Didn’t get too much use out of my camera at the Erykah Badu / Janelle Monáe show last Friday, and I don’t do too well with low light, neither. But with a little color editing, it works out — now we all match Erykah’s bright, bright stage.
Francis and EricAt the end of Janelle Monáe's set, she jumped off the stage and climbed over the rows of seating straight toward the back of the theater. I literally thought she was going to scale the balcony somehow. That woman has some energy. Ms. Badu on stage
To be perfectly, perfectly honest, I felt a little disappointed by the show. Something about the ricocheting between extremes of inscrutable coolness and raw vulnerability that didn’t do it for me. But! The audience was simply beautiful — all kind of folks, all ages, everyone warm and friendly and smiling. I hadn’t been to a concert in a long time, and this one was a great opportunity to just walk around and take in the splendor of regular people.
Guess what? This lucky bug is heading to an Erykah Badu show tonight in Oakland! With Ryan, Cat, and a friend of Cat’s (and I’m guessing we’ll run into a whole bunch of folks at the Paramount). And Janelle Monáe is opening. Looking forward to some amazing artistry and musicianship, and also to some marvelous audience engagement skills. (Video description and lyrics below the fold.)
(Random Sidenote: In order to stay up past my bedtime, I may need to treat myself to a rare favorite beverage: fresh-brewed soy chai with a shot of espresso. When I was in high school, my crew’s nighttime haunt, True Love Coffeehouse, used to call this concoction a “Jostled Gandhi.”)
And guess what else? Starting Monday, I’ll be guest-blogging for two whole weeks over at Feministe, a feminist news-media-and pop-culture group blog that I’ve been following for years now. Even wrote part of my college thesis about them. Exciting stuff!
Since I’ll be devoting a lot of time to composing posts for Feministe, there probably won’t be too much regular Kloncking happening here. But I’ll cross-post everything I write, so please feel welcome — and warmly invited — to comment either here or there.
I try not to do too many reading-list posts, mainly because I know that most of us have our own gigantic stacks of reading to get to. But! These pieces are simply dope and exciting, and written or shared with me by people I like. Plus, the collection represents, in a way, some key themes in my life right now: feminism, political work, and spirituality. So!
The lovely and talented author of This Moi (elder sister of ei powell) has a guest post up at Jezebel on the Man To Man (M2M) phenomenon — as experienced by herself, a keen and observant young woman of color, during a trip to a shooting range.
And! The Advance the Struggle collective (AS) published their analysis of the March 4th day of action (for public education in California + beyond), which breaks down, in very useful, insightful ways, the dis/advantages of two different tendencies among the anti-capitalist players involved, and how to combine their strengths into a “genuine class struggle left.” Personally, it helped me clarify and contextualize my experience participating in the SF March 4th committee, which I found pretty frustrating overall. In hindsight, I now understand a lot of the key ideological splits that I couldn’t articulate at the time. As AS puts it, “the [clashes] of approaches to radicalizing consciousness were key determinants in differentiating the political forces in the movement.” Also nifty to see analyzed summaries of all the different major actions in Cali, as well as efforts in Seattle. Check it out.
This poem, which my boss read to me during our latest reflection session (yes, I’m lucky enough to have good poetry in my work meetings!) immediately resonated with a fear that’s been haunting me ever since I started deepening my meditation practice last year.
Tree
by Jane Hirshfield
———
———
It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.
Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.
That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books —
Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
Will it be possible for me to combine a lifelong commitment to practicing dharma (with the retreat experience and internal work required) while at the same time holding on to worldly commitments like partnerships and social justice work? Oftentimes I sense that someday, in this one lifetime, I’ll have to choose. Do you ever feel that way?
Finally, a little something by Ahmad Jamal, just because.
Happy Thursday, friends, and happy birthday Henry Mills!
For a couple of years now I’ve been conscientiously experimenting with different responses to lines from men on the street or in public places. Ignoring them, getting pissed, smiling and walking on, smiling and saying thanks. Lots of female-bodied friends of mine experience unsolicited hollering from men, and we all have our own way of dealing with it to best preserve our personal mental health. (Though this also gets wrapped up, at times, with a sense of social responsibility to make public spaces safer and more comfortable for all women…)
If you ask me, building sex-positive cultures doesn’t mean suppressing the urge to play, but challenging and reformulating our own basic notions of sex as a contest, power struggle, necessary outlet, or primary source of self-worth. From that perspective, the American Apparel posters in my neighborhood, and the extent to which I allow them to impact my sense of self, might prove more dehumanizing than the dude on the corner who tells me I’m beautiful.
In my case, I rely a lot on my gut instincts rather than a strict rule, but tend to lean toward friendliness since (a) smiling feels better to me than scowling, and (b) ultimately what I want are real relationships with all kinds of people. Finding a way to push past the sexualized overtones, especially with some of the men I see around my block on the regular, opens up more spaciousness, an opportunity for better connection.
Anyway, I love hearing, from folks of all sorts of genders, the different forms and levels of stranger flirtation that can actually feel fun and sweet. Here, two music videos (classix!) that show what respectful play might sound like. (Hint: asking questions seems to be a key theme.) Hat tips to Ryan and Jamal for the YouTubeage, and Noa for recent great conversations on this complex topic.
[Ps: lead-in track, “Ladies Love Cool JB (Innerlube Two),” from homo-hop pioneers D/DC: self-described “bourgeois, boho, post-post-modern, African-American, homie-sexual, counter-hegemonic, anti-imperialist, Renaissance Negroes stalling your cipher.”]
Any of y’all seen Bagdad Cafe? I watched it last night with some work friends and fell somewhat in love. Everything about the film is just a little bit off, a little bit oblique, with touches of camp. To me it felt like a good short story: untidy characters; rich, indelible, lyrical images; a haunting setting that implies more than it reveals. Plus we all laughed and laughed.
And this, the theme song of the soundtrack, will stay with me for a long time.
This song — and this particular performance — has stuck in my mind for over a year now. The lyrics actually evoke, for me, a delicious physical feeling of awareness, attention, and anticipation. “People get ready/ There’s a train a-comin’.”
A few times lately, in conversation, I’ve mentioned that in my opinion Lauryn Hill is one of the greatest artists of our time. The story of her life is complex and sad in many ways — reflecting so much personal torment, as well as the dehumanizing commodification that saturates popular commercial arts — but one thing is clear: rare is the musician who combines such virtuosic technical ability with such profound emotional expression. For me, she’s right up there with Miles Davis, with Stevie Wonder, with the best of them.
Here’s one of my favorites. Enjoy, and enjoy the weekend — see y’all on Monday!
The clip below isn’t my favorite of the pieces he played (“he” being world-renowned arranger, composer, performer, and producer specializing in flamenco, Pedro Javier González), but it gives you a sense: the man’s got fingers that could double-knot the shoelaces on a grasshopper. His quiet confidence and steady, un-showy calm, understated yet not at all mechanical, gave both sincerity and depth to the twelve songs in the set — which lasted over an hour but seemed to finish almost as soon as it began.
It was the kind of concert that feels more like one half of a first date. Through the music, he introduces himself, shares his interests, shows his sense of humor, tells a little about his past, allows pauses for reflection, and keeps returning to the warm question, shaped by empty space: So, how about you?
Enjoy, friends, and have a glorious weekend. See you next week!
Kloncke 