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Brides At Pride

dangonzales — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:43:01 +0000

James Roy was kind enough to invite me to be an extra in his pride performance on Sunday -- I was one of the anti-gay protesters holding picket signs at the back of the stage during "Rise Above."

Of all the crazy things that happened over the weekend what blew me away the most was the overwhelming response of the crowd when during that same song, "Rise Above," two brides come out on stage, kissed and threw a bouquet. I'd been backstage while the Demented Divas and Calpernia Adams were performing and didn't hear anything that even compared to the excitement James Roy's two brides generated.

But I gotta tell you something -- they're straight.

Yep.

Turns out James had asked a number of his lesbian friends to play those roles and they all refused so alas he had to offer the parts to two straight girls.

Photo courtesy of James Roy.

SLEEP – Jerusalem

mimhe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:08:39 +0000

(1999, Music Cartel/Rise Above)

Questo non è un semplice disco, ma un supplizio. Come Sisifo, dopo aver osato sfidare gli dei, venne condannato a spingere dalle pendici alla cima di un monte un enorme masso che perpetuamente ricadeva a valle, così qualsiasi esser vivente si imbatta nella prima nota di “Jerusalem” non se ne libererà mai più, rimanendo inerme dinanzi all'inesorabile e ciclico ricadere e rotolare dei suoi lisergici e continuativi riff. Siamo al cospetto di uno dei capolavori assoluti dello stoner-doom, nonché uno dei suoi più importanti giri di boa. Un album polveroso e psichedelico che solo le folli menti di tre musicisti, rinchiusi in uno studio con quantità spropositate di marijuana nel bel mezzo degli anni ’90, potevano produrre; il lavoro in questione affonda le sue origini nei primordi del rock riecheggiando i fasti di Ozzy ed i suoi figliocci e perdendosi nelle aride ed assetate visioni dei deserti californiani. Come per tutti i capolavori la gestazione dell’opera massima di questo trio americano non è stata affatto semplice, infatti il disco venne alla luce dopo lo scioglimento della band e fu pubblicato sotto forma di bootleg da un loro amico (l’etichetta che doveva produrre l’originario full length “Dopesmoker” si rifiutò).

Da allora tutto è cambiato, centinaia di musicisti di tutto il mondo hanno cercato di emulare Pike e soci, i dischi degli Sleep hanno devastato miriadi di coni, impianti di riproduzioni e timpani, ed i loro progetti successivi (High On Fire ed Om) si sono inseriti prepotentemente nell’olimpo del rock estremo odierno. Jerusalem è storia!

Tracklist:
1. Jerusalem

Attitude Check

justthinkingchildrensministry — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:04:46 +0000

Still I Rise - Yolanda Adams

And of course there's more than one way to express this message - poetry works too.

STILL I RISE - Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

~ Maya Angelo ~

After yet another difficult weekend I woke up this morning and was reminded of the words of the poem written above. Certainly it was written with the backdrop of a painful history, but the words are still applicable today and I am encouraged by the words written by one of America's great African American Poets. In life, I understand that pain is probably, but rising can also be our reality!

Dirty Projectors - Rise Above - 15th October 2007

pursehouse — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:26:44 +0000

Music. It’s all been done hasn’t it? All genres covered? All styles exploited? All concepts concepted? Evidently not as David Longstreth, the man behind Dirty Projectors, gives us ‘Rise Above’; an album that all encompasses every definition of the word niche there has ever been. See, what David has done is made a cover album… from memory. He’s taken the ‘seminal’ (according to the press release that is) Black Flag album ‘Damaged’ from 1981 and re done it as he remembers it. Baring in mind he hasn’t heard this album since his adolescence the result is weirdly brilliant. It goes from being pleasant, to rather good, to horrifically abrasive; sometimes all in the same track, but it does leave you wanting to listen on just to find out where the hell the record is going next. I suppose you could call this ‘musical art’ if there is such a thing. He’s basically made a selfish album that is only going to be bought by those who either knew the original or by those who appreciate things a bit left of centre now and again. So there you go, if you fall into one of those two categories then go try it out! If you like Radio One and Hard-Fi however then please avoid it like the plague. It’ll just confuse you.

3/5