Carry That Weight

Dobby Dobson was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1942 and has been cutting records for almost forty years. His cover of "Carry That Weight" will make any "Top Covers of The Beatles" list. Easily. I hope y'all enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfuWTj9pFU

Applied Lessons

This is video from the future showing my good friend Scott and I practicing what we learned in New British Voices after I getting yoked at Gregory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKfxAUFo7xo&feature=player_embedded

Harrods and women in Burqa

Yesterday I went to Harrods before the Olympics Volleyball game and ended up splurging a little bit in the make up-section (no regrets), but while I was there, I noticed something interesting: Several muslim women, complete with traditional burqa — I don't know if it is still called burqa if it doesn't covers the face. They were dressed in those long, long sleeved black dressed that reveal nothing of their body, and their hairs were completely covered as well — paraded around the department store, modeling their brand glasses and bland handbags. That is all one could see of them, but I bet most of those women were wearing little Channel and Prada dresses underneath their burqas.

I thought those women, your average "posh" muslim women going about their businesses, were interesting because they are supposed to live separated from the word of men, yet they are still every bit as vain as I, dressed in a skirt that reveals my knees (Scandalous!). They still freak out about Louboutin shoes and McQueen dresses, they go into little splurging sprees inside the make-up department, same as me.  I other words, doesn't matter how their religions tries to surpress them, women will be women.

And maybe my surprise is do to the fact that you don't really see a lot of "posh"muslim girls in a daily basis, at least not in English, because most of the muslim population in England is impoverished, but I just thought that it was a wonderful thing that even under the constrain of their cultures and religions, those girls I saw at Harrods look the time to look themselves in the mirror and see beauty.

Aside: That made me remember of a scene in Sex and The City...  Not my favorite movies, but the way they managed to kind of explain muslim culture in 30 seconds (and the woman in burqa eating fries, which is something I had never pictured before) was really interesting...

Kebab Craziness

I love street food. I am unafraid of the potential gastro-intestinal consequences of its consumption and often rate it over haughtier, "finer" cuisine. It's also dirt cheep. Naturally then I made it my duty soon after settling in  at Oxford to map the best food carts and street vendors in town.

I spent many a night and early morning hiking (or swaying) in every cardinal direction looking for new roadside restaurants. Hundreds of pounds, tens of miles, and one wacky prostitute encounter later I've made some interesting discoveries:

First: The inverse price-taste principle* still holds up even abroad in a socialist country.

Second: The best food carts are actually in or close to the city center, waiting to poach the loose pockets of drunk Spaniards coming back from the club district.

Thirdly: The only radio station that plays into the wee hours of the night stacks its playlist with the best of the best 80's pop female vocalists.

Lastly: Every street food vendor in town is a kebab joint run by bilingual immigrants from some Muslim Mediterranean country. Seriously, I couldn't find cart run by another ethnicity.

A personal hero of mine Anthony Bourdain considers a country's street food to be a window into its soul. I can tell you that the English fascination with lamb, kebabs, and doners is not isolated to just Oxfordshire. Now what does that say about England?


*The less it costs, the better it tastes!

Sessions with Schulze 1

First off I would like to apologize for making my readership wait with baited breath for so long before releasing this first session with Schulze. I hope you will still find the time to read through my report and post any comments y'all might have. I will shoot any particularly interesting remarks back to my source and hopefully a productive dialogue will emerge.

Secondly, I would like to thank my good friends Matt, Scott, and Kerry for the hospitality they showed me during my visit to Newcastle. If this post seems a bit brief, it is because they were more enthusiastic in welcoming up North than participating in potentially controversial political discourse.

This post is my summary of their collective beliefs and is not in any way representative of my own. Now you have no excuse for being overly nasty in your comments.

The Newcastlers are not ignorant or bigoted in any way, in fact two of them are going through a Master's program in education currently with the goal of becoming secondary school teachers. I preface my report with this statement because their views, I suspect, will run very contrary to that of my classmates. They do not hold any prejudiced attitudes towards non-English people, in fact recognizing most gratefully the contributions immigrants can make to British society overall, but that does not stop them from positing some concerns about the recent trend in surging immigrant numbers. They are not concerned with losing jobs or moral erosion or whatever jazz colors the immigration debate in America. No, their concern is anchored to the concept of cultural preservation.

Now I know it seems like the height of hypocrisy for the British of all people to be concerned with the preservation of British culture. These are the very people which conquered numerous peoples and led to the purging of an untold amount of cultural practice and knowledge around the world. However, denying the modern British access to a concern shared by numerous peoples is unjust.

England, unlike America with its Melting Pot persona, has for nearly all of its modern and not-so-modern history been a nation-state, that is a political entity populated by a particular ethnic group. England was the home of the Anglo-Saxons. Anything popularly portrayed as "English" such as commonwealth law, the House of Windsor, cricket, etc. was invented by these pale, proud, German orphans. This single population group accounted for 95+% of the total demography of England until the mid-20th century. That's when the sons and daughters of the Mother Country started knocking and coming "home" shortly followed by everyone else as Globalization shrunk the world.

Now as I mentioned before my friends are perfectly cool with immigrants coming over, kicking their feet up, queuing up for the NHS, whatever. Heck, some of their best friends are not English. However, according to some recent reports (EDIT: I never bothered to corroborate their facts and figures) the population of recent immigrants is set to overtake the English sometime in the next century. Anglo-Saxons will no longer be the dominant ethnic group and a hefty chunk of the population will only be first or second generation English subjects. The possibility that England would no longer be the home of the English and that proper English culture might be tangibly influenced by their new fellow citizens could become a reality. An England without "real English." This is what concerns them.

Now when other peoples begin to lose their homeland or the practices which define their particular culture it is the common liberal artsy response to jump to their aid. Free Tibet! I Yield for Kurds! A Place Called Oaxaca Actually Exists and It Needs Your Help! My friends have little faith that anybody will ever sympathize with their supposed plight. This immigrant population trend cannot be interrupted without radical and unethical action or the election of a BNP government, impossibilities all because of the afore mentioned up right nature of my friends. Unfortunately, not everyone in England shares their temperament. Supposedly we will all be alive to see how it plays out.

*I know I've used the terms English and British somewhat loosely in this post. Deal with it.

A Song We All Know

Oh yes. Punjabi MC - Mundian To Bach Ke. 1998. Produced in England by a British-Indian artist. Doesn't get much better than that.

If you've ever seen a show with an Indian character or setting on screen, you've probably heard this song before, because they use it all the time in Western cinema and television for just such things. You could certainly say that it's become the stereotypical "Indian" song for Western film. I'm not entirely sure why. I speculate that it has to do with the catchy beat, the upbeat, yet distinctively "Indian" sound, and the really awesome semi-rap thing that's going on.

But the other day I was looking for it because I really wanted to listen to the song all the way through (I'd never done it before), and as I was looking at the lyrics websites and whatnot, I realized I had no earthly idea what the song actually meant in English. 

So naturally, I looked it up.

And I was little bit surprised. 

KEEP YOR FACE DOWN AND HIDE IT WITH A SCARF
DON'T JUST GIVE YOUR LOVE TO ANYONE

CHORUS
BE CAREFUL OF THE BOYS
YOU'VE ONLY JUST GROWN UP
IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT THAT YOU'VE GOT BEAUTIFUL EYES
ONCE YOU'VE REALISED THIS YOU WILL BECOME SHY
LOOK AFTER YOUR YOUTH
THIS TIME WON'T COME AGAIN 

CHORUS REPEATS

AS YOU ARE GROWING UP PEOPLE ARE BECOMING AWARE OF YOUR GOOD LOOKS
EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT YOUR THIN WAIST
THERES NO ONE LIKE YOU

CHORUS 

THE BOYS ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY
THE STREETS ARE FULL OF STORIES ABOUT YOUR LOOKS
DON'T LET THE ATTENTION DROWN YOU. 

CHORUS

Basically it's a song warning a young girl about maintaining her modesty because the boys are watching her and creating a reputation for her simply because she's beautiful. Not exactly as happy as I expected it to be. And it sort of made me feel uncomfortable as a younger girl, even though I'm not part of the culture, and it's not 1998. It's still a strange message to devote an entire song to, and even stranger still that it's become so wildly popular across the Western world.

But I must confess, I still think it's fun to listen to.

It's not like things are black and white.

In this course we discuss the voices of British immigrant minorities. One aspect of this immigrant community that we have yet to discuss and probably won't be able to due to time is the tension between different minority groups. I'm not sure what the status of this issue is in London, but in other cities around the world it is prevalent. One salient example is Los Angeles. This diverse city is known for its racial tensions, not just between the white and ethnic populations, but also inside of the latter.

The 2004 film Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, explores this subject in depth. Part of the film focuses on the the six degrees of separation concept, but more interesting is the way it conveys tensions between different ethnic groups. The tagline of the film is "it''s not like things are black and white." Haggis demonstrates this by including African Americans, Persians, and Hispanics to name a few. It's a really moving film, and I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. It's definitely one of my favorites. It won three oscars including Best Motion Picture. 

Here is one of the most emotional scenes from the film. The Persian man who approaches with a gun has just had his store burglarized. He blames the Hispanic man for not properly changing the locks. (there is more to this specific story, but this is a decently summary) 

THERE MAY BE OIL!

"The Indian smiles, he thinks that the cowboy is his friend. The cowboy smiles, he is glad the Indian is fooled. Now he can exploit him." These grim words define the political mindset that dominates Gang of Four's songwriting. Formed in 1977 by a group of students in Leeds, Gang of Four instantly became a defining force in the landscape of English post-punk music. The group's sound is a din of dub-inspired bass guitar, bombastic drums, and feedback-driven stabs of guitar all simmering underneath lyrics exhibiting decidedly Marxist political slants and criticism of the English government. The band's leftist views and innovative sounds made them a fearsome force in English music and led the punk scene in a direction that emboldened younger bands to speak out against the government in new ways.

After recently being asked to ponder various post-colonial interpretations of The Tempest, my interest in Gang of Four came surging back. The band frequently casts its critical gaze on the actions of the English government and begs the listener to wrestle with the injustices that it condones. On Ether, the rousing opening track of their masterpiece, entertainment!, Gang of Four draws attention to the injustices committed at the Long Kesh Detention Center in Ireland. During the 70's, England detained nearly 500 Irish citizens believed to be a part of the IRA and kept them against their will. The track analyzes the strangeness of England acting as an invasive force in Ireland even though they are technically both parts of the UK.

The final section of the song:
Dig at the root of the problem (Fly the flag on foreign soil)
It breaks your new dreams daily (H-block Long Kesh)
Fathers contradictions (Censor six counties news)
And breaks your new dreams daily (each day more deaths)


Gang of Four views the English presence in Ireland as a holdover from their destructively oppressive time as a colonial power. Ironically though, they are trying to colonize a part of their own country. The song ends with a rousing chorus of "There may be oil! Under Rockall!," a reference to England's attempts to lay claim to Rockall, a tiny rock off the coast of Ireland that couldn't even fit one person. Claiming that oil lies just underneath the rock gives England an excuse to claim another body of land for their fading Empire, never mind that it's totally inconsequential. The band equates the claiming of a worthless landmark to England's unnecessary oppression of Irish citizens. The country stands to gain little to nothing from acquiring Rockall just as it stands to lose nothing from giving the Irish freedom... at least according to a group of politically revolutionary punk rockers.

East London Adventures

Yesterday, I went into London to visit a childhood friend of mine who goes to the London School of Economics. She's currently living in a house  in East London in what she described as "the dodgier side of town". Going there was interesting because it seemed to continue the theme of visiting the "real" part of town.. A striking feature was that as we walked from the tube station to her place, there were people just loitering on the street.

There were several aspects to my visit that tied in directly with our class. One thing was that the people who were at her house seemed to be an interesting representation of the diversity within the city and LSE: there was my friend (who is American, with an Indian heritage), one of her flat-mates who is from Northern Ireland, another one of her flatmates who is German, another of her flatmates who is Chinese, a friend of hers who is Indian, and another friend who was from Malaysia.

Also, the neighborhood, as my friend told me, was primarily Bangladeshi. It was kind of funny to see the way in which my friend and her flatmates' culture interacted with that of the Bangladeshi culture. For example, we had the window open, and her flatmate began complaining that he could smell the curry being cooked. (It smelled really good). There was also apparently somewhere nearby a "Ramadan Special" where you could get 50 wings for 5 pounds that they kept daring each other to get.

And one final thing ties into the idea of assimilation. My friend-- who was born and raised in Texas and has only spent two years in London-- has adopted an English accent! It was very strange to hear her talking so differently, but also quite interesting that in just that short amount of time there was that drastic of a change.

Attack the Block

Under the unsuspecting guise of a schlocky horror movie, Attack the Block serves as a strikingly profound commentary on the nature of race relations and cultural homogeneity in modern England. Set amidst the backdrop of low income housing known as the "Block" in London, the movie exhibits a sly sense of humor that allows the director to present a unique look at the misunderstood youth culture of urban London. The movie follows Moses (Lonely Londoners anyone?), a young black teenager, and his improvised gang of friends as they defend the Block from alien invaders that threaten to destroy their homes. The aliens prove to be surprisingly memorable creatures: ape-like and eyeless with only a row of neon fangs to reveal their presence. In a particularly excellent scene, the children stand over an aliens corpse and marvel at how "black" it is, like staring into the void of space, the creatures have the consistency of ink and feel suitably foreign.

Throughout the film, Moses and his friends are continually persecuted for their use of slang. People immediately assume the worst from their crew due to the sense of otherness exhibited by their speech but this shared language bonds them to one another in powerful ways. The group is made up of both black and white children, many from stable and caring households. But still they all engage in delinquent activities like smoking marijuana in an effort to ply themselves to images of power otherwise inaccessible from their working-class status. At the beginning of the movie, we see the group mug an unsuspecting white woman who is later revealed to be a citizen of the Block. After the aliens begin invading, they cross paths once again and the children reveal that the mugging had only occurred because they believed the woman to be a wealthier white woman who had no need for her belongings. Her affiliation with the Block changes everything in the eyes of the children and she is immediately accepted as a friend.

Much of the movie feels reminiscent of The Riots. Attack the Block has an unshakable devotion to tell the unspoken side of the story of racial conflict in urban England. The children all speak in an accent that blends cockney and Caribbean inflections as well as frequent references to in-jokes regarding youth culture to special kind of speech just for the Block. The naturalistic dialogue feels fresh and believable throughout the movie and often feels comparable to the Lonely Londoners, with the careful inclusion of unique accents and terms. As a result, characters that could easily feel cliche instead feel vital and alive. Their quirks and senses of humor all shine through their fantastically unique speech. Critically, their style of speech is not exclusive to a single racial group. The children all employ the mode of speech in attempt to create an aloof coolness separate from their lives in relative poverty. Unfortunately, American distributors seemed to miss the point of the slang entirely and opted to include subtitles for the movie in certain markets. The film takes dialogue that might seem unpleasant or difficult for some viewers to enjoy and presents it as pridefully unique and capable of wielding impressive power. Also notable, is the one white child led by Moses thorough the movie who exists as a vital part of an otherwise completely black crew.  No one ever seems to make anything of this in the movie, he's just another kid who talks funny.

                                                                          TRAILER

Nando's and South Africa

Last night, I had dinner at Nando's, a delicious restaurant that serves varied chicken and burger dishes. Being that it was not really an international cuisine I was surprised to find that the menu cover artwork was done by a South African painter called Marlise Keith:

Upon further inspection I discovered that Nando's does different menu covers with different artwork from South African artists. They have been supporting their art since 2002 and it has become a signature part of their company not only in their menus but in their walls and decorations.

I did some more research on it and found some really interesting things on their website. Apparently, they hold the largest collection of South African artwork outside of South Africa.

One particular work that caught my attention and is very relevant to this course is called Coming to the City. It is a huge mosaic placed in  of Nando's King Cross location in London. Made by Clive van de Berg it is a representation of "the experiences of the many thousands of people that have journeyed to London." Here is the link to the project's webpage where you can see the full mosaic in detail:

http://www.nandos.co.uk/comingtothecity/