This Woman's Work

What an incredible dance performance the other night, on SYTYCD, to the song This Womans Work.

"This Woman's Work" is a song written and performed by the British singer Kate Bush. It was originally featured on the soundtrack of the American film She's Having a Baby (1988). The song was released as the second single from her album The Sensual World in 1989 and peaked at 25 in the UK singles chart (From Wikipedia)

Like "She's Having A Baby", the movie for which the song was written, the lyrics are about being forced to suddenly confront reality and adulthood in times of crisis. Director John Hughes uses the song during the film's dramatic climax, when Jake (Kevin Bacon) learns that the lives of his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and their unborn child are in danger. As the song plays, we see a montage sequence of flashbacks showing the couple in happier times, intercut with shots of him waiting for news of Elizabeth and their baby's condition.
The version of the song that was featured on The Sensual World was re-edited from the original version featured on the film soundtrack.

The song was featured on the Felicity soundtrack, and has been used at key moments in episodes of Alias, Party of Five, Crossing Jordan, 7th Heaven and Without a Trace. It was used to promote the season opener of the 2007-2008 season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Since 2006 the song has featured on two long-running TV adverts for the British charity the NSPCC. The 2007 Special Christmas edition of the Ricky Gervais comedy series Extras, which aired 16 December in the US on HBO and 27 December on BBC One in the UK, featured two scenes using the song as a soundtrack. Due to the songs inclusion in Extras, the song entered the UK chart once again in January 2008. In June 2008, the song was played at the beginning and end of an Emmerdale episode featuring a custody battle between two sets of parents.

In 1997, American R&B musician Maxwell covered the song for the release of his album MTV Unplugged. The artist later re-recorded the song in studio for his album Now (2001). This version of the song was released as the album's second single in 2001 and peaked in the US Billboard charts at #58 (Billboard Hot 100) and #16 (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs). This version also appeared in the movie Love & Basketball, but was not included in its soundtrack.

The music video for "This Woman's Work", which was directed by Sanji, begins with pictures of Maxwell and his lover in black-and-white photography. One picture reveals that his lover has died. In the next scene, Maxwell sees his lover in the street and proceeds to confront her, but he falls through the street, and begins to drown. Maxwell then begins to swim across the street, and pulls himself up by holding on to the side walk. He then enters an almost-empty diner, where every one is waiting for a loved one. Throughout the music video, Maxwell sees his lover in practically every direction. The video is noted for its compelling special effects.
[edit]Use in popular culture

In Love and Basketball, the song is played as the main characters realize their true feelings and have sex. In the movie Stomp the Yard (2007), Columbus Short and Meagan Good kiss for the first time, when they decide to go out. Maxwell's version of the song was played in the background. It has been used three times in the US version of So You Think You Can Dance. The first time in an August 2006 episode, when contestant Allison Holker danced her final solo to the song. The second time in a July 2008 episode, when contestant Katee Shean danced her solo to the song. The third time in a July 2009 episode, for a contemporary routine by Tyce Diorio for Melissa Sandvig and Ade Obayomi, depicting a woman's struggle with breast cancer.

Almost In Paperback

September 2666 comes out in paperback which makes it not quite so expensive or heavy to carry and read on public transit.

This is the best book I read last year...it's so good I read all 900 pages again this spring. It's actually one of the best novels I've read in the last five years. Sure...I've already said this here at this blog...but seriously...if you haven't read this novel yet...it's coming out in paperback. Go and get it! All I can say is the feeling of elation and excitement reading this novel has not been equaled except for when I read Cities of The Red Night/The Place of Dead Roads and Blood Meridian.


The audacity of Bolano's fiction, its disregard for convention and even probability, puts me in mind of a remark a friend once made after a jazz concert. I said I thought the keyboard player had really been taking chances, and he said, "No, he wasn't taking chances, he was doing whatever the fuck he wanted." In every sentence he wrote, every image he conceived, every compositional choice he made, Bolano did whatever the fuck he wanted. In his art as in his life, he left a record of headlong daring that will become a rallying point for young writers for years to come. His myriad-minded fiction adumbrates no theory and swears allegiance to no school, embodying instead an unending search for new aesthetic and moral questions. At a time when the novel, at least in this country, has retreated into caution, he demonstrates again what is possible in fiction -- which is to say, anything. His forms are sui generis, there is no emulating them, but his form-making is exemplary. From TNR: "Last Evenings On Earth" by Deresiewicz



Jupiter and Semele by Gustav Moreau. Art is mentioned a lot in this novel and the cover of the book is worth thinking about.

Jupiter and Semele can be interpreted as 'an allegory of regeneration by death', as Ragnar von Holten has described it, because Moreau himself wrote, "Semele, penetrated by the divine effluence, regenerated and purified by this consecration, dies struck by lightning and with her dies the genius of terrestrial love, the genius with the goat hooves'. The symbolical interpretation of 'this birth-death in one', as Malcolm de Chazal calls it, does not have to be taken literally: 'As voluptuousness is the universal crossroads of the senses, the mind, heart and soul, and also a point-state where death and birth meet halfway, where the entire man is intersected within himself, voluptuousness is for this very reason the greatest source of knowledge and the widest field for studying the deep-seated workings of the human being.' On the contrary, there seems to me to be every reason to consider Jupiter and Semele an exceptional gamble to fix through the medium of painting 'the supreme point capable of being reached from which, briefer than a flash, without having to pay it any attention - thus betraying the voluptuousness itself and accepting that it should betray you — you have the chance of apprehending unrevealed aspects of the world."



Some really good notes about the novel:

Part 1, The Part About The Critics

Part Two

New York Times

Garbage Warrior

You have to see Garbage Warrior,/li> it is a really fantastic true story about sustainable living.

Directed by Oliver Hodge...

What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you’re renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of “Earthship Biotecture” by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony. However, these experimental structures that defy state standards create conflict between Reynolds and the authorities, who are backed by big business.

Frustrated by antiquated legislation, Reynolds lobbies for the right to create a sustainable living test site. While politicians hum and ha, Mother Nature strikes, leaving communities devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes. Reynolds and his crew seize the opportunity to lend their pioneering skills to those who need it most. Shot over three years and in four countries, Garbage Warrior is a timely portrait of a determined visionary, a hero of the 21st century.

Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.

Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.

God On TV!!!!!

I was surfing tv late last night and almost fainted when I found Prince on PBS. I couldn't believe it...and had no idea that this interview happened back in April. Luckily I caught the show right when it started and was able to record it...you can watch the whole interview here at PBS

Oh my god...I wannna hang out with Cornel West, Tavis Smiley and Prince!!@!!!!

Prince says he shows Dick Gregory's State Of The Black Union to all his friends when they come over...especially the white folks....so I've included a bit of Dick Gregory here too...

And here are some excerpts kicking around the internet...











Here's a good question. How come a nine year old kid can find a heroin dealer but a cop can't?

AFI Life Achievement Awards-Michael Douglas

I was watching the ceremony celebrating Michael Douglas work in producing (he produced 21 movies including One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) and for acting...and I was surprised when Dylan actually performed at the show. Stagg and I love his hat!

Bob Dylan won an Oscar for the wonderful movie Wonder Boys (a must see) and then I realized...hey the director of Wonder Boys is Curtis Hanson and one of his other movies...8 Mile also won an Oscar for Eminem! Lose Yourself and 8 Mile was the first soundtrack and film to win an Oscar for rap/hip hop.

Hanson had been a fan of Bob Dylan's music since childhood and a great admirer of his soundtrack for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Dylan admired Hanson's previous film, L.A. Confidential and after much convincing, screened 90 minutes of rough footage from Wonder Boys. Hanson picked Dylan because, as he said, "Who knows more about being a Wonder Boy and the trap it can be, about the expectations and the fear of repeating yourself?

In addition to Dylan, Hanson built the score around nine singer-songwriters including Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. The entire soundtrack is integrated into the film with Hanson playing some of the songs for the actors on the Pittsburgh set to convey a scene's "aural texture", as he put it.The soundtrack features several songs by Bob Dylan, including one new composition, "Things Have Changed". Hanson also created a music video for the song, filming new footage of Bob Dylan on the film's various locations and editing it with footage used in Wonder Boys as if Dylan were actually in the film. According to Hanson, "Every song reflects the movie's themes of searching for past promise, future success and a sense of purpose"



I wish Eminem had been at the Oscars to get his award.

Somagh

Sometimes I can just stand and inhale sumac/somagh...the tiny dark red spice made from Sumac or rhus coroaria found in the middle east...a distant cousin to our North American Sumac family. A big difference as Sumac family in North America includes poison ivy and poison oak. But this sour yummy spice is only addictive not dangerous. I'm going to make Stagg some homemade Za'atar with fresh thyme, sea salt and crushed black sesame seeds. YUM! Sumac tastes great sprinkled on chicken, in fatoosh, babaganoosh, eggs, hummus or even use za'aatar mixed with olive oil as a pizza topping. Sumac is believed to lower cholesterol by alternative folk medicine practitioners. Za'atar may also help with mental alertness.

Mikey Died Of Pop Rocks!

I love Urban Legends and I love Snopes.com...use it all the time. It's amazing how many sensible intelligent people believe in the silliest things. Even a couple weeks ago I was talking to my girlfriend in Toronto and a silly concept came up. I said "oh my god, thats as funny as people believing the water goes down the drain differently on either side of the equator." She says..."Oh it does, even ______and his father tested it when they went to Africa" I said, "well then he and his father got ripped off by a con artist"

Well, my poor girlfriend who is usually quite sensible had to have me send her a link from Snopes about the water going down the drain wrongly confusing Coroilis Force.

Urban Legend are often... "bad science" (see previous post)

Here is a cute article about how Snopes got started and how they research...awesomeness!

What began in 1995 as a hobby for a pair of amateur folklorists has grown into one of the Internet's most trusted authorities—and a full-time profession for the Mikkelsons. Each month, 6.2 million people visit Snopes, according to Quantcast, which tracks Internet traffic. The New York Times recently put Snopes on its short list of essentials that every computer user must know about. President Barack Obama's campaign launched a copycat version last fall to battle rumors of its own (for the record, Michelle Obama didn't gorge on room-service caviar and lobster at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel). And even the word Snopes, a name David borrowed from a family in a William Faulkner novel, has gone viral—as in, "Why didn't you Snopes that junk before forwarding it to your entire e-mail list?" Richard Roeper, the movie critic who sidelines as an author of myth-busting books like Debunked!, says, "Snopes is like having your own army of fact-checkers sniffing out a million wacko leads."

An army of two, that is. Snopes's world headquarters is actually just Barbara and David sitting around their modest double-wide on a shady hillside outside Los Angeles. Their two home offices are stacked to the ceiling with their trusty research tools: dictionaries, almanacs, VHS tapes, Disneyana, encyclopedias, atlases, and hundreds of books like UFO's: A Scientific Debate and Organ Theft Legends. Oh, and there are cats: Buster, Sterling, Irene, Ashes, and Memphis. "David and I work at opposite ends of the house," Barbara says, flinging a cat's crinkle toy. "I once attempted to send him a note by sticking a Post-it on the side of one of the cats."

Cat couriers? Sounds like a case for Snopes. Strange rumors about animals are among the website's most popular cases. That widely circulated photograph of Hercules, a 282-pound mastiff with "paws the size of softballs," is one example.

"About a year ago, people started sending us photos from the Internet of a freakishly large dog walking alongside two people and a horse, and it made me go, 'Wait a minute,'" David says. A self-proclaimed computer nerd with a mop of brown hair, David was undoubtedly the kid whose notes everyone copied. "We investigated, and the picture turned out to be a digital manipulation-what we call fauxtography."

Another Snopesism is glurge, a "true story" so sugary sweet, it could make a baby unicorn cringe. One such tale making the rounds online is about Stevie, a young man with Down syndrome who receives donations from compassionate truckers at the restaurant where he works. (Snopes, which cites its sources in detailed footnotes at the bottom of each entry, uncovered the magazine where it was first published-as fiction.) Then there's the sad, cautionary poem reputedly penned in jail by a teenage meth addict shortly before her death by overdose. It is forwarded in an e-mail thousands of times every day. Again Snopes tracked down the original author: an Oklahoma mom with a seventh-grade daughter, neither of whom ever used methamphetamines.

"Most of what we deal with exists outside traditional media," David says, staring at an inbox with 21,144 unopened e-mails. Among the subject headings: "Video of one-winged airplane landing. For real?" and "Fisher-Price talking doll says 'Islam Is the Light!'" David glances at his muted TV set, where Law & Order is playing with closed-captioning. "These stories and half-truths are handy forms of expressing fears or concerns or ways of looking at life," he says. "But it's not easy to find out if these things are true or not, so people turn to us."

A passion for nosing around is what brought the Mikkelsons together, and it's still their prime motivation. The couple met in 1994 on an Internet newsgroup devoted to urban legends like the one about Walt Disney's body being cryogenically frozen after his death. Faster than you could say, "Mikey died of Pop Rocks," Barbara was flying from her hometown outside Ottawa to Los Angeles to meet David, then a computer programmer for an HMO. "Our first date was me taking Barbara to the library at UCLA to go through old magazines," David says, laughing. The couple now earn a "very healthy" income, David says, from advertising on the site.

Though the Mikkelsons are established figures on the Web, they still prefer old-fashioned research—scouring vintage catalogs, thumbing through four newspapers a day—over finding quick answers online. "I might use Google or Wikipedia as a starting point," David says. "But that's not research." For fun, the Mikkelsons go to places like the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta and the Library of Congress.