Israel in Guatemala

I spent most of February at a Spanish-language school in Guatemala for work. For our "graduation" the other students and I read pieces we had composed in Spanish--poems, songs, or essays. Below is what I wrote, in the original, with my artistic translation below.

ESPANOL
Esta escuela esta llena de afiches. Dos me molestan. Dicen, "boicot Israel." Y estoy pensando, "porque Israel?"

En este escuela, por ejemplo, he aprendido sobre la guerra sucia de Argentina, cuando mas de 20 mil personas fueron asesinadas o desaparecidas, y nadie dije, "boicot contra Argentina." He aprendido sobre los escuadrones de la muerte de Honduras, que hoy en dia estan masacrando victimas innocentes, y nadie dice, "boicot contra Honduras." He aprendido sobre las ochentas en Guatemala cuando el gobierno derechista estaba matando la gente indigina como un genocido, y no hay ninguna afiche de esta epocha en esta escuela que dice, "boicot contra Guatemala." Y porque?

Addemas, Israel es el unico pais en el mundo afuera de las Americas que tiene un afiche en esta escuela. Y porque? Por ejemplo, en Iran nadie tiene la libertad para amar alguien del mismo genero. En China, los padres no tiene la libertad para construir una familia con mas de una hijo, Y nadie dice boicot contra Iran o China. Y porque?

En este escuela hay un afiche que dice, "Coca-Cola es culpable." Esta bien, Coca-Cola es una compania. Hay otro afiche que dice que George Bush es un terrorista en el nivel internacional. Esta bien, el es un hobre. Pero solo Israel esta condenado como un pais, un pais entero. Y porque? Mis creancias ensenan que no hay un pais completamente mal. En cada pais hay personas buenas y personas malas; personas valientes y personas corruptas. No hay un pais sin problemas, y algunos de estos son graves, serios, y aveces, tragicos. Pero cada pais tiene gente amable, con amor en sus almas y con suenos para una vida mejor. Si un Guatemalteco va a una escuela internacional y mira un afiche que dice, "boicot Guatemala," como se sentiria?

Y porque?

ENGLISH
This school is filled with posters. Two bother me. They say, "boycott Israel." And I'm thinking, "why Israel?"

In this school, for example, I've learned about the Dirty War in Argentina, when more than 20,000 people were murdered or disappeared, and no one said, "Boycot Against Argentina." I've learned about the Death Squads in Honduras, that to this day are killing innocent victims, and no one says, "Boycott Against Honduras." I've learned about the '80's in Guatemala when the right-wing government was killing indigenous people like a genocide, and there are no signs in this school from that time that say, "Boycott Against Guatemala." And why?

In addition, Israel is the only country in the world outside of the Americas that has a poster up in this school. And why? For example, in Iran no one has the freedom to love someone of the same gender. In China, parents don't have the right to build a family with more than one child. And no one says boycott against Iran or China. And why?

In this school there is a poster that says, "Coca-Cola is guilty [of war crimes in Colombia]." That's fine, Coca-Cola is a company. There is another power that says that George Bush is an international terrorist. That's fine, he is one man. But only Israel is condemned as a country, as an entire country. And why? My beliefs teach that there is no country completely bad. In every country there are good people and bad people, brave people and corrupt people. There is no country without problems, and some of these are grave, serious, and, at times, tragic. But every country has kind people, with love in their souls and dreams for a better life. If a Guatemalan traveled to an international school and saw a poster that said, "Boycott Against Guatemala," how would they feel?

And why?

Mariah Carey As A Daoist

Mariah Carey's "Hero" is, to me, especially unique and deeply profound. It is a pop song without a love interest, a ballad without a heartbreak. It has essentially one subject: the self. It is about your power to find meaning and serenity within yourself. It is a call for introspection ("look inside your heart"), not usually the kind of exhortation found in a Billboard #1 (which it was). To emphasize the special beauty and fundamental wisdom of this message, I've juxtaposed the lyrics with quotes from Lao Tzu, the author of the Tao Te Ching. Bc combining 2 of my fav things is 1 of my fav things. Also, the "Lord knows" part @ 2:37 is one of my favorite invocations of the gospel tradition in modern pop music IMHO. Anyway here's the splice:

Mariah Carey "Hero":
You can find love If you search within yourself And the emptiness you felt Will disappear

Lao Tzu: Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

Mariah Carey "Hero":
Dreams are hard to follow But don't let anyone Tear them away

Lao Tzu: 
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Mariah Carey "Hero":
Hold On There will be tomorrow In time you'll find the way

Lao Tzu:
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Mariah Carey "Hero":
You don't have to be afraid Of what you are

Lao Tzu:
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

Mariah Carey "Hero": 
Look inside you and be strong

Lao Tzu: 
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

Freestyle King

King Los is not just my favorite rapper. He might be the only rapper. At least the only one that freestyles. And it's all because of YouTube. I once read that Jay-Z watches every rap battle he comes across. Recently I've been watching every video w/ King Los (Baltimore rapper, affiliated w/Diddy, not yet famous). I think he's one of the most talented rappers out. But what really sets him apart is that you can find MULTIPLE videos of him actually freestyling (improvising rhymes spontaneously). Freestyling is one of the things I love most about rap. It's unpredictable. In a group ("cypher"), it's collaborative, and requires patience, listening, and being in the moment. It's verbal jazz. Despite these things (or perhaps because of them) seeing a rapper actually freestyle these days is extremely rare. As in, it virtually don't exist. I think that if you went through every YouTube video of Jay-Z's 20+ year career you would find only a handful of real freestyles, if any. Eminem sort of freestyled in his battling days, but even those were mostly pre-written. Radio "freestyles" from Big L to Fabolous to Cassidy are awesome, but they were never really freestyles.

The thing about freestyles is that they are rarer in the art than they are in real life. Many rappers become great through freestyles/cyphers (Nas: "Back in eighty-three I was an MC sparkin/ But I was too scared to grab the mic's in the park and/ kick my little raps cuz I thought niggas wouldn't understand/ now in every jam I'm the fuckin man." Or see this video of B.I.G.). Then why is there such sparse documentation, and so little practice among established artists? Because freestyling makes you vulnerable in many ways. First, there's the fact that you don't know what you're going to say until you say it. it's all improvised. you can say something whack. or embarrassing. Or that makes you sound gay. Or all of the above. And that's scary to some people. The other thing is that it humanizes you. And in a genre that is literally built off bragging and hyperbole there can seem to be little advantage to exposing your talent through improvisation. That's why established rappers don't battle (only those trying to make a name for themselves do). JayZ has nothing to gain by defeating some dude in a battle. But he has a LOT to lose.

In college, my friends and I loved "Rap City Freestyles," where big names would come on the show and rap with the host Big Tig (who I think is also from MD?!). It says something about how rare genuine freestyles are that the word has almost entirely reversed its meaning. In my mind, it originally meant "spontaneous, on-the-spot rhyming." it now means "a pre-written verse that won't make the album." And that's what Rap City was. But we loved it, in part (at least for me) because it was as close to the real thing as you could get. Watching Kanye kick a verse in a cypher setting--even if it was written--was different than the polished final product you get from a carefully crafted album cut. And Big Tig really did freestyle. He was pretty bad, but he was so sincere about it and it was so obvious that he loved it that we didn't care.

Which brings me to King Los. He is the closest thing that exists today to a mainstream rapper that freestyles (Lupe does too, but less often). Sure, Sage Francis and Brother Ali freestyle. But these people are unknown to most rap fans. To have someone with a Diddy co-sign freestlye is another level. And King Los really does it. I've seen Sway give him words to rhyme off. After a show in Boston, King Los organized a cypher of his (apparently high school-age) fans and freestyled with them, encouraging them and helping them improve their skills. Can you imagine if you went to see your favorite band, and after the show they were like, "ok, we're gonna have a jam session now with anyone who wants to sit in, and then we'll give everybody some helpful feedback and pointers." I mean, did the Rolling Stones ever do that?

Maybe the best thing about King Los is that he doesn't just freestyle with high schoolers. In another video, he's freestyling with Meek Mill, an established, actually popular rapper. If this is how it's gonna be, I want more rappers to start hanging out with King Los. Because now that he is pre-fame, he has an incentive to show and prove, and YouTube is recording that process in a way that was never possible before. When Biggie and JayZ were honing their skills through freestyles video was neither as common nor as accessible as it is today. We live in a different kind of hip hop golden age.

Defending Kanye West

A friend recently dismissed this recent interview with Kanye West, mocking 'Ye's seeming obsession with "dopeness and awesomeness." The word most often used to describe Kanye: "ridiculous." Even Obama called him a "jackass" (which is worse than what he calls autocratic, repressive human rights-violating regimes). So "at least let me tell you why I'm this way, hold on." -December 4th. Or, rather, why it's not that way.

First, it's hard for people to get past the bombast. That's understandable. In just the above interview alone he calls himself the "Michael Jordan of music" and the "Steve [Jobs] of the internet." Yes, it's distracting when he talks about his legacy among the all-time greats while he's still alive. But that doesn't mean it isn't true. If Jordan had said while he was playing, "you know, I think I'm one of the greatest players of all time," people woulda hated on him, too. But now that he's retired people can all safely agree that that is undoubtedly true.

Second, I think Kanye has a point with all his award-show rants. Ye points out that neither Dark Twisted Fantasy nor Watch the Throne was nominated for album of the year, and he made those in the same year. RIDICULOUS, and not in the "word most often used to describe Kanye" way. He also points out that he has never won a Grammy when a White-person was nominated. From the interview: "I really appreciate that I was able to win rap album of the year. But after awhile it's like, 'wait a second. This is a setup'." Don't think that's wrong.

Third, he's incredibly self-reflective. That might be self-evident from someone who admits that they are "synonymous with vanity," but he realizes that he has a pulse on pop like few ever had. It's inspiring to hear him reminisce that he knew he was gonna be a star when we wrote "light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson." He knows where the culture is, what will connect with them, and how to engage them ("we want pre-nup" x2). 

People think it's laughable that 'Ye said he's the "Bob Dylan of my generation," but what's laughable is our generation, not that Kanye represents the zeitgeist. Bob Dylan was the voice of the 60s, a time of intense cultural upheaval and social change. So far the 00s have been about the first Black President and Twitter. Which is cool. But you can be the voice of this generation without saying a lot. Most of what we will be known for is the eradication of privacy, both voluntarily (Facebook) and passively (NSA). 

People balked at his Katrina moment, too, when he said on a live TV telethon that "George Bush does not care about Black people." At the time, my reaction was mostly like Chris Tucker's ("I can't believe he said that."). Now I think that it's brave. In an era when President Obama's Secretary of Defense can laugh at an Indian-American Professor by asking him if he's a member of the Taliban, callin people out is both legitimate and necessary.

Maybe in the end the right analogy is not Michael Jordan or Steve Jobs, but Andy Warhol. With the release of Yeezus, Ye continues to own what the Times rightly calls "the most sui generis hip-hop career of the last decade." I would take out the qualifier "hip hop" and extend the time period. Warhol, the year before he died, painted "The Last Supper cycle," in which he made "almost 100 variations on the theme," which the Guggenheim felt "indicates an almost obsessive investment in the subject matter." Kanye is not ridiculous. He's obsessed.

Rap Laureate

A friend told me (unbelievably) that they still don't think 'Ye is a good rapper and is really mainly a producer. In case there are two other people in the world that hold this patently false and mistaken belief, I have taken the poetic liberty of translating 'Ye's verse on Clique into a Robert Frost poem. I don't really know how that relates but I've already spent several minutes doing it so here it is. All lyrics mine except the lines that are Mr. West's.

Break records at Louis, ate breakfast at Gucci
Her love is like the soft light of a familiar home.
Pleasantries are given, unpatriotic though they may seem.
The events of Paris are never far from mind.
George; a sight that brings a new memory, soon to linger.
A question; perhaps one asked like two weary travelers.
You know white people.
...
My neighbor T.C., though trials set upon him
Retains the sobriety of a man well kept.
On a summer's day, a drink recalls a winter's night
Everything I do need a news crew's presence
....
The sun beats upon my skin but cannot change it.
I am reminded of the arc of civilizations.
And confronted with our modern exuberance.
But I just wanna design hotels and nail it.
...
Shit is real. From one point on our globe to another
As that self-same as resides in two distinct but equally beautiful women.
...
A dark storm overtakes me; I shall not succumb, though it beckons my demise.
I doubt my own speech ("What kinda talk is that?")
Conversing with God, I turn my gaze inward.
And see that he has already answered me.
F*ckin with my clique.

Sources (like a good scholarly article):
http://rapgenius.com/Kanye-west-clique-lyrics
http://allpoetry.com/Robert_Frost

"Arent U Sharp as a Tac..."

wish the DS had let this EXCELLENT piece of political and cultural commentary go on longer. timely on two levels as the "Stop and Frisk" trial goes on in N.Y.:

1970 Somethin'

In honor of the end of the Knicks 2013 season, I watched Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals aka "The Willis Reed Game." I'd heard about it but never really appreciated its significance, until my Dad (shoutout Dad!) put me on to the game's historic, cultural, and heroic import. Here's the backdrop:

-the NBA finals are gonna be decided by one game, and "the #1 question is can the Feds can get us," no, actually, it's will Willis Reed play. Whachutalkinbout Willis was the Knicks big man and the only answer to the Lakers' Wilt Chamberlain. For those who don't know bout Wilt the Stilt, he is famous for two things: 1. scoring 100 points in a game (insane), and 2. claiming to have slept with like a million women or something ridiculous like that. Only the first is relevant here.

-Keep in mind that that Lakers team had three of the top 50greatest players of ALL TIME (I'ma let u finish): Wilt, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor.

-Willis had gotten injured and no one knew if he was gonna play. Not even the other Knicks knew. Suddenly, as both teams are on the Court getting ready to start the game, Willis limps out of the locker room. At this point I'll turn the narration over to an eye-witness at the time, albeit as a youngin, Dad Esq. aka SuperDad:

"Although the run-up is discussed in the interviews, none of the clips really capture the emotion of watching Reed hobble on to join the team--an indescribable bit of drama. When is the last time you saw a pre-game analysis interrupted in mid-sentence to watch a single player limp on the court to a standing ovation that grows with every practice shot taken?"

What follows is one of the greatest basketball performances of all time. Willis incredibly hits his first two shots, sends the crowd into pandemonium, and then helps orchestrate one of the greatest displays of team basketball ever. This gets to the socio-cultural stuff. Again, Dad: "In an era of racial turmoil, the 70' Knicks were the first truly integrated (in every sense of that word) "dream team.""

The team really was diverse: Willis was from the segregated south (Louisiana) and went to an HBCU (Grambling), Bill Bradely was a Rhodes Scholar, future U.S. Senator, and Princetonian,  Dave DeBusschere was a white dude from Detroit, and Walt "Clyde" Frazier was "who everyone wanted to be" (footnote: Dad). 

I've heard about some of the "racial turmoil," too. Pops told me that when he was a teenager these dudes stormed the basketball court with sticks and bats and just started takin muahfckrs out, but when they came to him his Black friends he played ball with were like, "nah, he's cool, leave him alone." I'm sure that made him even more aware of the way basketball, a team, can unite people, a city.

When you hear Willis talk about it years later you can see the incredible selflessness of a man who took the floor when he could barely walk. This decent recap concludes with this from the Big Man (paraphrased): "people ask me how I explain to my son that the greatest game I ever played I only scored 4 points. I tell him it wasn't the best game I ever played, but it was the most important." #early Father's day