me lo invento), es la reencarnación de Juan Bautista. Marcus Garvey fue uno de los fundadores del nacionalismo negro y uno de los primeros ideólogos que pregonaron la vuelta a África para los negros americanos, la totalidad de los cuales y por asombroso que pueda parecer, son de raíces africanas. Murió inmediatamente después de leer su propio obituario (publicado por error) en el que se decía que había fallecido  “arruinado, solo e impopular”.

Bob Marley Se hizo una herida en el dedo gordo del pie jugando al fútbol, no se cuidó y aquello degeneró en un melanoma. Los médicos le aconsejaron que era mejor quitarle el dedo para que la enfermedad no se reprodujese, pero el rastafarismo prohibe la amputación porque el cuerpo debe permanecer “completo” (de verdad ¿no es una religión maravillosa?) y finalmente Bob Marley murió de cáncer tras una larga aunque no parece que particularmente dolorosa agonía. Pese a todo,  sigue vivo en la otra mitad de mecheros clipper del mundo en los que no sale la cara del Che.

Nina Hamnett No hay muchas mujeres famosas con muertes estúpidas. Hasta el último momento estaba incluída una filosofa griega despellejada viva con conchas marinas por sus amados conciudadanos. De hecho, había escrito un largo chiste sobre Freud y las almejas de singular gusto y exquisito desarrollo.  Pero morir así no es divertido y los tíos siempre nos hemos pasado un montón con las chicas. Si eran cristianas, les cortábamos las tetas. Si pensábamos que eran ateas, a la hoguera. Y ahora los bukakes. No, no es facil tener dos cromosomas X, aunque los orgasmos múltiples y no pagar en las discotecas imagino que algo compensa. Nina Hamnet era galesa pero se mudó a París probablemente destrozando la vida a alguien (hola otra vez) y se hizo escritora.  La llamada “Reina de la Bohemia” alternó verso y prosa con una enorme nómina de amantes de ambos sexos y  fue víctima de un accidente mortal que casi parece un castigo bíblico por su promiscuidad: cayó desde una ventana y se empaló en una verja.

Jeff Wall – Vancouver based photographer – featured on the cover of vanity fair (went to school with Ian)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Wall
http://moma.org/exhibitions/2007/jeffwall/

Fungible – ability to take any piece of a production and send it overseas where it can be done faster and cheaper
“Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution, where one unit of a commodity can be exchanged for another unit of the same commodity in the same quantity and grade. Examples of highly fungible commodities are crude oil, precious metals, and currencies.”

Damien Hirst ($230 million – sold directly to auction – subverted the gallery system)

- The asking price for For the Love of God (below) was £50,000,000 ($100 million or 75 million euros). It didn’t sell outright,^[32] and on 30 August 2008 was sold to a consortium that included Hirst himself and his gallery White Cube.

In December 2008 Hirst threatened to sue a 16-year old boy for £200 because he incorporated pictures of For the Love of God into grafitti stenciles and sold them on the Internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

Marcus Garvey
- “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey

- What makes digital art history compelling is that it is as much shaped by science and technology as it is by traditional art history.

- Digital art history is thus inextricably linked to the industrial-military complex, research centres, as well as consumer culture and associated technologies.

Leonardo Da Vinci
- Drawing showing cannon trajectories over castle walls

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (USNR 1906-1992)

- PhD in Math from Yale in 1934
- joined naval reserve in 1943 and assigned to bureau of ordinance
- went to work in UNIVAC (universal computer), and wrote the first compiler
- co-invented COBOL and gave us…
- photo # NH 96566-KN (First computer “bug” in 1945)
- found an actual moth in the relay tape for the computer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

Dr. Vannevar Bush

- wrote “As we may think” – coordinated science to warfare
- build a computer back in 1929 – Differential Analyzer
- used the computer to design bouncing bombs used to destroy German dams during WWII
- envisioned a device called The Memex – basically an analog version of the PC, the web and google

- picture of the memex in LIFE magazine – circa 1945
- his essay predicted many technologies
“Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped in”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think
Earth versus the flying Saucers

- Hollywood used the actual computer for this film
Marshall University Differential Analyzer

Claude Shannon

- one of Bush’s graduate students – known as the “Father of information theory”
- A Symbolic analysis of Relay and Switching
- introduced to George Boole’s algebra as an undergrad
- proved that boolean algebra and binary arithmetic could be used to simplify the electromechanical relays then used in telephone
- enabled engineers to transform circuits from analog to digital realm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon

Theodor Nelson

- an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the term “hypertext” in 1963 and published it in 1965. He also is credited with first use of the words hypermedia, transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity and teledildonics. The main thrust of his work has been to make computers easily accessible to ordinary people. His motto is:

A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.

- invented the words hypertext and hypermedia in 1961 – networked Docuverse

Douglas Englebart
- best known for inventing the computer mouse, as a pioneer of human-computer interaction whose team developed hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs; and as a committed and vocal proponent of the development and use of computers and networks to help cope with the world’s increasingly urgent and complex problems.

First computer Mouse

Early Macintosh Mice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart

Marcel Duchamp
- Rotary Glass Plates, 1920

- L.H.O.O.Q.

- found imagery and appropriate it – READYMADE
- precursor of digital art practice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.H.O.O.Q.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readymades_of_Marcel_Duchamp

FLUXUS ARTISTS
- a name taken from a Latin word meaning “to flow”—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning, architecture, and design. Fluxus is often described as intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins in a famous 1966 essay.
- series of instructions to reach an event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLUXUS

John Cage

- pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and, in the opinion of many, the most influential American composer of the 20th century
4′33″ (Four minutes, thirty-three seconds) – the sound was different wherever it was played because it was silence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3

Grahame Weinbren

- “The Digital Revolution is a Revolution of Random Access”
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/6/6113/2.html
- Random Access is a basis for processing and assembling information
http://media.rmit.edu.au/students/projects/iiki/index.php/Grahame_Weinbren

http://www.yale.edu/dmca/dhtml/lectures99/weinbren.html

Sonata

- created by Grahame Weinbren, is an interactive narrative that is controllable by the viewer’s touch. The installation was exhibited internationally between the years of 1991 and 1999. Containing classical narratives of passion and violence by Tolstoy, Freud, and the Apocrypha, Sonata requests viewers to create their own narratives through interaction, and thus their own interpretations.

By touching the screen at any moment throughout the piece the viewer will affect the way the narrative continues. This includes viewing the narrative from a different perspective, superimposing future footage, or allowing a split-screen effect to show two different characters simultaneously.
http://media.rmit.edu.au/students/projects/iiki/index.php/Sonata

On Time

- one of the four short films produced for Garage Flicks. Directed by Ted Chung, with the screenplay by David Bradley Halls, and produced by Bianca Bodmer, Rich Ho Kok Tai, Elena Titova, and Vincent Schmitt. The credits also show their ‘Project mentor’ as Grahame Weinbren – his works, in my opinion, share similarities with the story of On Time. Sonata in particular as it experiments with future knowledge, just as On Time does.
http://media.rmit.edu.au/students/projects/iiki/index.php/On_Time

Howard Wise
EAI : Electronic Arts Intermix Funded by a number of American state agencies, federal agencies and organisations, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) was founded by Howard Wise in 1971 to support video art. It is a non profit making organisation. As well as video art, it now rents and sells audio, CDs, CD-ROMs and other interactive media works by artists. Web projects are also featured online. The searchable online catalogue includes artists’ biographies, descriptions of the works, QuickTime excerpts and ordering information. The website consists of an alphabetical list of authors and titles; a new artists / new titles section; audio and interactive media; selections from the video archive; streaming video, where excerpts of the video collection can be viewed; and a Resources section, which includes bibliographies and information about exhibitions and events. The Features section includes Web projects, which can be viewed online.
http://www.eai.org/eai/index.htm

John Whitney – CATALOG

- computer generated pictures in 1965 – used analog military computer equipment to create his short film CATALOG
-demo reel of work created with his analog computer/film camera magic machine he built from a WWII anti-aircraft gun sight.
- Also Whitney and the techniques he developed with this machine were what inspired Douglas Trumbull (special fx wizard) to use the slit scan technique on 2001: A Space Odyssey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Trumbull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit-scan_photography

Slit-scan is an animation created image by image. Its principle is based upon the camera’s relative movement in relation to a light source, combined with a long exposure time. The process is as follows:

1. An abstract colored design is painted on a transparent support
2. This support is set down on the glass of a backlighting table and covered with an opaque masking into which one or more slits have been carved.
3. The camera (placed high on top of a vertical ramp and decentered in relation to the light slits) takes a single photograph while moving down the ramp. The result: at the top of the ramp, when it is far away, the camera takes a rather precise picture of the light slit. This image gets progressively bigger and eventually shifts itself out of the frame. This produces a light trail, which meets up with the edge of the screen.
4. These steps are repeated for each image, lightly peeling back the masking, which at the same time produces variation in colors as well as variation of the position of the light stream, thus creating the animation.

Naturally, this effect is very time-consuming, and thus expensive, to create. A 10-second sequence requires a minimum of 240 adjustments.

Billy Kluver
- art and science should colaborate
- was an electrical engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories who founded Experiments in Art and Technology. Klüver lectured extensively on art and technology and social issues to be addressed by the technical community. He published numerous articles on these subjects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Kluver
http://www.conceptlab.com/interviews/kluver.html

Techno Viking – original has now gone viral

World of Warcraft spoof

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard techno spoof

http://technoviking.tv/

THIS IS SPARTA!

http://failblog.org/

THE ONION

- macbook wheel – the onion spoof
http://www.theonion.com/content/index

DIGITAL ART 2ND EDITION – CHRISTIANE PAUL

RED VS. BLUE

- Halo machinima movies

The Original Human Space Invaders Performance

- props to Julaluck (aka Bob) for finding this golden nugget!

MY SECOND LIFE
- created by Douglas Gayeton – hbo bought it for $6 million – Who is the Creator?
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/molotovalva/interview.html

DISCLAIMER: the words and feelings of this blog are the feelings of AbdulWaahid not Neglected Sound soif you disagree….

SO WHAT!! Mos Def said something awhile back that applies to this situation well and he stated ” Even numbers have limits.” Now I understand that its human nature to be excited when you get a new toy or something is different then what you have been accustomed to having but there is still a need for moderation.  I am one of the most elated people in the world that there is a new president who is not only African-American but intelligent, charismatic, and a breath of fresh air; however, we must stop looking for leaders to save the world and look at what we are doing for our own community. Listen to the words of the new president and get off the fact that he is Black; yes I am talking to MY OWN PEOPLE who I love with my own heart, yes we have a black president but we have a black community with Black babies that WE not HIM need to make better and wearing a Obama shirt wont do. Look at the leaders before Obama and ask what happened to their movements after there death from Garvey to Dubois to Newton to El Hajj Shabazz did we truly continue their mission after they passed. Everybody was PISSED off about THE Boondocks episode when Martin Luther King, Jr. came back from the dead but was it really that far from THE TRUTH:

??

One thing I was thinking about after class is since Garvey’s philosophies supports the ‘unification of black people’ and becoming their own nation than where do mulattoes fall (black and white mixed races)? Does he still accept them but treat the lighter skinned blacks worse within the colony? Or if you have many ‘black’ heritage you are accepted? If Garvey hates white people so much and thinks they are all tainted than I would assume mulattos would be treated differently. Can anyone share what they think or find some textual evidence that maybe I missed. Thanks!

ZC

“The album is dedicated to him, because you don’t get more seldom seen than someone who’s dead, and I think he’d appreciate the gallows humour in that,” he said. “I miss him every day, he was a great man and he should be stood here in many ways. Some of his music will be coming out soon and everyone else will know how great he was as well.”

Further proof he is one of the best front men around. What a guy (no pun intended), what an album!