Primary Sources

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

Glimpses (apologies for low fi)

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

What We're Hearing

We are particularly fond of the very bluesy "Long Time Me Na Rub You in a Dance," tho near equal is the "Hold on to Your Girlfriend."

What We're Hearing

The mighty I Roy is on the wire.

What We're Hearing

We were at it early this morning, listening to African Herbsman, and we were struck, as we have been so many times before, by the foundation laid by Bob Marley's voice. Although this observation is by no means original, we cannot help but remark about the deep-rooted southern gospel/R&B soulfulness animates his work.

Especially favorite for the moment is the strain we hear in the heartaching "Don't Rock the Boat."

Can' you see? Do you Believe me?

Oh darlin,' darlin,' I'm callin,' callin.'

Satisfy my soul. Satisfy my soul.

Never, never, never give it up now.

Glimpses

We're grateful for Peter Doig and Hilton Als, who referred us to the work of the islander, Boscoe Holder.

Warloard Nuh Business

From the front page of today's Gleaner: a warning about plundering the public purse. We just call it the blues in any language, any gramma.

Soaking in the Fresh

Text stolen from yesterday's Observer. We're all up on Elephant Man, but there are plenty of leads to the island fresh worth following up on.

Other activities not directly related to the independence celebrations but taking place today include, the hip-hop dancehall show, Fully Loaded which takes place at The Old Coal Wharf Port Royal, and features Ricky Blaze, Tony Matterhorn, Bass Odyssey, Black Kat, Boom, Vertex, Sky Juice, Renaissance, ZJ Liquid, Bambino, DJ Shine, Flava Squad. Radio station, Fame FM hosts its Beach Fiesta at Sugarman's Beach, Portmore. For Jamaicans on the country's north coast, there is the party, Disturbia, Club Jamaica Jamaica in St Ann, featuring Elephant Man, Ishawna, Foota Hype, Bass Odyssey and DJ Pele. Lovers of old school music can also check out Yesterday, The Independence-Day Edition, to be held at Kingston's Mas Camp.

Reminder: Politickin' Is More than Running Your Mouth

Teacake story? International oppression? We are not close to any of these facts, so we are just going to remain observers, but we invite any and all to remember that the stakes is high.

Sources: Working the Jamaican Papers

The Observer has more story than the whiggish Gleaner. Both though, are worth picking over.

Keeping up w/ it?

Big tension in the entertainment sections of the island sunday papers:

• Jamaica Observer, "Dancehall's Decline"
• The Gleaner, "Dancehall Hit!"

What We're Hearing

Gentle sounds, w/ a heavy dose of sweetvoice.

2.5 Perfect Minutes

I need a fat girl, fat girl
(fat girl tonight)
I need a very, very fat girl
(fat girl tonight)
I'm in the mood, the mood
(I'm in the mood)
I need some food, some food
(I need some food)
I'm feeling rude, so rude
(I'm feeling rude)

I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
I know that you want, girl you want
(want it tonight)
And you gonna do, you gonna get a lot of it
(get it tonight)
Get it galore, galore, galore
(get it galore)
Till you won't want no more, no more, no more
(want no more)
And that's for sure, I know for sure
(that's for sure)
See the girl, see the girl
(in there)
See the girl, see the girl
(in there)

I need a fat girl, fat girl
(fat girl tonight)
I need a fat girl, fat girl
(fat girl tonight)
I'm in the mood, the mood
(I'm in the mood)
I need some food, some food
(I need some food)
And I'm feeling rude, so rude
(I'm feeling rude)

I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
Get it galore, galore, galore
(get it galore)
Till you won't want no more, no, no, no, girl
(want no more)
You won't want no more, no more, no more
(want no more)

I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it's (so nice)
See the girl, see the girl
(in there)
See the girl, see the girl, in the girl
(in there)
See the girl, in the girl, see the girl
(in there)

Just Biting

We were seeking someone else's wisdom to guide us this morning, and though we found it, we also found teacake stories hiding in the cut. We resist the temptation to hate, one way or the other because teacake stories are always full of unresolvable grievances, and offer this found wisdom instead:

Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?

Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,

in that grey vault. The Sea. The Sea

has locked them up. The Sea is history.

Mainly in triplets, the St. Lucy poet then tells a story that echoes much of our recent thinking on the powerful figure of the ocean that has transported us recently. We find the figure in the voices of many thousands gone, from Phillis Wheatley to Langston Hughes, the saints who help us find our way on this long road.

Then came the white sisters clapping

to the waves progress,

and that was Emancipation --

jubilation, O jubilation --

vanishing swiftly

as the sea's lace dries in the sun,

but that was not history,

that was only faith,

and then each rock broke into its own nation;

From there he patiently builds a counterstory to the poem's three page narrative just concluded:

then came the synod of flies,

then came the secretarial heron,

then came the bullfrog bellowing for a vote,

fireflies with bright ideas

and bats like jetting ambassadors

and the mantis, like khaki police,

and the furred caterpillars of judges

examining each case closely,

and the dark ears of ferns

and in the salt chuckle of rocks

with their sea pools, there was the sound

like a rumor without any echo

of History, really beginning.

We're not sure what to make of the not resolve at the end, but we take it for the not resolve that it is. In the meantime (which is the period that matters), we find ourselves attracted to the way Walcott has animated the natural world -- in the fashion of the griot -- with human characteristics. Let's leave it at that and come back to it. Wind that back.

Do You Really Wanna Know About Some Gangsta Sh*t

This post on the longstanding, murderous beef b/t Vybz Kartel and Mavado isn't really news, but it is good reading. We certainly got nothing to make it news, but we are reminded that this kinda feuding goes back to the beginning of recorded sound in Caribbean music.

On another note: when we listen to this groove, we are struck by how a.) out it is and b.) how it predicts years ahead the space filled sounds of the jerk dance/skinny jeans sounds from this summer.

Pancaribbean Streetlevel

Here's more to come back to. The fabric crosses the seas and oceans, and that other peoples' borders really aren't ours. Here's a clip of bullets for your interest. We'll keep adding them into a directory of sources.

Jamaica

• The Gleaner
• Jamaica Observer

T&T

• Trinidad and Tobago Express
• Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday
• The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

There's plenty more out there, and that's the point. More as we go forward.

Earthquake

Aimé Césaire, translated from the French by Paul Muldoon

such great stretches of dreamscape
such lines of all too familiar lines
staved in
caved in so the filthy wake resounds with the notion
of the pair of us? What of the pair of us?
Pretty much the tale of the family surviving disaster
"in the ancient serpent stink of our blood we got clear
of the valley; the village loosed stone lions roaring at our heels."
Sleep, troubled sleep, the troubled waking of the heart
yours on top of mine chipped dishes stacked in the pitching sink
of noontides.
What then of words? Grinding them togehter to summon up the void
as night insects grind their wing cases?
Caught caught caught unequivocally caught
caught caught caught
head over heels into the abyss
for no good reason
except for the sudden faint steadfastness
of our own true names, our own amazing names
that had hitherto been consigned to a realm of forgetfulness
itself quite tumbledown.