Thursday, September 11, 2003
I've been saying a lot of prayers recently. Two days ago was the eighth year anniversary of the passing of my Aunt Waveney from cancer. Today is 9/11 and I wrote an online rememberance those who experienced this tragedy in my last post. Sandwiched in between these two events was the birthday of my girlfriend's mother. I'm far too practical to think too hard about whether there's any meaning to be inferred by this sequence of dates but I do think it's worth thinking a little more about what has happened in the two years since 9/11. To that end, while the mainstream press is finally starting to ask a few more hard questions about Bush's domestic and foreign policy follies over the last couple of years and the public seems to finally be waking up out of their knee-jerk patriotic stupor and realizing this guy is a lousy president, it's still worth directing your attention to this excellent article "A Post 9-11 Reality Check" by James Ridgeway with Phoebe St John in the September 10-16th edition of The Village Voice. For those who have been reading the New York Post, watching Fox News or, frankly, any of the other mainstreamn press outlets who've been giving Bush a pass since his election in 2000, this article does a good job of reviewing and summarizing his record of accomplishment to date.
While you're at it, as you ponder why we are spending nearly a billion dollars a week and being asked to commit another $87 billion dollars to this ridiculous war while our spurned and insulted allies are also asked to now chip in financial support for a war they rejected, also take a quick look at this article "Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq" by Christopher Scheer on AlterNet about the Bush adminstration's series of deceits and lies to justify leading the US into this war. Sad and scary to ponder on this of all days.
For all you sneaker freaks out there, I just copped a couple of great books of the history of this esoteric but increasingly popoular sub culture. Sneakers by London sneaker collector and dealer Neal Heard and Where'd You Get Those? New York City's Sneaker Culture: 1960-1987 by hip hop and urban culture maven and all-around good guy Bobbito Garcia are both must-buys. The great (or sad) thing to consider as you read them is how sneakers that these guys talk about wistfully as the ones that got away or impossible-to-find back in the day for sneaker hunters are now being reissued in huge quantities for any idiot to just go and buy at their local Footlocker. Man, it's happening in everything from sneakers to records. Is nothing sacred any more? What's the point of being a collecting nerd and what purpose will eBay serve if you can buy everything new now?
On a semi-related note, congrats to Dizzee Rascal (see my first post on August 18th for info on this cat) on winning the UK's Mercury Music Prize yesterday (story here). This is kind of like the Booker Prize in literarture but for pop music (more info here) and has now been imitated in the US by The Shortlist. The great thing about this news is that while the award has traditionally been awarded in the past to critically-lauded pop and rock acts like Badly Drawn Boy and Primal Scream, Dizzee's win marks the second year in a row that a British urban act has won the prize following Ms. Dynamite's victory last year. A great sign for Britain's black music industry and, I hope, that more progressive black music can start to be heard everywhere.
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While you're at it, as you ponder why we are spending nearly a billion dollars a week and being asked to commit another $87 billion dollars to this ridiculous war while our spurned and insulted allies are also asked to now chip in financial support for a war they rejected, also take a quick look at this article "Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq" by Christopher Scheer on AlterNet about the Bush adminstration's series of deceits and lies to justify leading the US into this war. Sad and scary to ponder on this of all days.
For all you sneaker freaks out there, I just copped a couple of great books of the history of this esoteric but increasingly popoular sub culture. Sneakers by London sneaker collector and dealer Neal Heard and Where'd You Get Those? New York City's Sneaker Culture: 1960-1987 by hip hop and urban culture maven and all-around good guy Bobbito Garcia are both must-buys. The great (or sad) thing to consider as you read them is how sneakers that these guys talk about wistfully as the ones that got away or impossible-to-find back in the day for sneaker hunters are now being reissued in huge quantities for any idiot to just go and buy at their local Footlocker. Man, it's happening in everything from sneakers to records. Is nothing sacred any more? What's the point of being a collecting nerd and what purpose will eBay serve if you can buy everything new now?
On a semi-related note, congrats to Dizzee Rascal (see my first post on August 18th for info on this cat) on winning the UK's Mercury Music Prize yesterday (story here). This is kind of like the Booker Prize in literarture but for pop music (more info here) and has now been imitated in the US by The Shortlist. The great thing about this news is that while the award has traditionally been awarded in the past to critically-lauded pop and rock acts like Badly Drawn Boy and Primal Scream, Dizzee's win marks the second year in a row that a British urban act has won the prize following Ms. Dynamite's victory last year. A great sign for Britain's black music industry and, I hope, that more progressive black music can start to be heard everywhere.
