tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55178577785684665972012-01-02T14:31:44.321-05:00The red light was my mind.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.comBlogger3831100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-44090477795354001492012-01-02T14:31:00.002-05:002012-01-02T14:31:44.352-05:00

We're moving this site exclusively to our Annex.  Too much and not enough.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-1246383135842444362011-10-09T08:50:00.001-04:002011-10-09T08:51:25.242-04:00

Ellison seems free of an enormous subconscious drive to incorporate and surpass the achievements of the local "father" figures Richard Wright and langston Hughes.  In fact, Ellison's intellectual point is precisely that he did not have to engage...because there were already writers of global significance to battle against for his writer's identity. --Lawrence Jackson, "Ellison's Invented Life

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-31333914461971366392011-09-24T07:37:00.000-04:002011-09-24T07:37:21.202-04:00

There are only traces of Trader Horn, the movie Bigger watches w/ Jack and Doc.  We're gonna keep the pictures in our eyes.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-24581626096193040042011-09-17T10:24:00.001-04:002011-09-17T10:24:50.510-04:00

Go here after you look at the picture.  You'll wish that Dr. Wald spent a bit more time posting the scans from the Defender.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-51403003368835958452011-09-17T08:48:00.000-04:002011-09-17T08:48:06.476-04:00

"They listened to the pipe organ. It was humming so low that it could scarcely be heard. There were times when it seemed to stop altogether; then it would surge forth again, mellow, nostalgic, sweet." Maybe the most telling of all musical references in the book.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-48319046535578561682011-09-04T07:28:00.001-04:002011-09-04T07:28:32.223-04:00

     "He sat at the table.  The odor of frying bacon and boiling coffee drifted to him from behind the curtain.  His mother's voice floated to him in song. Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave We must make the run successful From the cradle to the grave....      "The song irked him and he was glad when she stopped and came in the room with a pot of coffee and

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-11300231872871291212011-09-03T06:22:00.001-04:002011-09-03T06:23:17.022-04:00

      "Bigger walked to the front of the store and stood looking out the plate glass window.  The, suddenly, he felt sick.  He saw Gus coming along the street. And his muscles stiffened.  He was going to do something to Gus; just hat, he didn't know.  As Gus neared him he heard him whistling: 'The Merry Go Round Broke Down....'      "'Hi, Bigger,' Gus said.       "Bigger did not answer. Gus

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-1357181243257370372011-09-02T07:13:00.000-04:002011-09-02T07:13:43.038-04:00

Noiselessly, he went up the steps and inserted his key in the lock; the door swung in silently and he heard his mother singing behind the curtain. Lord, I want to be a Christian, In my heart, in my heart, Lord, I want to be a Christian In my heart, in my heart.... He tiptoed into the room and lifted the top matress of his bed and pulled forth the gun and slipped it inside his shirt.  

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-35353009800738658892011-09-01T07:01:00.001-04:002011-09-01T07:03:37.289-04:00

     "Say, Jan, do you know many negroes?  I want to meet some."      "I don't know any very well.  But you'll meet them when you're in the party."      "The have so much emotion!  What a people!  If we could ever get them going..."      "We can't have a revolution without 'em," Jan said.  "They've got to be organized.  They've got spirit.  They'll give the party something it needs."

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-84107169506126546672011-08-31T06:40:00.000-04:002011-08-31T06:40:23.555-04:00

We posted a stash of wonderful sound recordings from the LoC of Zora Neale Hurston helping the anthropologizer man work on his street over @ the blue light. Recently we found a fuller stash @ the Florida archives, and though we'll liberate 'em in a later post for those of you who can't hardly wait, we urge you to hop a ride on the Internets Mass Transit Authority and stop here for 2ns, here for

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-85309906183749649432011-08-31T06:27:00.001-04:002011-08-31T06:45:39.398-04:00

We know we've been gone for a while now, and for that we offer our apologies to the small audience who strays by, even leave the occasional stone in the pile. The leadership @ Jackson Negative, our corporate sponsor and motivating force, is on a retreat, promising to come back with a strategic plan. That's the way it is w/ corporate leaders. It's not like we're not working, though. Give us

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-29057918048872337182011-08-20T05:47:00.000-04:002011-08-20T05:47:46.379-04:00

Just a reminder...

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-2807862804501252732011-07-18T06:53:00.002-04:002011-07-18T06:57:44.283-04:00

As we continue the Book of Richard, we find these words: "...but even after obeying, after killing, they still ruled him.  He was their property, heart and soul, body and blood; what they did claimed him sleeping and waking; it colored life and dictated the terms of death." The easy thing to do with this passage, even all of Native Son, is to run the critique of the gangsta stance, from the

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-72478479763748442072011-07-15T06:43:00.001-04:002011-08-20T05:38:34.992-04:00

We 'a post up a devilin' versionology, maybe this weekend, but we 'a say two things early.  1) 'tunes have developed the groove to carry this one, even if it is not as thoroughly minimal as their signature grooves.  2) This may mot be the most lyrically explosive example of what either Pusha or Tyler have done, but we can say that, even w/out the video, which promises to be interesting, they are

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-2772843393422795352011-07-14T07:57:00.000-04:002011-07-14T07:57:04.813-04:00

"Portrait of the Artist's Mother," Henry Ossawa Tanner (1897).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-87066063041813659682011-07-14T07:53:00.000-04:002011-07-14T07:53:31.095-04:00

"The Annunciation," Henry Ossawa Tanner (1898).  we do not think the power of this painting can be understated.  

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-40543366145551237142011-07-11T07:04:00.000-04:002011-09-04T07:29:08.099-04:00

We will put up a longer post on the what's in your headphones when you read Native Son.  Suffice it to say that the book of Richard, or at least this chapter, is more skeptical than either the book of Langston or the book of Ralph. Mark this highly nuanced passage: "The singing filled his ears; it was complete, self-contained, and it mocked his fear and loneliness, his deep yearning for

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-76527753683503624372011-07-11T06:46:00.000-04:002011-07-11T06:46:40.483-04:00

After polishing his nightstick: "He frowned in the darkened movie, hearing the roll of tom-toms and the creams of black men and women dancing free and wild, men and women who were adjusted to their soil and at home in their world, secure from fear and hysteria." -- Richard Wright

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-72115992410598484752011-07-11T06:39:00.000-04:002011-07-11T06:39:37.804-04:00

"Many eyes in the room were fastened upon Bigger now, cold grey and blue eyes, eyes whose tense hate was worse than a shout or a curse." -- Richard Wright, Native Son

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-37578815611329623332011-07-03T08:57:00.000-04:002011-07-03T08:57:23.081-04:00

Woke up this morning, devilin' on the mind.  As we listened to the Geto Boys, we came back to the crossover tension of the streets.  It's one of those Xeno's paradoxes, dig?  The closer you get to the other side, not matter which way you're going -- to the unnaground or to your piece of the pie -- you still have an infinite distance to traverse.  It's like that, and that's the way it is. So as

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-15299635293965418362011-07-02T07:32:00.000-04:002011-07-02T07:32:37.369-04:00

One day, I walked into a place that was full of gambling and prostitution, people arguing, and I saw a woman get stabbed—then I thought that I had to get out of there. I told my mother that I didn't want to play this music anymore because I thought that I was only adding to all that suffering. She replied, "What's got hold of you, you want somebody to pay you for your soul?" I hadn't thought of

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-88350184059973545262011-07-02T06:11:00.002-04:002011-07-02T06:15:56.015-04:00

The more time we spend w/ the book of Langston, the more we turn the pages of other books as well.  And so the book of Paul. We Wear the Mask We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-- This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-9558447856392150652011-07-02T05:54:00.000-04:002011-07-02T05:54:55.722-04:00

"But I find that it's very difficult to do, because the jazz musician is probably the only person for whom the composer is not a very interesting individual,  in the sense that he prefers to destroy what the composer writes or says."  --Ornette Coleman (1997)

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-44572139820380336952011-06-30T06:37:00.000-04:002011-06-30T06:37:54.333-04:00

We began spinning out a Marvin Gaye thread over @ the blue light.  Lil B's recent nod gives us pause to look back, perhaps even pick that thread up again.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-63221595342144367102011-06-29T06:49:00.000-04:002011-06-29T06:49:55.921-04:00

Must confess we love the laid back delivery and gangstadrama that leans on the light touch.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-57601885655879224402011-06-20T06:58:00.002-04:002011-06-20T06:58:48.890-04:00

Indeed.  Just for your visual files.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-10760838044220435922011-06-20T06:57:00.000-04:002011-06-20T06:57:12.508-04:00

Born July 4, 1900.  Surely the man had the audacity to make the sphinx, too.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-64485106598723099732011-06-18T07:05:00.002-04:002011-06-18T07:05:59.838-04:00

Alma Thomas, Wind, Sunshine and Flowers, 1968

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-32338605274864097852011-06-18T07:04:00.000-04:002011-06-18T07:04:44.176-04:00

Sargent Claude Johnson, Untitled (Standing Woman), ca. 1933-1935.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-30040115704336277462011-06-18T07:03:00.000-04:002011-06-18T07:03:13.936-04:00

William Edmondson, Angel

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-53140871054788512312011-06-18T07:01:00.002-04:002011-06-18T07:01:57.132-04:00

Bob Thompson, The Judgment, 1963.  Apologies for extreme lo fi.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-84528016150074447272011-06-18T07:00:00.000-04:002011-06-18T07:00:29.437-04:00

Skylar Fein, Black Lincoln for Dooky Shade, 2010.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-9504872206365145682011-06-18T06:58:00.000-04:002011-06-18T06:58:34.139-04:00

Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape, ca. 1939-40.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-74476326079390228092011-06-12T09:33:00.000-04:002011-06-12T09:33:22.021-04:00

We were amused by the appeal to comprehensiveness in this ¶ long list by Mark Sanders in his most excellent "African American Folk Roots and Black Poetry." Material objects included quilts, jewelry, toys, musical instruments, etc.; while cultural practices and linguistic forms included work songs, seculars, field hollers, shouts, spirituals, blues, tall tales, aphorisms, dance songs, children's

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-64348127880597407352011-06-10T06:16:00.000-04:002011-06-10T06:16:12.075-04:00

The boozhy version of the crossroads story, but still the same story: "My mom is a singer, mostly in choirs an stuff like that when I was little and my dad plays the bass, he’s been playing since he was about 5. He had to stop after a while when I was a kid. They encouraged me to be a creative individual but they didn’t really cultivate my growing in a creative way, it was more grade oriented.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-43868039663710483072011-06-09T07:28:00.000-04:002011-06-09T07:28:20.925-04:00

Get to this astonishing rendition of this astonishing book.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-8310798160732544322011-06-07T07:52:00.000-04:002011-06-07T07:52:37.088-04:00

In our readings in the book of Langston, we're finding some basic patterns (blue light, red light): the brovah's a multimedia artist, not just a literary figure; his attachment to the modernist narrative is less of his own making and made more of the wishes of his more literary readers who want to habilitate him into a more literary form; his understanding of the visual and musical arts is very

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-4783870143865456552011-06-05T07:52:00.000-04:002011-06-05T07:52:41.657-04:00

Dr. O-Dub sent us to John Book's long piece on De La Soul's now 20 year old Is Dead.  We cannot take time here on how big the album is, but we did not as we read that the scene seems much like what's going on in the Bay Area/Odd Futures world. We also recognize Book's prowess.  It's a great piece.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-18921892025208035722011-06-04T06:10:00.003-04:002011-08-20T05:39:17.582-04:00

This is all of it in 1.41.  

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-83232079533348195062011-06-01T06:49:00.001-04:002011-06-01T06:49:52.383-04:00

So as we're woking on a deeper breath about Langston's Randy Weston collabo, Uhuru Afrika, we find this note that only adds to the case we were making in yesterday's shorter observation:  "He also helped to prepare two television shows.  In one case for the CBS series "Look Up and LIve," he narrated a gospel concer with the 120 voice Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Choir ("In a gospel church, when

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-19655775713188415642011-05-31T07:21:00.002-04:002011-05-31T07:24:42.728-04:00

We are inspired by our reading in the book of Langston* to move out in two directions:  1) we want to stay close to the primary sources, because what is said about Langston and what he accomplished are not always in each others' earshot and we think respect for ancestors means that you can hear them call you; 2) we know that his existence in print is not all that is written in the book, and that

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-76868480152016860332011-05-29T09:47:00.000-04:002011-05-29T09:47:10.577-04:00

We recommend a stop here when you're on the working on the chain of 70s jazz giants.  It's not all of 'em, and it's not perfectly up to date, but it's got some facts.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-12078328693063750762011-05-28T06:58:00.000-04:002011-05-28T06:58:17.515-04:00

Ancestors walk among us.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-85870742119508564292011-05-17T07:24:00.001-04:002011-05-24T07:01:34.484-04:00

Found while reading the book of Langston.  Hermes, master of the crossroads, works in the library and points you to other volumes. Guinea Translated by Langston Hughes It's the long road to Guinea death takes you down. Here are the boughs, the trees, the forest. Listen to the sound of the wind in its long hair       of eternal light It's the long road to Guinea where your fathers await you

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-7453186053467692582011-05-15T09:13:00.000-04:002011-05-15T09:13:13.140-04:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-43953450482280361042011-04-30T09:59:00.001-04:002011-04-30T11:10:34.733-04:00

Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes And watched her perfect, half clothed body sway; Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes Blown by black players upon a picnic day. She sang and danced on gracefully and calm, The light gauze hanging loose about her form;  to me she seemed a proudly swaying palm Grown lovelier for passing through a storm. Upon her swarthy neck black shiny

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-71010013075626982492011-04-30T08:06:00.000-04:002011-04-30T08:06:23.061-04:00

Have you forgotten your nobility? Your talent to praise the Ancestors, the Princes And the Gods, neither flowers nor drops of dew? 1.) Stumbled upon while reading from the book of Langston, and a reminder of why whe should study these gospels so closely. 2.) Reminds us, in the converse, of brilliant lines by KRS-One.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-68079188787420589372011-04-23T06:51:00.001-04:002011-04-23T06:51:39.270-04:00

We must call out to Mr. Ariel S. Winter, librarian of the outtaprint, for pulling together in exquisite detail Langston's 50s children's projects, capturing the language, pictures and sound all together.  When we read Langston, we need to keep in mind the care he put into the midcentury multimedia , the same way we keep in mind Langston's recurring efforts w/ opera and musical theatre.  More

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-81420200237778715252011-04-23T06:02:00.000-04:002011-04-23T06:02:00.136-04:00

We are not sure what to make of straight up rerhyming a great cut.  There is something going on here, but I don't think hip hop is dead.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-75506829139637176602011-04-20T07:30:00.001-04:002011-04-20T07:31:00.004-04:00

We're working the same tip 80 years later.  Identity is a tricky category.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-81995443028132686492011-04-19T07:27:00.000-04:002011-04-19T07:27:01.753-04:00

The primary point of Todd Marten's excellent review of Kanye is that the show was good, that Kanye was great, and that it is OK to love Kanye again (in spite of balled up critical remorse for MBDTF).  You should read it, and if you have doubts about Kanye, especially because he isn't street enough or unnagound enough, feel free to get over 'em.  You got better things to hate than something that

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-39742191223620339302011-04-17T06:55:00.001-04:002011-04-17T06:55:47.167-04:00

Maybe the biggest irony of the R& Hughes biography is how much ink is spilled describing his efforts at making musical theatrical performance on the one hand, and how little  is spent on his efforts making poetry.  We will only note today that this allure, this devilish temptation to walk away from poetry as such, is one of the most distinctive aspects of the Hughes career.  As we think of

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-59525524398798543962011-04-16T09:55:00.000-04:002011-04-16T09:55:18.304-04:00

Willem van Heythusen, Kehinde Wiley, 2006.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-68137300236576552772011-04-16T09:53:00.000-04:002011-04-16T09:53:07.514-04:00

The Quarry, Robert Scott Duncancson (ca. 1855-1863)

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-13969579184543312832011-04-16T09:49:00.001-04:002011-04-16T09:57:29.501-04:00

The conjunction of spiritual and blues from the turn of the century. Christ and His Disciples on the Sea of Galilee, Henry Ossawa Tanner (ca. 1910).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-51295973124550342882011-04-16T09:03:00.000-04:002011-04-16T09:03:03.577-04:00

The aura of the original, from over @ the LoC.  

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-6383630837185210052011-04-13T07:15:00.003-04:002011-04-16T08:58:57.726-04:00

Cf. over @ the Blue Light.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-72911986319417971462011-04-10T08:22:00.000-04:002011-04-10T08:22:14.563-04:00

We keep working on this business of memory as the sacred twin of knowing, and the past as the sacred twin of the future.  We feel obliged to point you here and here for further reading.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-65380990615955538402011-04-10T08:14:00.000-04:002011-04-10T08:14:58.000-04:00

Cross referencing? Or is it the back and forth we talk about? Blind William Can't Tell: Do You Remember?: "Through thickest glooms look back, immortal shade,On that that confusion which thy death has made. -- Phillis Wheatley, 'On the Death..."

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-50679033771868914192011-04-03T12:54:00.005-04:002011-04-03T13:01:25.529-04:00

The Guardian was none too easy on Cee-Lo earlier this week. Perhaps he's becoming the 21st century bluesman we imagine him becoming; perhaps not. When we saw Lightnin' Hopkins in the 70s, the miracle of his set was diminished neither by its shortness, nor how limited his singling and playing range had become after a life of being a 20th century bluesman. The miracle was that he was there at

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-66478738676948490792011-03-27T07:22:00.004-04:002011-03-27T07:53:28.632-04:00

...Weary Blues or Ask Your Mama.We think much on Ellison's definition of the blues, and &sad's observation that it is an assertion on which much of the 20th century's interpretation of African American literature/culture rests. When we read Professor Santos's wrap up of Hughes in her section of The Cambridge History of American Literature (it is an unfair but true observation that she sits the

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-35091565302675384972011-03-27T06:27:00.004-04:002011-03-27T07:54:01.413-04:00

All f/ Brandon Soderberg's excellent short interview w/ Clams Casino in the VV: Yeah, they work as instrumentals, because I only think about how they sound. I'm not in the studio with the guys rapping, so I just kind of make it to make it, and I don't even think about hearing people on it. It's to keep me interested. I see people online saying those are all their favorite Lil B songs, and they

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-90662997305455850202011-03-21T06:42:00.010-04:002011-03-21T08:25:02.853-04:00

W/ all of this Odd Future buzz coming f/ the south, we think it is time to wonder where the next future will come from. They were stealing our attention with promises of fresh for the last 6 months: stunning freaky blues shouting, multi-media attacks, blues roundhouse lefts and hiphop uppercuts to the jaw. and we'll take that beating again and again, whenever it is offered, because follow this

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-77179180342396753962011-03-19T07:39:00.005-04:002011-03-21T08:13:15.142-04:00

Weill, Hughes and Rice, Street Scenes: Sprawling drama of crossing back and forth. Hughes, persistently underestimated by most who take a moment to consider him, is actually a huge synthetic force, a center of gravity defined not by weight, but it's opposite.Yes, yes, ya'll.B/t/w: if you can't see the connection w/ our 3/12 post, then go buy some new eyes, mang.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-18183377642330753592011-03-12T06:24:00.004-05:002011-03-12T06:46:17.424-05:00

We had a dream we came across two ghosts @ the crosssroads. Is this Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby? Or is it proof that the wild creolizing tendency of the tradition just can't stop and won't stop. We must say, we found the brovah Noz all over the right things in his Billboard cover story. His observations on the future of the music industry, tho' a bit of his own utopia leaks in, are

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-68064406787871600532011-03-07T07:07:00.002-05:002011-03-21T08:13:40.797-04:00

We know he didn't invent crossing over, but he certainly was the Michael Jackson of the pre-war blues.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-60055051629087421232011-03-06T18:49:00.002-05:002011-03-06T19:07:57.467-05:00

Listen up, y'all. To the beat, y'all.We got the Rick Ross bug a few months ago, late as usual (and as we think it should be most of the time, 'cause we are not in any part of the unnaground, or even a place where cool is the ruler). So we follow the Don's 140 character bursts, and try to follow the growth of his his crew as he grows his business, man.We try to keep up on the unfolding story of

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-53607721928973762392011-03-05T09:19:00.002-05:002011-03-05T09:23:30.506-05:00

Deep river of visual stuff @ the National Library of Jamaica. Diggin.'

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-14774917755377771182011-03-05T07:54:00.002-05:002011-03-05T08:03:12.733-05:00

AmericaAlthough She feeds me the bread of bitterness,And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,Stealing my breath of life, I must confessI love this cultured hell that steals my youth!Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,Giving me strength erect against her hate.Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,I stand within her walls with not a shredOf terror,

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-25775485911117680102011-03-04T08:08:00.001-05:002011-03-04T08:09:47.612-05:00

From the ancient, dusky rivers...

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-10519470592204523942011-03-02T07:05:00.005-05:002011-03-02T07:14:27.338-05:00

Dipping into a little Teddy Riley Groove. We don't wanna blame too much Erykah Badu, and wish we could say we jumped there directly from the inspiration of Barry Michael Cooper, or even our own Nelson George-like nostalgia for culottes and espadrilles in the Harlem summer, but we can't make that claim. We're just here for now. And we're digging the polyrhythms as if we were listening to "The

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-14117423342796413802011-02-26T07:24:00.003-05:002011-02-26T08:07:58.207-05:00

As we read R&'s big Langston books, we've been thinking about the availability of primary sources. For starters, try here @ Yale. There's also an reasonably good source @ the Poetry Foundation. We're saddened, tho, that we are coming up dry at Penn Sound and the Electronic Poetry Center.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-28438843384214602772011-02-22T07:14:00.003-05:002011-02-22T07:25:45.922-05:00

...devilin.'The role model Andrew Noz put up his thoughts about The Big Payback up over @ his spot on the corner, CB. We take his point. It's not that Charnas book is, well, OK. It is that there is no master narrative for hiphop (or for that matter, much of anything but the masters). Noz long ago earned his way to the status of role model because he pays rigorous attention to the historical

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-25933941758946600412011-02-20T17:41:00.003-05:002011-02-21T20:15:03.255-05:00

King Kong ain't got nothing on me.Michael Richards, Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian (1999).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-39280746984918720882011-02-20T17:39:00.001-05:002011-02-21T20:16:59.650-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-51226385214657043652011-02-20T17:38:00.001-05:002011-02-21T20:17:29.249-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-51006802377600800852011-02-20T17:36:00.001-05:002011-02-21T20:20:31.450-05:00

Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Crossroads/Trickster (2005).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-24921510382530935052011-02-20T17:35:00.001-05:002011-02-21T20:23:05.902-05:00

Sam Gilliam, Last September IV (1973).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-37376953159067004872011-02-20T17:34:00.001-05:002011-02-21T20:26:45.051-05:00

José Nedoa, San Lazaro (O Yo Soy La Ruta) (1992).

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-18007776246679719212011-02-15T06:21:00.003-05:002011-02-15T06:22:55.760-05:00

Master of slang keyboard democracy. It's tatumcratic.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-59109976298985339502011-02-14T06:49:00.005-05:002011-02-14T07:15:35.720-05:00

We're working hard on this one, lured in by the hazy skibeatz groove and allusive lyrics that go in circles like a lostboy looking for something to do. We're fond of: I got a style for every bump in your face. Coin double sided, but no matter what we heads up. All of that is kicks to me, silly rabbit trickery. I wasn't born yesterday, not later on that evening.Just had to get that out the way

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-56325873972244010852011-02-12T07:11:00.003-05:002011-02-12T07:44:50.977-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-5053255905397967732011-02-08T06:30:00.002-05:002011-02-08T06:33:11.131-05:00

"I carries it every day."

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-35306351395842040332011-02-01T06:10:00.002-05:002011-02-01T06:16:13.934-05:00

We we're intrigued when Noz claimed that Wiz had "an aesthetic," so we lissening trynta find one. We'll get back w/ you, 'cause we're sure it's there.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-38681608689379439952011-01-31T20:52:00.003-05:002011-01-31T20:54:05.091-05:00

He breathes strong. And it is in wonderful balance to the crossroads blues offered by Lil B. Desperately seeking redemption from the street.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-21864638397769396102011-01-30T10:29:00.001-05:002011-01-30T10:29:27.020-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-86470001379396691582011-01-29T08:12:00.001-05:002011-01-29T08:13:34.481-05:00

Wish we were there to see it in the full aura of the original, but even the internets can reveal the deep blue conjuring of Willie Cole. We're on the lookout.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-57280483543086615832011-01-27T08:03:00.003-05:002011-01-27T09:01:20.261-05:00

We have mad respect for those who pay attention to the devils in the details because they have the power of the rzarection. So we holla @ chaboy sfan @ the T.R.O.Y/Philaflava conglomerate. He works that archival cut, loading up clip after clip. At this moment, we must call out his saga about Baltimore and DC. We recognize with full respect the steady view of Al Gov'tname, too. But sfan has

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-85406244698571846732011-01-17T06:53:00.001-05:002011-02-12T08:10:55.343-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-59451011601227640422011-01-17T05:33:00.002-05:002011-01-17T05:34:05.837-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-68018086602627428442011-01-17T05:25:00.002-05:002011-01-17T05:32:58.086-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-69058476504781702792011-01-17T05:09:00.003-05:002011-01-17T05:21:01.196-05:00

Speaking for itself...

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-11708861402685030632011-01-16T06:36:00.002-05:002011-01-16T06:48:03.372-05:00

Recent crate diggin' produced these two gems from the same session.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-75826145736270864052011-01-15T05:47:00.003-05:002011-01-15T06:14:00.988-05:00

The brovah's @ the ubu archive posted the above cited interview w/ Ornette Coleman. Coleman is playing his fullest conjureman role. We commend most highly every word.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-66977695167226901472011-01-06T19:51:00.001-05:002011-01-15T06:21:30.999-05:00

Standing on the mountain, far as I can see.Dark clouds above me. Clouds all around poor me.Feeling low and weary. Lord I've got a trouble in mind.Everything that gets me. Everybody's so unkind.Harvest time's coming and will catch me unprepared.Haven't made a dollar. Bad luck is all I've had.Lord how can I bear it? Lord what will the harvest bring,Putting up all my money, and I isn't got a

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-65712872663692110862011-01-04T04:32:00.001-05:002011-01-04T04:34:26.078-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-68481849666768274812010-12-31T07:13:00.004-05:002010-12-31T08:36:11.698-05:00

We have other prospects out there (marvinology, versions of "Body and Soul,"close reading of OB4CL, the educations of Ellison) so it really shouldn't be time to start up another thread, but we can't stop and won't stop. Ours is more about beginnings than endings, and accumulations rather than holding s single done thing. It's like that.So we'll begin where we began before: by observing that our

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-23213257143941777182010-12-30T06:37:00.003-05:002010-12-30T06:43:52.430-05:00

If you got the line, I got the pole.*----------* Now listen, could you explain it to me? Tell me, did you know?

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-85496330077891906862010-12-26T09:42:00.004-05:002010-12-26T10:19:35.483-05:00

We are deep in the groove of Blood on the Forge, part of the deeper groove of Ralph Ellison we are trying to find. It is an old story, and we'll be making some markings about here in the next couple of days.

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-23528007334571385322010-12-24T17:43:00.002-05:002010-12-25T06:14:47.152-05:00

BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0