Update

Mmmm last few weeks I've been busy I suppose for the best. I've been doing a lot of introspection on changes and relationships. I'm sure more to follow later on that....

There were a few protests - hopefully I'll get around to getting the photos up here eventually.

I wanted to make a few notes about some performance pieces/spaces that I saw lately.

First I saw a donation based community theater type non-profit hella liberal/progressive punk-rock group of mostly middle to upper class affluent community "puppet" performance. I was mostly given that introduction to the work of Puppet Underground self-defined as: "[Puppet Underground is] a new puppeteer's collective in DC whose members are committed to working for social justice and long-term sustainable change." That's cool and all in theory, but let's get real here. The space was at a church which was interesting and there were a lot of info on different arts, events, protests, etc which was really cool and got me really excited about the performance. However, this was a pretty bad performance it tried very hard to be super creative, low budget to a point of just straight failure. The group had decent singing/opera/music however there were no puppets involved in my book - simply cut out shapes behind paper and moving behind them doesn't cut it. I suppose technically anything can be a puppet - and anything can be viewed as "working for social justice and long-term sustainable change..." But how can these essential aspects of their very mission statement be completely ignored in their performances....?

If we are going to do something towards a goal we must dedicate ourselves to discussing these matters at hand. I have no idea how the song Mack the knife is supposed to convey that at all.

In a better example - and granted with a lot more influence, money, history, etc. The Kennedy Center is amazing. I randomly was flipping through a free newspaper called the express that was left while I was riding on the metro. To my pleasant surprise there was a plethora of different events and performances listed. One of the larger ads was for the Kennedy Center's free performances. Yes, they have been offering free performances for the last 12 years in fact. Right in the heart of DC with a free shuttle service to a nearby metro station leaving 8am-midnight daily this is a very accessible, incredible thing that we need to see more of. They offer these free performances daily to a packed crowd of about 200 people nightly. Performances start out at 6pm and run for about an hour and then you can meet and greet with the performers afterwards - get them to sign CDs, etc. It's great! Aretha Franklin performed there last month - I REALLY wish I had known and it was better advertised. Oh well, it's mostly musical performances from throughout the world of every genre from roots, rock, reggae, to jazz, blues, soul, country, bluesgrass, funk, hip-hop, you name it. Not only that if you miss a performance or are located outside of the DC metro area every performance is recorded nightly and put up on their website and kept archived for your viewing pleasure. How cool is that?

Their motto is "Performing Arts for everyone." That's so dope.

Anyways, I'm pretty upset that Johannes Mehserle, the cop involved with Oscar Grant shooting, made bail... If this isn't a call to action - I wonder what it takes these days?

Here's some details on the whole thing.

There is an action scheduled to take place today - perhaps there will be more news to follow and hopefully positive news that doesn't break into angry, violent riots.

How does a bail set at 3 million dollars get reduced to $3ook for flight risk? The American justice system never ceases to amaze me. I am not asking for revenge - no eye for an eye but some sort of institutional change should come from this. Some notice, something more than police firing tear gas and projectiles into seas of protesters while 9 more are tackled and arrested for "failing to disperse".

Time shall tell.

Twitter Twitter, more updates KCBS local news reports that it was a mistake and that Mehserle did not actually make bail, nor was he released from jail. Even at the reduced rate of $300,000 it felt weird and unlikely that it could have been fundraised in such a short period of time...

Quick Palestine update:

On January 18th Israel announced its ceasefire yet again, we can only pray that this time it lasts for a more extended period of time. A look at the tolls since December show over 1300 dead and over 50,000 homeless. Here's something interesting - Israel reported that the reason why they ended their ceasefire was only to prevent distracting news stories from getting in the way of honoring president Obama's inauguration. Now - anytime for a ceasefire is greatly appreciated by me, however if that is the main driving force for the ceasefire - then it just makes you wonder how long it will last before they feel that it's been an appropriate time to honor the latest inauguration and presidency of Obama before it returns to the same. President Obama has yet to issue any statement or comment that he will be progressively changing the situation - however to his credit he's been in office barely a week and there must be a lot to do to work out the kinks of the transition.

Check it out more info here

No justice, no peace...

One more thing - public libraries ROCK. There is so much community attached to them and access to knowledge. I have never really taken advantage of libraries as much as I probably should - it's a real shame but living literally across the street has forced me to. Free internet access - study materials - chess club - book club - you name it.

Anyways, I randomly picked up a weird book that sounded interesting called - Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands: Latin America written by Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conaway. A lot of the stuff they mention is kinda weird but pretty practical for Americans with no knowledge of Latin America and even for people familiar with one country and oblivious to the next. It's a pretty good intro to several countries - I only briefly flipped through Argentina...

But anyways there were some really dope quotes in there that I found inspiring:

1)"Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit" - Goethe for "There is nothing more terrible than ignorance in action" AIN'T DAT THE TRUTH!?!?!?

2) "Audi Alteram Partem" - Hear the other side

3) "Quién a uno castiga, a ciento hostiga" Spanish proverb - He who chastens one, harasses a hundred.

I got kicked off the library computer at this time... I'll finish this later.

EDIT::

Totally random - It's really hard to transcribe Cuban interviews about inner city baseball leagues and then translate it to English - the whole process humbles me and reminds me to show the utmost respect for anyone attempting to learn a new dialect or language. Or dealing with translations in general and how much is simply lost in translation... When one word in one language can mean multiple words in another.

Back to the Bay

I'm confused by this Firstoff, this is pretty nearby where I spend hella time and it sounds like it was just some innocent guy going home - perhaps from some "some punk that I roughed up way back" who knows...? While we do have a black president - there's still war in the streets and in the Middle East... lots of work still left to do. I don't know whether I should be sad that there are already 3 homicides this year in Oakland alone barely a month in - or happy because that's down from 8 around this time last year? I guess it's bittersweet - whenever there is death is bound to be painful and sorrowful but we have to find a way to keep the hope and faith that tomorrow brings brighter days.