Arts
The peace prize given to Donald Trump by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is probably as legitimate as the golf tournaments he wins on his own golf courses, which, for some reason, never have any video footage attached to them.
What better way to repair your image after a corruption scandal than to be seen hanging out with Donald Trump? Next time, involve Donald Trump in your corruption, and you won't hear the term “federal prosecutors.
With Netflix and Paramount both trying to purchase Warner Bros., I expect them not to outbid so much, but to out-bribe for Donald Trump's approval.
Tariq Ali’s book Extreme Center discusses various factors which led into Donald Trump and Brexit since 1989 from a British-Pakistani Muslim Marxist perspective.
Islamophobic western imperialism combined with neo-liberalism are inflaming a fascist populism.
Extreme Center points out white supremacist Donald Trump is a leader with both Nazi and Romney's moderate Republican support. Trump's administration oppresses because moderate Republicans didn't reject an extreme leader from white nationalist culture and weltanschauung.
Tariq doesn't believe the working class are Nazis. The working class are exploited and treated with negligence by the same leaders who are committing atrocities with foreign policy.
Tariq Ali believes both Barack and Trump are imperialists.
Tariq contrasts Trump's white supremacy culture with quotes about Barack Obama's social life. Barack is natural in diverse cultures which aren't Nazi. Trump is organically white supremacist.
Tariq is acknowledging people like me prefer Barack because I live in America.
Ali is from Pakistan.
De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur aka Dove died Feb 12, 2023. Dave was the Andre 3000 of De La Soul. Dove was soft-spoken, vulnerable and clever. David Jolicoeur’s death is central for comprehending De La Soul’s new album Cabin the Sky as an artistic innovation.
De La Soul is one of the most important groups in music. In Hip Hop, I liked to think about De La Soul as our Sonic Youth or Velvet Underground. De La Soul in a recent interview with the Breakfast Club said Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt were who De La Soul relates with from the newest generation.
De La Soul were the smart kids who were funny. De La Soul is a weird catch in music. De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising, De La Soul is Dead and Buhlune Mind-state are experimental and artistic in the realm of Daydream Nation or Velvet Underground and Nico.
De La Soul then went minimal and serious.
I sawTariq Ali while watching Democracy Now. Tariq is a British Pakistani intellectual who was discussing Palestine. Tariq Ali shouldn’t be confused with Al Tariq of the Beatnuts.
Are You Ready?
The Rolling Stones wrote Street Fighting Man about Tariq Ali in the late 60’s. Street Fighting Man’s lyrics discuss social revolution against authoritarianism during economic, social oppression and the Vietnam War.
One of my ideas around my ANONROCKNROLL radio show is an idea that Rock N Roll was the soundtrack for Black Panthers, Weathermen, and 70’s leftist social revolution. I applied our reverence for the term Hip Hop determining Rock N Roll is proto-Hip Hop if you respect Panthers and reject COINTELPRO.
I decided I should read Tariq Ali because a left-wing culture was consistent with bands like Turnstile, Clairo, El-Michels Affair, Earl Sweatshirt and Badbadnotgood’s support of Palestine. El Michels Affair, and Badbadnotgood specialize in returning sampling into musicians by studying sampling. I suspect Earl Sweatshirt would like both Tariq Ali and Al Tariq’s debut,the Beatnuts Intoxicated Demons EP.
The DSA’s grassroots is music.
To quote the blues singer Big Maybelle, “There was a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on” in 1963. It began in January, which marked the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, and President John F. Kennedy hosted a number of prominent African Americans at a reception in the White House–taking great pains to ensure that the famous black entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr., and his white wife, Mai Britt, were not photographed together–and ended with the cessasation of the thirty-day mourning period for the assassinated president. In between there were more than a dozen incidents of nationwide importance that affected the fight for black freedom in America. Included among them were the Woolworth sit-ins, George Wallace’s stand in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama, Malcolm X’s famous speech, Message to the Grass Roots, the Chicago school boycott, the demonstrations in Birmingham, and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
My community is getting ready for the annual Columbus Jewish Film Festival, but a local theater is beating it to the punch with one of the most powerful Holocaust-related documentaries you’re likely to see this year.
Among Neighbors, directed by Yoav Potash (Crime After Crime), is about the tragic and lasting effects World War II had on the town of Gniewoszów, Poland. The film is at once a history lesson, a tale of survival and a portrait of humanity at its best and its absolute worst.
It’s also a mystery, one whose solution isn’t provided until the film’s final moments.
Because the documentary does so much, and because Potash waits so long to connect seemingly disparate parts, it sometimes comes off as disjointed. But the dramatic end justifies the director’s suspense-building means, and the film is never less than compelling along the way.
Using a combination of contemporary interviews, archival footage and eloquent hand-drawn animation, Potash introduces us to Gniewoszów both past and present.
This article first appeared on Reel Time with Richard Ades.
Two of the bravest movies I’ve seen in the past couple of years have taken aim at Iranian authoritarianism. In 2024, there was The Seed of the Sacred Fig, followed this year by the judo-centric Tatami.
Now, add a third flick that raises a middle finger to Iran’s Islamic dictatorship: It Was Just an Accident, a ballsy effort written and directed by Jafar Panahi. The low-budget thriller deftly creates tension leavened with flashes of humor, all the while wading through moral quagmires and asking questions that defy easy answers.
The tale begins on a dark highway, where we meet a family man (Ebrahim Azizi) who’s driving home with his wife and young daughter when his car breaks down in front of a garage that’s closed for the night.
Luckily for him, the mechanic agrees to take a look at his vehicle anyway. Unluckily for him, the mechanic’s assistant thinks he recognizes this stranded motorist.
The city of Columbus no longer celebrates "Columbus Day" and has removed all Christopher Columbus statues, however there's a movement to return one. Instead, as of 2020, the day is referred to as "indigenous People's Day" -- something the Free Press and many local activists had been demanding for decades.
In honor of this day, here is a poem by longtime local activist Michael Eckhardt, from his recently published book, Navigation: In these uncertain times. You can purchase the book from the Free Press here.
dance with destiny
tall ships danced
across the water
the course of history
about to change
fence rows appear
each post a stake
in mother earth's breast
church and state combine
to commit acts of genocide
manifest destiny continues
proud indigenous peoples
deceived and displaced
environmental harmony
replaced by greed
just a spark remains
steeped in tradition
a pride and respect
too strong to overcome
Turnstile’s singer Brenden Yates singer thanked Columbus for Turnstile’s bassist Franz
Lyons towards the finale of Turnstile’s Kemba live outdoor show.
Turnstile’s set in front of 5,200 people under the heavens started with the embracing ambiance
of Never Enough which thundered once the guitars, and drums kicked in. Kids moshed with a collective exuberance after the introduction pronounced allure of hardcore’s promise.
Turnstile is from Baltimore.
Franz is from Columbus.
I’d watched Turnstile’s last Columbus show in front of a sold-out Kemba indoor show of 2,300 people in 2022. Turnstile doubled their Columbus audience and then some. Kemba’s new attendees included people who knew Franz but weren’t familiar with Turnstile’s music.
LOD Embassy Boardshop Columbus was now accompanied by Cafe Bourbon Street alumni circa 2009, Old Town East skateboarding, and over 5000 thousand teenagers. Walking around Turnstile show was kinda like Comfest meets Camp Flog.