No Spoofs Please... We're Hindus

You either get it or you don't. Devendra Banhart's solitary claim to fame, at least in pop culture, so far, has been that he's Natalie Portman's ex-boyfriend. On his own, he comes across as a psychedelic rebel looking to affront. He ain't no Allen Ginsberg when it comes to the standard of psychedelic rebels but I thought he was amusing to read at least in this article that he wrote after his break up with Natalie Portman. He's also a songwriter, singer and a musician whose career, well at least I haven't been following.

His new music video for the song Carmensita, from his album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, is a spoof of Ramayana and has gotten Hindu Religious scholars all riled up.

Get Your War On: The Cross

Another awesome GYWO episode - thanks to the hilarious work being done at 236

Ubuntu - Reflect my Humanity

While many of you may have come to know the word "Ubuntu" through the Linux based operating system it is worth getting to know its meaning which is deeply philosophical. Ubuntu is an ancient Bantu word and, like many ancient words, it is open to interpretation. Desmond Tutu describes it as:

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

It is somewhat similar to the concept of Ātman in Hinduism though I understand Ubuntu as more humanist with lesser religious connotations. I personally liked what Chris Abani has to say about Ubuntu. In his talk at TED he said:

The only way for me to be Human is for you to reflect my Humanity back at me.

Simple, poetic and thoughtful. Reading Chris Abani, his sensitivity to human stories and the way he tells it, is reminiscent of reading Tagore. Abani, a Nigerian Heebo, is an English writer, poet and musician. His work is political in nature but very human in its telling. It mostly revolves around themes of lost and created identities and the absence of objectivity in human society. Graceland or his latest Song for Night are great books on American exported Pop Culture mixed with the reality of War, Greed and Corruption in conflict ravaged Africa.

Get your War on - Episode 4

The mockery continues. Do you know what a surge is?

Pointillism meets Performance Art

If you haven't encountered Phil Hansen's work, you're missing out on a new form of Pointillism mixed with performance art. His work is politically charged, as all good art should be (I'm aware that "good art" is a dubious term, but I'm most interested in political art;). He doesn't necessarily look at museums or galleries to display his work and has preferred the world-wide-web as his exhibition space.

Hansen, an art school dropout, works as an X-ray technician by day, spending all of his spare time and money on his art. His presentation medium, though, has earned him a huge audience.

This 44" x 104" image of Kim Jong Il is made using half a liter of his own blood and over 6000 bandages on the canvas. Here's a close up of the canvas:

Another piece titled Paul, is a 144" x 96" portrait of a homeless man made by stepping in paint and walking all over the canvas.

Get your War on - Episode 3

More of Get your War on - Playing the Race Card. It just keeps getting funnier and more politically incorrect.

Memories of War

On August 6 and 9, 1945, 63 years ago, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were attacked with nuclear weapons. "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Many of us were not alive yet, but on those two days 220,000 people were killed, most of them vaporized within minutes. Over the years thousands more have died in the region due to radiation and exposure.

Keiji Nakazawa, who was 6 years old at the time, is one of the few survivors from the attacks. He went on to create Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen), a manga (comic book series) about his memories. It became hugely popular and was adapted into three live action films.

His work becomes ever more pertinent today as we move to an age where nuclear weapons are considered safety nets and touted as weapons of peace.

Get your War on - Episode 2

Just a quick note: Continuing to track David Rees animated series "Get your War on", the next episode is out.

Enjoy

That boy refuses to grow up

Just saw Volker Schlndorff's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). The film is based on Gnter Grass' first book in his Danzig (Gdańsk) trilogy about Kashubian life in Poland before the Nazi invasion. It follows the life of Oskar Matzerath the three year old who refuses to grow up. His refusal is a statement of protest against the grown up world. Disgusted by the hypocrisy around him, he orchestrates his own fall from the cellar stairs causing a head injury which arrests his growth. The voiceover chills you as he announces, in his shrill voice, just before his jump:

"That day, reflecting on the grown-up world and my own future, I decided to call a halt - to stop growing then and there and remain a three year old, a gnome, once and for all."

Now Playing - 'Get your War on'

This was in the early months following the attacks of 9/11/01 when the Bush White House had just begun tightening its grip on American freedoms and right-wing voices had just started becoming the louder ones. Not many people spoke up against government's illegal actions partly due to an illogical belief that America could do no wrong but mostly because of fear. Fear of the unknown terrorist as well as fear of America's own destructive power. And then the crafty acronym P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act was hurriedly put into effect. These were the first steps being taken by the U.S government to destroy the American constitution.

Pre-emptive strike was the buzzword, attacking Afghanistan to free its women was the hottest noble cause and attacking Iraq because Saddam and Osama were really the same person was considered plain and obvious truth. The department of Homeland Security with its color coded signals was setup and selling security apparatus was the next best business to be in. Everything was gung-ho and nuke 'em bumper stickers were the rage.

My apolitical views were rapidly becoming political as I was coming of age. I was unlearning everything I was taught to believe and beginning to really question "education" and its prejudices. Instead of Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman or Jagdish Bhagwati I was now voraciously consuming Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Upton Sinclair, George Monbiot and Gandhi. My understanding of our world was undergoing a radical shift. I was discovering everything too rapidly and that's when I encountered the satirical comic strips by David Rees - "Get your War on".