Monday, June 06, 2005
Dance!
Shaima Rayazee was murdered in her Kabul apartment on May 18th, 2005. Two of her brothers were taken into custody as persons of interest. At 24, Rayazee's career might've been burgeoning as rapidly as the TOLO-TV show "Hop." Trouble started when she showed off her shoes on camera while chatting casually with a man. Her supervisor was reported to say that she resigned of her own volition a week before her slaying, but she is no longer around to dispute it.
Because nothing else has come to light, I am reluctant to join the din proclaiming her a martyr for one thing or another. The only thing I can recognize is that she brought music to a place that was starving for it. And yet something of her life still clings to my spirit, and inevitably the hew of the rabble cloys at my ears. Conservatives have annexed her memory to reinforce their objectives—waging war against the enemies of freedom. After all, it was only a few years ago when Ms. Rayazee was confined to her home and forced to don a burka. Now they claim moral superiority to the Muslim barbarians.
It Can't Happen Here. However, anyone can find a quick link to refute that claim. Instead of a blossoming of liberty, however, a war with the Taliban has resulted in a massive shift to the right here in the United States. So women aren't being murdered every day, are they? They aren't just disapearing off Chicago streets, are they? Look at the Music Biz—just because nobody is counting out the Dixie Chicks, everything must be a-okay in the You Ess of Aye. I must admit, after searching exhaustively, the only thing I can find is rampant sexual harrassment in Hip-Hop journalism. But something is happening: last year, a Baltimore cartoonist was arrested and detained without being charged when his anti-Bush cartoon was spotted at a Xerox machine at Kinkos. Women are being forced out of high positions in the country's newspapers. A South Carolina pastor excommunicated every self-professed Democrat in his flock. And Scopes was struck down in Kansas.
If God's On Our Side. Progressives everywhere should take note of The Residents. Art-house hangers-on take them very seriously. They are the wrong ones, however, to be all academic over their music. To the music snob, The Residents' music should be laughed at and danced to so hard you get a hernia. To the liberal political activist, The Residents' should be adopted as Wagner was for Hitler. Their Mole Trilogy (as much of it as there is,) is a study in sociopolitical conflict. Particularly the second installment, Tunes of Two Cities, points out how the conquered often conquers the conquerer. Using music to elucidate the process of yin overtaking yang, the Residents have shown me why we don't have such a strong antiwar movement against the war in Iraq.
There have been many parallels drawn between the two wars lately—Vietnam and Iraq are so similar that one tends to ignore the differences. But one big difference glares like a bum on a bus: there is no strong antiwar movement today. I believe the Residents explained it: our enemy's values insinuate themselves into our culture unawares. In the Sixties, our enemy was a leftist regime; today our enemy is a reactionary one. Ergo, we as a nation are becoming similarly reactionary. Witness the popular disdain for separation of church and state, increasing measures against indecency, flight from science, and the erosion of women's rights. All of these are tenets of the Taliban, and yet they are thriving values in Bush's Amerikkka.
(An Aside: the new Resident's album, Animal Lover, is nothing short of magnificent. The concept album may not work so well since Alan Parsons bludgeoned it in the Seventies, but these anonymous rockers have created something that my grandmother can tap her feet to. Bravo, you anti-pop eyeballs, you!)
Do You Remember Me? Struggling against Evil is an admirable endeavor, made more noble by its futility. It doesn't matter where you put your values 'cause someone'll come along and move 'em and it's always been the same. Next thing you know, you're the evil one, or at least the minority good. So what's a well-meaning soul to do? The answer, my friend is blowing from Coltrane's sax.
Nothing heals the Earth like music, nothing feels as good upon her breast as palpitatin' feet. That is why the Taliban (and certain Babtists) are so against it. One of the most horrific visions in recent memory was to see a Fundamentalist mullah say "There is no room for music in Islam." God bless him, but just check out the Sufi-Rockers, Junoon. Salman Ahmad, the lead guitarist for Junoon, a Pakistani Rock group, confronted Pakistani mullahs very much like the Taliban (you can see the results in a PBS documentary, "The Rock Stars and the Mullahs.") While I applaud his efforts, Ahmad was basically casting pearls before swine. Rather than trying to turn hearts with words, Junoon has succeeded instead in turning ankles to their wonderful music. You can catch Junoon on their North American tour this summer—they will be playing in the Washington Area June 26.
Pop Music saved the economies of Postwar America and England. It is the best thing either culture has to offer. Celebrate it, buy it, share it, help spread it over the Earth. Listen to the rhythm, and you will hear the truth. Furthermore, we need to listen to and dance to World Music, encourage our favorite artists to infuse more third-world influences. Jay Z, Dave Matthews, and Trey Anastasio don't have to be the lonely ones. Take time out from the struggle and DANCE! For Mother Earth, but espeically for Shaima Rayazee.
Because nothing else has come to light, I am reluctant to join the din proclaiming her a martyr for one thing or another. The only thing I can recognize is that she brought music to a place that was starving for it. And yet something of her life still clings to my spirit, and inevitably the hew of the rabble cloys at my ears. Conservatives have annexed her memory to reinforce their objectives—waging war against the enemies of freedom. After all, it was only a few years ago when Ms. Rayazee was confined to her home and forced to don a burka. Now they claim moral superiority to the Muslim barbarians.
It Can't Happen Here. However, anyone can find a quick link to refute that claim. Instead of a blossoming of liberty, however, a war with the Taliban has resulted in a massive shift to the right here in the United States. So women aren't being murdered every day, are they? They aren't just disapearing off Chicago streets, are they? Look at the Music Biz—just because nobody is counting out the Dixie Chicks, everything must be a-okay in the You Ess of Aye. I must admit, after searching exhaustively, the only thing I can find is rampant sexual harrassment in Hip-Hop journalism. But something is happening: last year, a Baltimore cartoonist was arrested and detained without being charged when his anti-Bush cartoon was spotted at a Xerox machine at Kinkos. Women are being forced out of high positions in the country's newspapers. A South Carolina pastor excommunicated every self-professed Democrat in his flock. And Scopes was struck down in Kansas.
If God's On Our Side. Progressives everywhere should take note of The Residents. Art-house hangers-on take them very seriously. They are the wrong ones, however, to be all academic over their music. To the music snob, The Residents' music should be laughed at and danced to so hard you get a hernia. To the liberal political activist, The Residents' should be adopted as Wagner was for Hitler. Their Mole Trilogy (as much of it as there is,) is a study in sociopolitical conflict. Particularly the second installment, Tunes of Two Cities, points out how the conquered often conquers the conquerer. Using music to elucidate the process of yin overtaking yang, the Residents have shown me why we don't have such a strong antiwar movement against the war in Iraq.
There have been many parallels drawn between the two wars lately—Vietnam and Iraq are so similar that one tends to ignore the differences. But one big difference glares like a bum on a bus: there is no strong antiwar movement today. I believe the Residents explained it: our enemy's values insinuate themselves into our culture unawares. In the Sixties, our enemy was a leftist regime; today our enemy is a reactionary one. Ergo, we as a nation are becoming similarly reactionary. Witness the popular disdain for separation of church and state, increasing measures against indecency, flight from science, and the erosion of women's rights. All of these are tenets of the Taliban, and yet they are thriving values in Bush's Amerikkka.
(An Aside: the new Resident's album, Animal Lover, is nothing short of magnificent. The concept album may not work so well since Alan Parsons bludgeoned it in the Seventies, but these anonymous rockers have created something that my grandmother can tap her feet to. Bravo, you anti-pop eyeballs, you!)
Do You Remember Me? Struggling against Evil is an admirable endeavor, made more noble by its futility. It doesn't matter where you put your values 'cause someone'll come along and move 'em and it's always been the same. Next thing you know, you're the evil one, or at least the minority good. So what's a well-meaning soul to do? The answer, my friend is blowing from Coltrane's sax.
Nothing heals the Earth like music, nothing feels as good upon her breast as palpitatin' feet. That is why the Taliban (and certain Babtists) are so against it. One of the most horrific visions in recent memory was to see a Fundamentalist mullah say "There is no room for music in Islam." God bless him, but just check out the Sufi-Rockers, Junoon. Salman Ahmad, the lead guitarist for Junoon, a Pakistani Rock group, confronted Pakistani mullahs very much like the Taliban (you can see the results in a PBS documentary, "The Rock Stars and the Mullahs.") While I applaud his efforts, Ahmad was basically casting pearls before swine. Rather than trying to turn hearts with words, Junoon has succeeded instead in turning ankles to their wonderful music. You can catch Junoon on their North American tour this summer—they will be playing in the Washington Area June 26.
Pop Music saved the economies of Postwar America and England. It is the best thing either culture has to offer. Celebrate it, buy it, share it, help spread it over the Earth. Listen to the rhythm, and you will hear the truth. Furthermore, we need to listen to and dance to World Music, encourage our favorite artists to infuse more third-world influences. Jay Z, Dave Matthews, and Trey Anastasio don't have to be the lonely ones. Take time out from the struggle and DANCE! For Mother Earth, but espeically for Shaima Rayazee.
# posted by MadMac @ 7:07 AM 
