Mindful Bard Film Review: Aftershock

Film: Aftershock (2010)

Director: Feng Xiaogang

Cast: Fan Xu, Jingchu Zhang, Chen Li

Genre: Art House/International/Drama

“When told only one child could be saved, my mother said, ‘Save my son.’ These words keep ringing inside my ears. Dad, it’s not that I don’t remember. It’s just that I can never forget.”

from Aftershock

“He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Getting to “Forgive Me”

Most tearjerkers set you up by making you fall in love with the characters and then leading you by degrees into a spectacular tragedy. Aftershock manages to make you cry within the first 20 minutes.

How? By introducing themes so profound and universal and depicting them with such cinematographic sensitivity that our attachment to the characters and their plight is fast-tracked. (read entire review)

In Conversation With . . . J. D. Miner, Part II

J.D. Miner is a folk trio from B.C., now consisting of singer and songwriter Darryl Klassen, playing just about anything, Joe Worst on bass, and Chad Joiner on fiddle, mandolin, clarinet, and guitar. Honorary lifetime member Joel Klingler (who writes songs and plays mandolin and guitar) also joins them on their most recent album, Coal Train. Recently Darryl Klassen took the time to talk with Wanda Waterman about inspiration, revelation, and speculation. (Read Part I of this interview and the 2008 Voice interview with the group.)

 

 

Film review: The Illusionist ——– “The sadness of Tatischeff and his essential solitude are so beautifully couched in exquisite portrayals of the essential sweetness of life.”

http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/columndisplay.php?ART=8150

Film review: The Illusionist ——– “The sadness of Tatischeff and his essential solitude are so beautifully couched in exquisite portrayals of the essential sweetness of life.”

In Conversation With . . . J. D. Miner, Part I —— “I’m actually quite serious about the ‘lock up the bankers’ reference in ‘Cowboy Rap,’” Miner says. “It amazes me that it’s taken this long for people to start pointing the finger where it needs to be pointed— Wall Street and Bay Street.” (Darryl Klassen)

http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/articledisplay.php?ART=8149

Film Review: The Illusionist —– The Magic of Magic Dispelled: Portrait of the Artist as a Travelling Magician

http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/columndisplay.php?ART=8150

THE MINDFUL BARD MANIFESTO

 

I will strive to remove all impediments to my creativity and to take whatever measures necessary to stimulate and feed that creativity.

I will live a contemplative life, not holding any beliefs or opinions that have no resonance with my personal knowledge and experience.

I will respond with interest and compassion to every being that crosses my path.

I will seek the deepest well-being of others, of myself, and of the earth in all my endeavors.

I will facilitate my own healing by laying aside my ego and finding my true self by participating in something good, true, and beautiful.

I refuse to sacrifice my art to dogma.

I refuse to sacrifice my humanity to my art.

 

 

 

 

 
A Mindful Blog by Wanda Waterman St. Louis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

Mindful Bard Selection Criteria

The Mindful Bard is a weekly online column that I write for The Voice.

In order to be recommended in The Mindful Bard, a book, film, or CD must fit at least two of the following criteria:

1. be authentic, original, and delightful;
2. confront, rebuke, or mock existing injustices;
3. renew my enthusiasm for positive social action;
4. give me tools enabling me to respond with compassion and efficacy to the suffering around me;
5. make me want to be a better artist;
6. give me tools that help me be a better artist;
7. display an engagement with and compassionate response to suffering;
8. inspire an awareness of the sanctity of creation;
9. be about attainment of the true self;
10. provide respite from a sick and cruel world, a respite enabling me to renew myself for a return to mindful artistic endeavor;
11. harmoniously unite art with social action, saving me from both seclusion in an ivory tower and slavery to someone else’s political agenda;
12. stimulate my mind;
13. pose and admirably respond to questions having a direct bearing on my view of existence.

What’s Up, Thursday, 11 February 2010

Basking in happiness; El Bashir Hazzam, Mohammed Suisse, Ahmed Habibi, and Abdul Aziz Al-Salami are free. But the struggle continues, as long as there are still bloggers in prison in Morocco.

Revelling in Robert Michaels’ s new CD, Cubamenco, Miller-Kelton’s Good-bye Cindy, Fort Fairfield, and everything I can find by Dinuk Wijeratne

Looking forward to contacting lutist Khalid El Idrissi for an interview (his music is absolutely thrilling)

Thinking a lot about the cultural significance of Morocco right now

Practicing for a music gig at the Union Street Cafe in Berwick tomorrow night

Just submitted article: ‘Blogger El Bashir Hazzam and the Strange Destiny of Free Speech in Morocco, Part II’ to The Voice. Should be out Friday night.

Working on Wikipedia article on Maghreb Jazz

Writing a song about Hazzam

Putting together a spoken art act with the poems from Echo Chamber

What’s Up, Thursday, 18 February 2010

Thanks to the good offices of Abderrahim Khouibaba (editor of Maghreb Observateur) I finally made contact with lutist Khalid El Idrissi and am busily drafting interview questions. Amazingly good player, and musically adventurous; can’t wait to get his answers.

It has occurred to me that if I were smart I wouldn’t be interviewing people in a language which neither of us share as a mother tongue and which I can barely understand. The degree of journalistic recklessness is delicious.

This coming friday in The Voice: first part of interview with Dinuk Wijeratne, the third (and final, for now) article on Moroccan blogger El Bashir Hazzam, and Bert getting royally teed at Jodi’s feminist hypocrisy in Sister Aurora

The Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra played at the Union Street Café in Berwick last friday night during Open Mike, sans two players, John and Warren, both quite ill. Susan, Andrew, and I did our best and were appreciated.

It was great hearing T@b again and sharing ideas. Andy told me not to let anyone know about my former life as a prostitute and a heroin addict; I told him that if I had ever been a prostitute and a heroin addict I would certainly be telling people all about it.

Had a great phone conversation the other day with Michael Wile, under whom I used to work at CKDU. I really miss that little skunk. Can’t wait to get together with him again and shoot the breeze over coffee.

Con los pobres de la tierra (so far only Tom Lück of Fort Fairfield has asked me what this means),

~W~

What’s Up, Friday, 26 February 2010

Yesterday Echo Chamber, my book collaboration with artist-visionary Susan Malmstrom went on display at the Eye Level Gallery on Barrington Street in Halifax. Should be there until April 3. We have to admit we were pretty amazed at how this slim little volume turned out and are now working on an even more intriguing book project, for which I am reading scads of fairy tales in preparation. So stay tuned.

Tom Lück of Fort Fairfield made me laugh until I was ill with his responses to my– quite serious– interview questions. This interview and my review of Fort Fairfield’s album The Dead Sea Scrolls (free for download until Sunday) should appear in The Voice tonight.

Currently investigating the plight of Zahra Boudkour, a political prisoner in Morocco.

Recently traumatized by an emergency run to the hospital with my mister, who had to have open heart surgery last friday due to a second dissecting aortic aneurism (the first was two years ago). A heartfelt thanks to all those who offered prayers and support.

What’s Up, Thursday 4 March 2010

A freezing cold day with lots of snow. And to think yesterday it was almost gone.

Been listening to Sami Yusuf, Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens), Gordon Lightfoot, Robert Michaels, The Stolen Sweets, Lotte Lenya, and much, much more.

Working on a couple of new songs with John Malmstrom. Trying to get Tom Lück to throw some ideas my way. He owes me.

Still reading fairy tales as prep for my new book with Susan.

Also reading Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, ed. Melinda Tankard Reist.

Tomorrow (Friday, March 5) check out Maghreb Voices for my piece on Maghreb Jazz. And thank-you again, Jan Wouter Oostenrijk.

Also tomorrow: interview with the fantastic Canadian acoustic guitarist Robert Michaels.

Great discipling session this morning. Thank-you girls, for channeling the light.

March 12 World Day Against Cyber Censorship

What’s Up, Thursday 11 March 2010

The Moroccan Bloggers Association has just been officially denied status as a legal organisation, just one more blow in a series of strikes against free speech in Morocco. Stay in touch– I’ll soon be publishing information on what you can do to pressure this government to relax what appears to be an increasing rigidity regarding media freedom.

My friend Rita Shelby, gifted jazz chanteuse, insightful songwriter, and a true Mindful Heroine, has a new website up now. Have a good listen to the song Cherish the Moment; it brilliantly expresses the conscious cultivation of unconditional joy, a topic dear to The Mindful Bard’s heart. Rita deserves much more recognition than she has received so far, and if you buy her wonderful album, Date With a Song, you’ll not only be supporting quality music, you’ll  be immeasurably enriching your world .

Tomorrow on Maghreb Voices blogger A.T.B. (A Moroccan About the World Around Him) talks about his Moroccan boyhood, and what it’s means to be Moroccan-American.

Tomorrow on The Mindful Bard I talk about Miller-Kelton’s delightful CD Goodbye Cindy.

In Sister Aurora the girls learn about Jodi’s secret crush.

Been working on a song about a female stalker. John’s been generating great great jazz tunes faster than all get out, which is great. Just hope I can keep up.

Listening to Paris Combo, Jacques Brel, and Fucked Up. Keeping one ear on Accujazz’s New Releases channel in an attempt to scope out some gems.

This being March the 11th, I cannot resist quoting one of my favourite movie scenes, from Call of the Wild, in which Leslie Neilsen as Frobisher exhorts his motley crew with these profound and timeless words:

They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand a hip’n’all when e’er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers – our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here, be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves…sort of crappy. Because they are not here to join the fight. On this day, March the eleventh!

What’s Up, Thursday 18 March 2010

Tomorrow on Maghreb Voices blogger A.T.B. (A Moroccan About the World Around Him) talks about freedom, oppression, and the temerity of the Moroccan blogging community.

Tomorrow on The Mindful Bard I recommend the book Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, a set of articles edited by Melinda Tankard Reist. Reist gathers a set of intelligent arguments and some relevant research to this controversial topic.

In Sister Aurora Berty is actually glad to hear that Jodi has a crush on her boyfriend.

Been working on sad lyrics for John Malmström’s Tango in C Minor.

John just introduced us to Little Nicky, a Parisian  who has assembled a heavenly host of old film clips of great musicians and dancers. The inspiration is palpable.

Listening to El Anwar (a male choir in Agadir, Morocco), Tunisian singer Wafa Ghorbal, Bybus, and Little Nicky’s channel on YouTube.

To fit my current mood (and in case anyone’s feeling too cheerful) here’s an excerpt from “A Dream Within a Dream”, by Edgar Allan Poe:

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

What’s Up, Thursday, 25 March 2010

Tomorrow check Maghreb Voices in  The Voice for my profile of Moroccan violinist Amir Ali.

In Gregor’s Bed I recommend free downloads from Nunun and Th.e n.d.

In Sister Aurora Jodi finally gives Berty something to be mad about.

Been reading fairy tales in preparation for new book with Susan Malmstrom. Seeing a connection between phenomenology and ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. Also reveling in Angela Carter’s short stories.

Getting ready to watch The Yes Men Fix the World. Looking to interview one of the yes men. Should be a riot.

Still singing jazz standards and writing new lyrics and poems. Sublimation is truly the queen of defense mechanisms.

Listening incessantly to the incredibly beautiful tenor voice of Christos Stassinopoulos (a.k.a. the voice of Aladdin), also Abdou Day.

The earth is slowly unfurling buds and blossoms and sweet aromas once again.

Excerpt from ‘God is Alive, Magic is Afoot’, by Leonard Cohen:

. . . Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But magic is no instrument
Magic is the end
Many men drove magic
But magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through magic
And out the other side
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left Him nourished
They would not tell who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh within my mind
This I mean my mind to serve
Til’ service is but magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself
The magic length of God

What’s Up, Saturday, 3 April 2010

My telephone interview with Andy Birchlbaum was just as funny as The Yes Men Fix the World. My two favourite culture jammers have actually instilled a smidgen of hope in my cynical soul.

In Sister Aurora Berty is feeling betrayed, Jodi is still coveting her boyfriend, and Lynn is trying to deflect hostility away from the group.

Been listening to Max Vasquez, Fort Fairfield’s new release The essential thing resists telling, Marvin Ayres, Revolution Void, Alexander Blu, Ima Sumac.

Reading Tango: The Art History of Love by Robert Farris Thompson, Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery, Kampung Boy by Lat, and Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow.

The Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra is still riding the crest of the creativity wave, slowly crafting beautiful new songs as we hone our skills. There really is nothing like mindful collaboration.

Deep Thoughts:

My emerging idea of a postmodern secular holiness places the spiritual transformation process in a context of art, music, deep communion with others, thoughtful discourse, poetry, a careful, honest, and optimistic exegesis of personal experience (M.Scott Peck’s “looking for grace”), an abiding vigilance, and continual praise.

Discourse within this paradigm would reject the master-servant terminology of the ancient and medieval world in favour of terms used to describe friendship and romantic love.

What’s Up, Saturday 10 April 2010

This week in The Voice:

Jodi steals Berty’s cell phone once again in Sister Aurora.

A review of the delectable new Muriel Barbery novel, Gourmet Rhapsody

Christos Stassinopoulos, Part I – An interview with one of the most heartrending tenor voices alive.

John Malmström, my songwriting partner, is creating the most amazing music… I’m surprised at how naturally he seems to be picking up this skill when only last year it would never have occurred to him to compose. A tough craft to master. Glad I’m not doing it! Writing the words and singing them is ridiculously easy in comparison.

I’m thinking of putting a podcast here, maybe bits of interviews and music or just rambling monologues a la Ivor Cutler.

The Voice has finally found a french editor. Yay! Now Maghreb Voices can be a bilingual column.

Still slowly adding to my (very long now) autobiographical essay Wounded by Beauty. Really just a way of trying to make sense of my life. Have no idea where it’s going. Or maybe I do.

Deep Thoughts

Secular holiness requires of us a more brutal honesty and a more abiding vigilance than does religious holiness.

In the end what endures is not the subject or object of love but rather the love itself, it’s capacity to consume and transform those who live in it.

I want the deep fellowship of art and intellectual discourse, but without snobbery and condescension.

I want friendly interactions with ordinary people, but without narrowness and ignorance.

What’s Up, Saturday 17 April 2010

John Malmstrom just wrote a sexy, sassy little number that’s going to make men very nervous when I sing it to them. And boy is it a thrill to sing . . .

In Conversation With: second part of interview with Greek tenor  Christos Stassinopoulos

The Mindful Bard: first part of profile of Tunisian pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif

In Sister Aurora Berty makes a shocking revelation

Deep Thoughts

Inspired entirely by Clothesline Revival’s “Troubled About My Soul”

What’s Up, Saturday 24 April 2010

Yesterday, between 4 and 11 pm, my beloved Labrador Retriever Tsinuk bore ten beautiful, healthy pups.

My columns this week in The Voice:

In Conversation With . . .
Dinuk Wijeratne, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 16 2010-04-23

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 16 2010-04-23

Maghreb Voices
Tunisian Jazz Pianist and Composer Wajdi Cherif, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 16 2010-04-23

Looking forward to going with Susan Malmstrom to hear the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra’s season finale in Wolfville this evening. Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Jeff Reilly. Or so I’ve been told. Will let y’all know how it goes.

Lately I’ve been exploring the claims of Islam. This started as a quest to plough through all the western propaganda and find out what Moslems actually believe. Especially intriguing is the doctrine that Islam is the fulfillment and culmination of both Judaism and Christianity (similar to the Christian claim that Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaic prophecies).

My thoughts have been with Omar Khadr. The thing that really broke my heart was seeing his reading list. Youth and chaos put him in Guantanamo. Fear and ignorance keep him there. Canada, hang your head in shame. And bring him home.

Deep Thoughts

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection. The grief you cry out from draws you toward union. Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup. ~Rumi

How sad the way we begin to select our partners by weighing their physical attributes and judging their worth according to their “market value” as things in themselves. How often do we fall in love, as Dosteovsky says, with a body, or even with a part of a body, and become willing to sell our souls for it? In this way the most odious human beings are granted an adulation they don’t deserve and can’t handle. How much happier it is to be so enchanted by someone’s mind and heart that that person’s physical attributes become beautiful in our eyes? One could thus love a leper as easily as a beauty contestant, a hunchback as easily as a film idol.

What’s Up, Saturday 1 May 2010

Yours truly with two of Canada's most brilliant composers, Dinuk Wijeratne and Jeff Reilly, at the Festival Theatre in Wolfville Nova Scotia on April 24.

Driving from Digby county toward Wolfville to attend a symphony concert feels like a hejira. And to arrive at the theatre to find that the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra is infinitely better than you had expected… it’s just the bee’s knees.

Jeff Reilly‘s piece, Internal Combustion, in its method of composition and in tonight’s performance (with percussionist Mark Duggan), is exciting, significant, and mesmerising.

There is a wonderful understanding between the musicians and the conductor. Dinuk Wijeratne darts with the quickness and grace of a hummingbird (a spectacle in itself worth watching). And these musicians, having so graciously turned from the many distractions that overwhelm today’s young and given themselves to a truly arduous and often thankless discipline, have created an oasis of beauty for a roomful of strangers. They look and sound like the personification of Love Itself.

Bless you, NSYO

The Mindful Bard
Defendor

“The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.”      ~Cervantes, Don Quixote

Sister Aurora

In Conversation With . . .
Melinda Tankard Reist, Part I

Melinda Tankard Reist is an Australian feminist writer, activist, and international speaker

The Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra, comprised mainly of myself and Susan and John Malmstrom, would like some intelligent feedback on some works-in-progress that you can find here. These are rough first takes but we wanted to get some responses before embarking on a potentially endless refinement process. So have a listen and let us know what these songs do for you. Might put you in the will.

Experimental Americana recording artist Conrad Praetzel, one of my stalking victims, has finally released another incredible album. Sample it here and get your head fried.

Deep Thoughts

Secular holiness. Religious anarchy. Decentralized sacred practice. Wrest holiness from clerics and lawmakers and return it to the mad. Learn to trust the sacred art that lives outside the religious canon.

Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd. ~ The I Ching

Regarding Tiger Woods

Judge not, that ye may not be judged.

A moral dilemma is born of the disapproval we experience when witnessing a sin to which we may secretly be tempted but which we have so far managed to avoid. When later we succumb to that same sin it is more difficult to pick ourselves up, apologize, and receive forgiveness. We are compelled to lie about our sin, to rationalize it, to minimize its effects, or, much worse, to believe that we are worthless and beyond forgiving. This is because the condemning, self-righteous voices in our heads, once we allow them their freedom, are ten times louder when directed at ourselves.

What’s Up, Saturday, 8 May 2010

In Conversation With . . . Christos Hatzis – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 18 2010-05-07

Melinda Tankard Reist, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 18 2010-05-07

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 18 2010-05-07

What’s Up, Saturday 15 May 2010

My articles this week:

(Including my first French article! )

Voix du Maghreb
Le Zazz Band – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 19 2010-05-14

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 19 2010-05-14

The Mindful Bard
Christos Hatzis, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 19 2010-05-14

It’s been an interesting week in the Kingdom of Bard. The Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra is now working toward some carefully defined goals. And making headway. Love you, John and Susan.

Two days ago I sang Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason” on Skype to some kids in Rabat, Morocco. They were a great audience. They also wanted me to sing something by Metallica but I said I’d rather chew a lightbulb.

The puppies are eating, growling, barking, and fighting. Life is beautiful.

What’s Up, Saturday, 22 May 2010

What’s Up, Saturday 29 May 2010

On the Radio StarDust front, fronter John Malmstrom has hooked up with Swingology for an opportunity to expand the frontiers of aural delight in Vinland.

At the moment my life is chaos. But I’ll try to settle it down long enough to come up with some more Deep Thoughts a.s.a.p.

My stuff online this week:

Letters to the Editor
Sam Baker’s Cotton – Vol. 18 Iss. 21 2010-05-28

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 21 2010-05-28

Gregor’s Bed
Marvin Ayres, Fort Fairfield, NIT – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 21 2010-05-28

Maghreb Voices
The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 21 2010-05-28

What’s Up, Saturday, 5 June 2010

The Mindful Bard
John Wall Barger, Pain-Proof Men – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 22 2010-06-04

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 22 2010-06-04

Saturday 12 June 2010

Just got CDs from Conrad Praetzel (one of my stalking victims), the sweet, divine Janet Klein, and John Tetrault. My ears are as happy as two clams in high water.

My songwriting partner, John Malmstrom, is now working closely with the amazingly good jazz group, Swingology. Kudos, John, and all the best to the band!

The wikipedia article is slowly blazing its trail and I’m learning some surprising things about the recent (last forty years) history of Maghreb music. Driss, my little brother in Morocco, has been a huge help in navigating a territory that at times seems overwhelming.

And Ali, my friend in France, has graciously agreed to help with the french blurbs. Mille bisoux, Ali!

My columns this week:

The Mindful Bard
SLAM!, Through the Coin – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 23 2010-06-11

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 23 2010-06-11

In Conversation With . . .
Conjunto Roque Moreira – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 23 2010-06-11

What’s Up Saturday 19 June 2010

It’s been a quiet week in the kingdom of bard, but very stimulating. Been steeping myself in the music of Janet Klein and growing ever more awestruck. And my mom loves her; but “Obscure, my foot!” she exclaimed when she read the song titles on the CD, “I played these songs on my grandmother’s gramophone.” Guess she meant to say these songs weren’t so obscure. Sure, ma.

Took Tsinuk to the vet who suggested her skin problems were due to a number of things. So I got her a cortisone shot, had her dewormed, and put her on a special diet. For the cost of her organic lamb and rice dog food I could be feeding her organic lamb and rice.

Got high speed internet hooked up today (the technician lusted after my iMac and said he couldn’t afford one but I said he couldn’t afford not to have one) and so I can start scouting youtube and jamendo again for new music.

Which reminds me— significant rise in hits to this site lately so I’m wondering why aren’t you bardlings leaving me more recommendations? How can I know what new music, books, and movies will thrill me to my marrow if you don’t tell me? Remember, it has to have come out in the last twelve months and it has to meet at least two of the Mindful Bard criteria.

A special Mindful Bard blessing goes out this week to Johanna, Ali, Driss, Ines, Jenna, and Turki for being uplifting, inspiring, and extra-extra good friends.

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 24 2010-06-18

In Conversation With . . .
John Wall Barger – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 24 2010-06-18

Gregor’s Bed
Clothesline Revival, They Came From Somewhere – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 24 2010-06-18

Deep Thoughts

I feel so sorry for men. Their relationships are vitally important for them, yet they are so poorly equipped to handle relational issues. It’s no wonder that patriarchy is so often their regime of choice and that so many fall apart once it’s taken away.

Saturday 25 June 2010

My stuff this week:

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 25 2010-06-25

In Conversation With . . .
Home Routes, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 25 2010-06-25

The Mindful Bard
Symon Hill, The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 25 2010-06-25

Deep Thoughts

With words we only approach the truth– we never possess it. But the poet doesn’t try to possess truth– she seeks to nurture an intimate relationship with truth and to allow that intimacy to blossom into poetry. In this way the primitive magic of language is kept alive.

Saturday 3 July 2010

My columns this week:

Sister Aurora

In Conversation With . . .
Home Routes, Part II

Gregor’s Bed
Cybiont, Angels & Demons

10 July 2010

This week in The Voice:

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 27 2010-07-09

In Conversation With …
Jeff Reilly, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 27 2010-07-09

The Mindful Bard
Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 27 2010-07-09

It’s been a quiet week in the Kingdom of Bard. I have a new managing editor at The Voice– Christina Frey, who is already showing great promise as a beacon and exhorter to my recalcitrant muse. Tough to replace the divine Sandra, who has now taken the writing plunge, joining the rest of us few who dejectedly admit we can do naught else but write, write, write ’til the cows come home. Very proud of you Sandra.

Totally enjoying my new digs, my life, my friends, even though I only have this place for another month and a half. Hardly troubles me at all that I don’t know where I’ll be come September. But I really must get things moving faster on the passport . . .

Reading The Companion by Lorcan Roche. The tale’s hero is just the kind of pal I’d like to chum with– callous, irreverent, and brilliant.

Just interviewed the sweet, divine Janet Klein. Cannot say enough. Interview out next week.

Learning much about Islam and finding much to move me.

17 July 2010

New stuff this week:

In Conversation With …
Janet Klein, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 28 2010-07-16

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 28 2010-07-16

The Mindful Bard
Cochemea Gastelum, The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 28 2010-07-16

24 July 2010

In Conversation With …
Janet Klein, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 29 2010-07-23

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 29 2010-07-23

The Mindful Bard
Lorcan Roche, The Companion – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 29 2010-07-23

Slowly working on Wounded by Beauty, a memoir of sorts, based on a complex of ideas that I’m trying to put in order, using Cocteau’s phrase as a touchstone.

The Ladies’ Luncheon Club is still an exclusive affair. How jealously we guard our precious conversations from the onslaughts of “society” . . .

31 July 2010

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 30 2010-07-30

The Mindful Bard
The Lovely Bones (DVD) – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 30 2010-07-30

In Conversation With …
Janet Klein, Part III – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 30 2010-07-30

8 August 2010

In Conversation With . . .
Cochemea Gastelum, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

Gregor’s Bed
The Cybiont Interview, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

14 August 2010

I have a lot to say. But does anyone ever really read these posts?

In Conversation With . . .

Cochemea Gastelum, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

Gregor’s Bed
The Cybiont Interview, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 31 2010-08-06

21 August 2010

RSDJO recording project is now front and centre once more. We now have seven songs that seem too good to be true. Official (working) title of CD: Cocktail Noir.

Tamika is here blowing me away with the quality of the photos she’s been taking. What an eye! Will be posting some here soon.

Be sure to check out new additions to the Mindful Bard Manifesto, courtesy of the inimitable Cybiont.

Thanks to Ali for alerting me to Lynch’s amazing film Straight Story, to Hima for introducing me to the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, to Shahy and Mehdia for understanding the girl stuff, and to Susan for being the most amazing source of creative stimulus alive.

It will soon be time to move again. Anyone know of a good house sit anywhere in the world?

In Conversation With . . .Cochemea Gastelum, Part III – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 33 2010-08-20

The Mindful Bard
States of Race:
Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century
– Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 33 2010-08-20

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 33 2010-08-20

28 August 2010

In Conversation With . . .
Mark Duggan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 34 2010-08-27

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 34 2010-08-27

Gregor’s Bed
Error 4o4/Dame Seck/Alpha Twist – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 34 2010-08-27

John Malmstrom just finished another song and wrote music for my lyrics “I Said Too Much”. This brings the total to eight for the Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra’s first album. John is currently creatively incubating a ninth. Last night we were debating the form in which the album should appear. A dancing hologram, perhaps . . .

Tonight I’ll be performing a couple of my poems at the grand opening of Drumspirit at the Oakdene Centre here in Bear River. Kadijah has put an amazing shop together there, full of great resources and and a cool world vibe. I’ve had a good feeling about Drumspirit from the start, and I have a really good feeling about tonight.

Will soon be leaving this house-sit and moving to another, where I will be internet free for most of the week. Will be focussing on fairy tales (for the book with Susan), praying, thinking, journaling, and making some tough decisions about my life.

Big hugs to Hasmik for promoting my poems in Armenia, to Zohir for that beautiful brotherly letter, to Hima for telling me that I look ugly on Skype, to Mehdia for the wonderful tajine recipes, and to Adil  for the great Maghreb music links.

15 September 2010

I’ve just spent a lovely week and a half at the house of friends while they were away, just me and Tsinuk. It was just what I needed.

Currently reading Akhenaten by Naguib Mahfouz. Soon watching to be watching Avatar. Just discovered Ashram, Jasser Haj Youssef, and Mounir Troudi. My life is an aural-visual-dialectic feast.

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 36 2010-09-10

My interview with William MacGillivray, director of Man of a Thousand Songs, a documentary on Newfoundland singer/songwriter Ron Hynes:

In Conversation With . . .

William MacGillivray – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 36 2010-09-10

Review:

The Mindful Bard
The Man of a Thousand Songs – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 36 2010-09-10

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 35 2010-09-03

The Mindful Bard: Blancheneige Bazaar Orchestra – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 35 2010-09-03

In Conversation With . . .
Patricia Talem – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 35 2010-09-03

18 September 2010

Sister Aurora – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 37 2010-09-17

In Conversation With . . .
Kilmore Place – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 37 2010-09-17

Voix du Maghreb
Entretien avec Yasmina Khadra, 1re partie – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 37 2010-09-17

27 September 2010

Voix du Maghreb

Entretien avec Yasmina Khadra, 2e partie – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 38 2010-09-24

(Merci, Wanda.

C’est toujours un réel plaisir, pour moi, de m’entretenir avec les gens qui
apprécient mon travail et retranscrivent fidèlement mes entretiens, ce qui
n’est pas le cas avec certains journalistes.
Avec mes amitiés.

Yasmina Khadra)

The Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 38 2010-09-24

The Mindful Bard
Avatar – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 38 2010-09-24

2 Sept 2010

She sat like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief. Was not this love, indeed?

We men may say more, swear more: but, indeed,

Our shows are more than will; for still we prove

Much in our vows, but little in our love.

~Shakespeare in Twelfth Night

One of the more pressing issues in musicians’ lives right now is how to make a living in a post-corporate music industry. This week the Bard has been examining alternative models of music distribution, which complements the articles on alternative forms of performance, touring, recording, marketing that the Bard has been providing from the beginning.

Check out the recently revived Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan, complete with a new Middle Eastern character in the form of Arabian brood mare Habibah Noor.

The Radio StarDust Jazz Orchestra is still cranking out musical wonders that amaze even us. Latest song is a sad-yet-triumphant tribute to saxophonist Lester Young, the inimitable who nonetheless commands imitation. Channelling Billie Holliday lead to some surprising shifts.

Sugar Puss, please come home– the triumvirate is now a wobbly tripod with a missing leg.

Gregor’s Bed
Creative Commons and Art Libre
– Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 39 2010-10-01

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 39 2010-10-01

The Mindful Bard
Valkania – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 39 2010-10-01

9 October 2010

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 40 2010-10-08

The Mindful Bard
On Canadian Poetry, Part I – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 40 2010-10-08

 

16 October 2010

Maghreb Voices
Binobin: Mektoub – Wanda Waterman St. Louis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mindful Bard
On Canadian Poetry, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 41 2010-10-15

23 October 2010

Been trying to keep it together in spite of a hectic schedule and a creative drive that pulls me in different directions all at once.

I cherish the hours I spend in the attic of my parents’ century home, sitting on a milk crate, with a peach crate as a desk, and surrounded by antique china, art, and books, cobwebs, boxes, and handhewn beams. Over my head is the glassed door that opens onto the widowswalk. I don’t go up there but I welcome the sunlight it lets in. Here i am isolated from the phone, the internet, and hall traffic. It has turned out to be the ideal place to work on my fairy tale poems. If I’m tired I nap on the floor with a blanket for a pillow. Life is sweet.

Just met Moroccan poet Taha Adnan, whose poems are crystal goblets of crystalline water in which diamonds float.

 

 

 

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 42 2010-10-22

Voix du Maghreb
Entretien avec Jasser Haj Youssef, 1re partie – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 42 2010-10-22

 

 

 

 

 

The Mindful Bard
Preservation: An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall
& the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 42 2010-10-22

30 October 2010

 

Voix du Maghreb
Entretien avec Jasser Haj Youssef, 2e partie

– Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 43 2010-10-29

The Mindful Bard

Meklit Hadero, On a Day Like This …

– Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 43 2010-10-29

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan -

- Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 43 2010-10-29

5 November 2010

In Conversation With . . .
Ben Jaffe – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 44 2010-11-05

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maghreb Voices

Taha Adnan, Je Hais l’Amour – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 44 2010-11-05

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 44 2010-11-05

 

 

13 November 2010

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 45 2010-11-12

In Conversation With . . . Jesse David Weeks – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 45 2010-11-12

Gregor’s Bed
Andy and Ariana/Cybiont/Ceschi – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 45 2010-11-12

20 November 2010

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 46 2010-11-19

In Conversation With . . . Ashram – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 46 2010-11-19

 

4 December 2010

Last Wednesday I was chatting online with a friend in Giza, Egypt, when she mentioned that she couldn’t go outside that day because of a conflict between Muslims and Christians. According to her a little girl in a nearby school had been killed in the scuffle.

Another friend near Cairo said that the Christians had been granted a permit for a community centre and had furtively turned the building into a church. When the government demanded that the parish obtain the proper permit, the Christians rioted.

Yet another Egyptian stated that Egypt is fair to Christians, allowing them to worship freely. Christians, he said, are always trying to make it look like the government is discriminating against them.

A fourth, when I asked why the followers of the man who counseled cheek-turning and enemy loving could justify throwing rocks and molotov cocktails, responded dispassionately: “All we Egyptians are like that.”

NPR’s take on it

Washington Post

Al Jazeera

 

 

 

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 48 2010-12-03

In Conversation With . . .
Africa Genesis Foundation, Part II – Wanda Waterman St. Louis Vol. 18 Iss. 48 2010-12-03

18 December 2010

 

In Conversation With . . . Meklit Hadero, Part I

Walk Up

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan #149

26 December 2010

Meklit Hadero,

Part II

 

 

 

 

The Mindful Bard In A Strange Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!

8 January 2011

They Tell My Tale to Children Now to Help Them to be Good

(presentation of artist book collaboration: Susan Malmstrom’s illustrations of fairytale poems by Wanda Waterman)
ARCAC Arts Tuesday ARCAC Building, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
January 11 —— 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Images from the book can be seen here.

To read the poems, send an email request.

15 January 2011 Jasmine Revolution

While I was working on the Tunisia article I had a bit of a rough time communicating with blogger Leena Ben Mhenni; her Facebook account was hacked and my messages kept bouncing back from her email address and eventually I conducted the interview over the phone. Meanwhile the world watched with bated breath as the former dupes rose up in wrath and made fools of the school bullies. Ya basta.

And now the head bully has fled the country like a skittish colt with a firecracker tied to his tail. The world is waiting to see if the dupes will now become bullies themselves.

Dr. Sparkles sent me a pin that says, “Practice Suspicious Behavior.” Think

I’ll wear it on my ruffled polka dot apron.

Jazzman Jack has been tidying things up  in the Stardust department. Looks yummy, Jack! That’s yours truly on the vocal samples.

Just watched 100% Arabica, which I thought was pretty cool, kind of like a blacksploitation flick but about ghettoized Arabs in France. Great music, and of course it was great to see Cheb Khaled and Cheb Mami in lead roles.

Winter’s Bone just reminded me of how purely and truly Appalachian my home town in southwestern Nova Scotia really is. The log cabin and porch, the cluttered yards, the junked cars, the weathered wrecks of houses, the bluegrass, the chillingly evil people living with people so kind they deserved sainthood . . . Every shot looked like it came from my own memory bank and it got more uncanny when Ree appeared with a horse named Ginger, the name of a horse I had when I was young.

Speaking of horses, this week in Cruiscin Lan Sugarbuns and Candibelle argue the ethics of a local farmer importing an Arabian mare for breeding purposes when so many local mares are out of work.

For much of my life I’ve been sick with the sickness of my society. I’ve been depressed with the depression of my era. To know the hell visited on the subconscious of my generation, to see the full ugliness from which we distract ourselves, I only need revisit my depression, my nightmares, my death wish, my depravity.

It’s all so simple, really. He gives. We choose to accept or refuse. Sometimes we accept but not completely. Sometimes we refuse but leave the door ajar.

You see? Already I’m making it complicated.

30 January 2011

The Old Autocracy Meets the New Grassroots Economy, and a Terrible Beauty Is Born (Night in Tunisia: The Inevitable Eruption of a Long-standing Unrest, Part III)

“. . . For all that is done and said.

We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
. . . Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

William Butler Yeats, “Easter”, 1916

 

The Mindful Bard:

Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World

HOWL

 

 

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan

 

 

 

 

5 February 2011

Dear friends and all who may be concerned about the sad state of current events in Egypt,

Due to the fact that until recently the government disconnected the internet and many of the phone lines, I am only now able to respond to your messages. I’ll try to explain as much as I can as briefly as possible.

You’ve probably heard about the revolution in the news, but western media can’t report precisely and in detail what’s really going on. I’ve never been into politics, but we Egyptians are now living in a serious state of emergency all over the country. There are many factions involved, and the confusion is creating a blackout of the facts.

The protests were a peaceful effort to achieve legitimate goals. The Anger Revolution is not coming from any particular political party but rather from common Egyptian citizens. It started with a few Egyptian groups using Facebook and calling the movement “Youth of 25 January”, the main goals being to seek reforms, democracy, and social justice and to break the fetters of the persecution, oppression, and corruption that we’ve been living with for so long.

At this moment so many of Egypt’s enemies are trying to take advantage of these events.

On the 25th of  January protesters started to express their desires in a peaceful way; unfortunately the government reacted violently. I have personally witnessed police trucks ploughing into the crowds.

The 26th to the 28th of  January were the anger days, as many Egyptian people were getting more and more mad and upset because the government and police were using violence against the protesters.

On the 28th of January around sunset the police disappeared, having received a command from the Minister of the Interior to pull out. By most analyses this was “high treason”, as the order originally came from the Police Corruption Ministry.

Immediately most of the prisons were opened and thousands of prisoners were let out. Prisons and police stations were looted and ruined in what constituted total anarchy.

I’m sure many foreigners and suspicious organizations are involved, in sabotaging the protests. I can’t believe they were trying to burn the  Egypt Museum and some other antiquities locations but thank God the people and the army saved it at the last moment (some antiquities were damaged but luckily they can be repaired).

I witnessed many criminal activities including the looting of  malls and homes. The good news is that when people saw this anarchy they started to form local groups to guard areas from burglary and murders.

This was necessary because, as I said, there were no police. A policeman I know told me that he received orders from the head officer to fall back, put on his civilian clothes, and go home. But some good police deliberately ignored the command.

Around this time the Egyptian army started to disperse across the country to protect the people. We began catching people in criminal acts and handing them over to the army. By forming hundreds of citizen groups we succeeded in chasing down and catching many criminals. We retrieved many stolen cars. Still it’s very dangerous here because a lot of criminals are hiding.

We don’t know how many innocent people have been killed but we know the death count is in the hundreds. We don’t know how long we can stay up all night patrolling our streets. There aren’t as many of us and people  are getting tired. I don’t understand why the new government doesn’t give the command to repair the police stations so we can go home and let the police do their jobs again. So many wrong and confusing things are happening. People can’t work and so many stores are closed.

In the mornings thousands of people protest, demanding that the president retire, and in the evening everyone then goes to guard his area, holding sticks, tools, or knifes from their kitchens!

Life is messed up, but we still have hope, and we still pray.

I wish the government would make a serious reformation so that we can live in safety and security and return to normal life again.

I’ll try to keep safe so I can keep you updated with the latest news.

Please pray for peace for all of Egypt.

Regards,

Ahmed Ghazy

4 February 2011>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Mindful BardThe Dizzying Music of The Henry Chinaski’s Ashtray

Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan

In Conversation With Stacey Kent

Stacey began her musical career after completing a Masters degree in comparative literature. Now, after six bestselling albums last year (with many songs co-written by friend and acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguro) she just released Raconte-moi and will soon release an album based on Brazilian music. Recently she took the time to talk with Wanda Waterman St. Louis about her early—and ongoing—search for musical treasures.

In Conversation with Stacey Kent, Part II

by Wanda Waterman

Ish and I both came to England from other countries and had developed the sense of being displaced persons. By losing your groundedness and taking on a floating identity, you suddenly see your world and the new world very differently and you become a person of the whole world. (Read the whole article.)

Religion is a means of drawing closer to God but does not in itself comprise closeness to God.        ~Wanda Waterman

It would be of great service to our quest for plurality and tolerance if we could acknowledge in fear and trembling that each one of us is vulnerable to bad faith and that if God loves us at all he loves us in spite of it.

~Wanda Waterman~

Lebanon

The Mindful Bard: Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World “Yes, this is the story of a specific time and place (the First Lebanon War, of 1982), but as time goes on the … Continue reading →

In Conversation With Stacey Kent, Part III

“We’ve also started working with a Portuguese poet—António Ladeira—because Jim and I have been studying Portuguese these last three years. He was our first-year grammar teacher, and he’s a great poet. After writing with Ishiguro, this became a real interest with us. We’ll work with anyone with whom we have chemistry; we just happen to be really attracted to writers as opposed to songwriters.” (Read the whole article.)

 

There is No Revolution But

by Wanda Waterman

There is no revolution but

The inner revolution of

The deeper revolution of

The utter revolution of the soul,

And I am only free when I

Can feel that I am free to

Truly know that I am free

Within my soul.

And now that I know this I can

Begin to know the bliss of

Disavowing all the fibs

That haunt the land,

And the forest’s fragrant hush

Persuades my sleeping blood to rush

Because the time

For revolution is at hand.

Stacey Kent

Raconte-moi

“This is an album of love songs that doesn’t portray a romance of mind games, tensions, and power struggles, but rather a celebration of the harmony between two thoughtful and like-minded souls. Its tracks breathe out a subtle, tender sensuality that rustles the musical veil, exhibiting an artistic restraint that enhances the listening experience. It’s a perfumed sea breeze after years of smog.” (Read the article.)

CD Review of Sintonia Da Mata, by Conjunto Roque Moreira

 

Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World
Wanda Waterman St. Louis

“This band of Brazilian musicians is every bit as world-influenced as any self-righteous American pop celebrity, and probably more creative and socially conscious. In fact, in addition to the samba, reggae, classical, Indian, African, baião, xote, samba, embolada, repente, and bossa nova, the music also references American blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, acid rock, British prog rock, and 60s folk anthems—challenging the notion that world music is any music that’s not American or British.”

(Read the article.)

 

Waiting for Superman (Mindful Bard Pick of the Week)

A common prejudice sees failing schools as an affliction of poor neighbourhoods, yet the film shows that failing schools are an epidemic and that the posh suburban schools are likely to be as ill-equipped to prepare children for university as are inner city schools in violent neighbourhoods. It’s even suggested that failing schools create failing neighbourhoods due to a high dropout rate that spawns growing populations of unemployable youth. (Read the whole article here.)

Gregor’s Bed: Album Review

Album: Jack Djeyim, Show Me the Way (2010)

Acoustic and Electric Guitars: Jack Djeyim

Bass: Etienne Mbappé, Guy Sangué, Raymond Noël Ekwabi

Drums: Brice Wouassi, Valerie Lobé, Dennis Tchangou

Keyboards: Mario Canongue, Don Dieu Divin, Patrick Bebey

Guests: Idrissa Diop, Manu Dibango

Isn’t it a treat to find an album that gets you out of bed in the morning, throws a dose of enthusiasm into your exercise routine, and smoothes your day’s rough patches? I’m talking about one that is just there for you, one that understands all your angst and pain and yet still says, “Let’s dance!” (read more)

Mindful Bard Film Review: Mary and Max

Film: Mary and Max (IFC Films 2010)

Writer/Director: Adam Elliot

Cast: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana, Bethany Whitmore, Reneé Geyer

“God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends.”

Ethel Watts Mumford

“Her mother had told her that she was an ‘accident.’ How could someone be an accident? Grandpoppy Ralph had told her that babies were deliberate, and found by dads at the bottom of their beer.”

From Mary and Max

Eight-year-old Mary Daisy Dinkle likes to shrink potato chip bags in the oven to make trinkets. She has a pet rooster named Ethel. Her father works in a tea bag factory, attaching the strings to the bags. Mary’s mom, Vera Dinkle, is a frowzy, kleptomaniac drunk whose great scarlet lips are among the few oases of colour in this faded taupe Claymation world. (read more)

Soundtrack for a Revolution

Review

Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan

Minky talking with Bongo about how the bears are ruining her life.

True Grit

The Mindful Bard: True Grit Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World Wanda Waterman Film: True Grit (2010) When a social upheaval reaches an unnerving crescendo, those who must endure it often long for heroes who embody iron will and superlative physical and mental skills. Some of us dream of a Captain America, but I (and judging from the box office, many others) prefer to dream of a Mattie Ross. (read more) Writers/Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, and Hailee Steinfeld “MATTIE ROSS: I just spent last night at the undertaker’s, in the company of three corpses. I felt like Ezekiel. In the valley of the dry bones? GRANDMA TURNER: Yes, well, God bless you.”

Recommended Film: Budrus

The Israeli army is uprooting Palestinian olive trees in order to replace them with its Separation Barrier, allegedly being built to keep West Bank suicide bombers from killing any more civilian Israelis. When the villagers try to stop the bulldozer from uprooting a tree, the tree is wrenched from the earth anyway. But just as the bulldozer driver is ready to refill the hole with dirt, young Iltezam Morrar jumps down into the hole, and the bulldozer driver has no choice but to move off. When the machine is gone, the villagers put the tree back into its hole. (read the entire article here)

 

Another Year

The blessedness of Tom and Gerri’s marriage is a bit of an anomaly in the movies (with the exception of some of Leigh’s other films, notably Life is Sweet); the surprise element elevates the status of their union from the mundane to the mythic, and they end up looking like the Greek gods Hemera (Day) and Aether (Light). (read the article)

This Week’s Recommended Film: Public Speaking

Gay Connoisseurship, Democracy in Art, and the Progressive Dumbing Down of Culture

In school, Fran Lebowitz was punished for reading books of sardonic essays behind her textbooks and laughing out loud. When her own essays finally got the attention they deserved, she was offered six-figure sums for books she hadn’t even written yet. Evidently the educational system not only fails to nurture genius, it also punishes and attempts to sabotage it.

There are other influences besides the educational system that, according to Lebowitz, have led to the dumbing down of our culture. One is the fact that art and culture aficionados don’t know enough about culture to know that it’s now being endlessly recycled to the point where it is, in Lebowitz’s words, “death-dealing.” Everything looks new because no one knows about the past. (read more here)

How Many Female Sewing Machinists Does it Take to Bring About Equal Rights for Women?

This Week’s Recommended Film: Made in Dagenham

You’re not in labour activism long ere you discover a network of opposition. It starts small: you endure or witness injustice and you decide it has to stop. At first you think it’s just the boss, so you appeal to the company and to the union. Then you discover it’s the boss and the company, and maybe even the union. So you appeal to the media, the general public, the government, and even other workers in your industry, only to realize that all of these entities that had seemed to support you (or at least to be neutral) are secretly opposed to your human rights and pursuit of happiness. Why? Simply because they may stand to lose something if you get what you’re after. (read more)                  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/made_in_dagenham

Gregor’s Bed— Inside the Strange and Curious Mind of The Two Part I: Mark M

Music: Triangle (2011), One Plus One (2010)

Book: Observations and Thinkings: A Collection of Mark M’s Musings (2001)

“And God (ironically) sed, ‘I am going to send to hell all those people who were stupid enough to think I was going to send (other) people to hell.’ Fred 2:23”

Mark M, in Observations and Thinkings

Mark M grew up in a stifling Peanuts-style childhood in Minneapolis. But he made up for it in later life by producing aleatoric music and scribbling down bizarre truths.

The Two has always included Mark M. He did change partners once, but the duo format remains the same. Why? Says M: “A duo is all I’ve ever done. A buddy likes to jam, hey, why don’t we try something? Neither party seems interested in expanding the line-up. I imagine logistics are much simpler in terms of getting together and whatnot than with more than two people.” (continue)

Film: Rubber (Realitism Films 2010)

Writer/Director: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida, Ethan Cohn, Charley Koontz

Genre: Drama

We Go ’Round and ’Round and ’Round in the Tire Game

Robert the abandoned tire awakens to his own unique reality: he’s alone in a gravelly desert somewhere in the American southwest. It ain’t pretty, so he starts rolling.

When he falls he rises again. When confronted with an obstacle, he rolls around it and just keeps going. When he sees something new he stops to scrutinize it. Soon he starts quivering with rage at the sight of the bottles and cans that litter his path. He crushes them beneath his unwieldy girth. If the name “Robert” is an allusion to Robert the Bruce, it’s certainly apt.

But squishing things isn’t enough; Robert’s fury grows, and soon he’s concentrating the full weight of his existential tire-angst against the littered objects, causing them to explode with a wish. (continue)

Catherine Deneuve does an amazing job of demonstrating how a pampered life might actually enable a woman to preserve her youthful ideals of justice, equality, and compassion until they’re needed.

Film: Potiche (2011)

Director: François Ozon

Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier, Judith Godrèche

“Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men—bring them softness, teach them how to cry.”

Joan Baez

From Earth Mother to Political Saviour, 70s-Style

There are two time-chasms to cross in this film. The first is the jump between the pre-feminist bourgeois housewife and her liberated counterpart of the 70s, when this story was set; this is crossed by lead Suzanne as she changes with the times, only to become more fully herself. The second is that between the liberated woman of the 70s and the modern viewer. It’s crossed by you when begin to assess the freedoms we gained during that period, many of which we’ve since felt ourselves compelled to abandon. (continued . . .)

I could have dragged you to me, to your death, and owned you. But I didn’t. I chose silence. And lovely dancer’s legs. And a living you.

The Little Mermaid

(Wanda Waterman, 2011, from They Tell My Tale to Children Now to Help Them to be Good) 

My dancing was bathed in a gaze

That dripped like honey  through moonlight,

While unseen swords and knives sliced at my thighs.

Oh, searing phantom pain of severed tail,

That pretty tail that steered me through the deep

Past wet azure spaces marked with gilded, silvered life!

 

Did you know I was silenced, due to you?

My tongue cut out just like a cow’s, for you?

My singing might have tortured you at nightfall,

Or driven your sailors mad,

Compelling them to break great cedar ribs on Neptune’s basalt flanks.

I could have dragged you to me, to your death, and owned you,

But I didn’t.

I chose silence.

And lovely dancer’s legs.

And a living you.

 

They tell my tale to children now to help them to be good.

I don’t know why.

I did a thing that gave my parents grief,

A thing that made them cry,

Leaving the watery hearth behind

To seek a kind of permanence

That wasn’t mine by birth but could be by naturalization,

With love that grew from nothing less

Than one quick glimpse

Of eyes that spoke to me

Of airy heights and starry harmony.

 

My story is a battleground for views on afterlife.

Immortalists (for whom our Hans tacked on the second ending)

Would place me, with the daughters of the air, afloat,

While Sadducees transform me into foam to stroke a boat.

And with the stubborn clutch of death itself I keep my secret.

Though my tale’s ripe with clues, you’ll never guess.

But might you love me now, if I confess?

Incendies: I have nothing to say. You simply have to see this film; there’s no way to adequately communicate its splendour to you. But while I have you here, I can tell you that it’s one of the most artistically perfect, profound, realistic, and gruelling films I’ve ever witnessed.

(read the entire article)

Film: Incendies (Sony Pictures Classics 2011)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Source: Based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad

Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard

What is the Avant-Garde and Why Does it Matter? Part I

Although it literally means vanguard, in general the term is applied to the arts, where it’s used to describe the experimental (John Cage), the alternative (Frank Zappa), the underground (Finnegans Wake and Mrs Dalloway), the eccentric (Klaus Nomi), and the new (steampunk). Many works created years ago are far more avant-garde than what is being created today, so it really isn’t about what’s hip and current. Occasionally the avant-garde does spring into notoriety (e.g., Mondrian-influenced mod clothing or beatnik poetry), but avant-garde is less about the box’s tinsel than about the seriousness of its contents. Philip Glass, for example, is avant-garde; Lady Gaga is not. (more)

Why did the banks give us the shaft? Because we let them.

Those of us whose early lives were grounded in sixties counterculture movements were witness to a number of social experiments that failed— free love, communal living, and use of narcotics, for example— things that may not have started out as experiments (we were so sure we were right!) but ended up being mostly abandoned in favour of practices that actually made the world a better place.

One of these experiments was the libertarian rearing of children. After all children had rights too and who were we to judge what was best for them? We had seen how how own stifling upbringings had crushed us and stifled our creativity, and we knew that if we just gave our kids free reign they would always do what was right for themselves and build a beautiful new world.

Wrong. You simply can’t give children the sense that they can do as they like. We’ve been there. We know.

Which brings us to the system of corporations that runs our economy. This is far more unwieldy than a child because it’s not even human, in spite of having a very clear and aggressive— and potentially malevolent— agenda. So why would we tell this system to do as it likes? Why do people still believe the virulent propaganda that tells us that salvation lies in privatisation and a free market?

I think we’ve learned our lesson. We flubbed; the checks and balances once imposed on the financial system to protect democracy should never have been removed. The expertise is there to put them back, only smarter and stronger this time around. So let’s get busy.

If I’m poor because I’m lazy and wasteful, then my poverty is a reproach. If I’m poor because I’m generous and industrious, then my poverty is a crown on my head. If I’m poor because I’ve been exploited and oppressed, then my poverty is a sword that will one day break from its sheath.

If I’m poor because I’m lazy and wasteful, then my poverty is a reproach. If I’m poor because I’m generous and industrious, then my poverty is a crown on my head. If I’m poor because I’ve been exploited and oppressed, then my poverty is a sword that will one day break from its sheath. ~~~~~ Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis paresseux et inutile, alors ma pauvreté est un reproche. Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis généreux et industrieux, alors ma pauvreté est une couronne sur ma tête. Si je suis pauvre parce que j’ai été exploités et des opprimés, puis ma pauvreté est une épée qui sera un jour rompre avec son fourreau.

Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis paresseux et inutile, alors ma pauvreté est un reproche. Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis généreux et industrieux, alors ma pauvreté est une couronne sur ma tête. Si je suis pauvre parce que j’ai été exploités et des opprimés, puis ma pauvreté est une épée qui sera un jour rompre avec son fourreau.erous and industrious, then my poverty is a crown on my head. If I’m poor because I’ve been exploited and oppressed, then my poverty is a sword that will one day break from its sheath. ~~~~~ Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis paresseux et inutile, alors ma pauvreté est un reproche. Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis généreux et industrieux, alors ma pauvreté est une couronne sur ma tête. Si je suis pauvre parce que j’ai été exploités et des opprimés, puis ma pauvreté est une épée qui sera un jour rompre avec son fourreau.

If I’m poor because I’m lazy and wasteful, then my poverty is a reproach. If I’m poor because I’m genIf I’m poor because I’m lazy and wasteful, then my poverty is a reproach. If I’m poor because I’m generous and industrious, then my poverty is a crown on my head. If I’m poor because I’ve been exploited and oppressed, then my poverty is a sword that will one day break from its sheath. ~~~~~ Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis paresseux et inutile, alors ma pauvreté est un reproche. Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis généreux et industrieux, alors ma pauvreté est une couronne sur ma tête. Si je suis pauvre parce que j’ai été exploités et des opprimés, puis ma pauvreté est une épée qui sera un jour rompre avec son fourreau.erous and industrious, then my poverty is a crown on my head. If I’m poor because I’ve been exploited and oppressed, then my poverty is a sword that will one day break from its sheath. ~~~~~ Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis paresseux et inutile, alors ma pauvreté est un reproche. Si je suis pauvre parce que je suis généreux et industrieux, alors ma pauvreté est une couronne sur ma tête. Si je suis pauvre parce que j’ai été exploités et des opprimés, puis ma pauvreté est une épée qui sera un jour rompre avec son fourreau.

What is the Avant-Garde and Why Does it Matter?

. . . Yes, it does sometimes seem like the art was done by monkeys or the music played by toddlers or the camera just set on a tripod and allowed to pick up whatever passed in front of it. But this is definitely not the case. The avant-garde is all the more rigorous because the rules are emerging from the work itself and the artist must be extremely mindful of trespassing against these rules. . . (read the article)

Metropia: Brazil’s 1984-Style Matrix in 21st-Century Sweden

In Metropia the holocaust was brought on by a financial collapse inevitable in a world of unbridled corporate greed, a theme we’ll probably be seeing more of as writers react to current global financial crises. And it shares with The Matrix more than just a love of the underground train motif; Metropia makes explicit the implicit Matrix message that human beings might deliberately choose to be slaves to illusions created by the marketplace. The film also rounds out 1984’s message by pointing out that absolute control is a primary goal not only of totalitarian regimes but also of other lovers of power—big business, for example. (read the article)