Saturday, March 30, 2013

Taiko & Dance 2013

Tamagawa University's Taiko and Dance is a lot of fun to watch. With a cast of over 30 drummers and dancers, it's really amazing to watch how precise they are. The drumming is extordinary. There's a timeless quality to the pieces being performed. The raw energy of the performers mixed with their obvious love for their craft creates a wonderful atmosphere.

This is a real cultural exchange between Japan and the United States and it really does feel special. It's evident that the performers love what they are doing and it makes the performance all the more enjoyable.

For the most part the boys drum and the girls dance. The women, however, do have a drum piece in this years performance. It was a great piece and it made me want to see more of them drumming. I think, in particular, I was hoping to see the men and women drum together at some point.

Overall it's a wonderful show with a great cast. They still have nine more shows on their US tour. If you have a chance I'd definitely recommend catching them. It's the type of highly energetic showt that even kids will enjoy. Here's a list of their upcoming shows:

Friday, March 29, 2013

Obama Vs Bush

There's no shortage of great articles out there showing how Obama is worse than Bush on just about every major issue, from war to protecting the criminal bankers. There's certainly truth to this, but I think it misses a larger point. Instead of focusing on the particular character that's occupying that office we should be paying attention to the steady trends that have been systemically carried out through that office for decades, regardless of who occupies it.

Instead of citing the differences of President Bush and Obama, we might note that the office of president continues to eviscerate civil liberties at home while expanding the permanent war economy to more and more countries abroad.

So, yes, the 1% under Obama have captured 121% of the income gains. But that's not something Obama can magically make happen. It's the result of decades of bipartisan work to undermine wages, destroy unions, and shift wealth from those who work to the parasitic class that lives off of our work.

It's the natural result of a system that was designed, in the words of James Madison, "to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority." In other words, Obama isn't worse than Bush; he's better than Bush: he's better at "protecting the minority of the opulent from the majority."

 

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Korea and the Media

The mainstream media continues its bias against North Korea. For some irrational reason North Koreans get their panties in a bunch every time we fly nuclear equipped stealth bombers near their tiny island nation. the New York Times dutifully reports:

After suffering from the American carpet-bombing during the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea remains particularly sensitive about American bombers.

Those Koreans can really hold a grudge, huh? We haven't carpet-bombed North Korea in ages and yet they still get all jittery every time we fly a nuclear equipped stealth bomber over the peninsula. It's clearly only a training mission so that when we do decide to carpet-bomb North Korea in the future we'll get it right.

Seriously, though, it's simply infuriating how the media dutifully reports that everything the US does is a defensive move, while everything North Korea does is clearly aggressive. The Obama administration is clearly doing everything he can to provoke North Korea, but it's ok because he's not George W. Bush.

 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Operation Iraqi Liberation Ten Years Later

After reading enough nauseating pseudo-apologies from liberal hawks like Ezra Klein, I thought I'd offer my own reflections as one of the many millions who got it right. Despite what the hawks may say, there wasn't any difficulty seeing through the lies and manipulation of an operation deemed Operation Iraqi Liberation or OIL by an administration filled with people from the energy industry. And while many millions of us were not fooled, our voices were silenced and marginilized as defense contractors and ex generals made the rounds on the various talk shows to explain why we just had to invade Iraq.

In the days leading up to the invasion it was a euphoric time. By some estimates up to 30,000,000 people in over 60 countries protested the war prior to the invasion. Nothing like it had ever happened in history. The great anti-war protests of Vietnam didn't come until the war had been going on for ten years or more. Here we had millions of people from across the planet holding hands and saying no to a war that hadn't even started yet.

Seeing how the anti-war movement petered out as Barrack Obama put a friendlier, perhaps more eloquent face on our imperialist ambitions, it became clear that many people were more anti-Bush than they were anti-war. It's been a bitter pill to swallow to watch as many of those who opposed the invasion of Iraq stand by quietly as the new president continues and expands our wars of aggression around the globe.

I'm sorry we didn't do more. I'm sorry just doesn't seem to cut it, though, when we're talking about the murder of over a million Iraqis, the destruction of their infrastructure, the looting of their cultural treasures, and the displacement of millions more. Birth defects and cancers are at all-time highs in the country devestated by American weapons of mass destruction like white phospherous and depleted uranium. Somehow sorry doesn't seem quite adequate.

But the fight isn't over. And movements like Occupy Wall Street and others have shown that we've learned a lot over the past ten years. The anti-war movement was mostly symbolic protest, people gathering on the weekends, marching for a few hours and then going back to their daily lives. But we've seen that change tremendously in the past few years with more and more direct action aimed at banks, agribusiness and the big oil and gas giants. Instead of a stagnated anti-war movement we have a multi-faceted group of autonomous movements seeking justice at every turn.

Another world is possible.

 

 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Ecstatic Music Festical

The Ecstatic Music Festival with Simone Dinnerstein, piano, and Tift Merritt, vocals and guitar, was quite the musical journey between the worlds of classical and folk music. On their own, they are both well accomplished artists, but together we are able to see how these supposedly very disparate musical worlds have much more in common than most of us realize.

It was a lot of fun to listen to the two genres blend together and even create new soundscapes all-together. It was great to see Simone Dinnerstein, a Juliard classical pianists from Brooklyn, step out of her comfort zone and open up the piano to play from inside it. As an audience member it was a lot of fun to see just how much Dinnerstein and Merritt pushed each other to grow as artists.

The Merkin Concert Hall was the perfect venue for such an eclectic night of music. The sound was amazing. The space was intimate, and I loved the way they set up the stage as more of a living room than a simple concert.

Overall a great night of music and I hope we see more collaborations like this. You can listen to their new album Night by clicking here.

 

 

Bears


Bears is a delightful little piece of theatre. Jonathan Dickson (Growl Bear) and Nick Abeel (Timmy Bear) set the stage perfectly as two zoo bears living in a post apocalyptic America. The dialogue is quick witted and fun with lots of laughs. But there are also some really poignant and serious scenes with Growl Bear (Jonathan Dickson) reminiscing about times past. Jenna Panther does a wonderful job playing Susie Wild Bear, scoffing at the "civilized" nonsense of her zoo bear companions.

The tensions between wild and civilized are thoughtfully and creatively played out between the three bears. Civilization has broken down and yet there's still an effort to hold on to the past, to maintain and hopefully pass it on. But the stark reality of a life where food is no longer easy to come by and the pangs of hunger are all to real makes the wild life of a bear greatly appealing.

Throughout it all there's lots of great dialogue between the bears who use English but don't necessarily understand it. Growl Bear figures out how to use a radio but he doesn't quite get why the radio gets quieter over time (dead batteries).

The only minor criticism I have is that Nick Abeel (Timmy Bear) seemed to forget or stumble over his lines a number of times. This was only a minor distraction and I have to say he was great at never missing a beat. Despite the stumbles he repeatedly made it work, and I have no doubt he'll get past that in future shows.

Overall this is a wonderfully crafted, well written show with a talented cast. It was a joy to watch with plenty of laughs throughout. You'll definitely want to catch this gem of a play at 59 East 59th Street Theatres. It runs from now to March 31st. You can find ticket information by clicking here.