27 January 2009

Brothers Gotta Live

(photo by Jill Toyoshiba, KC Star)

Although you probably wouldn't know it, this blog started partially out of a frustration with crime in the city, which at the time I'd just moved back to. I wound up deciding instead to write about the frivolous, fun and attractive aspects of life in Midtown and KC in general (and beyond) but I've always remained somewhat preoccupied with the violence that goes on nearby; fascinated with how far removed these kinds of things are from my reality and yet how close they are to where I live.

Of course, I haven't offered any solutions, and my own involvement in helping improve the city's situation has been mostly non-existent, aside from a bit of online hand-wringing. I aim to change that in the future, though I don't know exactly how just yet.

One voice that stands out to me is Midtown Miscreant, a local writer who many of you might have seen featured in the Pitch Weekly cover story last month. He doesn't profess to having the answers either, but he does draw attention to crimes and call folks to task for their actions or lack of accountability. His posts about the recent vandalism of monuments, churches and other inanimate objects by so-called "anarchists" have been particularly strong.

As fun as it can be to live near the Art Institute and amid the cheaper apartment housing that's home to so many students and twentysomethings, I wonder what's up with some of these kids. The other day a couple of girls I know who are a few years younger were talking about how a guy threw a molotov cocktail into an abandoned building next to Harlings. "Yeah," the girl said. "It's awesome."

What? Awesome? Starting a fire in an abandoned building and then running away? Yeah, it's just about as courageous as the folks that broke windows at the nearby Obama office three times during the campaign.

I just wonder when people started equating anarchy with property damage, as if that's all there is to it.

After last week's destruction at a 100-year-old church in the neighborhood, I was upset, just like a lot of other area residents. I figured if I came across one of these kids in action it would be somewhat satisfying to personally put a stop to it. But of course my mother did not raise me to hit nobody, and the chances of encountering them in the first place is unlikely.

Instead of becoming some kind of vigilante, I'd rather challenge these kids to reexamine how exactly they go about trying to introduce "change" and revolution to the world. To quote Joseph Campbell:

"Revolution doesn't have to do with smashing something, it has to do with bringing something forth. If you spend all your time thinking about that which you are attacking, then you are negatively bound to it. You have to find the zeal in yourself and bring that out."

Now, about the murder issue...

I was pleased to see the Star's Tony Rizzo and photographer Jill Toyoshiba do such a great job on in the three-part feature called "Murder Factory," which is about life and death in the neighboring zip code, which produces more murderers than anywhere else in the state. Say what you will, the story addresses some difficult subjects -- interviewing murderers, their families, those who have lost children, had their homes riddled by gunfire, seen their streets go from respectable neighborhoods to overgrown, nightmarish crime zones. The series raises some tough questions, and the photo essay alone is worth spending some time looking through.

The final part, which ran today, examines real cost of crime (16 million to incarcerate 100 people for 10 years) vs. the ways some of that money could be spent to help prevent crime, with programs in Newark, NJ and Boston used as an example. The article also addresses how it's no so much evil as it is indifference that allows these kinds of crime to continue with such frequency (i.e. Hannah Arendt's idea of the banality of evil).

I drive through 64130 quite a bit, usually en route to Swope or somewhere like that, and while I don't make a point to spend time there, I don't want to ignore it. The only times I've spent much time in the Ivanhoe neighborhood was while volunteering for a housing rehab project as part of "Christmas in October." I remember being in the basement of an elderly black couple working on repairing a staircase or something and seeing a sticker on one of the beams that must have been placed there a few decades ago. It was some kind of affirmation about the need for unity in the black community. Though I don't remember exactly what it said, the last lines were "Brothers don't got to die. Brothers got to LIVE."

I probably won't be discussing crime here much in the future, as I plan to completely change the format of this site and do something different than the infrequent commentary and event and photo stuff I've put up in the past. But for now I'm glad that people are talking about what's going on. In the future I hope it leads to more actions being taken and real change being brought forth by those of us who live in Kansas City. Even if we don't live in the middle of the roughest patches, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do our part to help improve the situations of our brothers to the east.

respectfully,

LW

22 January 2009

in the realm of obscure feeling


Tomorrow I get to see a performance of one of my favorite symphonies of all time. (Never mind that I only really know a handful, it's still my favorite)

About five years ago, Mahler's 1st ("The Titan," as it's called) was essentially burned into my brain, mostly by accident. I had meticulously packed a set of about two dozen CDs for a train trip, but when I got onboard I realized I'd remembered my discman and headphones but forgot the travel case of discs. When I popped the CD player open I saw that it was a copy of Mahler's first that I'd picked up a few months before. It was a long and stormy train ride, and I never forgot it.

My introduction to Mahler actually took place before that, during my sophomore year at college. My roommate Pat was a music student, and even though he specialized in the French horn, he often fell asleep at the piano after hours of playing classical pieces I'd never heard of. I'd sit nearby in the parlor of the scholarship hall, entranced by the intricate and inspired melodies that carried us both to the end of the night. "Who was that?" I'd ask Pat at a pause in his playing. More often than not it was Mahler.

I'm no Mahler scholar, but my two favorites are probably the first and the ninth symphonies, especially when conducted by the composer's personal friend, Bruno Walter or some other reputable conductor like Leondard Bernstein. Even if I was an expert on classical music, I'd still probably refrain from writing anything else about him here. As Mahler himself said about a hundred years ago,

"Let the public have its own thoughts about the work performed. Let it not be forced to read during the performance, let no preconceived ideas be instilled into it! If a composer has of himself impressed upon his listeners the feelings that surged through him, his object has been attained. The speech of tones has then approached that of words; but it has infinitely more to impart than words can express."

If you go to NYtimes.com and do a search for Mahler, you can actually pull up PDFs of the original articles such as this one about Mahler's work being performed in the U.S. for the first time.

If you're in the KC area, there might still be some tickets for Friday or Saturday night. I know if you're a student with an ID you can sometimes show up and get a $5 dollar rush seat. Doesn't always work, but it's worth a try. Whether you've got a strong interest in the composer, a fascination with timpani drums or are just looking for a classy place to zone out, you'll likely enjoy some aspect of watching the KC Symphony under Michael Stern. More info at kcsymphony.org.

Until then, I'll give the final word to Mahler, from the end of the previously linked-to 1908 NY Times article:

"I, for one, know well that, so long as my life happenings can be conveyed fitly through words, I will not use them as a musical theme. The longing to express myself musically comes over me only in the realm of obscure feelings, at the threshold of the world beyond, the world in which the categories of time and space rule no more."

Inauguration photos


To make up for the nonsensical video I posted last night, here's a pretty amazing photo series put together by the Boston Globe of the inauguration and people viewing it around the world. Found this through Matt.

When Dinosaurs ruled the earth


As I'm posting this, it only has 287 views. I bet it has a lot more tomorrow. What's funny is I came across it by accident. I was trying to find the no voice-over BBC footage of the Obamas bidding the Bushes fairwell, which is itself a very moving piece of footage. Like a propaganda film played in reverse, not without a certain amount of hope and goodwill. Instead I found this clip dubbed over with dialogue from "Jurassic Park." I have to admit, though, the fanfare does strike a certain chord.

Godspeed.

At the CVS on Main

Today at the downtown CVS I was about to tell the guy "no, I don't have a CVS card" when a lady behind me raced up to volunteer to swipe hers for me. I told her it was no big deal, figuring there probably weren't a lot of savings in my $10 purchase of Dunkin Sticks, cough drops, Sweet Tart Hearts and disposable razors. But she insisted. "We're all each others' keeper, it says so in the bible," she said. "With this economy the way it is, we could all be living together next week."

So we swiped her card and I got a coupon about a mile long that ostensibly will save me four and a half bucks next time I visit CVS.

Downtown yesterday

I was coming out of the city market yesterday after buying a bratwurst a pepsi and some cookies full of figs and crushed walnuts and in front of us were two cops on horseback. This guy with dreads had come out to one of the patios for a smoke and right when we went outside we heard him yell "Oh man those some HORSES, dog! Those some HORSES!" The cops reigned in their steeds and talked to the guy for a bit, who said every weekend in the summer he goes to ride and hang out with the 25 horses he has on a farm in Oklahoma. Just before that I'd seen two female police offers on horseback right at my place of employment at 12 and Walnut. I guess that's one thing downtown KC has going for it -- we still have law enforcement on horseback.

19 January 2009

Linkage

"It comes from a deep-rooted conviction that if there is anything worthwhile doing for the sake of culture, then it is touching on subject matters and situations which link people, and not those that divide people. There are too many things in the world which divide people, such as religion, politics, history, and nationalism. If culture is capable of anything, then it is finding that which unites us all. And there are so many things which unite people. It doesn't matter who you are or who I am, if your tooth aches or mine, it's still the same pain. Feelings are what link people together, because the word 'love' has the same meaning for everybody. Or 'fear', or 'suffering'. We all fear the same way and the same things. And we all love in the same way. That's why I tell about these things, because in all other things I immediately find division."

-- Polish filmmaker Krzystof Kieslowski, in a 1995 interview

I just watched the Double Life of Veronique last night. I think I like the Polish Weronika better than the French Veronique. Even though the film came out a decade or so before "Amelie," it's hard not to think of it during the Parisian scenes.

Anyway I liked this quote from KK. Especially on inauguration eve.

Alligator on bun


For those of you who can read German, Moritz, my "Brat-Bruder in Lederhosen," wrote a great travelogue about his tour of hot dog stands in Los Angeles.

14 January 2009

Polish up your track jackets


TONIGHT

workfare incorporated benefit concert @ czar bar

featuring

winston apple
katlyn conray
tony ladesich
&
SLOW BROS (jake blanton & andrew connor)

show starts at 7, slow bros go on at 9:30.

It's All About The Introduction

These songs all more than stand on their own, but in each case the introductions in these music vids kick things off on the right foot.

Here's Taj Mahal...



I used to think it was just practice I needed to make me a better mouth-harp player, maybe one of those cool Pignose mics that Red has. But now I know a handful of fancy rings helps. I love this song. Used to play it on the radio.



How cool would it be to be introduced by The Big O? I feel nervous for Eric at first...for a white guy (hell, for anyone) those are some tough shoes to fill. But he does a good job, never minding the head bobs.


"Bridging not only the generation gap, but the geography gap." Skip Spence is a lot of fun to watch as well.

06 January 2009

Kaleidoscope


The other night while searching for Matthias Grunewald paintings I somehow found this kaleidoscopic photo rendition of St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow. Photo by Keitology, whose other work includes colorful landscapes, nudes and a brain wearing headphones.

05 January 2009

An Erinaceidae for the books


I've never given too much thought to the idea of having a spirit animal. If somebody asked me in the past I probably would have said "pterodactyl" or something either prehistoric or fictitious. But if I gave it some thought I would have to say that my spirit animal is a hedgehog.

I encountered hedgehogs quite a bit (usually at night) back in Lawrence and also in Rhineland-Westphalia, where a hedgehog is known as an "Igel". Whenever I saw them I treated them with respect, and I think hedgehogs and I usually had a pretty good (if silent) understanding of each other.

So it's with great delight that I read this scoop from the KC Star about Lawrence overturning its ban on having a pet hedgehog within city limits. The story chronicles the legal campaign of a kid named Justin, and when you reach the story's conclusion you'll see that my symbolic adoption of the animal isn't without some cosmic merit.

In addition, my friends at Zoroastrian Kids point out that the hedgehog is a sacred animal created by none other than Ahura Mazda.

My affinity for the critter also stems from one of my favorite poems in the German language, Kurt Marti's "Das Herz der Igel" (The Heart of a Hedgehog, translated into English if you scroll down a bit here).

Any other hedgehog-related trivia can be sent here via the comments section. Otherwise, hope you're having a good year so far.

Cheers.

LW

02 January 2009

tones from 2009



Some strumming from the other day...

(with apologies to Mr. Fahey)

Image courtesy of T-Bit, who recently completed her year-long illustration cycle.

What about you? What's up your sleeve?