Brooklyn Diasporist Newsletter | 10/26/20
Item 1: I love Tsai Ming-liang's films for two things: first, they demonstrate a unique commitment to the possibility that things are made real by being filmed, that the process of materializing on film and being witnessed there might somehow provide for a cinematic occupation of space and time among the rest of us, that films can make their subjects and objects palpable. The other thing is that he knows that sometimes it takes awhile for events to unfold, for their important parts to become clear. Nowhere are these two elements at greater concentration than in his 26 minute film, Walker. I can't imagine you've seen anything quite like this, but if you have, please let me know what it is.
Item 2: I came to Harry Smith through film, not music, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned he was a considerably influential anthologist of obscure American music. His odd and arcane films are unique in both style and philosophy, animations with an emphasis on evolution, one set of images into the next, a kind of extended conjuring. His Heaven and Earth Magic (1957) is the highpoint of this work. His American Anthology of Folk Music, on the other hand, is an acknowledged masterpiece of record-collecting, anthologizing, and design. You can listen to it at the Internet Archive and learn more at the Folkways page for the CD set that was released in 1997. Dust-to-Digital just released a second set of CDs, the "B-sides" of all of the songs Smith included in the original Anthology, which has brought all of this to mind. It's a wonderful set, full of the kind of thing such sets are known, at their best, to provide. It's not streaming anywhere but I think you can get a feel for what it is by checking out the original Anthology. Amanda Petrusich wrote a great piece at The New Yorker about all of this, which is no doubt an improvement on whatever I've written here.
Item 3: This piece by Sri Lankan, Indi Samarajiva, offers an important shift in focus in terms of both what constitutes the collapse of a society, and who among us is affected most (or least). The gist is in the piece's title but I recommend reading it through. It has left little doubt that we are currently living in a collapsed state. Trigger warning: some of the photos are graphic, one in particular.
Item 4: Vocalist Fay Victor was interviewed at 20 Questions. I saw her perform in Nicole Mitchell's Maroon Cloud quartet, and remain impressed by her art. I've especially enjoyed her own compositions which can be heard among other work at her Soundcloud page.
Item 5: I'm sure there's a more eloquent way to say this but I've run out of energy for that effort and still want to say something. Our vote is our only foreseeable means to recuperate our government from its current leadership. I imagine I'm preaching to the choir here, but whoever you intended to vote for at the beginning of the campaigns leading up to the current elections, the gravest matters of national import on which we must assert our influence are to flip the Senate and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Let's get it done.
Item 2: I came to Harry Smith through film, not music, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned he was a considerably influential anthologist of obscure American music. His odd and arcane films are unique in both style and philosophy, animations with an emphasis on evolution, one set of images into the next, a kind of extended conjuring. His Heaven and Earth Magic (1957) is the highpoint of this work. His American Anthology of Folk Music, on the other hand, is an acknowledged masterpiece of record-collecting, anthologizing, and design. You can listen to it at the Internet Archive and learn more at the Folkways page for the CD set that was released in 1997. Dust-to-Digital just released a second set of CDs, the "B-sides" of all of the songs Smith included in the original Anthology, which has brought all of this to mind. It's a wonderful set, full of the kind of thing such sets are known, at their best, to provide. It's not streaming anywhere but I think you can get a feel for what it is by checking out the original Anthology. Amanda Petrusich wrote a great piece at The New Yorker about all of this, which is no doubt an improvement on whatever I've written here.
Item 3: This piece by Sri Lankan, Indi Samarajiva, offers an important shift in focus in terms of both what constitutes the collapse of a society, and who among us is affected most (or least). The gist is in the piece's title but I recommend reading it through. It has left little doubt that we are currently living in a collapsed state. Trigger warning: some of the photos are graphic, one in particular.
Item 4: Vocalist Fay Victor was interviewed at 20 Questions. I saw her perform in Nicole Mitchell's Maroon Cloud quartet, and remain impressed by her art. I've especially enjoyed her own compositions which can be heard among other work at her Soundcloud page.
Item 5: I'm sure there's a more eloquent way to say this but I've run out of energy for that effort and still want to say something. Our vote is our only foreseeable means to recuperate our government from its current leadership. I imagine I'm preaching to the choir here, but whoever you intended to vote for at the beginning of the campaigns leading up to the current elections, the gravest matters of national import on which we must assert our influence are to flip the Senate and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Let's get it done.
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