Girl meets boy, girl nearly ruins boy’s life, girl forces boy to move to another state then secures her position as his business partner. Sound like a typical Hollywood movie trope? Well it is, but with a twist. You see this is what happened to me. My name is Demetrius Williams. I live in a small town in Mississippi. The town has a Piggly Wiggly, a small club with good music, a few Indian-owned motels (no, not those Indians, they’re from India– the country), a liquor store and my carpet cleaning business. Actually I should say it had my carpet cleaning business. You see I’m the boy who’s life was upturned by the girl. The girl’s name is Mina.

Mina was born to an Indian family living in Africa. They were forced to leave their prosperous life in Africa when she was a child, by the country’s ruler Idi Amin. Blaming the country’s problems on the Asians who settled in Africa, Amin expelled all people of Asian decent in 1972. Her family moved to our town where her parents started there new lives and now own and run the liquor store. Apparently they didn’t train their daughter to drive a vehicle very well… no that’s not fair to them– Mina was too rebellious to drive as she was taught. Evidenced by the day we met; she drove a borrowed Cadillac into the back of my van. I thought she was cute, gave her my business card with my contact information for her insurance company, and didn’t think much about it for a while. Before I knew it she’s part of my life. I invited her to my grandfathers birthday party for a meal and to meet my friends and family, who all loved her.

I wanted to get out of town for the weekend, and invited Mina to come along. Hey, I did say she was cute and she was really interested in me. Anyway, the trip turned into a disaster ending with me getting locked up until my brother Tyrone could bail me out the next day. It turned out she lied to her parents about where she was going and with whom. Then some family friends recognized my van, tracked us down and the rest is history. The whole thing was a misunderstanding, but nobody wanted to hear it. News gets around quickly in a small town, and I lost enough clients as a result of the infamous Mina incident that I couldn’t make the loan payments on my business. The bank refused to work with me and gave me a two-week warning before repossessing my van and equipment.

Then the worst thing happened– Mina returned.

While I was out recruiting new clients, trying to rebuild my business and reputation, Mina hunts me down in the same car she ran into my van. Leaving the borrowed Caddy in a liquor store parking lot, she convinced me to skip town in the van and to try making a go of it out of state. She sweet talked her way into my business; “I love you Demetrius…” Man, what a sap I’ve been. Here I am in jail agin thanks to Mina. The car was reported stolen, and to remain in her family’s good graces Mina claimed she was kidnaped. The bank repossessed my van and equipment and pressed grand larceny charges against me.

Girl meets boy, girl nearly ruins boy’s life, girl convinces boy to move to another state and this time succeeds in destroying his life.

Tyrone tells me I should sell my story to Mira Nair, one of his new friends in Hollywood. If I do, they will probably change the story to favor Mina…

 

On several occasions Nao refers to trees as Time Beings. Ruth lives in Canada and mentions spruce trees. Playing with the idea that a tree– in this case a spruce– here is a look at how a tree can be a Time Being.

To put the reading into the context of my blog—guitars are made from trees—and not just any trees; many are built from those found in old-growth forests, 350 – 400-years old. These trees have survived storms, fires, droughts, wars, and humans… for hundreds of years. Some of these Time Beings have continued their lives as musical instruments capable of healing people, crossing political and cultural barriers, and creating social change; they have become guitars.

Consider this; that Sitka Spruce top on your favorite acoustic guitar, or the mahogany neck and back on your new electric is from a tree roughly 400 years old. What significant events have those trees lived through during that time? To put this into context, subtract 400 years from 2013 and our Sitka Spruce timeline begins in the year 1613:

1613
- Galileo observes Neptune but fails to recognize what he sees
- Russian Empire elects Mikhail Romanov Tsar of Russia, and establishes the Romanov Dynasty, ending the Time of Troubles
1623- 11 Dutch Ships depart for the conquest of Peru
1633- Astronomer Galileo arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that Earth revolves around the Sun
- Charter for Maryland is given to Lord Cecil Baltimore
1643- First recorded tornado in US (Essex County, Mass)
- Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Harbor form United Colonies of New England
1653- New Amsterdam becomes a city (later renamed New York City)
- German Parliament selects Ferdinand II king of Austria

1663- Great earthquake in New England
- King Charles II of England grants a charter to Rhode Island
1673- Regular mail delivery begins between NY & Boston
- Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands surrender of NYC
1683- First settlers from Germany to US, leave aboard Concord/ 13 Mennonite families found Germantown PA.
- Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna— the Ottoman Empire defeated
1693- Dom Perignon invents Champagne
- NYC authorizes 1^st police uniforms in American colonies
1703- St Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Peter the Great
- Great storm hits Southern England, 1000s killed, Royal Navy losses 13 ships & 1500 seamen
- Tokyo Earthquake; about 37,000 die

1713
- French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada
- King Frederik Willem declares war on Brandenburg-Prussia
1723- After a lasting siege and bombardment by cannons, Baku surrenders to the Russians
1733- Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
- Joseph Priestly invents carbonated water (seltzer)
- France declares war on emperor Charles VI
1743- Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth
- Coordinated scientific observations of the transit of Mercury were organized by Joseph Nicolas Delisle 
1753- 1^st official St Patrick’s Day
- English parliament grants Jewish English citizenship
- George Washington becomes a master mason
- 1^st steam engine arrives in US colonies

1763- Treaty of Paris ends French-Indian War, surrendering Canada to England
- Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon begin surveying Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania & Maryland
1773- Big tea party in Boston harbor (Boston Tea Party) 
- Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
1776 - US congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Britain
1783
- Hostilities cease in Revolutionary War/Treaty of Paris signed ending the war
- Earthquake in Calabria, Italy kills 50,000
- W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No.36 is premiered in Linz, Austria
1793- 1^st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
- Volcano Unsen on Japan erupts killing about 53,000

1803- Ohio becomes 17^th state / US Senate ratifies Louisiana Purchase
- 1^st performance of Beethoven’s 2^nd Symphony in D
1813 – 1^st pineapples planted in Hawaii
- Battle of Thames in Canada; Americans defeat British
- Battle of Dresden-Napoleon defeats Austrians
1823– R.J. Tylers patents roller skates
- “Home Sweet Home” 1^st sung 
1833– Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands
- Boston Academy of Music, 1^st US music school established
1843– Mt Rainier in Washington State erupts
- “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens published; 6,000 copies sold

1853– Transcontinental railroad survey is authorized by Congress
- Olympia forms as capital of Washington Territory
1863- US Civil War continues 
- Emancipation Proclamation (ending slavery) issued by Lincoln
- 1^st military draft by US (exemptions cost $100)
1873- 1^st US postal card issued
- Indian Wars: Col Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux. Only one man per side is killed.
- San Francisco Cable Car service begins on Clay Street 
1883- Buffalo Bill Cody’s 1^st Wild West show premieres in Omaha
- Brooklyn Bridge opened by Pres Arthur & gob Cleveland
- US Supreme Court decides Native Americans can’t be Americans
1893- Gandhi’s first act of civil disobedience
- 3^rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 (Mississippi)
- Great stock crash on NY stock exchange
- Tchaikovsky conducted 1^st performance of “Symphony Number Six in B minor

1903- Pres T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
- Two New Yorkers buy Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and moved it to New York
- New bicycle race “Tour de France” announced
1913- British House of Commons accepts Home-Rule for Ireland
- Brooklyn Dodger’s Ebbets Field opens
- The US introduces an income tax
1918 - World War 1 ends/ Armistice Day (11am on the Western Front)
1923– Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established
- 1^st “Reichs Party” the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) forms in Munich 
1933– Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins
- “Lone Ranger begins a 21-year run on ABC radio
- Adolph Hitler named German Chancellor

1943- Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- Hitler declares “Total War”
- 1^st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught
- 1^st US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshaven) 
1953- 9 “Jewish” physicians arrested for “terrorist activities” in Moscow
- Flooding in Netherlands, kills 1,835
- Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later
- North Korea & UN sign armistice
1963- CIA Domestic Operations Division created (pretty scary!)
- USSR launches Luna 4; missed Moon by 8,500 km
- Beatles meet Rolling Stones for 1^st time
1973

- President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law
- OPEC oil embargo begins
1983- Wayne Gretzky sets NHL all star record of 4 goals in 1 period
- Final episode of M*A*S*H airs; record 125 million watch

1993- Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales dept after 97-years
- Gun battle erupts at Waco Texas between FBI & Branch Dravidians
2003- Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on Re-entry
- The US Department of Homeland Security officially begins operations
2013- Canadian power-trio Rush finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

2014 Ruth Ozeki “A Talke For the Time Being” is reviewed by Passion Bass-ics

“And it occurred to me that a tree is a Time Being…” ~Nao (p24)

“On all sides, massive Douglas firs, red cedars, and big leaf maples surround them, dwarfing everything human. When Ruth first saw these giant trees, she wept. They rose up around her, ancient time beings, towering a hundred or two hundred feet overhead. At five feet, five inches, she had never felt so puny in all her life.” (p59)

 

 

My final musings on Kato are going to be in the form of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do; a form of kung fu that is free of any specific form. Lets see how creative I can get with this entry as I attempt to take advantage of that which the blogging format provides… (for this to work properly, view on my main page– Passion Bass-ics, then be sure to watch the videos & links).

“It’s never just a song.”

Strange Fruit: Billie Holliday (performance ’59?)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Strange Fruit: Beth Hart & J. Bonamassa

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Strange Fruit” is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States. Meeropol set it to music and with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues, including Madison Square Garden” (Wiki).

Authenticity was a subject that came up in our seminar group when discussing the final chapter of From Kung Fu to Hip Hop. The main comparison was between “white” and African-American hip hop artists. One assertion was that the white artist can’t possible understand the struggle– and therefore convey through music how it feels to be oppressed.

Razia Khan: Remember one thing, son. There are only two kinds of people in this world. Good people who do good deeds. And bad people who do bad. That’s the only difference in human beings. There’s no other difference. Understood? What did you understand? Tell me. Tell me
Rizwan Khan: Good people. Bad people. No other difference.

Consider this quote M. T. Kato provides from jazz great, John Coltrane;

“Well, I think music, being an expression of the human heart, or of the human being itself, does express just what is happening. I feel it expresses the whole thing– the whole of human experience at the particular time that it is being expressed” (p5).

Oppression is color blind. It is indifferent to a persons sexual identity. It is immune to the social construct of race. It is simply a tool of its master– whomever that human may be.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Us and Them
And after all we’re only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it’s not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
And the General sat, as the lines on the map
moved from side to side
Black and Blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and Down
And in the end it’s only round and round and round
Haven’t you heard it’s a battle of words
the poster bearer cried
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There’s room for you inside
Down and Out
It can’t be helped but there’s a lot of it about
With, without
And who’ll deny that’s what the fightings all about
Get out of the way, it’s a busy day
And I’ve got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died

“Too many of us let someone else have control of what we should have control of. Expression of Self” (p171)
~Vulcan

“Both Jeet Kune Do & hip hop culture, creativity arises from autonomy of self expression… Quality transcends institutional boundaries” (p177)”The degrees of … transformation can only be limited if one so chooses to limit it” (192)

“To express yourself in freedom, you must die to everything of yesterday. Fom “old you derive security. From the ‘new’ you gain the flow” Bruce Lee (p194)

 ”Creativity in art is the psychic unfolding of the personality, which is rooted in nothing. Its effect is a deepening of the personal dimension of the soul” ~Bruce Lee (p199)

 

 

Hello.

My name is Oliver.

I am married to the person so many know and love– Ruth. As you are by now fully aware, she is an author. Of course she prefers the term novelist even though her writing lately has been anything but novel. That is until Ruth recently found a kids lunch box containing a bundle of letters, and a journal once belonging to a troubled Japanese teenage girl.

Anyway, we were talking about the box of treasures recently and the topic of “Jap Ranch” (a local beach) came up again. I am not allowed to say Jap Ranch because of my German heritage. Ruth is half Japanese, and her mother spent time in an internment camp during WWII.  As such, she feels a special kinship to that particular plot of land which once belonged to a Japanese family who themselves were interned in a camp for a time being.

To get her wound-up I tell her it is not fair– that I should be able to use the term as she does. This works like a charm. It never fails because she is reminded that she– rather, her people– were not the only ones who suffered unjust wrath during the war. She knows that my family lived in Stuttgart Germany when America and Great Britain firebombed our city. “Yes, yes– I know” she says rolling her eyes, “one barrage continued for three straight days in 1942, which was followed by several other Allied air assaults until the war in Europe ended in 1945.” We both agree that these exchanges of historical facts are useful reminders. As Ruth is fond of saying, “it is important not to let New Age correctness erase the history of the island.”

In the end, I believe the difference between the two perspectives boils down to place. For the time being we are at our home in British Columbia talking about Allied oppression of Japanese-Canadians. The discussion would likely be much different if we were having the discussion living in Germany. Her complaints would hold less tangible relevance in the land of my ancestors even though historically they are both significant. The place– where the conversation is happening– is the difference.

So there you have it. My postulations on being by-products of the mid-twentieth century.

I hope you enjoyed it~

Sincerely,

~Oliver

 

Autonomy
- (of a country or region) The right or condition of self-government, especially in a particular sphere.
- Freedom from external control or influence.
- (in Kantian moral philosophy) the capacity of an agent to act in accordance with objective morality rather than under the influence of desires

Aesthetic
- Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty
- A set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement

The above terms are familiar to most of us, but in reading Kato I’ve found it useful to revisit the definitions. Doing so gave me a renewed perspective. For instance, Autonomy is the lens through which Enter the Dragon is critically reexamined (p114). Think of the Greek origins of Autonomy, then consider the background of Enter the Dragon:

Autos (self)
Nomos (law)

 Kayto describes how the Hong Kong crew was treated subserviently during the making of Enter the Dragon, and the allegory for colonial antagonism antagonism toward the transnational power that was the Hollywood production crew. “Self-law” would have been the last term used by the Hong Kong crew to describe their treatment.

One form of subversion used by the Hong Kong crew was the fact most could understand English, but kept this fact from the Hollywood producers– who couldn’t speak any Chinese– and relied on an interpreter who refused to tip the hand of the Hong Kong workers.

It has been many years since I’ve seen the film “Enter the Dragon.” In fact I just learned that it was not even included in my 5-Disc Masters Collectors Edition (?!). Now, after watching Enter the Dragon, There were many things that caught my attention in the context of Kato’s writing, but none as much as the aesthetics of the film.

The first thing is how much it feels like a James Bond film. Everything from the music, to the storyline and even the props– all feel like they just finished filming 007, and Enter the Dragon was next on the set.

Take the plot line for example; if this was a typical kung fu movie Bruce Lee would be setting off to Han’s island to avenge the death of his sister– a revenge film. In this Western adaptation however, a British official sends Lee to Han’s island because he knows that Han is up to no good– he just can’t prove it– that’s Lee’s job. Lee doesn’t learn of his sister’s death until after he’s accepted the mission for Britain. So is he on an undercover secret mission for Britain, or is he seeking revenge for the death of his sister? Granted, this confusion is somewhat reconciled when Lee confronts Han just before the climatic battle and he says, “You have offended my family and you have offended the Shaolin Temple.” Kato would probably say this is an example of the transnational colonization of the kung fu culture. The only thing that keeps the movie together is Lee’s performance. Just like he instructs his student at the beginning of the film, Lee puts all of his “emotional content” into the film. I can hear Kato saying that’s Bruce Lee liberating the genre from the colonization of Western globalization.

The aesthetics of the film are therefore both obvious, and hidden. The obvious of course is in the kung fu battles, the outdoor setting and actors. The less obvious is Bruce Lee’s performance adhering to the second definition of aesthetics; “A set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement.”
In the end, it was an entertaining film and the book provided more information about it than I could fully appreciate in one reading. A situation that could benefit from Lee’s advice to his student; “Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory!

 

“Razia Khan: Remember one thing, son. There are only two kinds of people in this world. Good people who do good deeds. And bad people who do bad. That’s the only difference in human beings. There’s no other difference. Understood? What did you understand? Tell me. Tell me

Rizwan Khan: Good people. Bad people. No other difference.”

Were the scenes in Wilhelmina GA important to the film?

Yes.

I think it was a subtle way of addressing the misrepresentation of the Christian/Muslim aspect which is part of the 9-11 story. For instance, this scene presents the stereotypical view many have of Christians in America:

Fund Raiser Receptionist: For dinner with the president is $500 you know?
Rizwan Khan: That’s… that’s $500
Fund Raiser Receptionist: What church are you from?
Rizwan Khan: Church? Church?
Fund Raiser Receptionist: This is a Christian’s only event.
Rizwan Khan: But… but it says it’s a fund raiser for the draught in Africa.
Fund Raiser Receptionist: For Christian’s honey.
[Giving the money back]
Rizwan Khan: Honey, honey keep it. For those who are not Christian in Africa.

As is the rule with stereotypes, there is a measure of truth depicted in this scene. Many people who consider themselves Christian behave in very un-Christian ways. The director could have left it there, earned a laugh and moved viewers moved on with validation of a perspective. But they didn’t…

Complementing the Christian stereotype, is a stereotype of Muslims in the US. The director did this through a scene where several upset Muslims are gathered in a Mosque and being roused by their leader to take blood for blood in the name of Allah.

The two stereotypes are reconciled through the Wilhelmina GA scenes– most of which take place in a Christian church. Mamma Jenny and the community accept Rizu despite his different religious beliefs. In later scenes Rizu– a Muslim– is the one who comes to help his Christian friends in GA and inspires others to help. This inspires other communities to give their time (rather than money) to help rebuild communities. Christians and Muslims coming together to rebuild communities.

“Good people. Bad people. No other difference”
~Rizwan Khan