Back on line: Things I'm reading, watching or listening to today
Maybe the Kabbalah Centre isn't so weird after all - JewishJournal.com
On Madonna's favourite Jews (via Jogo)
Israel's 'non-Jewish Jews' struggle with identity - JTA
On the ex-Soviet Jews of Israel (via Bintel Blog, which has an extract for those that don't want to register)
My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas, reviewed by The New Republic Online
An excellent review, highly recommended, especially to my Arendtian friends, as the argument draws heavily on Richard Sennett's in The Fall of Public Man. Sennett, who was Arendt's assistant at one point (see The Conscience of the Eye), draws on her The Human Condition. (via Jogo)
Cover Lay Down: The Twelve Jews of Christmas, Folk Covers of Holiday Classics by Jewish Songwriters
If I'd done a Christmas music blog post, I'd have had to include this!
MySpaceTV Videos: Hardcore Jewish Chicks by oren kaplan I
Satirical hip hop. (via Jogo)
Alan Dershowitz: Motto of Anti-Israel Academics: "Free Speech For Me, But Not for Thee!" - The Huffington Post (via Jogo)
YouTube - In Extremo "Sefardim"
Awesome German heavy metal cover of "Avraam Avinou" (via Metal Jew)
M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, interviewed in National Review. (Via Jogo, who comments: "why do I read about Mr. Jasser in the most prominent conservative magazine of the United States, rather than in one of the progressive venues?")
Pardon My Freedom: Is It Because I Am Black?
What blogging was invented for.
On Madonna's favourite Jews (via Jogo)
Israel's 'non-Jewish Jews' struggle with identity - JTA
On the ex-Soviet Jews of Israel (via Bintel Blog, which has an extract for those that don't want to register)
My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas, reviewed by The New Republic Online
An excellent review, highly recommended, especially to my Arendtian friends, as the argument draws heavily on Richard Sennett's in The Fall of Public Man. Sennett, who was Arendt's assistant at one point (see The Conscience of the Eye), draws on her The Human Condition. (via Jogo)
Cover Lay Down: The Twelve Jews of Christmas, Folk Covers of Holiday Classics by Jewish Songwriters
If I'd done a Christmas music blog post, I'd have had to include this!
MySpaceTV Videos: Hardcore Jewish Chicks by oren kaplan I
Satirical hip hop. (via Jogo)
Alan Dershowitz: Motto of Anti-Israel Academics: "Free Speech For Me, But Not for Thee!" - The Huffington Post (via Jogo)
YouTube - In Extremo "Sefardim"
Awesome German heavy metal cover of "Avraam Avinou" (via Metal Jew)
M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, interviewed in National Review. (Via Jogo, who comments: "why do I read about Mr. Jasser in the most prominent conservative magazine of the United States, rather than in one of the progressive venues?")
Pardon My Freedom: Is It Because I Am Black?
What blogging was invented for.
Bob's beats genre keywords: soul, hip hop, black music, urban music.
Comments
Oy.
Thanks.
Syl Johnson is The Man, as far as this song is concerned. The others try hard -- but they only get to a certain level. Plus, there is something innately un-serious about the cliche reggae-beat. I know that some might appreciate the irony -- profound lyrics and emotions over a goofy lightweight, and utterly predictable groove -- but no thanks. Delroy Wilson's version is actually a bit annoying. (SEVEN minutes? Oh, please. Too much ganja.)
Ganja (which is fundamental to reggae etho) has a tendency to retard or veil emotional maturity in people. The song requires a nakedness from the performer, and ganja won't allow that.
Wu Tang's thing is brilliant. If there is a pantheon of hip-hop a hundred years from now, Hollow Bones should wind up near the top. Ganja does work in hip-hop, because the effect is not from nakedness, but from something more bardic, literary and constructed ...
I don't know if you have much experience with ganja, or think seriously about it, but those are my ideas on the subject.
j.
PS: Fela Kuti was probably a huge ganja smoker. But ... he DID perform virtually physically naked, didn't he? And with that huge band behind him, and the griot presentation ... he was working in a cultural tradition where the PERSONAL emotional space of the performer is not the main thing. Fela is almost oratory.