Ok so this is not really related to Wo! business but it will interest die-hard Dylan fans out there.
A symposium for Dylan obsessives has convened for a fan meeting in America.
Except these are no ordinary obsessives but groups of scholars and academics (or Dylanologists as they call themselves), including dons of Oxford and Harvard, who are meeting to rapturously gush on the poetry, romance and beauty of Dylan’s stunning body of work.
On Tuesday, a whole crowd of them wrapped up a four-day symposium, billed as the largest ever of its kind, at the University of Minnesota in the state where Dylan was born.”Dylan has entered my day job,” said Richard Thomas, a professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University who lectured on Dylan’s similarity to ancient epic poets like Ovid and Virgil.
“I’ve come to see him as someone as worthy as the great poets on whom I’ve been fortunate enough to work.”
The article goes on to muse on the Dylan’s reaction to his analysts:
And what does the cryptic singer think of this kind of attention?
Well, he once famously derided Dylanologists who “dissect my songs like rabbits.”
But that is not likely to stop the dissecting.
Take British literary critic Christopher Ricks, a 73-year-old professor of poetry at Oxford University who in 2003 published Dylan’s Visions of Sin, a 500-page examination of biblical themes in Dylan’s music.
“I should think people need to explain themselves if they’re not intrigued, enthralled and obsessed with Dylan,” Hicks said during a lecture at the symposium.
“Those of us who are, we don’t have any explaining to do.”
Vindication at last!
discovered a gorgeous band “Outlandish”- an amazing Danish band with beautiful songs that will make you shiver. This stuff confirms my belief in Pain and dislocation as the crucible for Art and Beauty.
The band form a web of complex identities, two of them - Danish-Moroccan Sam Bachiri Azouaoui and Danish-Pakistani Waqas Ali Qadri are both devout muslims and the third Lenny Martinez from Honduras is a strict Catholic. The combination is an explosive synergy of rap, desi punk, arab melody and latin-spanish sounds.
My favourite:
“Fatima’s Hand”
Fatima is 21
And around here - when your 21
u gotta start thinking about getting a man
getting a son - getting it done
just like her mom when she was 21
but even though Fatima’s not ready for it
she not gonna say some
she feels she gotta do this for the parents
cuz they’ve been on her for the last 5 years
a lotta men from motherland
came up here hoping she say yeah
but she ain’t down
wants somebody that can make her feel alive
chill every time she wanna cry
the one in a million type of guy
but her mom keeps telling her
“compromise, this ain’t no fairy tale my child
do not waste your time
u’ll regret u didn’t say yes to this guy”
everyday is the same
like a battlefield
she gets the blame
bringing shame on the family name
just cuz the streets be babbling
like a Bedouin in a dessert storm
she lays low from all their songs
try to make’em understand
but it’s like talking to the wall
her desire’s burning to change her ill state
it’s strange - for the first time
in a long time - she sees the light in the end
Continue reading ‘I have just…’
Three NY High School students ignored directives from their teachers to not read excerpts from The Vagina Monologues at an open mic night. They were then suspended for daring to utter the V word. One of the students, Elan Stahl said:
“Our aim was not to get in trouble. We want to put the word (vagina) out there and make people comfortable with using it.
“If they can just admit that the word vagina shouldn’t have been censored because it’s not lewd or obscene … then that apology would be gladly accepted,” she said.
Congrats to these girls for being so switched on.
Still, how depressing that vagina is a word that people find offensive. I suppose if they’d changed it to ‘pussy’ or ‘hoo-ha’. It would have been alright *sigh*.
Published by Sarah at March 4, 2007
in Iraq, Politics, Saddam Hussein, World, death, imperialism, law, struggle, violence, war and women in power.
A brilliant documentary (Part One, Part Two) aired on the American Al-Jazeera channel today called “Everywomen”- an account of Iraqi women’s experiences under occupation.
Four brave Iraqi women talk about their experiences in Baghdad and the daily struggles to survive, take care of their families and work as the world around them descends into civil warfare, sectarian violence and chaos.
They are not without humour- the most compelling interviewee Iraqi television journalist Amna Frayeh amusingly reflects on the normalisation of her insane daily reality.
“I wonder what the French talk about. We talk of explosions and car bombs. I expect they have nothing to say and that’s why they are such quiet people.”
Continue reading ‘“Our Nights are Nightmares”’
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