Four months since my last post, what's cookin?
I been sort of recalibrating things, juggling things and making some new discoveries. First I discovered
http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com. If you are into Black sci-fi of any flavor, comic books, super heroes, fantasy, it is a deep and wonderful place.
Then I found
http://www.socialbit.net/home. BIT is Blacks in Technology for all you technology oriented.
I have also had my mind blown a few times. I saw a video of Pharaoh Sanders playing in a tunnel off the acoustics. He out echoed the echos. I saw some recent Pharoah Sanders vids, he is awesome. I have been a John Coltrane guy for years, regarded Pharoah as a second man. He is definitely a first man.
Next, I had a thought that since most, including myself got introduced to African music through drumming, what other instruments are in the forefront. When drums are played the image of wild dancing Africans, native, primitive, really really close to nature. I looked into the kora, it is a string instrument that very well could be the national instrument of Africa. Sort of like the air created by a Spanish guitar, the kora speaks legends. Then the balafon. After seeing the balafon played in a not western music tradition, I found where jazz came from. The last instrument I looked at was the Mbira or kilimba. I call it the African Baby Grand Hand Piano. All you people holding texting devices could switch over to kilimba playing real easy, same posture.
I am thinking that it is time we look at Africa not to mimic but capture the real essence. Sort of like when I bought my first dashiki years ago, it was so flashy. I kept being told this is who we are, flashy, bold, cross-currents of color and pattern. NO. From the day I bought that thing I struggled to find a way to wear it comfortably. Even today what is marketed to us in still in this vein. I don't want special occasion wear, I want everyday wear. There is an everyday Africa that we missed, it has the real culture that exists in day to day living.
On the art front I had to rearrange my PC hardware to get a grip on Blender 3D. Blender 3D is a modeling and animation software, it is free and not as complicated as reported, if you train via video tutorials. You can do simple things very quickly but because there is so much you can do, and so much to understand, it takes lots of time. Why don't I use what? You see this is the creative bent. I am a Linux person and want to use open source software to do my art. This means GIMP for photos and raster drawing, Inkscape for vector drawing and Blender 3D for modeling etc. It is anti the professional/commercial route but the cost is near zero. The only thing I paid for so far was blank CDs.
Posted By: Arnold Johnson
Tuesday, April 20th 2010 at 8:14AM
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