Thursday, July 08, 2004
Rockin' around the world dept.
As Censorship Weakens, Kenyan Youth Culture Takes Off
(Hip-hop, sheng, and why some kids will continue on talking about things)
Meanwhile, across the world and just stepping out of the archives, an oldie is reconsidered:
Ed Cray's biography on Woody Guthrie deserves another look and listen
"As Cray reflected recently on his just-published biography, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, he said he came to realize that he had something else going for him that perhaps previous biographers didn't.
'I was part of what Arlo - Woody's son - calls that great folk music scare of the 1950s,' quips Cray, a diminutive, whispy-haired man of 72."
(subscription may be required)
About biography, Washington Post's David Maraniss recently looked at The Places Beyond A Biographer's Reach
"A skilled biographer, acknowledging the limitations of his craft, once noted that nine-tenths of a human life remains essentially unknowable to an outsider. It is uncharted land, hidden from view, experienced only in the mind of the individual. The truth of that statement is apparent enough when you think about your own daily existence and all the things that run through your consciousness that you never tell anyone, not even those closest to you."
Storyhunters go gaga after a taste of Paste. "Finally a music magazine that is (gasp) about music and sometimes written by (ohmigod) musicians. Paste is a bi-monthly music magazine that seeks to distribute 'signs of life in music in culture' to its readership."
(But about those music reviews ... "One thing about the music reviews; most of them are like legible blowjobs. Instead of the reviewers acting like groupies they should throw in some criticism in their criticizing.")
¶ 7/08/2004 04:30:00 AM
As Censorship Weakens, Kenyan Youth Culture Takes Off
(Hip-hop, sheng, and why some kids will continue on talking about things)
Meanwhile, across the world and just stepping out of the archives, an oldie is reconsidered:
Ed Cray's biography on Woody Guthrie deserves another look and listen
"As Cray reflected recently on his just-published biography, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, he said he came to realize that he had something else going for him that perhaps previous biographers didn't.
'I was part of what Arlo - Woody's son - calls that great folk music scare of the 1950s,' quips Cray, a diminutive, whispy-haired man of 72."
(subscription may be required)
About biography, Washington Post's David Maraniss recently looked at The Places Beyond A Biographer's Reach
"A skilled biographer, acknowledging the limitations of his craft, once noted that nine-tenths of a human life remains essentially unknowable to an outsider. It is uncharted land, hidden from view, experienced only in the mind of the individual. The truth of that statement is apparent enough when you think about your own daily existence and all the things that run through your consciousness that you never tell anyone, not even those closest to you."
Storyhunters go gaga after a taste of Paste. "Finally a music magazine that is (gasp) about music and sometimes written by (ohmigod) musicians. Paste is a bi-monthly music magazine that seeks to distribute 'signs of life in music in culture' to its readership."
(But about those music reviews ... "One thing about the music reviews; most of them are like legible blowjobs. Instead of the reviewers acting like groupies they should throw in some criticism in their criticizing.")
¶ 7/08/2004 04:30:00 AM
