soul for a rainy day

erykah badu's new video, window seat, has caused quite a commotion online. it's a narrative music video: a "story" by erykah badu. its melody kept me company in the rain today.

the video premiered on badu's website this weekend, and i've got to say --- i'm glad the videos premiering online aren't all of the telephone variety. i don't know why lady gaga thought it would be clever or appropriate to set her video in a prison (jail never looked so good --- according to gaga, life behind bars is all high-fashion glitz). sure, she's trying to "make a statement", but what is the statement exactly? what is she trying to say?

badu is pretty clear about her message. the song is a glimpse into the deep interior life of a woman who is a great comfort and catalyst to herself. the lyrics about the desire to get away from a life that's not all bad. i understand the longing to go away for a bit and hope someone will call you back. at the end of the video, erykah philosophizes aloud about the dangers of groupthink and the power of self-love and transformation.

as for erykah, she is (to quote the good, brilliant, and compassionate friend who first showed me this video) real and beautiful.

all in all, i think this video is great --- it's got the feminism and the art i've been missing in mainstream music.

return of the novella

twilight fans everywhere went beserk when stephenie meyer announced today that she will be releasing a novella in early june. as anyone who has read this blog knows, i love the twilight saga. what you might not know is that i also love novellas. although it is difficult to imagine any form of fiction that i would not love, honestly, novellas are awesome.

for those who do not know, a novella is a fictional work of prose that runs between 20,000 and 40,000 words. it is considerably longer than a short story, but shorter than your standard novel.

a story can be good at any length, but publishing conventions limit artists, compelling writers to stick to creating either short stories or novels. i'm all for bringing back the novella. some (see: heart of darkness) can stay dead and gone, but others (the house on mango street, the pearl, animal farm, and bartleby, the scrivener to name a few) are testaments to the form's capacity for awesomeness.

meyer's book, the short second life of bree tanner, is supposed to number 192 pages, which, in my opinion, makes it more of a novel, but we novella fans will take what we can get where we can get it! the book is going to be sold for considerably less than hardcover novels are usually sold ($13.99) and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross.

as the title suggests, the book is about the short life of bree, a girl who is turned into a vampire over the course of the novel eclipse. she is killed and transformed by bad-girl vampire victoria, who plays a much more prominent role in the novel. bree appears only once in eclipse. in this scene, she loses her life. the scene is haunting because it suggests that bree could have led a better, peaceful life if given the opportunity to change her ways. (redemption, as well as the free will to live righteously and against the logics of nature, are major themes in the twilight saga.) 

some might say that by publishing the short second life meyer is just milking the twilight franchise for all it's worth. it is very strategic to publish a new book just in time for the big-screen release of the film eclipse. however, i think meyer's choice to delve into the interior and experience of such a peripheral character just goes to show that even the most minor figures in a story have multi-dimensional life and depth in the imagination of an author. 

plus, she's bringing novellas back! 

aguapanela

Photo Credit: "La Aguapanela"article from Semana.com on 24.6.06

Make aguapanela for someone you love. Lower a brick of sugar into the pot, turn up the flame, and let the water boil until it is black. Stir and taste; be sure that it remains sweet. When it's not too rich, but still strong, add milk and let it warm. Cut cheese, soft and white, queso de hoja or mozzarella, if you're making it in this country.

Serve two cups and you drink first. Let the cheese sink to the bottom and soak until it is the color of amber, and melting. He should save you the last few drops and say Mmm before he hands you his cup.

Ask him what it's good for and he'll say, “Hunger, remembering – hasta para curar enfermedades.”

It is like the guarapo you drank as a child from Styrofoam cups on a polluted beach in Orlando where you tried to invoke enough Spanish to say thank you and Que Dios te bendiga to everyone you met: your grandfather, your cousins, and strangers, like the man who cut the stalk and stripped back the flesh, lowered it into a machine so you could eat.

Aguapanela is the color of your skin in the sun. He will taste the sucrose and fructose, the caña on your tongue, after.  This will remind you of home. Save what is left for tomorrow. 

In two years, you will meet his grandmother. On a rainy night in Bogotá, she will make aguapanela for you, and say: This is what love is like. Seeping the panela in water and letting it dissolve. She will instruct you to drink from the pot with your hands. It is sweet, and it burns. 

- NC, prose poem on a whim, March 10, 2010

edward, we're not in forks anymore

this weekend i saw the runaways, a film from first-time director floria sigismondi about the '70s all-girl rock band fronted by guitarist joan jett and vocalist cherie currie. 

kirsten stewart plays jett, an ambitious, tough teen who transgresses gender norms of the time by idolizing the sex pistols and chuck berry, wearing a secondhand men's leather jacket, making out with girls, and playing the electric guitar. young jett's love for rock 'n' roll is so earnest, infectious, and inextricable from her identity that she inevitably becomes the heroine of the film, or as a. scott of The New York Times says, the "one [we] root for... the spine and soul" of the story. 

dakota fanning plays currie, a timid, beautiful girl who descends into addiction and isolation before finally learning to assert herself and find meaning in life beyond the limelight.

the movie dramatizes the divergent fates of currie and jett: currie eventually quits the runaways, while jett goes on to become a rock legend. as tough as jett is, currie is vulnerable. the film suggests that for currie, the runaways was more about acceptance and belonging than the music. 

these disparate characterizations of jett and currie work narratively in the film, but are (of course) oversimplifications of the girls' real-life identities and desires. although jett served as executive producer for the film and currie's memoir, neon angel, provided much of the inspiration for the script, the runaways nonetheless includes some inaccuracies and omissions about the experiences of the band. 

something the film does seem to get right, however, is the incredible intimacy shared by the two young women who found themselves united by the trials of coming of age in a macho music scene.

at times, the friendship between jett and currie feels like the only safe space in the movie. the girls retreat into their friendship, and so do we as viewers. it ain't easy to watch 15-year-old fanning trip on drugs, grow arrogant and alienated from her family, suffer insults during rock 'n' roll boot camp, and emerge as a star known not for her vocal ability, but rather, for her ability to sell "women's libido" and not "women's lib" to audiences. 

cherie currie has called the film a "cautionary tale" that depicts the dangers of being young and female in a profit-driven, male-dominated music industry. the real-life runaways faced everything from sexual exploitation, emotional manipulation, verbal assault, and sketchy fiscal management at the hands of the adult men who managed their careers. most notable super-creep is kim fowley, producer and promoter for the runaways, who is played by michael shannon in the film. 

sigismondi does a good job of capturing the empowerment, freedom, and fun the girls experienced on the road, as well as the ways they were mistreated. the film avoids becoming just another rock biopic that chronicles the quick rise and fall of a band that fell prey to drugs, alcohol, and "the decade." the scenes of stewart and fanning, giggling, high, and romping around motels, airplane bathrooms, and backstage, are balanced with just as many scenes of the girls, particularly currie, realizing they have lost themselves. 

stewart and fanning are very convincing as jett and currie. they sing, they curse, they play, they shout and break things, and i believed them. both young actors seem to aim straight for the heart of things --- the runaways is about girlhood and experimentation and ambition and learning to assert oneself. 

the performance sequences in the film are strong, and it is clear that sigismondi's background is in music video direction (she has directed videos for fiona apple, the racontuers, christina aguilera, and the cure). the performance sequences are enthralling, dizzying, and disturbing for the viewer --- much as they must have been for the runaways who rocked out on stage, while high or drunk or being ogled mercilessly by male crowds.

sigismondi also portrays life off-the-road with authenticity, artfully studying the wasteland of 1970s californian suburbia. cherie's life before the runaways highlights the emptiness of this world --- she is teased at a high school talent show for her Bowie-worship, harassed by her sister's sleazy boyfriend, neglected by her actress mother and alcoholic father, and is terrified of winding up as an employee at the local Pup 'N' Fries. 

all in all, the film works. we understand why the runaways make the choices they do. we admire their rebelliousness and ambition, while remembering they were kids. 

my favorite scene in the film was the last, in which currie calls into a radio show where jett is the on-air guest. the two women talk, years after the breakup of the runaways, and the viewer gets the overwhelming sense that the friendship between cherie and joan is the most important, lasting thing to come out of the success of the runaways. after the girls hang up, they smile, and crimson and clover plays before the credits roll. this song, originally by tommy james and the shondells, later covered by joan jett and the blackhearts, feels like a homage to the camaraderie between the two women, which was real and beautiful, messy, necessary ---  the stuff rock 'n' roll legends (and biopics) are made of. 

the original lineup of the runaways, from left to right 

back: joan jett, jackie fox, lita ford, front: sandy west, cherie currie

persimmons by li-young lee

In sixth grade Mrs. Walker
slapped the back of my head
and made me stand in the corner  
for not knowing the difference  
between persimmon and precision.  
How to choose

persimmons. This is precision.
Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.  
Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one
will be fragrant. How to eat:
put the knife away, lay down newspaper.  
Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.  
Chew the skin, suck it,
and swallow. Now, eat
the meat of the fruit,
so sweet,
all of it, to the heart.

Donna undresses, her stomach is white.  
In the yard, dewy and shivering
with crickets, we lie naked,
face-up, face-down.
I teach her Chinese.
Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten.  
Naked:   I’ve forgotten. Ni, wo:   you and me.
I part her legs,
remember to tell her
she is beautiful as the moon...


The verses above make up the first three stanzas of the poem Persimmons by Li-Young Lee. View the full text of the poem here. I rediscovered this piece while looking through the Norton Anthology of Poetry I read for a high school poetry class. 


The poem is beautiful. I love pieces that link food to memory, family, language, who we are, where we have been, and who we have been. Another good food/identity poem is Patricia Smith's When the Burning Begins, which is about hot water cornbread, her childhood, and her relationship to her father, loss, and the creative power of poetry. 

zoë

zoë saldaña is pretty stunning. and it’s pretty awesome that because of her work, there was a dominican woman actor present at the oscars this year. some would even say that she is a part of “movie-making history” because of her role in avatar, which wasn’t a bad film, colonial tropes and white male gaze aside (i am being ironic here, we never put those sorts of things aside).

still, the lady is fierce. peep the bright red lipstick.

yes! work!

from the heart of bed stuy

Spec Boogie - Bed Stuy from Boombaye' on Vimeo.


lately, i’ve been digging this video. it features some nice photographs of old school bed-stuy scenes and people. ali santana (director) and spec boogie do a good job of capturing the architecture and public art that are characteristic of the neighborhood. there are some allusions in the video to “the changing face” of Brooklyn  (it is part of an exhibit atMoCADA, the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts, about gentrification). i haven’t picked through the lyrics enough to see how the message is conveyed in the words of the song, but the sign language sequences in silhouette are pretty clear in their meaning…


L-O-V-E