R.I.P. Ariel Hembel

He was always there.
Whether on the sunlit headlands with Mia, mini Mia and the Mendo crew.
Or at the LR airport rousting girls and spinning donuts.
Sparing a cig. Popping a scrim. Giving great hugs.
Lou dog, Grace, Naomi, and Ling. We were all there. 
Maybe it was at a summer fest, smiling quietly, clinking bottles, enjoying a wildly inappropriate joke. Always joyous, laughing, gracious.
Silent and regal. Strong and reserved.
This is the man I will remember. Forever missed.  
He is an embodiment of love. Of joy and living in the moment.
And he is now gone.
Rest in peace dear Mendonesian, you will always be with us in spirit.


For more great memories visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Loving-Memory-of-Ariel-Robin-Hembel/209971232307?ref=mf

From Refugee to Rap Star: The Story of Kanaan Warsame

Rap music gets a bad rap. Our parents tell us it’s loud noise with too much cursing. Radio stations and dance clubs play only mainstream rap, materialistic music about bitches and “gats.” Drugs and “bling.” Music so devoid of any real message, it often seems that being offensive is the main purpose.            

At some point, somehow, the true art of rhyme was abandoned and henceforth replaced with superficial words mixed with overused, repetitive beats.

Thankfully there is good news for all hip-hop and rap fans that share in these concerns. Just when it seemed that rap music was beyond redemption, Kanaan Warsame, or simply K’naan, appeared on the scene. He actively reinstates the intention and origin of hip-hop music by using his poetic rhymes as a lyrical weapon.

He draws his main inspiration from a war torn childhood in Somalia. His music is spine chilling and uplifting while attempting to teach and entertain. He truly represents the voice of the global struggle.

K’naan is both a poet and a rapper.

“So what’s hardcore?” K’naan asks on his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher.

“Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.-

We begin our day by the way of the gun,

Rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,

We got no police ambulance or fire fighters,

We start riots by burning car tires,

They looting, and everybody start shooting,

Bullshit politicians talking about solutions,

But it’s all talk, you can’t go half a block without a roadblock,

You don’t pay at the road block you get your throat shot…”

                Before he felt the warmth of spotlights on his face, he felt the heat of gunfire and grenades. And before he became an internationally recognized celebrity, he narrowly escaped one of the world’s most war-torn countries. Now the Somalian-born K’naan appears in North America, flooding the airwaves and truly “blowing up the spot.”

He was born Kaynaan Warsame in 1978. His name translates to “traveler” in Somali and he is a refugee now residing in Ontario, Canada. K’naan spent part of his childhood in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, where he lived in the district of Wardiihigleey. This area is more commonly referred to as “The River of Blood” due to ongoing political conflict and violence that continues to this day.

K’naan’s father left Somalia ahead of his family and moved to New York to find employment. With the money he sent home, he included rap albums for K’naan. Through this musical medium, K’naan taught himself to speak English by studying the hip hop and rap diction of American artists such as Nas and Rakim. He then copied the phonetics of their lyrics and style, even though he could not comprehend the actual meaning of the songs.

In 1991, civil war broke out as the Somali government collapsed. K’naan was fortunate to have his visa approved in the nick of time and was able to take the last commercial flight out of the country before the U.S. embassy closed it’s doors. He was reunited with his father and other relatives in Harlem, New York City and they eventually moved to Rexdale, Ontario where there is a large Somali-Canadian community.

           K’naan dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and traveled throughout Canada, rapping at open microphone events. In 1999 he befriended a Canadian music promoter who got him a gig at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees where he performed a spoken word piece in criticism of the United Nations and their failed aid missions to his home country.

           Fortunately for the young artist, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour sat in the audience and was extremely impressed with K’naan’s courageous performance. Soon after the show, N’Dour invited him to contribute to his 2001 album, “Building Bridges.” Because of his addition to N’Dour’s project, he was taken along and featured on his worldwide tour.

           In the next few months, K’naan worked on more United Nations events and performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He met a Canadian producer who helped him create his debut album, “The Dusty Foot Philosopher,” in 2005. This first album slid under the pop culture radar. He opened shows for Damian Marley’s Welcome To Jamrock tour, and kept a small yet diehard following over the next three years.

With his most recent release of “Troubadour,” K’naan is now widely embraced as a worldwide hip-hop celebrity and being welcomed with open ears by everyone from National Public Radio to MTV. His second album, released in early 2009, resonates much catchier rhythms and lyrics than his previous tracks and sounds to be catering to a much different crowd. This scene is the North American popular culture, and so far he is having ample success.

           K’naan has collaborated with artists such as Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, The Roots, Dead Prez, Damian Marley and Pharoahe Monch.

Staying true to his poetic roots, K’naan raps as if he’s teaching a course on hip-hop 101. He aims to educate and inform with his clear and clever rhymes. He infuses the mix musically with hints of reggae and authentic African drumbeats.

            Some of his new tracks mirror his first album in essence and originality while others ooze with a feeling of exceedingly aged cheese and make the listener long for authentic songs past filled with hand drums and raw “riddims.” This evidence of smoothing over the bare instrumentals with synthesized sound “goo” and frequent choral “la la la’s,” shows K’naan’s evident migration from raw, rootsy goodness to lame ass radio routine.

Although he remains true to the art of rhyme, he falters in successfully “trodding” through the muck which some of us refer to as “mainstream music,” or “radio rap.” Fame and acclaim will continue to lift this newfound superstar up, hopefully without tainting his highly original style. Regardless of what the future may hold, K’naan is an inspirational individual with endless talent and a grassroots, global message.

 For more information or to hear K’naan interviews and music visit:

www.npr.org keyword: k’naan

www.mtv.com/music/artist/knaan/artist.jhtml

www.knaanmusic.com

www.thedustyfoot.com

www.myspace.com/knaanmusic.

Outfoxed

"Canis lupus!"

"It's me Vulpes vulpes!" Exclaims Mr. Fox triumphantly to the lone wolf standing in the distance.

"I have a phobia of you!" He continues.

Wes Anderson's fresh new (and first) animated flick is a fabulous occurrence, bringing together the animated likes of skunks, foxes, humans, wolves, moles, and notably, beagles who should never be looked in the eye. And by the way, they love blueberries.

Mr. Fox along with his opossum sidekick, a lightning-phobic rodent, set out to steal from three human businessmen, inevitably leading to their animal community's temporary downfall.

The film is based on Roald Dahl's story, a line that has such allure, it can be enjoyed by all ages. Not too long, but enough to have sufficient plot development.

This goofy clip and many other clever moments can be found throughout Anderson's newest film "Fantastic Mr. Fox."

Phrases such as "this is going to be a cluster cuss," and "what the cuss!?" are woven throughout the script, cleverly replacing each and every swear word, which in turn creates an inclusive tone for kids and adults to enjoy together.

Mature implications are subtly combined with singing and dancing wild animals to create one of the most lighthearted and enjoyable films of this year.

Familiar voices are featured from George Clooney (as the fantastic one), Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray, lending additional jokes and satire to the central storyline.

The only downside is the film is simple. Possibly too simple. You be the judge.

But do appreciate the animation! Alone it is quite an experience. Initially it seems archaic, something from the mid '90's, but patiently watch and it reveals its own individuality. It's as if clay and puppetry had a beautifully awkward baby and named it "Fantastic."

I give it 

Marilyn

An especially compelling photograph from Richard Avedon's recent show at SFMOMA.

A unique characteristic is captured here; one that most Monroe pics have not.

She is not the smiling beauty with beautiful dresses scantily clad. She is not the curvature and bountiful breasts that also shine in each photo. She is not just a pretty blonde, adored by most.

Most of us know this by now, but in her death it is easy to remember her based solely on her many glamourous shots.

But this one is different.

Avedon unveils the Norma Jean beneath, without even removing the costume.

She looks sad and exposed and real and alone.

She looks uncertain. And she still looks undeniably beautiful in her despair.

Finally, a photo of the star with depth of character; a human being in all her guilt and glory.

Learning to ride a bike

It was I who ran straight into a tree, the first time riding a bike without training wheels. Dad watched me from the driveway, disappointed with worry. He was always teaching me things. I was urged to learn quickly, and faced with disappointment when I missed the deadline. Failure.

         Although I practiced repeatedly, I always seemed to crash.

“Good try Linds, give it another go!” my father would chime from the driveway’s gravelly sidelines.

Me, filled with personal disappointment, head down, tears in the corners of my child eyes.

As my frustration ebbed and flowed, each day passed, training wheels still peering at me from the garage door. Those wheels tormented me from afar.

Although dad felt impatient he was supportive. The dad that always wants his daughter to do well. Eventually I mastered my two-wheeler, but by then, papa was onto other things. Organization, a skill to end all skills.

It was a metaphor for our relationship, riding a bike. As he firmly directed me above, towards the stars, I failed to reach so high.

Time passes. My fingers finally skim the bright night sky, and he is nowhere to be found.

         

Chesa Boudin: a Latin American "Gringo"

            Chesa Boudin is a world traveler. He is a Chicago kid. He is the child of politically incarcerated parents. He is an American scholar. He is a lecturer and a journalist.

Boudin has experienced Latin America from the inside, a dual perspective of playing the “gringo” wild card when necessary while also attempting to fit in as best as possible and gain acceptance and access.

“With one hand cuffed to a barely visible abyss of poverty and incarceration, and the other grasped in the confident handshakes of those accustomed to privilege and comfort, I learned to move freely between different universes,” says Boudin in his book

At a mere twenty-eight years young, the curious traveler has already experienced the sadness and sensations of local and foreign struggles.

Both of Boudin’s parents were imprisoned when he was only eleven months old, after their involvement in a politically motivated armed robbery gone wrong. Boudin was then taken in and raised by close family friends.

He describes his upbringing as “my four parents’ group efforts made feasible the transitions between the mostly white, middle-class, private school day-to-day and the mostly poor, black, and Latino prison system that was a constant thread in my life. I lived in parallel worlds.”

Boudin always chooses to travel by chicken bus, regardless how many hours the journey will take. He chooses to live alongside the people, to better understand the cultural divide and the extreme poverty that so much of the world endures.

He shares his observations in his book, Gringo.

In regards to politics and culture, his new autobiographical travelogue, takes the reader along on Boudin’s Latin American adventures, unconventional in every way and furtively introspective.

His writes his coming-of-age memoir with numerous footnotes echoing the standpoint of a young man, aching to acquire a better grasp of the world.

Perusing through numerous countries, over nearly a decade, Boudin exposes his most personal relationships with locals, and comments on every aspect of social and political culture that he comes across.

Boudin is first and foremost a journalist, and with this viewpoint he is able to clearly convey detailed, sometimes dense information in a fun, glued-to-your-book kind of way.

The story begins when an eighteen-year-old Boudin travels to Guatemala for a Spanish immersion experience after finishing his high school credits early.

He then goes on to explore the Chilean landscape with a Rotary International scholarship, where he watches police and protestors clash on September 11, 2001.

            In Argentina, he witnesses an economic crisis in the capital city of Buenos Aires.

While visiting Brazil, he travels down the Amazon to rural countrysides and witnesses the true extent of rural poverty and the economic tug of war between natives and corporate interests.

Later in Venezuela, he works inside Chavez’s palace translating documents from Spanish to English.

He joins his adopted mother and a Franciscan nun on a civil rights mission in Colombia.

He learns of Ecuadoran oil pipeline proposals, and environmental destruction outside Quito. He observes a political power struggle that inevitably leads to bloodshed.

In Bolivia, he explores silver mines, and comes face to face with the socio-political ramifications of being a miner. He learns of death and “dying” wages.

Throughout each adventure Boudin makes many dear friends, and uses colorful descriptions and conversational settings to place the reader in every experience. The book is both insightful and objective. He brings forth fascinating and factual information to young readers in a breezy, engaging, and consistent manner.