Friday, November 12th, 2004

Dis One’s Fo’ Gabby

Ever wonder why Iz says at the beginning of that song, “OK, dis one’s fo’ Gabby…”? Well, start here:

OK so yeah my subtitle says ‘dubwise’ and ‘hiphopcentric’, but when I’m in the mood for comfort food, it’s all about Hawaiian music. (And yes, Joni Mitchell—original hip-hop diva.)

It’s been one of those cursed years–interesting, eventful, exhausting. I’ve got to go home and get a big plate of beef stew, break some English (as the one called Lyrics Born asked me after a vacation to the islands–‘What language do you guys speak over there?’), and listen to some ki ho’alu.

It all starts with Gabby. Philip ‘Gabby’ Pahinui was the father of modern Hawaiian music, a master of the slack-key (ki ho’alu) guitar, and every Local’s hard-drinking, hard-living father figure. Folks called him ‘Pops’.”

For the rest of the entry, click to Stickershock.

posted by @ 6:46 pm | 2 Comments

Friday, November 12th, 2004

The Memory of El Salvador: Donald Rumsfeld Vs. Joan Didion

Donald Rumsfeld was in El Salvador, one of the countries in the “Coalition of the Willing” that still has troops in Iraq. The number of Salvadoran-born troops–including 370 Salvadoran citizens and probably more American immigrants–is likely well under 1000.

“We are deeply in your debt,” Rumsfeld said during a Veterans Day ceremony honoring U.S. and Salvadoran soldiers. He held up El Salvador as “a nation that understands well the human struggle for liberty and democracy.”

Here’s Joan Didion in 1982, documenting the misdeeds of the Reagan-backed anti-communist government:

Terror is the given of the place. Black-and-white police cars cruise in pairs, each with the barrel of a rifle extruding from an open window. Roadblocks materialize at random, soldiers fanning out from trucks and taking positions, fingers always on triggers, safeties clicking on and off. Aim is taken as if to pass the time. Every morning El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Grafica carry cautionary stories. Una madre y sus dos hijos fueron asesinados con arma cortante (corvo) por ocho sujetos desconocidos el lunes en la noche”: A mother and her two sons hacked to death in their beds by eight desconocidos, unknown men…

It is largely from these reports in the newspapers that the Unites States Embassy compiles its body counts, which are transmitted to Washington in a weekly siaptch referred to by embassy people as “the grim-gram.” These counts are presented in a kind of tortured code that fails to obscure what is taken for granted in El Salvador, that government forces do most of the killing.

In a January 15, 1992 memo to Washington, for example, the embassy issued a “guarded” breakdown on its count of 6,909 “reported” political murders between September 16 1980 and September 15 1981. Of these 6,909, according to the memo, 922 were “believed committed by security forces”, 952 “believed committed by leftist terrorists”, 136 “believed committed by rightist terrorists”, and 4,889 “committed by unknown assailants”, the famous desconocidos favored by those San Salvador newspapers still publishing. (The figures actually do not add up to 6,909 but to 6,899, leaving ten in a kind of official limbo.) The memo continued:

“The uncertainty involved here can be seen in the fact that responsibility cannot be fixed in the majority of cases. We note, however, that it is generally believed in El Salvador that a large number of the unexplained killings are carried out by the security forces, officially or unofficially…

An addendum: After the civil war ended in 1992, the UN-sponsored Truth Commission attributed 85% of all human rights violations to the Salvadoran army, security forces, and death squads–institutions with deep training and links to US right-wingers like guess-who.

History loops, in sometimes strange and horrible ways.

posted by @ 3:48 pm | 4 Comments

Friday, November 12th, 2004

Oh Yeah I Also Write About Music

Something on Trojan Records for yall. Hoping to get enough energy to get a post up at Stickershock soon also.

posted by @ 3:01 pm | 0 Comments

Thursday, November 11th, 2004

Best News In 8 Weeks

Thank you for all of your emails, prayers, well wishes, everything. Looks like they have all paid off. Through Senator Daniel Inouye’s office yesterday, David received a two-line order from the Army today revoking his call-up. You did it!

Great coverage of David here and here.

He and his attorney will continue to field press calls, because we don’t know how many thousands could be in David’s exact situation but without any hope–just as David himself was. The back-door draft must end, and we hope to put the word out there to stop it.

And from the bottom of our hearts, thanks once again for all your positive vibes, we feel very blessed and want to continue to make noise about this issue.

———————-

November 10. 2004

PRESS ADVISORY

GULF WAR VET CALLED UP 13 YEARS AFTER DISCHARGE RELEASED FROM DUTY

Back-Door Draft Lawsuit Against The Army And Intense Media Interest 

Cause Army To Rescind Orders

Honolulu, Hawai’i–Today, Kauai, Hawai’i, resident and Gulf War veteran David M. Miyasato, who was called up by the Army 13 years after an honorable discharge, was released from his active duty orders by the Army. He had filed a lawsuit against the Army on November 5 in the United States District Court after receiving no response to his inquiries.

David expressed satisfaction with the revocation order. “Now I can move on with my life,” he said. He said he will return to his small auto window-tinting business on the Island of Kauai. He is married and has a new infant child.

His attorney, Eric A. Seitz, said, “This is a rare victory, not just for David, but for the thousands of others who may be in his situation as well.”

He added, “The back-door draft must be stopped. We don’t know how many others may have been called up illegally or may now be serving even though they have done their time. Many may be suffering severe financial hardships, just as David has for the last two months in his state of uncertainty.”

On the 5th, after being ignored by the Army for weeks, the Army responded within hours after Miyasato filed his suit, granting him an “administrative delay” for up to 30 days, and notifying Mr. Miyasato he would soon be receiving a “new report date”. Today, Senator Daniel Inouye’s office received a 2-line order stating that David’s call-up order had been “rescinded or revoked”.

Mr. Miyasato enlisted in the Army in 1987 for a term of eight years. His enlistment contract specified that he would serve on active duty for three years and then be enrolled in the inactive reserves for five additional years.

Mr. Miyasato reported for active duty on August 16, 1988. He served as a specialist E-4, driving a heavy equipment mobility tactical truck, delivering fuel, ammunition and other materials. He served in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the Gulf War.

He was honorably discharged on August 15, 1991. He then returned to Kauai while he remained in the inactive reserves. His enlistment obligations expired on August 15, 1996.

Suddenly, in late September 2004, the Army issued orders directing Mr. Miyasato to report to a military facility in South Carolina on November 9, 2004, “for no more than 24 months active duty.”

posted by @ 8:52 am | 10 Comments

Wednesday, November 10th, 2004

Hear David Tomorrow, Veteran’s Day

Hey yall, Gulf War vet David Miyasato and his lawyer Eric Seitz will be interviewed tomorrow on Democracy Now!, on at 8am east coast time and re-broadcast across the world during the day. The show will also be archived.

He will also be speaking on Washington DC’s WPFW live at 9:30 am EST.

Thanks again for all your support and well wishes!

posted by @ 1:15 pm | 0 Comments

Monday, November 8th, 2004

OK Damn

First of all, it will take me another week to catch up on all the crazy commentary yall have been dropping. Nice to see everyone is all McCartney and Jackson at the end tho. Except for my man here, dukes up!

Secondly, thanks to everyone with well wishes. Some more background: my cousin David Miyasato enlisted in the army in 1987. You enlist when you’re 18 for a lot of reasons. You do your time like they tell you–3 years through a war to an honorable discharge, 5 more on inactive duty. At that point, by contract, by rules that the Army has established, your obligations are finished.

In the 8 years after that, you start a family, try to provide for them, and then the Army wants to come back at you like they own you. It ain’t right. It’s the exact opposite of what this country is supposed to be about.

David was an ammo-supply driver. If you haven’t been up on it, here’s a taste of what kind of work that is.

But David is not trying to duck difficult, perhaps deadly work–like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and all these other chicken hawks who refused to serve. David is asking to be treated justly and fairly, according to the rules the Army set forth at the beginning. That’s not unpatriotic, it’s the most American thing to do.

Whether or not you agree the war is unjust and wrong, David has done his time.

posted by @ 8:20 pm | 1 Comment

Saturday, November 6th, 2004

F Bush and the Back-Door Draft

Sup people, I’m back from Florida–much much love to my U of F peops and to Carlos and Theresa–but I won’t be blogging that regularly.

Here’s the reason why. (More here.)

I’ve got fam directly being touched by Bush’s back-door draft. Sorry yall, but I just don’t have time to mourn or chill or f around, really. You’ll be hearing more about Iraq, the military, and David’s case from me in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you’ve got fam or friends who are also being called up, please feel free to email me and we can build.

It’s about to be on.

posted by @ 1:52 pm | 6 Comments

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004

This Is It

This is it, yall.

The voting guides you need (no matter what state) are here:

+ League of Pissed Off Voters.

The news you really want is here:

+ Greg Palast, back in Florida and it’s serious this time.

+ Worth mentioning again: Ta-Nehisi, blogging in Jacksonville, Pop and Politics across the country.

+ And yes, these folks, who promise to call the races wrong before everyone else does.

Re: rockism and racism: I admit it, too much shit going on in my life, I can’t keep up with yall! Mad insights all around, please continue the convo.

If yall are in Florida tomorrow like Palast and Coates, please fall through. The info again…

November 3

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL

Kaleidoscope (hosted by the UFl Asian Student Union)

Reitz Union Grand Ballroom (campus map here.)

7pm til I collapse!

Vote and Die Anyway, But Vote.

posted by @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Whatever Happened To The Avant-Garde, Part II: Beyond Rockism vs. Pop-ism

So I’m sure this is the one everyone’s gonna be talking about this week. It’s long overdue, and you couldn’t have wished for anyone else except this dude to have come through to clarify the situation.

Even better, here’s Eric Weisbard’s unbelievably timed review of Elijah Wald’s brilliant book on Robert Johnson and Ned Sublette’s book on Cuba-as-the-mother-of-all-pop-rhythm that suggest deep alternatives to both rockist writing and traditional scholarly approaches to pop. Read the review then run out and get the books.

But the point of this short rant–I can go on, but I don’t have time right now–is to suggest that the rockism vs. pop-ism debate is mad played out. As even my man suggests in his closing lines, “We deserve some new prejudices, too”–no doubt so that he can elegantly skewer them as well, but anyway.

Here’s my mini-statement of purpose. If there’s a hiphopcentric approach to all this, it certainly ought to oppose rockism, but also establish some standards, prejudices, whatever you want to call them–aesthetics. It ought to run the gauntlet between the critical theory line that most pop is bad (the rockists’ debt to Adorno) and the cult-stud line that most pop is good (the antidj-rockists’ debt to the Brits). It ought to make a virtues of both showing-and-proving in front of a community and leading that community somewhere else. Audience affirmation should lead forward not backward.

My own criticism has been moving in two not-yet-contradictory directions. One is towards the global–a stab against what I once called musical unilateralism in some stupid essay long ago (for the record, this year’s model brought tears to many of our eyes, I’m not kidding). Let’s admit, for instance, that the worldviews of rockists and popists often seem utterly ridiculous from other shores. Proof? Start with the brilliant DJ Nuts.

The other is toward a return of the avant-garde. Remember that? Before the post-isms and the bloggerati levelled everything?

I don’t mean only unlistenable stuff you have to study in class. Jazz at Minton’s was avant-garde. Sly Stone and Funkadelic was avant-garde. Hip-hop when it came downtown and went global was avant-garde. They shared a comfort in knowing the ledge.

I’m down for pop that wants to be avant-garde (or like this or this or this) and avant-garde that wants to be pop (or like this or this or this or this).

Rockists are correct to celebrate rebellion and Big Statements, Pop-ists are correct to celebrate pleasure and mass appeal. Pop avantists or Avant-popists, whatever, a new avant-gardism, should want an aesthetics of progressiveness, of standing outside (whether one wants in or not), of risk, of of desiring and creating a better world.

Alright yall, gotta run, mad issues to deal with today…let the convo begin…

And yo, go vote. Your enemies already did.

posted by @ 10:30 am | 22 Comments

Friday, October 29th, 2004

The Hip-Hop Vote

Hey yall, back from down south. Lots to tell but too much to catch up on right now. So here’s a kind of a summary of what I was talking about out there in an article I did on the hip-hop vote. Bonus beats: gettin’ hyphy with the Federation.

More sites on the hip-hop vote:

+ Arianna on “Will Bush Spark A Seismic Youthquake?”

+ The ever-great Pop and Politics and Davey D.

+ The most comprehensive list of pop musician’s GOTV efforts is at Air Traffic Control.

+ The most comprehensive list of hip-hopcentric voter’s guides is at The League of Pissed-Off/Independent/Hip-Hop Voters.

If you’re feeling these sites, support em with your loot. Change ain’t free, yall.

Bonus site: A pro anti-Bush site for conservative anti-conservative bloggers.

UPDATES 10/29

+ Ta-Nehisi Coates is now in Jacksonville, Florida to cover what used to be euphemistically called “voting irregularities in communities of color” and is now called “basic Republican playbook shit”. Check his blog here.

+ DJ Shadow has released an election-season limited-edition something. Can’t divulge any more details. Just go here now.

PLUG

For everyone doing GOTV work, here’s to November 3rd. You’re almost there!

And for the second presidential election in a row, I’ll be in Florida the day after. This time, it’s Gainesville, hosted by the Asian Student Union at the University of Florida for their Kaleidoscope month. I’ll be bleary-eyed but energized and primed, so fall through. Here’s the details:

November 3

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL

Reitz Union Grand Ballroom (campus map here.)

7pm til I collapse!

Holla…

posted by @ 8:04 am | 6 Comments



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