I’m reading Hal Bennett’s LORD OF DARK PLACES. I’ve had the kind of week, where reading Hal Bennett seems a logical end to such a week. I’ve never read anyone quite like him. His writings are horrible tales of lives horrendously lived, but there’s a manic humor, the humor of the absurd and tragic, that he plays up that will have you amused at the same time you are horrified. I laughed out loud in places that I felt conflicted laughing at. These are bad places and bad things Bennett is discussing. I mean some of it is so out of the blue and outrageous, he’ll have you inflamed with rage, then in the next sentence make your jaw drop, and a sound not unlike laughter escape you. I’m uncertain how comfortable I am with that, but I know only a Satirist of consummate skill can pull off such a confluence of emotions. Reading him, following up reading Pearl Cleage’s DEALS WITH THE DEVIL:AND OTHER REASONS TO RIOT (filled with diatribe’s and rants to make even me seem calm in comparison) is not exactly a feel good prescription. But he can write. You may not particularly care for the twisted and twisting Jim Crow world he writes about, but the beauty of his language, in an age of dumbed-down Black ‘literature’ and ‘music’ is like manna from heaven. Here is a word-smith, worthy of every tree sacrificed, and every bit of ink used. ‘Her Large cow eyes were still open and gazed somehow to the left, as though death had surprised her from that side.” and “There were about a hundred of them in all, but the women in the congregation outnumbered the men two to one, because a woman is always alert for news of any religion in which she might become the Virgin Mother and enjoy the ineffable mystery of having her tail played in by the Holy Ghost. These women were no different. They wore clean drawers in case tonight was the night, or in case they got too happy and fainted and their dresses came up.” My final verdict is still out on LORD OF DARK PLACES, being only a quarter of the way in. I know so far it is best in small doses, but I also know… I’ll keep coming back to it. There is this line in Apocalypse Now, where the General says to Martin Sheen’s character of an especially unappetizing looking local dish, ‘If you eat it, you will never have to prove your courage any other way”, the same can be said of Hal Bennett’s LORD OF DARK PLACES. If you read it, you will never have to prove your courage any other way. And that right there… is a recommendation.

These are
times that kill ya
these are
times that spill ya
these are
times that kneed you into ground

[repeat 2 times]

“Political Zionism is a far cry from the idealistic form that refined, cosmopolitan Jews like Herzl and his Western European (and North American) admirers thought that they had bought into. That is why the vast majority of them became disillusioned with the whole project long before Kristallnacht and then WWII. People like Einstein, Freud, Hannah Arendt, Judah Magnes and Martin Buber smelled a rat, and they made it clear that they had no interest in supporting the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. This was, in fact, the prevailing sentiment among the vast majority of Western European and North American Jews. All of that began to change in the late 30’s and by the time of the liberation of the camps in 1945 this vociferous opposition faded away among Jewish liberals, progressives, socialists and humanists. European fascism of the Italian and German varieties ensured the success of political Zionism, the mirror image of Nazism, but with “the Jewish People” now cast as being simultaneously “the victims” and the “Master Race,” just like their role models, the Nazis, before them. History not only repeats itself – it plays practical jokes.”

The above is part of a a longer article authored by Roger Tucker, and is pretty intriguing. You can read the whole thing here.

Einstein understood it best. He understood the central conflict of our age, the conflict of man and machine. He saw the failing behind the wonders of a new age, that we were not so much making something new, as losing something old. “Our Technology grows faster than our humanity” he wrote on that windswept day. And the whole of the last century, the 20th century, was an affirmation of that statement. A war of man and machine. As industrialization to cut costs and maximize profits, strove to make humans more machine like and machines more human. The capacity of humans shrank, as the limits of machines grew. By the end of the 20th century Man was the mindless drone performing repetitive tasks, while machines were the wunderkinds and geniuses of a new age. Einstein understood that the 20th century had become an age of tradeoffs. We stopped growing, evolving and handed it to machines to do for us. That we had taken the magic that was within us, this glory of Shamans and Wiccas and spirits, and had traded, externalized it, taken it away from the creatures of the wet and the warm, and imbued it into a cold, stark, controllable entity of tomorrow. The conflict of Man and Machine, the theme of the 20th century, was the displacement of wonder, the restructuring of magic. In the 20th century we gave up trying to be heroes and holy men and decided to be predictable and comfortable. We redefined humanity as something disposable and common. The 20th century was ultimately a move to diminish the very rights of man. The move away from the concept of man, to other manageable concepts like worker, drone, statistic, to concepts devoid of ‘I’. The whole push of the 20th century toward obedient machines with the adaptability of men, and adaptable men with the obedience of machines. And if the 20th century set the stage for such a bleak and dystopian present, then the 21st century has clearly been set in motion to be the age wherein we must war over the rights of Man, and either nobly win, or meanly lose…. our Freedom.

My blood boils. Mostly because beyond the bullshit in the media, it is the stupid things people say to me about Haiti. “This Earthquake could be a good thing for Haiti because it will let America come in and set her up, and organize her.” Here’s the thing. The world isn’t a mess because bad people make bad choices. The world is a mess because good people, accept bad choices and bad reasoning as gospel, accept lies as truths without examining them. And then pat themselves on the back for being openminded, and liberal, and helping the less fortunate. When the truth is, everything about your life has led Haiti to her crucifixion. Haiti doesn’t need your pity. Haiti needs for you to read a book. And know what the heck you’re talking about before you fall pro or against on an argument. America and the UN, the West, has been “in” Haiti’s business since that lone island state changed the face of the western hemisphere in 1804, by giving a black eye to slavery. Haiti has been repaid for that temerity of standing up, by bloody American occupations, to make Nazi Germany flinch, 1915-1934. Followed by period of UN economic “help” that left the most fertile land in the western hemisphere an arid desert through destructive farming procedures that raped the land. So now a country that prior to UN intervention could raise it’s own food, had to import food in order to keep its population alive. And that leads into Papa Doc regimes, funded by US dollars, and crushing loans by the World Bank designed to keep poor countries poor, and years of nightmare dictatorships, which finally, finally after generations with the 2000 elections and a candidate, Aristide, poised to get them off the disastrous US/UN foreign “aide” that has kept the nation crippled, a candidate who is overwhelmingly voted in by over 90% of the population, when US elections can barely get over 50%, and what does America do, do we applaud this show of true democracy? No. It’s a non-US candidate. We Invade. We INVADE! Where were all the ads to help Haiti then? Hmmm. Where was Dell? Where was the RED CROSS? Where were the marines? I can tell you where the marines were, the marines were in Haiti killing Haitians. And they’ve been there ever since. They ousted a duly elected government, and they repeated the bloody occupation of 1915. And like the war of 1915, no one said a word of it on mass media. So the war didn’t exist. Here’s the thing. Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten. The occupation/holocaust of 1915 to 1934 happened, and the occupation/holocaust of 2001 is continuing to happen. So no, I will not buy America as the cowboy on the white hat riding in to do Haiti any good. All America is riding in to do, is to finally after 200+ years make the island that first spoke to the western hemisphere of being free, give up… even the hope of freedom. And that, my dear liberal, my dear conservative, my dear hypocrite… is a defeat for true democracy, and more… it’s a defeat for humanity. And… it will not stand. The spirit of Haiti will rise again, even if she must do so in the sons and daughters of her tormentors. Haiti will rise, through occupation, through holocaust, through mass murder, through acts of man and science, Haiti will rise. Be it in a year, be it in scores of years… Haiti will rise. Just as surely as the turning of the world.

“It’s a way we had over here for living with ourselves. We cut ‘em in half with a machine gun and give ‘em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies.”– Apocalypse Now I just finished Ishmael Reed’s 1971 Novel MUMBO JUMBO, a biting, absurdist, fantastic satire, that also happens to be, like the best of satires, a cutting and revealing and true depiction of our ids and our angsts. It is for a work of fiction, far more true than are so-called “history”. It is such a rich and deep and sprawling and compelling and… brilliant novel. I consider myself a pretty informed reader, and this 4 decade old novel had insights into not just our history but our humanity, that i had never even considered. Example? How it defined Museums as store-houses for Pirated/Stolen goods. I’ve been in and out of museums all my life, and it never even occurred to me to consider them in the context of Robber-Baron’s basically raping and destroying civilizations and bringing home to the west their trophies. Their stolen goods. And this was like a throw away line in the novel, and it blew my mind. That I who consider myself relatively afro-centric that it did not even occur to me to question the origin and rightness of Museums. And the whole novel is like this, one smashing revelation after another. And yes it’s a work of sensational fiction, but what makes it even more sensational are the parts of it… that ring true, are true. And speak even today… of true things. From the hidden Haitian War and Holocaust of the early 20th century, which oddly mirrors the conflicts in Haiti today, even to the search for a talking Android to lead the people astray, which without too much of a jump can be compared to today’s President Obama…. it is almost a prophetic work. Or perhaps it just illustrates how history not learned from, is repeated. This is the type of book that school curriculums that teach children of color… should cover. Must cover. It’s the kind of book… written with brilliance, and that inspires, ignites a real fire… for more brilliance, and more questions and answers. It’s the kind of book that inspires… real learning. It is a challenging read, but stick with it as it does all come together. And I highly recommend hunting down the griot audio book version which is FANTASTIC! It is an essential read, and in light of recent issues in Haiti, I think a surprisingly timely and insightful one. A satire that hints at much that is true, about Haiti’s tumultuous and troubled relationship with Western Powers. It is an essential purchase. B+/A-

.

What do I think of the Haitian Earthquake? I think it’s a “convenient atrocity”, convenient for those who have made every day of the last decade an atrocity for that lone Island State of Haiti. Convenient in that the earthquake makes the news, whereas the holy war American troops have been waging there, like they did at the beginning of the 20th century, doesn’t make the news. Convenient in the fact that the Earthquake makes the news and the fact of Western Conglomerates using debt as a weapon, and using Haiti as a slave labor camp… does not. Convenient in the fact that the Earthquake makes the news whereas the fact of the US/UNs horrendous tampering with the nation’s upcoming Feb 2010 elections, now gets moved off the radar. Convenient in that Americans (who know nothing of the news but what culpable talking heads tell them) get to believe their government is riding in to be the white hatted cowboy, when America has spent the last decade lynching and raping the nation. America is the Earthquake, and we have been hitting that country a lot longer than just today. What do I think of the Haitian Earthquake? It’s a convenient atrocity. On a larger scale, but not unlike Katrina. I don’t believe in “convenient” atrocities. I believe atrocities are made. And I believe somebody didn’t read the UN Nations treaty prohibiting using weather modifications weapons as a means of warfare. What? “Weather what??” Weather— modification— weapons. If they didn’t exist, why would the UN have a treaty, frowning on their use. This treaty to be exact: UNGA RES. 31/72, TIAS 9614 CONVENTION ON THE PROHIBITION OF MILITARY OR ANY OTHER HOSTILE USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES full text here. and try here. Try reading something beyond the football scores, and you just might see… our facts have been overtaken by our fictions. We do live, as quietly as it is kept, in the 21st century… in an age of marvels. The shame of it is… all those marvels… are only designed to kill you… better. From robot controlled planes used to drop bombs and police cities, to robot soldiers, to geo-orbital canons, to engineered plagues, to our latest “ready for prime-time” toys… weather modification weapons. Oh my. Don’t believe do you? Yeah, and that’s why it can happen. But fear not, you will believe. Because there will be more of these convenient atrocities coming, You will, in the fullness of time, believe. I just hope you don’t pay too high a price for that belief. I just hope we don’t all pay too high a price. You would think people intelligent enough to split the atom, create space-based particle weapons, genetically modify food to kill sperm, chart the DNA, make feasible cloning, and make precise weather modification weapons, would be smart enough to forsee the downside of such mechanizations. But with history as a guide, scientists are a leap before they look bunch.”I am become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds”. No shit, Oppenheimer… I could have told you that before you set the fing bomb off. So as a rule, scientists are really stupid smart people, and they create things that ultimately… turn on their creators. A weapon modification device being potentially a very glaring case in point. Yeah, messing around with the tectonic plates, and stresses of the world 5000 miles away, may not turn out to be the brightest thing in the world to do. The world being just a big, tense ball… those not so good vibrations you set off somewhere else ARE going to come back around and have an effect THROUGHOUT the body of that ball. Big or small, short term or long, that is the question, but effect it will have. In the interim, believe or not in the cause of Haiti’s most recent convenient atrocities, go to the following liks to get informed. http://blog.ijdh.org/ HURAH Non-Profit Now go… and save some lives.

I heard something profound today About those who ride the lightning That invariably they fear the thunder Because it proclaims their day is done Books on my to purchase/read pile: Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (Paperback) by Michio Kaku Airing Dirty Laundry by Ishmael Reed Violent Spring by Gary Phillips Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman by Malidoma Patrice Some African Rhapsody by Nadezda Obradovic Joyce Ann Brown:Justice Denied by Joyce Ann Brown A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People by Jon Jeter Deals With the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot by Pearl Cleage The Lord of Dark Things – Hal Bennett Insanity Runs in the Family – Hal Bennett Brother: Black Soldiers in the Nam FBI War on Tupac Shakur & Black Leaders by John Potash Sites of the day: Afrikanworldbooks.com Akpress.com rentometer.com When the law itself is lawless, what do you do? DVDs of the Day: TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NUMBER 1 ONCE A THIEF DRAGON INN (1992- Donnie Yen) LEGEND OF THE WOLF (1997- Donnie Yen) BALLISTIC KISS (1998- Donnie Yen) BIG BULLET BEYOND HYPOTHERMIA MY FATHER IS A HERO BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING DOWNTOWN TORPEDOES CRYSTAL HUNT BACK TO BACK FACE TO FACE Directors of the Day: Henri-Georges Clouzot 1907-1977 his masterpieces are WAGES OF FEAR and DIABOLIQUE Jean Pierre Melville 1917-1973 his masterpieces are LE SAMOURAI, LE DOULOS, BOB LE FLAMBEUR “There is no greater solitude than the samurai’s unless it be that of the tiger in the jungle”– Le Samourai’s preface tell me about summer tell me about fall i can’t make it make any reason at all Korean word of the day (spelt phonetically so you can pronounce them)- Ahn young hah say oh: hello-peace-do peacefully Kahm sah hahm nidah: Thank You Chae Song Hahn Nidah: Pardon Me Toe Wah Jew Say Oh: Please Help Me Ahn Young Hee Gae Say Oh: Goodbye Cheon Man Ne Yo: You are welcome Quick Book Reviews: GHOUL by Michael Slade: Excellent WASP FACTORY by Ian Banks: Disturbing CABAL by Clive Barker: So-So INHUMAN CONDITION by Clive Barker: Not as great as the first three BOOKS OF BLOOD, but still recommended HARVEST OF HORRORS by Eric Potter: Average DARK VISIONS by Harlan Ellison: Very Good MISERY by Stephen King: Very Disturbing WHISPERS I by Stuart Schiff: Good Edgar Allen Poe James Baldwin Today’s recommended audo drama/listen: CHATTERBOX AUDIO THEATER HALLOWEEN SHOW 2009 PT 1 & 2- Finally listened to this today. Short review? It’s just great. A compilation of seven tales of terror. I mentioned this group previously, and they continue to just get more impressive. It’s really nice to see Audio Drama not only still being produced in the US, but productions of such an incredibly high quality. This is work to make the greats of radio’s heyday proud. Also I appreciate them using the American spelling of theater rather than the British spelling, like some American productions (perhaps to seem more “artsy”) are wont to do.You can listen to THE HALLOWEEN shows here. Also while there check out the shows SURFACING and THE YELLOW WALLPAPER. Both are highly recommended. Okay well that’s all my rambling today. Enjoy!

Those of you who have been with this blog from the beginning know occasionally you’ll be seeing a secondary date on my postings; it belongs to the ancient Ethiopian calendar which I’ve taken a shine to. In the Ancient Ethiopic… today is the 21st Day of Tahsas (pronounced Kiahk in the Coptic), the year 7509 of the 8th Millennium, in the years of the world. In the years of the world. I never tire of living in the 8th Millennium. .

I’m listening to old 70s Soul Cinema trailer clips, and they are cracking me up. The best? This little tag line from Fred Williamson’s BLACK CAESAR… “This Caesar comes to bury you!”— How Frigging cool is that!I have to pick up that movie on DVD and watch it now.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our savior
was born on Christmas day.
To save us all from Satan’s power
when we were gone astray.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

The odd thing I find about Christmas, and this supposedly benevolent time of year, one of them, is it is typically the time America ramps up her military strikes against non-christian countries.

“Celebrating Ramadan with your families are you? Well let me drop off my present from Uncle Sam….
this megaton bomb bitches!! Merry Christmas MFers!!!”

I sadistically jest, but the truth is that sadistic without any jesting involved.

From God, our heavenly father,
A blessed angel came.
And unto certain shepherds,
Brought tidings of the same.
How that in Bethlehem was born,
The son of God by name.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

I want to highly recommend a book I had mentioned picking up previously, DIGGING:THE AFRO-AMERICAN SOUL OF AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC by Amiri Baraka.

A compilation of essays covering several decades of this uniquely American art form of Jazz/Blues as only an insider can, it is not only a seminal dissection of the times and the players in the music scene, it is as brilliant a dissection of America the American id and American fallacies as I’ve ever read.

It is an essential book, and is easily my recommended read of 2009.

It is a book on the masters of the medium, Trane, Coleman, Miles, the list goes on, told by someone who knew and played and laughed with them.

It is a book told with an authority, validity by one of not just the world’s preeminent poets but one of the world’s preeminent music lovers, and you’re NEVER going to get that again, EVER. By anyone.

Because those pioneers are all shuffled off this mortal coil, and what is left is the vultures to retrofit their memories and their music. The vultures who would paint Black Gods white.

We are now deep in the age of Sony and Time Warner and American Idol and corporate bs as the end all and be all of music.

Deep in the age of the tail wagging the people.

So the discussion DIGGING engages in, of the music as the gestalt, and the natural by product of the fears, the hopes, the politics, the loves, the controversies, and most of all as a chronicler from an abused mass of Americans not allowed to be Americans, this understanding of music as a call and a component in change, you are NEVER going to see presented from this capitalist controlled society again.

Music to them. the suits, is either a way to sell you something or to divert you from something, but never a way to engage you in something constructive or progressive or enlightening.

So DIGGING, written by this eight decade old LIVER and SURVIVOR and SHAPER of the most turbulent of American Years, I see as absolutely a historic document from day one, and an essential component to understanding what music was, and what it can be again.

You’re looking for a gift to give that music lover in your life? This is the book you give them. His list of recommended CDs alone is worth the price of the book!! I’ve tried some of his recommendations and they are dead on. Highest Recommendation.

“Jazz is the music of Americans who were not allowed to be American.”

To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

I’ve followed the recent rash of removals of Black Mayors, from offices throughout the country, for the most trumped up nonsense with some interest. It is very Jim Crow like, and in the age of Black Newspapers and Black Radio Stations and even Black owned theaters… we would have called this convenient confluence of events what is it… a witch hunt, and a power grab, and a turning back the clock.

We would have called it clearly… injustice, and undemocratic, this usurping of the duly elected representatives of the people, by legal maneuverings of a very few people.

But we no longer live in an age of Black owned anything. Brown vs. Board of Education led the way to that.

Brown vs. BOE while a good case in the micro-level, on the macro-level can clearly be seen for what it is, a defeat cloaked as a victory. Zora Neale Hurston said this decades ago, and she was derided for it by everyone, Blacks as well as Whites.

She ended up dying a broken woman. But she was right, and no one has ever been more right.

“Our victories give them weapons they did not have before”

Separate but Equal, there is nothing wrong with that concept. The problem was the practice. America was never Separate AND Equal. It was alway seperate AND UNEQUAL. Inferior service, inferior representation, inferior choices.

And BROWN vs BOARD rather than treat the root cause of the problem, unequal and unjust allocation of dollars and resources, instead became a model for even more unequal allocation/distribution of resources.

That leads to our present atmosphere of disenfranchised people, devoid of real recourse or representation. With representatives picked off one by one, with not even a real Black owned paper or radio station left .

And you may be saying, I’m not Black why should I care?

You should care because

“what you do to the least, you do to to me”

or

“They came first for the Jews, but I wasn’t a Jew so I said nothing”

or

Because ultimately the crimes they, the robber barons of this… trifling age, get away with in Haiti or Iraq or Palestine or Philadelphia today, they are ultimately perfecting to try on you tomorrow.

Because while I’m fond of terms like Black and White, the truth is that this is a class struggle, between those who want to be, once again, their fathers’ sons and be the masters of men. And they will not let color deter them from your fall. They want the mass of men as slaves or serfs, and each peoples’ fall, from Liberia to Haiti to Iraq to Palestine brings them a step closer… to preparing your fall.

They are greasing America to fail, the agents of Oligarchy, they hope to put to bed, at last, even the lie of liberty.

So that the people, frustrated with services closing, taxes rising, food and water unsafe, quality health unaffordable, cost of living escalating, fear and crime their only constant food, and hunger and pestilence and perversion and death in the air, and America made into Gomorrah… so the people, frustrated, will be ready at last for their nation’s march to terror and totalitarianism.

Will be ready, at last, for America’s fall.

Mistakenly blaming their liberty for their pains, when it was not liberty that failed them, but they that failed their liberty by not killing the leaders that led them to such mire and such madness.

So remember this… rambling of mine from the edge… the next time you hear of a suspicious removal of an elected representative, or of an odd arrest, or a case tried in the press/tv, as many increasingly are.

Because with every broadcast, you are being manipulated closer to that day of your own dark Reich.

Ohhhh,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

“One of the radio reporters for KABC in LA I guess, Pasadena area, he actually had a letter that had been received from DC from some organization to one of the border patrol station chiefs, and it clearly said they needed pickers in the Imperial valley and to essentially ease off on enforcement for a few days. He showed me the letter, it was pretty amazing stuff. I just think… people [should] understand there’s a business model, I think it’s a brutal business model… I personally don’t… I’m not real fond of it, I think it’s… it’s kind of a creation of a slave state that… that functions on a lot of human suffering”— from Frontera2. What is Frontera2. Well today it’s a 43+ minute musical track that mixes the horrors of our daily world, with voices that… bear witness to those horrors. Available on Archive.org, it’s… it is… worth your time. From World, to country, to folk, to mariachi the music is as diverse as the places where blood flows. ‘In the morning he rode the horse through the border crossing at Douglas Arizona. The guard nodded at him and he nodded back. “You look like maybe you stayed a little longer than you intended” The Guard said. The boy sat holding the reins loosely, he looked up at the broad street lying before him and at the barren hills about. He looked at the guard. “How do you like this country?” he said. “I like it fine” the Guard answered. The boy nodded. “I do too” he said. then he touched the wild looking horse with his heels and rode off up the street… into America.’— from Frontera2

UPDATE: Unfortunately looks like the item has disappeared from Archive.org (do a search for more on my opinion of Archive.org and disappearing files). But leave me a private comment with an email address and I’ll direct you where you can listen to the whole 43 minutes. It’s worth your time.