1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator

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Kelowna Daily Courier - Was the Mercury Cougar a better Mustang?

At posted from the Kelowna- Daily Courier -Friday November 8th 2008 -Was the Cougar a better Mustang?
Donald Robichaud - 1969 Ivy Green Mercury Cougar

Pity the poor Mercury-Lincoln dealers back in the mid-1960s.
Flush with acres of Continentals, Park Lanes and Montclairs, not to mention a few assorted econobox Comets, these folks could only stare in hopeless exasperation as eager prospects flocked down the road to the nearest Ford store.
Why?
The new Mustangs had arrived.

The birth of Lee Iacocca’s baby had resulted in a severe case of mass automotive hysteria and ushered in an era of pony-car madness. Suddenly, every North American manufacturer was chomping at the bit to cash in on this latest car craze.

But Ford’s long-suffering Mercury retailers would have to wait nearly two-and-a-half years after the Mustang’s ground-breaking introduction before they could add some sporty car spice to their meat-and-potatoes lineup.

When the Mercury Cougar finally arrived in the fall of 1966, it was one of several fresh entries into the pony-car race, including the Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird and Plymouth’s clean-sheet second-generation Barracuda.

Mercury took a decidedly different approach with the Cougar. Early advertising touted its luxury car leanings with the tag line, “The Fine Car Touch inspired by the Continental.” Also promoted was the Cougar’s comfortable ride and equally plush bucket seats.

The new “Cat” was built using a Mustang chassis, but its wheelbase had been increased by about seven centimetres. The extra distance created a far more hospitable environment for rear-seat passengers and added to the car’s passenger-friendly ride.

Visually, the Cougar was a pleasant piece. Along with its must-have long-hood, short-deck styling, the car featured unique hidden headlights that remained cloistered behind the front grille until pressed into service. But the real knockout feature was the car’s sequential rear signal lights that strobed in the appropriate direction whenever the stalk indicator was flicked.

Unlike the Mustang, the Cougar was available only with V8 power. The base engine was a 200-horse, 289-cubic-inch unit, while a 225-horsepower, four-barrel-carb version was available as an option.

If this wasn’t enough, the optional GT package featured a more muscular 390 cubic-inch V8 stuffed between the Cougar’s shock towers. Midway into the 1967 model year, Mercury introduced the Cougar XR-7, complete with full gauges, woodgrain interior trim, leather seats and other fancy bits.

First-year sales of more than 150,000 Cougars proved the public was hungry for a ponycar with a little more flair and substance than the rest of the field.
For 1968, the Cougar received the new 302 cubic-inch V8, as well as the horsepower-abundant 428 and racing-oriented 427 cubic-inch V8 options that cranked out 335 and 390 horsepower, respectively.

That year also saw the creation of one of the rarest of Cougar models, the XR7-G. The “G” stood for racing legend Dan Gurney. This model included a special fibreglass hood complete with scoop (non functional, though) and racing-style locking pins, fog lamps, special alloy wheels and interior trim. Only 619 XR7-Gs were shipped from the factory and, of those, slightly fewer than 200 went to Hertz to be used as rental units.

In 1969, the mildly restyled Cougar family grew to include both a base and XR-7 convertible. You could still order the big-block 428 motor, but the raunchier 427 was trimmed from the order sheet. A new 351 cubic-inch-engine series became available that year, with output ranging from 250-300 horsepower.

The hot setup that year became the Eliminator, with its wilder colours, look-at-me decals and striping plus a rear-deck spoiler. All of these items might have worked on any other pony car, but the Eliminator package only served to make the sleek, sophisticated Cougar look decidedly undignified.The Cougar remain basically unchanged through 1970, although the 390 V8 had finally disappeared from sight.

Sales, however, dropped as pony-car buyers shifted to more high-performance offerings that were being heavily marketed by the competition. This seemed to be the signal for Mercury’s product planners to turn the Cougar into a true boulevard cruiser.

Although the 1971 version continued to used the Mustang’s platform, the car became significantly bigger, stouter and pricier, with more luxury touches included as part of its standard features.

But for four solid years, the Cougar represented a softer, more eloquent interpretation of the pony-car revolution and gave its proud owners a taste of how future “personal luxury” cars would evolve.

These days, the Cougar is rapidly gaining in popularity among collectors who consider its unique and tasteful styling and plenty of on-tap power to be a cut above the Mustangs, Challengers and Camaros of that era.
It’s funny, but those are the exact same reasons the original Cougar became such a sales success in the first place.

Malcolm Gunn is a feature writer with Wheelbase Communications. He can be reached at wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html. Wheelbase Communications supplies automotive news and features to newspapers and websites across North America.

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1969 Mercury Cougar Kelowna BC Canada

Donald Robichaud / Kelowna BC, I remember seeing my first Ford Mercury Cougar when I was 11 years old. My uncle Edgar had just purchased a 1967 Cougar and was speaking with my Dad. As I looked at the dark green cougar with the black interior I was taken back by the sleek look and the overall styling.

The pop up head lights really intrigued me and so did the sequential head lights. What truly caught my attention was the ten foot skid mark that my uncle left on the pavement. The sound of squealing tires and smell of burnt rubber has stayed with me for a long, long time.

I personally fell in love with Cougar’s styling and with the second model change; the 1969 Cougar became my dreamed car.

In high school I was fortunate to attend an affluent upper middle class high school and all my friends were driving their dads’ old cars. Those old cars just happened to be cars from the late 60’s. We lived in Clarkson Ontario and were only an hour away from Cayuga raceway which had a quarter mike track.

I lived very close to my Cousin Rudy. He and his friends raced a 440 Road Runner and a 340 Dart GTS at the quarter mile. Sunday mornings we would drop the exhaust. The sound of those cars with straight headers was just amazing.

When I was out of College and ready to purchase my first vehicle I eyed a 1969 Cougar. In a discussion with my dad I was persuaded to purchase a new vehicle and in 1976 I purchased 76 Pontiac Lemans Sport Coupe. For the next 30 years I got involved with life and taking care of my family.

Last year I purchased my 1969 Cougar. After a search of the BC interior where I became disappointed with the term “Great Shape” I decided to take my search south and purchased an all original 1969 Ivy Green Cougar.

I am the third owner and the car has all the horse power I need. With over 330 HP I am now able to relive the dreams of my youth and leave my own ten foot skid mark here in the present.

“I love the smell of Rubber in the morning. It’s the smell of Victory.”

RESPONSE

The idea of anonymity as mentioned beforehand is similar to the idea of latent—in that there is a certain dimension present yet unrecognizable (phenomenally) in the emergence to being (the compounding of a certain existent and its existence) of a particular phenomenal-based knowledge such as that which might be determined by the relations identified between traditional ‘moko’ and a certain popular context. I think this is a case of appreciating from the outset the essentiality of intangible dimensions in the existence of a certain phenomenon.

If the distinctions made by the two ‘moko’ artists are based on the relations between separate cultural dimensions with regards to ‘fashion accessory’ versus ‘cultural statement’ then I think it begs from the outset the in-depth understanding of essential reasons behind appropriation. So that the distinctions are already from the outset anonymously emerge out of an already determined dialogue between the idea of a traditional ‘moko’ dimension and the image of which is posited as the essential source of the statements ‘cultural statement’ and ‘fashion accessory’.

Here’s where I don’t think its viable to even make such distinctions since, for many young people, ‘cultural statement’ is also a ‘fashion accessory’ with regards to the significance of inked-skins. Both are intertwined and stylistically weaved into a dynamic mechanism of identity processing.

A cultural statement in itself is externalised partly through an appeal to fashion and aesthetics. A fashion accessory is itself implemented in servitude of a certain statement emerging from weaved fibres of the individual and the context(s) in which he or she occupies.

The context here is many and multi-dimensional. It is in one aspect represented by the ‘moko’ itself in that its availability determines the kind of context(s) or field from which one draws. We move closer to a context imbued with various elements and their availability defines the resistance to cultural protocols and historical confinements.

Response continue

Response continue

I think its important to note that what these two artists are on about is right in the sense that an element perhaps quite sacred and valuably treasured by a certain people should be fundamentally acknowledged prior to one’s own utilization of it—regardless of reasons for using it. I believe that an element dynamically attached to a system in a sacred and profound ways should therefore be treated at least with the same level of value before appropriation. However, I also believe that this act is impossible in that to understand the values attached to it in its original historical and cultural soil is only possible through a certain consciousness shaped, mentally and spiritually coherent with that specific cultural soil of origin.

Hence, we should begin our criticism with the question whether there is any sense of recognition inherent in the process of appropriation. This is a question directed at those looking to utilize a certain fundamental element such as moko to their own personal (and also perhaps cultural) needs. There, we can determine whether there is respect and value inducing some elements of this process. To conclude that people’s appropriation of elements such as moko is purely for fashion is perhaps quite misleading in that such claims needs to be uttered from a context already informed of reasons behind appropriation. For, we might not even know that moko’s disseminations within a popular cultural mechanism (and paradigm) is induced by some senses of respect and value not identifiable from the outset but which perhaps also remains anonymous—I am using the idea of ‘anonymous’ closely to Levians’ interpretation in ‘Existence and Existents’ (1947).

To be cont…

Response

Fashion Accessory or Cultural Statement?

I am already aware of the fact that I am making a statement based on a media report and to make conclusive judgements on these two traditional Moko artists based solely on it would be unfair. However, I am not making judgements on the entirety of the written report; just the above statements regarding reasons behind people's interest in traditional Maori Moko-whether its therefore perceived as a 'fashion accessory' as opposed to a 'cultural statement'.

Firstly, fashion accessory for me is still a cultural statement; and I think we should be sensitive to the complexities of popular cultures rather than the widely spread criticism based on preconceptions suggesting as well as assuming the elements (especially visual) of such a mechanism as having no attachment to a particular history or cultural paradigm.

Sure popular culture can be criticised as holding little attachment, respect and therefore obligations to elements of morality and ethics based or emerging from a certain and overarching historical and cultural dimension; yet, do we also take into considerations the idea that at some point of the genealogical thread of our own cultural history, our ancestors also engaged with elements initially outside their own systematic understandings? That at some point or level of what has been handed down to us as a people giving force (and vice versa) to a certain cultural dimension, were things accepted by our ancestors based predominantly on their aesthetic and visual qualities?

I am not supposing a certain standpoint which disregards Maori values (as I do hold a great deal of respect to this culture and their mana); rather, I think it’s not enough for us to just say that the ways in which our own cultural elements (fundamental to our own existence as a culture) has been accepted and re-utilized out there in a paradigm other than our own should remain within the same scope of value we ourselves assign to it. Is it enough to just say that moko that has been inked on people other than our own is merely fashion? Or, has our moko become something other than we have historically utilized it within our very own system of values? Has it transformed into an embodiment of another system of value? This, I think is the case!!

Popular cultures (and I am speaking here about those which has been consistently consumed by people in close relations to the media as a kind of aesthetic as well as identity source) shouldn’t be firstly perceived through a binary-glass; where we tend to (perhaps unconsciously) bestow our own systematic values upon it and therefore in cases where what we are engaging with don’t seem to fit in accordance to our own sense of values, we look upon it as lacking the same principles with which we are gazing.

I will talk about this idea of fashion accessory as an essential element of cultural statement—as two sides of the same coin in the next post…Perhaps justify what I had just claimed since it really does seems as if it is expressed in a quite disrespectful tone with regards to Maori culture and heritage--something which I greatly admire and respect fully

How widespread is Moko on non-Maori?

--taken from tv3 site--
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/HowwidespreadisMokoonnonMaori/tabid/423/articleID/74221/Default.aspx?_cobr=MSN

How widespread is Moko on non-Maori?

Is it possible to copyright a culture? And can Maori protect the unique art form of Tau Moko from exploitation? Two Maori Moko artists have travelled to London for Te Uhi a Mataora - a group of Maori artists backed by Toi Maori - to look at how widespread the use of Moko has become. They are on a fact-finding mission but at the same time they want to spread the word that Moko is so much more than just a cool tattoo.

The International Tatoo convention is where all manner of weird and wonderful skin art and skin artists are on show. In amongst all this twenty first century body work are Richard Francis of Te Arawa and Patrick Takoko, Ngati Porou, exponents of the ancient Maori art of Tau Moko. They are here on a cultural mission in search of the inappropriate use of Moko

"Just been here half a day now and we've seen a lot of Moko on non-Maori people walking around so that's a sure indication that it's really popular within the mainstream now," says Ta Moko artist Richard Francis,

True Moko was originally a sign of great mana, a highly personal expression, often depicting the story of a person's journey through life.

But because it can so easily be copied Europeans and Americans are walking around with Mt Taranaki on their shoulder or the Waimakariri across their back, without realising it.

"I suppose the concern that I have is that designs are used inappropriately and they become culturally insensitive in a sense….where a Moko Kowhai which is a Moko design that is predominately used on females. It is inappropriate to see that in on a male, and there are lots of incidents around here where those sorts of activities happen," says Ta Moko artist Patrick Takoko.

None-the-less, there are many non-Maori who wear Moko, singer Robbie Williams is one. Another is American singer Ben Harper, while French designer Jean Paul Gaultier used the art form to promote his collection, each case prompted debates about cultural sensitivity.

"I think one's job as a Moko artist is that they create advocates for the art form. People like Ben Harper seem to be on the right track. I don't know too much about Robbie Williams being on the right track in terms of the way he talks about what he's got, and what he's adorned his body with," says Takoko.
They are not here to behave like the ‘Moko Police’, but Francis and Takoko are looking through as many portfolios as they can from Europe and America, to see just how widespread the reproduction of Moko has become.

They expected to find it being used as a fashion accessory, rather than a cultural statement. Surprisingly what they have found is tatooists are prepared to learn about the true meaning of the Moko.

"I don't copy Maori stuff on non-Maori people. I make them their own variations or designs. If they bring me something, a design, I say forget about it, go," explains one tattoo artist.

The reality is there is no way to control the copying of Moko.. But what they can do is promote appropriate use of it. So they've invented a specific style of tattoo for non-Maori.

"We reserve our Moko patterns for our own people within our own iwi, but for non-Maori we have a set of patterns that we call kirituhi that they receive, and they may tell a story and resemble a Moko but it's not the tribal patterns that we reserve for our own," says Francis.

Protecting the honour of Ta Moko is no easy mission, but the global meeting place of tattooists is as good a place as any to start spreading the message

"Just bringing back the integrity, the integrity of the art form so that people are wearing Moko now back home and being proud to be Maori," says Francis, proudly.

DEF POETRY - DEAD PREZ

SIIIIK

ANIMAL IN MAN

Various elements important to this analysis—firstly, ‘Animal in Man’ might be understood in direct relation to ‘America’ as a ‘country’ which was and is still built and maintained through ‘slavery’. Chomsky’s ‘Hegemony or Survival’ is a very striking book—length analysis of this—at least in terms of contemporary America in terms of the relation between ‘power’ and the ‘powerless’ and how this system (perhaps quite natural to human-relations) is maintained through ‘differences’. Farmer ‘Sam’ is America itself in every institutional reading possible and deployed throughout history and perhaps a striking example is ‘Jim Crowe’. The metaphorical allusion to ‘slavery’ in the track is quite obvious but there is another analogy I am more interested in bringing into the discussion here—Wyclef Jean’s track ‘If I was President’. Hannibal the pig in Dead Prez’s ‘Animal in Man’ points to the cynicism associated with ‘leaders’ of revolutionary-uprising. Perhaps a vague analogy would be Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe but more close to Dead Prez soil is Rev. Jesse Jackson. Now, everybody knows about him and the fondness he’s developed towards Obama. Nevertheless, I think the idea being that there are various people associated with the process of struggle for freedom yet in instances of acquiring status within such historical and political events or ‘spaces’; assumes the same role against which their very status was previously attained.

Wyclef’s track ‘If I was President’ is perhaps a quite cynical outlook on the idea of ‘blackness’ surviving through to presidential status. “If I was President, I’ll get elected on Friday, assassinated on Saturday, buried on Sunday, & go back to work on Monday”. Here, the idea of ‘identity’ in direct relation to ‘blackness’ is generated with an emphasis on ‘ideas’ and ‘values’ rather than colour—that the idea of having a ‘black’ president is in itself a mere rhetoric which appeals more to the incompetence of skin colour as a justification for one’s identity. The cynicism is in the lies more within the tacit and temporal structures to which Wyclef’s chorus refers. “If I was president, I’ll get elected on Friday” is a play on the first initiation of a ‘black’ person into the presidential ‘space’ regarded quite implicitly as an embodiment alluding to the ‘absoluteness of power as corruption’. So that the very ‘value’ or ‘blackness’ entrenched in a ‘black’ person’s personal and political ideals is “assassinated” the very moment he becomes a human vessel for the former ‘space’—an assassination which takes place the very next day he or she becomes this ‘space’. More so, such values become something historical attached to that subject’s subjectivity rather than his or her ongoing struggle. On Monday, he or she is reincarnated as a ‘president’ rather than the person he or she is in connection to struggle and issues pertaining to understandings of ‘blackness’.

I mentioned in the previous post (The Danger in..) that there is a fundamental danger in how lyrics such as that of Dead Prez are internalised and re-planted within a context such as Aotearoa—especially in regards to the above analysis. The metaphorical dimension in art (if now rap music is ‘art’ in the broadest sense of the word) has to be emphasised in every processes of interpretations in that such lyrics or contents are from the outset grounded or growing out of a specific cultural and political soil which is perhaps quite radical to a certain listener’s own social context.

To be Cont…

DEAD PREZ --

taken from

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Dead-Prez-Biography/55A83972884EBB0C48256A1E00261F73

One day a man saw a butterfly shuddering on the sidewalk locked in a seemingly hopeless struggle to free itself from its now useless cocoon.
Feeling pity, he took a pocket knife, carefully cut away the cocoon and set the butterfly free. To his dismay it lay on the sidewalk, convulsed weakly for a while, and died.
A biologist later told him, "That's the worst thing you could have done! A butterfly needs that struggle to develop the muscles to fly. By robbing him of the struggle, you made him too weak to live."
Many of today's youth are not too familiar with the freedom fighters of the turbulent sixties. These men are. As rap faces its most challenging era, two aspiring revolutionaries in their early twenties emerge to pave the way for a stronger tomorrow.
They call themselves dead presidents, and for good reason. M-1 and stic.man are leading the charge towards a topic that seems to be a dead issue in rap - the necessities in life. In conjunction with 7G Entertainment founded by Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian, dead prez offer an alternative to the common pursuits of short term grandeur. Inspired by self defense parties such as the Black Panthers, dead prez is the most politically conscious music group since Public Enemy. They speak the song of Huey and Malcolm with such a modern day pulse that it grabs your attention and broadens your perspective on life.
At LOUD Records, we have always kept our doors open to new artists with an innovative approach and original ideas. In dead prez we found both. In an over-intellectual world, dead prez consciousness in simplicity is common sense. Once hearing their material, one can see that they may be one of the last groups of our generation to make a lot of money by speaking out.
First introduced on the LOUD '97 Set Up Tape, "Food, Clothes, and Shelter" debuted, conveying their main focal points. Money and power are both their energies and their enemies as revealed on the eerie "Root Of All Evil." They examine the so-called New World Order in a powerful song called "These Are The Times (Novus ordo Seclorum)," and raise a curious eye at the mysterious deaths of many controversial figures and unsolved incidents in the news is "Propaganda." Born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, stic.man embarked on a familiar course he rhymes: "sipping quarts, became the man of my house when my parents divorced. In and out of court, smoking Newports 'cause my friends did...("Rights Of Passage")."
But around the time BPD's "Criminal Minded" came out, stic began to internalize life and music as one culture. A couple of years later, in the midst of a dangerous drug situation, M-1 fled to Florida and the two became as tight as brothers.
At first, they were united in a national activist organization which allowed them to travel around the country. Realizing that they also had to make a living, and hustling proved to be a dead end, they decided to channel their energies towards music.
dead prez elevate themselves through the knowledge of yesterday and its significance in the present day. The symbol in their logo comes from an ancient Chinese oracle called the I-Ching (the book of change). This system was used by the wise men and women of China some three thousand years ago, as a means of analyzing reality and perfecting the art of foresight. That process of change is symbolized in their music, and they believe there is a common link between all historically oppressed people.
Obviously the first interpretation of the term dead prez (dead presidents) is the six inch paper. But for stic.man (the yang) and M-1 (the yin), dead prez represent a spectrum beyond capitalism, addressing the common issues of the most endangered members of human society. These mothefuckers ain't playing. Stay tuned...
M-1's daily routine consists of feeling great, turning ideas into reality, family, studying great leaders (Fred Hampton, Mao Tse Tung and chairman Omali Yeshitela), roots and culture, writing graffiti tags, learning war strategy, making love to Black women, rolling perfect spliffs, eating fresh vegetables and making a good plan then executing it.
Stic enjoys the luxuries of reading, drawing, producing, sex, eating rice, and studying Jeet Kune Do. He also enjoys playing Cee-Lo for push-ups, listening to the musical vibes of the old days and the alternative scene (Al Green, Deseree', Erykah Badu, 4 tops)....and smoking weed.

THE DANGER...

The danger in not being able to ground what it is you are engaging with in rap music and culture is perhaps an endemic and prevalent essence of the ‘misinterpretations’ and ‘mis-representation’ of ‘rap’. Dead Prez is one of my foremost favourite rap duo in the present, yet, at the same time one admires them for the issues they raise in their music, and the rawness with which they are delivered; it is neither a situation a listener as far away as New Zealand should inherit or internalise in his or her approaches to binary issues of ‘power’ and the ‘powerless’.

One very clear thing Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2004) relate to the viewer is ‘rap’ music is almost always a product of ‘black’ struggles whether in the present or historically—but both dimensions are of the same—struggle is struggle whether historically, or in the present. This is especially the case with issues of ‘blackness’ as it is something carved and determined out of a very emphatic history of physical as well as mental oppression; slavery. Perhaps the preceding descriptions are quite under-rated but I guess the most important thing is, in any preliminary stages of discussions about ‘blackness’ is the emphatic role an ongoing phenomenon such as Slavery plays in one’s understanding (or at least attempt to understand).

Although some may claim it (Slavery) as a mere metaphor nowadays in response to its historical claims on the present, it should also be re-assessed as an underlying ‘axiom’ in discussions of perhaps every aspect of ‘black’ culture popularised whether through music, art, or whatever. The focus though is ‘rap’ and how it is re-planted within a very strange (for the time being) and dynamic cultural soil such as Aotearoa. Of course, already, anyone willing to begin a discussion such as this would eventually end up analysing pioneering figures such as Upper Hutt Posse and various other groups attuned to the social and cultural importance of rap music as a political tool within a NZ context; but, the focus is neither a historical account of ‘rap’ as a phenomenon and its process in Aotearoa; rather, I am concerned merely with how (following on from the previous post about Dave’s Block Party) everyday individuals and rap listeners here in NZ internalise (whether they do or not) issues of struggle prevalent and dominant in rap lyrics—such as the example above of Dead Prez.
I am trying very hard here not to go into issues of colours and race; especially in terms of economic background and what so, but heck, I am probably kidding myself!! I was always aware of Dead Prez for about five or may be six years now, but I never gave them much thought and time until they featured on Dave’s Block Party (2004). These dudes are fresh out of the frying pan man, revolutionary style and raising a generation of oppressed kids soldier styles—at least as they say in their lyrics. Ok, let me say this from the outset before I make any more analysis; it is quite weird but most hard listeners to rough and raw lyricists such as Dead Prez and heavy dozed Gangster shits like that coming out of Curtis’ mouth and just about every other dude associated with him, are...people from wealthy home background with both parents holding very good jobs, living in a nice and very quiet but expensive suburban area and what so..Better yet, they are probably the ones buying up all that shit since poor youths from “you know where” can’t afford to buy any of that shit.

However, the fact is, tracing back to Lil-Cease’s “chiiling-out-interview” with Dave, one can separate the bullshit from the real shit—the bullshit is the “movement” with which people associate these people. This is quite vague now but I think the important thing is, listening to Lil-Cease and Dave, you can assume that the idea is/was to make some money and get out of the present situation—which is most oftenly articulated as “the hood”, “the ghetto”. These are not straight forward references; one other fundamental characteristic of ‘rap’ music is; it is an ‘art’ imbued with metaphors and not so straight forward type of references. However, such are grounded in rappers’ reality which means that if one lacks the experience and therefore knowledge with which these voices speak; it can as most oftenly happens be misinterpreted. Of course, we can always say, but this is my own interpretation and this is someone’s own take and shit, or don’t player-hate on my shit or whatever. We on the outside can only relate to lyrics to a certain extent—perhaps a very limited extent. What I meant when I associated the “movement” with the “bull shit” is this—listeners and fans determines what they hear and see—its human nature—and by doing so, the rappers no longer have a voice in this process, all they do is rap and make money so they can enjoy things never available to them beforehand.

Lil-Cease said that what they had (Junior Mafia) between them as friends and perhaps co-strugglers was more than ‘hip-hop’ or ‘rap’. He refers directly to a context negated in any listener’s awareness with respect to their music and lyrics. He lives in a context quite anonymous in music tracks made by him and his friends—of course, listeners hear New York New York and all that type of stuff, but it is impersonal issues far removed from the reality which connects them and which is also absent from hip-hop fans’ knowledge because they are (fans) attached more to the “movement” rather than the intimacy inherent and prevalent between its voices. These stuffs are highlighted but in a very distinct manner that is much more attached to the “movement” rather than the persons. What I am saying here is that there are perhaps two dimensions to the understanding of ‘rap’ as well as ‘rappers’. There is the dimension attached to ‘rap’—this is a dimension which is also a filter through which listeners gain an insight into the phenomenon; but not an insight of the phenomenon as it is in connection to its voices but rather, it is an insight in subjection to the listener [I talked a little about this in the early stages of the blog with respects to NZ youths receptions of the media].

This is a rupturing event perhaps implicit and quite anonymous in the whole reception of ‘rap’. Other people talk about it in more explicit senses but through a different route. ...lets analyse this later....to be cont..

DAVE's BLOCK PARTY

..People watch Dave Chappelle for various reasons and hence there are certainly quite different interpretations and receptions with regards to the issues he deals with—most importantly in how he deals with such issues and proceed to re-present them. Perhaps something positively true about Dave Chappelle from the outset is that he is a funny-ass dude and probably the funniest person on earth at the moment (so many people would testify to this—from every corner and colours). However, something serious and very intellectual about his ‘art’ seems to always go unnoticed in the midst of all the humour!! If you’ve seen ‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party’ (2004), you’d probably denounce (at least preliminarily) any significance of that film (or documentary) in understanding the idea of ‘blackness’ (as vague as such term is)—and I am talking here about the same ’blackness’ explored and pulverized in academic discourses by authors from every corner and colours!!
Although there are some aspects or dimensions of ‘rap’ music absent in the film—such as ‘south’ and heavy ‘gangster’, ‘rap’ music is surely yet fully re-presented; as both an expressive tool for black people as well as an important entertaining apparatus. The latter is probably the most obvious in respect to the film as the entire film documents Dave putting together his ‘Block Party’ beginning three days before. And obviously, it is about fun and entertainment in a way quite peculiar to ‘black’ people. The featured artists ranged from more popular artists such as Kanye and John Legend, to more conscious-rappers such as Common, Mos def, Roots, and etc to more hard-hitting ‘revolutionary’ rappers like Dead Prez (in fact, I’d probably put Mos def in-between conscious and ‘revolutionary’), further, Fugees came together to close the Party. There are obviously other artists important but there was something quite implicit in the direction of the film that caught me.
The difference which exists between these artists in terms of their approach both to rap as a music and a way of living (business) was obvious on the stage; but there was something else perhaps important for anyone wanting to go into the quite old but yet still relevant dispute over whether “hip-hop is dead or not” debate. Something which seemed to be overlooked in the latter is why people make music and why people rap. Or perhaps reversibly might be more viable to this discussion—why people rap and why people make music. The interview with Lil-Cease outside the little yet quite historic day-care which rap legend Biggie Smalls attended as a kid is was probably the most profound part of the film for me. He (lil-cease) first told Dave about how this little daycare was kind of like a central point for junior Mafia ( almost like a little bedrock) and how Biggie attended it and his (lil-cease) family (cousins and nephews) also attends it even now and how he still comes by every day to pick them and all that other stuff. He then pointed further stating where who and who (in rap) came from. To his left, he pointed out that so and so came from three blocks down the line and to the right, he pointed out that Jay-Z lived two or three blocks down that way and Lil-Kim came from four blocks that way and etc.
Within a space of may be six blocks grew up the most prominent rappers of all time—who influenced a whole world and movement or music. All good and close friends who thought more about life as friends struggling and keeping out of trouble than starting a movement to which millions of people associate themselves—of course in their own ways and interpretations. Listening to Biggie, Lil-Kim, Lil-Cease, Junior Mafia and all those rappers is different from listening to the Fugees or Wyclef Jean because they each deal with different issues—and in instances where they do share the same topic of interest, they would talk and approach it in different ways and outcomes. It is the same with listening to Dead Prez; you definitely won’t hear the same shit with Wyclef.
Dead Prez would blame the ‘white man’ (in terms of an overarching and repressive image) and ‘his’ history for the struggle of ‘black’ people, while Wyclef would say “don’t blame the white man for nothing, the white man didn’t do shit, get yours”. Dead Prez would go as far as saying to “raise babies soldier styles” as well as saying “fuck education” as an American repressive institution while Wyclef would say “get your mayor to put some libraries up in your hood” and get educated.....Continue later.....

1969 Mercury Cougar Kelowna BC - Silver Star - Mountain Of Memories

A good time was had by all at the Mountain Of Memories , Silver Star Mountain Resort Saturday, August 16, 2008. This was an exciting cruise. We meet up with Southern cruisers at 8:30 a.m. at McCurdy Corner. Twenty plus cars proceeded north to Vernon and we met up with Northern Cruisers at the Village Green Mall in Vernon where we then headed up to Silver Star. A big thank you to Kelly and Ruth Foy of Canadian Hot Rod for organizing the event.

Enjoy the pictures.

Donald Robichaud

Donald Robichaud - My Favortie cars

Since 1996 I have taken and down loaded pictues of my favorite cars. They range from Hot Rods to classic drives of all decades. In the last five years I have taken many pictures from the Okanagan.

R.I.P BERNIE MAC (Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (b.Oct.5.1957-Aug.9.2008)

A favourite Chinese rock artist of mine - He Yong

his defining song 'Garbage Dump'. Quite interesting and rather pertinent social understanding. Chinese Rock Music has always been quite interesting to me and more often than not, it has been a genre allowing a creative interpretation of social unrest/discontent of our social existence, through a medium which has traditionally been defined and associated as a 'Western' mode of music. An excellent song from a little while back...

A fluttering introduction... A Tattoo, A Post, A Farewell

Having been welcomed by my great friend on to the blog has made constructing a self-introduction a far easier job than it would otherwise be. As S- has already remarked, I'm Ye and I will be contributing to this exciting blog of his. We've been good friends for a while, and as one would expect, we have similar interests and ideas, as well as differing interests and ideas; part of what makes collaborative blogging an event within social existence, and what makes it interesting and fun. Anyways, I hope to be able to contribute to the already full flowing dialogue present in this blog. It's also a way for me to keep in touch while I'm in Japan.

The pictures of the tattoo below this post are the ones S- did for me. Thanks heaps bro... looks awesome!

I'll be blogging from Japan from August 3rd as I'm going there for work purposes. Another migrational existence and another negotiation of identities within a different social space. The tattoo...an imprint of the influences over the years, especially from the master S- himself.

Anyways, should be interesting.

OUT FOR A WHILE

Im out trying to finish the thesis in the remaining few weeks as it is due end of next month but my blog buddy Ye will no doubt keep these pages filled with his writings...go Ye you the man!!! hurry up and put something up hahaha....

Interesting clips for the Blog - DawnRaid and South-Auckland 'World-wide'






SAVAGE Doco clips

SOME AOTEAROA INDIGENOUS HIP-HOP ENGAGEMENT

DAM NATIVE & CHE FU 'THE SON'



DAM NATIVE 'BEHOLD MY COOL STYLE'

SOME VIDEOS FOR NEXT DISCUSSION

SUNNI PATTERSON

WELCOME YE

..like to welcome Ye, he's going to be contributing part-time to the blog...

CRAAAAAZZYYYYY!!!!

...I was talking about the NZ Media in general (news especially) earlier in relation to Tapu Misa's column in the aftermath of the triple-crime week in South Auckland as committed by Polynesians. I think what we can assume from this clip is a general impulse amongst any media in any ‘Western’ country with ‘illegal-alien’ problems—especially people of colour—or immigration problems to look upon these problems through similar perspectives. Now, I think everyone who has come across O’Reilly would agree that he has‘personal’ problems with ‘low-socio-economic communities’—which I think is just another way of referring to coloured-people without making references to race or even deny the existence of racial problems in his country—Nas’s even directing his ‘war’ on the media and Fox on O’Reilly.

I’m not saying that it is the same problems here in NZ but we can assume for the time being that there are apparent and observable similarities upon which there is a basis for argument. I like the idea of ‘Discourse’ here as an informing element or process in how certain institutions peopled by similar voices with similar causes manifest themselves in relation to the society they are in.

DAVE CHAPPELE SLAVERY AND RACE

Savage MTV Performance (WARNING XXX CONTENTS)

..Let me first apologise for the contents of the blog—Sorry about it. I’d also like to implement hopefully in readers’ mind that what is posted up here is never to promote some kind of opinion of mine but they are to help understand what it is I hope to get across in terms of ideas. The importance of the Savage videos is to hint at an aspect fundamental in and across the ideas developed here—of course the whole notion of ‘assemblage’ and ‘relationships’—but the importance of bringing back the concept of ‘aesthetic’ in analysis of popular culture and especially urban-Polynesian cultures not only here in Aotearoa; but also elsewhere in the world. The inescapable idea that we are living in a consumer-orientated world is important in that it points to us back to the idea of relationship and of course aesthetic.

There is an essential space existing between two primary dimensions important to the understanding of contemporary and economically advanced societies—not to be disrespectful to those who thinks otherwise but I am hoping to sketch a general context that is highly ‘urbanised’ and connected to the overarching notion of ‘world’ or ‘globalisation’ or whatever you’d like to call it through means resistance to traditional notions of boundaries or any sketchy and related idea of it. And it is this ‘space’ existing in-between these dimensions that are of most important value here in my analysis—now; we can substitute these flanking dimensions with various kinds of understanding depending on the context and the things that we are actually discussing but the ‘in-between-space’ I am hoping to roughly sketch here remains almost the same in terms of function but not necessarily in terms of content—which I’d like to further add that whatever these contents may be, they are determined largely by the things constituting the flanking dimensions and its nature. Also, these dimensions don’t necessarily flank in the sense that they are connected to the ‘in-between-space’ that I continually refer to here through various terms such as ‘assemblage’, ‘relationships’—rather, the emergence of this ‘in-between-space’ is the result of these dimensions’ overlapping impacts such as when I mentioned beforehand concerning the nature of the elements at work (whether implicitly or explicitly) giving rise to the manifestation of ‘knowledge’ or ‘re-presentation’.

Put it simply—using Savage and the Music Market; the artist exists as an intersecting point between his music and the Market. No one can ever convince me that there exists a musician who doesn’t anticipate the reception of her/his music otherwise that person is not a musician—as every (or at least most) artist who is or has been successful would say “the fans made me or my music” or at least something along those lines. What I’m trying to put forward here is that the music put out by artists or musicians manifest various things understandable only through a relational sense of understanding or analyses. The artist informs about various things important to him/her and the community in which they are a part of; now the idea of community here can be understood as or comes to us through various forms—hip-hop community, youth-community, Samoan or Tongan community, Urban-community—and these are not necessarily actual and physical understanding as it may be informed by or through a geographical sense. By this goal or impulse to ‘inform’ the artist simultaneously ‘formulate’ certain manifestations which also simultaneously ‘transform’ the ‘space’ or environment or conditions upon which these manifestations exist. By now we can determine that this kind of understanding echoes the ‘Hermeneutic-Circle’ in a general sense.

But by being ‘in-between’ is not as straight-forward as I’d want it to be for the sake of not having to type more and more into the complexities of this understanding. What I can say is that this ‘space’ is not in itself independent to the extent that it can exist on its own in isolation to the flanking-dimensions; rather, this ‘space’ is dependent on whatever may exist around it—so it doesn’t come into being unless regulated or stimulated by a certain event of intersection between two elements or dimensions of life. Yet also, and likewise, these elements are not what they are as we might understand them at a particular point; rather, their understanding at a particular point in time is dependent also on what can be determined between it and other elements in life. Generally, we might all agree that no music exist on its own without a market—what I’m trying to say is that apart from a certain ‘image’, ‘song’ or a certain ‘re-presentation’ having being expressed through an author and that also to an extent we can see the author in that work, it is also an appeal to something beyond the presence of the author and everything that he or she is. That we can see the nature of what it is that such works appeal to intermingled and intertwined within the complex make-up of that certain work—even if not in an explicit sense, we can still find traces of that ‘space’ to which the work ‘appeal’ to in the work.

See you soon…

SAVAGE INTERVIEW

From DAWNRAID site

PAUL GILROY

…Weighing the claims of the Past against the problems of the Present…

…Gilroy’s opening proposal about the reason for making a few disagreeable statements I think for the time being reflects what I was talking about in the bottom regarding Cornell West’s idea of ‘knowledge’ as we might understand only—and I mean only on the basis of that clip as it is quite wrong to actually judge a person solely on the basis of a few sentences in isolation from his/her body of works as well and especially making criticism in the absence of a writer or thinker—on what we can extract from the clip. I am talking about this whole notion of assemblage in the sense that ‘knowledge’ might emerge as a manifestation of various elements or pieces even in dissonance. That is, ‘knowledge’ is a product of an ongoing struggle between opposing elements working against each other although not always intentionally. For this, we can see the irrevocable connection between ‘knowledge’ and ‘power’ as two fundamental elements (or entities?) at work always whether implicitly or explicitly in the process of life.

I’ll come back to this…I just came across this clip so I’ll watch it first before I make some statements out of assumptions about what I hope to anticipate on the basis of the opening line…

EDDIE - SLAVE and NIGGER

Eddie Murphy - Slaves
Uploaded by playo2

JUST FOR A LAUGH NOW AND THEN..

Karate Man
Uploaded by jmana3

'KNOWLEDGE' -- "informs-forms-transform" CORNELL WEST

Cornel West on knowledge
Uploaded by dropping_knowledge

Sorry about it, I will carry on the previous talk after this one; I came across Cornell West so I had to open my keyboard here—although, it is still related to the previous discussion…

“...informs, forms, and transform…”

I’d like to extent Cornell West’s idea of ‘Knowledge’ here on the basis of the above temporal sequences between ‘inform-form-transform’ yet also circular in the sense that we can interpret these notions simultaneously. As I was saying in the bottom about the idea of ‘re-presentation’ and the temporality upon which it is understood as well as which it informs in a vice versa sense of understanding, we might assume for the time being that ‘re-presentation’ as ‘knowledge’ is couched within a certain vision—and as he asserts:

“…vision is rooted within a certain both analysis and as well as certain kinds of moral sensibility, so if I were to give the world ‘knowledge’, it would be ‘knowledge’ couched in a larger wisdom, a wisdom rooted in love and compassion—a love and compassion driven by a fight for justice for others, a fight for justice for the poor, for working people, for women, for peoples of colour, gay brothers, lesbian sisters…all of those who are so readily rendered invisible in the world in which we live. And that ‘knowledge’ is more than just information, but it’s an ‘information’ that is inseparable from transformation, so that it not simply informs but it forms and transforms who we are…”

He states in the beginning he doesn’t believe that ‘knowledge’ comes in the form of pieces—something which I cannot agree with but that’s not to say that it does. I think therefore—being influenced by various notions other than my own culture—it might be more viable for me to discuss or think of ‘knowledge’ first of all as an assemblage of different pieces or elements not necessarily originating from the same dimension of a certain given time and space understanding but emerge even from opposing directions. ‘Knowledge’ here in close relation to the idea of ‘re-presentation’—whether through art, music, or whatever—is an assemblage of various elements drawn from different realities and even from imaginary constructions of reality already embedded in the ‘space’ constituted by one’s own ‘reality’. That it is—knowledge—a conjuncture which materially manifests an instant amongst collections of implicit realisations directly connected and influenced by what it is that the individual is surrounded with. Such that ‘knowledge’ in this form is a result of aesthetic experiences with both transcendental as well as immediate aspects of all that we experience as well as what is put in front of us—whether art, music, texts, or whatever.
That ‘knowledge’ is a product manifesting instances of implicit overlaps and intersections between the different elements and dimensions of what we understand as life.

‘Re-presentation’ then as ‘knowledge’ might be seen here in this blog as an inherent and historical process orientated towards informing—which utilises elements already in existence largely—through certain ways or means of formulating the images to carry out this informing act whereby the effect of such process informs a state of transformation in what it is the ‘artist’, ‘author’, ‘singer’, ‘rapper’ and etc. is a part of—whether it is culturally, economically, politically, and so on. Yet, such organism is always already from the outset a simultaneous and circular event or being resistant to external definition…

2bcont…

JESUS COME

Dave Chappelle's Block Party - Kanye - Jesus Walk
Uploaded by eazy3000

'ARTISTS', 'ART', and 'LIFE/REALITY'

…There is something about most cultures which brings them together in certain stages of cultural analogies. That each in their history reveres certain figures in society and assigns them with very special roles—especially with regards to the maintenance and well-being of its people in relation to the culture as a whole. I’m talking here about ‘artists’ which I guess prior to ‘Western’ domination were referred to as ‘orators’ or ‘storyteller’ amongst other terms related to the creation of elements ‘artistic’ in that society’s own interpretation. Obviously, with these figures in the ‘video-boxes’, we can understand that elements of what they express are exaggerated if we are to distinguish between what they re-present and actual reality in a scientific-positive sense—yet this is not the nature of ‘art’ as it might be generally understood. Yet also, ‘art’ and ‘life’ here as therefore two very distinct elements must be and are united in the self or the artist as I mentioned beforehand through Mikhail Bakhtin.

One thing about ‘art’ in general we have to understand—it is a reflection of reality but which is slightly organised and anticipated; which is why we refer to it as re-presentation. By this, it is a process orientated towards the present but which draws itself from the past—a backward temporal motion yet facing the front if it is to be perceived in a sequential nature. It creates a particular imagined ‘space’ constituted by assemblages of various elements drawn from different dimensions of life. Their certain co-existence in this ‘space’ is the source of its imaginary perception since we can assume that these elements—as important as they are to the telling of a certain story—don’t really exist together in a single magnitude or spatiotemporal frame of reality. Yet, for this, we can still suppose that its ‘real’ on the basis that we can identify some of these elements as events in our life—to which we can further relate our own life. So this answer between the individual, ‘life’, and ‘art’ does not only exist between the ‘artist’, her/his ‘life’, and ‘art’ but also extends to the experience other people (audience) have in relation to these ‘creations’ or ‘re-presentations’.

It has been asserted that African-American comedy—given its contents—is a peculiar process of rising above the oppressions and situations of African-American in America. By turning their situations and packaged them into absurd ‘images’ some have claimed gives them ownership over their own selves as opposed to being ‘owned’ by the oppressive system in which they are a part of. Turning certain negative stereotypes about themselves into elements which they can laugh at eases the rigidity and struggle which is their reality—which further aide the process of moving forward even amongst these negative elements about them inherent in their reality. Even if these elements are perceived as immoral and offensive, how do you tell someone growing up in a violent and racist environment to stop carrying themselves upon a plane infused with violent and racial elements, in a way that is non-violent, no profane languages, and insensitive to racial elements?

Are what we understand to be profane and violent universal that it is perceived also upon the same level of understanding as the communities these artists are from? I remember Bernie Mac in ‘Original Kings of Comedy’ analysing the word ‘motherfucker’ and how it is used amongst “brothers”.

“...everybody can understand it, don’t be afraid of the word motherfucker, I’ma break it down to you. If you’re out there this afternoon and you see about four or five brothers talking, you might here a conversation, and it goes like this—You seen that motherfucken Bobby? That motherfucker owe me thirty-five-motherfucken dollars. He told me gon pay my motherfucken money laaas motherfucken week. I ain’t seen this motherfucker yet!! I’m not gon chase this motherfucker for my thirty-five-motherfucken dollars. I called the motherfucker four motherfucken time!! But the motherfucker won’t call me back!! I called his mama the motherfucken day, she gon play like the motherfucker wan’t there. I start to cuss her motherfucken ass out!! But I don’t want no motherfucken trouble!! But I’ll tell you one motherfucken thang, the next motherfucken time I see this motherfucker, and he ain’t got my mohterfucken money, Im gon bust his motherfucken head!!!...”




The idea of taking ownership of social elements which once (or even still) worked fundamentally within the process of enslavement (both mentally and physically) in African-Americans relations with America or Jim Crowe is an important process to the understanding of present events which might be found offensive by many people of moral and ethical conduct. Such as what has been discussed here about Nas’s new album ‘Untitled’ and the word ‘Nigger’. On a similar level—although definitely not the same in terms of historical impact—we as Polynesians can call and tease each other with the term ‘coconut’ and it wouldn’t generate any sense of political and racial episodes yet, when someone of a different ethnic or racial belonging do the same, it would surely have a different end otherwise. As Nas said about the word ‘Nigger’, I can say it and I can use it, but you can’t—referring to the ‘Colbert-dude’ who is ‘white’.

Surely, most people can argue that Chappelle is very wrong about the ‘ghetto’ as he was making jokes about passing through gun-stores after liquor-stores successfully, yet it is something most people from the ‘ghetto’ can answer to as an actual part of their reality—interesting analogy is the movie ‘Boyz in the Hood’ where the father (played by Laurence Fishburne) was almost preaching about the systematic and institutional assault and condemnation of low socio-economic areas in America—which happens to be filled with African-Americans. That is, the overwhelming presence of gun-stores and liquor-stores in street-corners. Now, the same can be said about the low socio-economic areas which happens to be populated by Polynesians and Maori here in New Zealand where there is a ridiculously large amount of liquor stores conducting business in these areas—if someone was to joke about it the same way Dave Chappele has (except for the gun-stores), I would not only laugh my ass off, but I would also agree with it to the extent that out of the three nearest sets of shops or corner-stores in the area I grew up (recently moved out two-years ago—but still go there as my parents and family still live there) in, two have liquor stores. If that same person makes the same joke about mini-gambling places with Pokie-Machines consistently with Money-Loan businesses, I would not only laugh my ass off again but agree with it to the same extent as the former evidences.

Lets continue this later…

RE-FUGEES

Fugees block party
Uploaded by polloche

Check out Wyclefs talk to the kids...

TAKEN TO THE GHETTO

I'll talk about this soon...Enjoy

Dave Chappelle Being Taken To The Ghetto
Uploaded by 504hotboy

NAS PEDITION

Nas interview + Sly Fox Live COLBERT REPORT SHOW 2008
Uploaded by Bounce2dis

MMM

SLY-FOX video

BACK TO NAS...

TAKE IT OUT SOUTH

more conscious....

RACE AND ETHNICITY

“But race is a convenient distraction. It’s easier not to care for those in prison, for the children of beneficiaries, for the poor, if they look different from us, if we can blame their failings on race or define them as ‘the underclass’...Tapu Misa ‘The Dangers of Our Indifference’ (nzherald, June 23, 2008)

Tapu Misa is a freelance writer who has a weekly (or may be monthly) column in the New Zealand Herald and the above quote is extracted from her opinion in the wake of a 3-crime-wave in a week committed in ‘South-Auckland’....and yes by “Polynesians”. You can read this on the ‘nzherald’ site (www.nzherald.co.nz just do a search on Tapu Misa) to know what she means by the above assertion as I won’t analyse any of it here. But what I’d like to add is the peculiar yet systematic utilisation of one’s racial and ethnic identity in his or her portrayal and the dissemination of that particular ‘goal-orientated’ image across the New Zealand media in general. One’s connection to such historical ethnic-racial image is dependent or conditioned by various factors—usually (at least as it seems to me) two primary yet fundamental factors: we can understand it in various terms but what is probably true about them across every interpretation is that they are two-opposing-binaries—either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘black’ or ‘white’ and so forth. But they can only be understood if we consider the vast plane upon which ‘our ’Polynesian’ and ‘Maori’ people have been reallocated incessantly in their stories of ‘individual-personal successes’ or ‘communal fallings’ like chess pawns.
The stories of ‘crime’ committed by people perceived to be ‘brown’, Polynesian, Maori, or even now stretching towards the recently established communities constituted by the problematic rubric ‘Asians’ is more than often depicted as an element of communal-responsibilities—that the communities (or racial-ethnic groups to which these ‘criminals’ belong) are answerable to these events. The ‘spaces’ constituted by these stories are confused not so much with the individuals responsible for these crimes but rather, interweaved by the overarching presence of the racial-ethnic communities they ‘belong’ to. No agency and no individual identities are given as the principal identity marker in such ways that the people of New Zealand can consider their guilt or innocence in connection to a given name. The entirety of ‘South-Auckland’ is to blame as a low-socio-economic-urban-pacific area conceived and thereafter internalised by its own youth as a place of violence, gangs, and etc. Not to mention its ‘ethnic-chaotic’ aftermath in which the ‘Asian’ communities voice their concerns by looking to form vigilante groups so as to counter these crimes against their kind as ‘good-honest-business-owners’ and hard-workers’—which does not give us much choice as to what the ‘other’ group are in opposition to the former image-making and self-representation—significantly aided along by the media. The discontent with the conducts of the ‘Police’ as anything but helpful in protecting these hard-working members of New Zealand society can only initiate assumptions proposing the uncontainable and unmanageable crimes of ‘South-Auckland’—one life, think twice, hold up what’s goin on, seems everything is going wrong, South A.K is like South L.A...? (Scribe—Think Twice_Aotearoa All-Stars)
It’s hard to think of such things as systematic if there are various mannerisms in which these ‘images’ can be understood—especially as not all generalised interpretations of ‘South-Auckland’ is negative if we regard the tourism aspect to Manukau’s identity as a ‘multi-cultural’ city infused and stimulated by ‘colourful’ and diversified cultures in harmony as a counter-balance to the above issues. We can argue that this is just another extension to the negative image of ourselves in connection to the low-socio-economic-urban environment we have made ‘South-Auckland’ what it is today—attributed much to our happy-go-lucky characteristics as a lazy people concerned more with stuffing ourselves with unhealthy food and island delicacies rather than working harder for better conditions, concerned more with dancing and ‘ancient’ ceremonies and preserving a past that is neither applicable to the modern-world and the nature of time and so on.

Yet, so many of ours have succeeded in sports and other departments important to the maintenance and development of the well-being of New Zealand society as a nation incessantly appealing for the acceptance and recognitions alongside higher and more economically-advanced countries in the outside world. Yet, when these individuals of ours succeed, more often than not, they are perceived as individuals belonging no longer to the slump from which they emerge but to the country as a whole—they are perceived as members and identified more often than not as ‘New Zealanders’ rather than South-Aucklanders or belonging to the Polynesian communities existing in this peculiar suburban-space the country seems to look upon it always with dismay. Their connections to these racial-ethnic communities are perceived to be an element of their past because they are now successful New Zealanders, successful boxer, professional rugby player and so on. These communities are no longer perceived as answerable to their road to success; rather, these very same communities are perceived as an element of their past identity—before David Tua was ‘David Tua the bronze medalist’, ‘David Tua the number 1 contender for the Heavyweight belt of the World’, he was just David Tua in Mangere South Auckland, before Jonah Lomu was ‘Jonah the youngest All Black ever’, ‘Jonah the guy responsible for making rugby into a world-sport’, he was just Jonah Lomu in Mangere South Auckland. Off course it has to be this way, yet how each of these two ‘New Zealanders’ stories are told further perpetuates the negativities we as citizens always rush to associate South-Auckland with upon the plane of re-presentation....

AOTEAROA ALL-STARS

Had to put this one up, its pretty old now but its a good start for what I am hoping to talk about next in terms of how certain images connected to Polynesians are disseminated across the NZ media....

D-KONZ listen to the Music

DONT LOOK BACK --SCRIBE

This guy is already featuring in tracks with Wyclef...

BABY GIRL--SCRIBE

Just out of style and pride over how NZ-Music is making big noise..This guy's talented man...

TONGA

COOL-BAD

I think it’s important that we understand the nature of the elements responsible for the mobilisation of our own images—even if such are seen with dismay in relation to our own process of cultural-negotiation. I emphasise (and will continue to) the importance of looking at things in terms of what their surface present or offer before moving towards an understanding of it in terms of the objective-domain known to us as ‘re-presentation’. Must we always assume that visual elements have some deeper meaning detached from its immediate presence? And as important as these tacitly implemented elements to a certain image’s understanding is: are the people assumed to be at the receiving end of its presentation—giving meaning to its nature as a re-presentation—always equipped with the reflective-impulses we have incorporated into our appreciation of the world through academic texts and so forth—reflective-impulses which have become integral in our own personal reactions against what is being offered visually and musically to us through the media?

The problematic of moving towards a common and unified notion of ourselves within an identity-axiom might not be resolved if the majority (if not its entirety) of such a process takes place upon a ‘traditional-heritage’ bedrock insensitive to the significance of immediate spaces imbued with our presence and vice-versa. Must our present concerns always entangled in the matrix-like net of our ancestral-past? We must agree that the latter is fundamental to understanding ourselves yet must this understanding be guarded and defended against any modern elements of our ‘alien’ surrounding?

The surface level of images and musical elements of popular-(sub)cultures dominant in the T.V-boxes of our urban living-rooms is attractive and eye-catching because it is infused and filtered through with ‘STYLES’—to which our youths consign and relegate the ‘COOL’ and ‘BAD’ aspect of their own self-carrying outside these living-rooms. How does this work? I don’t know dude but it is the concern of this blog as referred to earlier. We don’t know the complexities of the operations and dynamics behind the virtual-forces driving and regulating the surface as we see it in the media but we know that it works in communion with the elements on the surface as we see and experience it on T.V and computer screens and so forth. Certainly, we now know for sure that culture as we aspire ourselves in connection to its maintenance and processes is likewise a highly politicised and regulated element of our being.

2bcont…

unauthored

THE VISUAL and RYTHMIC EFFACEMENT of ‘WRITING’

Merchandising of Graffiti—is its slow-death, by relocating something into a commercialised space means its death; it’s a systematic process of integrating an element of society beyond control into the spatial-order that is regarded with intentions connected to the well-being of society as a controlled entity. The relocation of ‘writing’, ‘bombing’, ‘graffiti’ and so on from mobile train-cars into an ‘art-space’ that’s commercially controlled by a specific community of taste means its death if death means the destruction of a moving process. The very movement towards unification is simultaneously towards its death—and death here means the deprivation of one’s identity as a distinctive being within an assemblage of elements contributing to the dynamics of a certain urban-social-being.

Most that are regarded as or perceives themselves as ‘Writers’ can now enjoy their ‘works’ within a space ordered and regulated in accordance to a certain ‘artistic-declaration’ formulated in a space detached from the elements it hopes to integrate into its life. Once, this ordered space was the observer as the works of visually and rhythmically talented youths passes them by in train-cars, walls, bridges and so on. Now, it is these talented ‘writers’ who observes works and ideas originating from them flaunted in their faces but in spaces far beyond their influences—art galleries and so on. It’s something else now, far detached from the connections it once had with its street-authors. It is no longer executed and implemented in the dark as it mostly did and its ‘authors’ no longer feel the excitement of disappearing into unknown. It is no longer ‘un-authored’ as it appears to the observer and its enigma no longer lies in the one responsible for its implementation but more so in the characteristics of the actual work. ‘Writing’ has been brought into an ordered and open space which systematically demands its author’s existence and identity—the ‘artist’ and his ‘work’ type of stuff.

OUT OF THE BLUE

…a baby is being born the same time a man is murdered, the beginning and end.. NAS 'Nas is Like'

WHY HIP-HOP IS DEAD..This is a comment on another discussion somewhre else but I thought I'd put it here...

HIP-HOP is dead; it was born and died the moment it took its first step beyond its own space--the very moment its voice(s) declared life to it. Anything that's not unified and dismantled and fragmented across not only America but the world is dead. There was never hip-hop, it was just music which emerged from the suppressed communities of F.U.S.A... .Its contents are still very much alive and inherently breathing continuous life into the people in these communities but it was never attached to the 'music' form it claimed to give it life. Battling existed a century before hip-hop the music claimed it, struggling existed before and likewise to everything hip-hop claimed as its contents. What Nas was talking about as Hip-Hop is Dead is metaphorical and it means for everyone that claimed it should think of what they are doing as something different from what they think they are doing--hip-hopping. Meaning what they are doing and claiming as hip-hop in attachment to its urban-contexts and sub-cultural elements is something which never existed.
Why do everyone look to hip-hop (the music form) as some guideline which can trace back the origin of battling, emceeing, and so on when these existed historically beyond what hip-hop can take us back to? Hip-hop is dead cos it never manifested the conditions of suppressed peoples--and the moment it claimed to manifest these elements as its dynamism, it detached itself from it and therefore it carried on as something else yet still believing itself to be what is held in its face.

Look at Nas' 'Hip-Hop is Dead' and 'Untitled'...basically, it means 'get over yourself' and 'start something else' that’s more real than what you think yourself to be...basically saying that 'hip-hop' is what we say it is--what Kanye said when winning his award for best rap-hip-hop album last year, and likewise what everyone else who thinks they got something to say says in their own opinions. 'Untitled' is a new-growth metaphorically referring to the reality of black and other people's conditions in this f'd up world--something which the rubric 'hip-hop' can never embody. We can no longer look to hip-hop as an inspiration because it’s dynamically polluted with heterogeneously hateful shit rather than spiritually healing materials. What we should look to instead is individuals and how they utilise the elements of the social world for the betterment of oppressed people. And later, we can look at how some individuals with similar causes and styles can be grouped into a movement or sub-culture rather than just jumping into the wagon without being able to know your way around something historically unified into a term within which its elements contradicts each other in conflicts and all other types of shit…..2bcont…

QUESTIONS - SPACE-ART

It has to be understood (which I should’ve provided earlier in the blog) that I am talking about ‘space’ here—commercialised, art, hip-hop or whatever—in terms or what ‘art’ may mean within popular discourses—that it’s a highly regulated ‘space’ appealing firstly to popular ideas but which is imbued with personal intentions. It incorporates almost every analysis about art I can think of—at least some elements of these analyses. From Plato to Aristotle, Nietzsche to Heidegger and every other dude who has attempted to centralise it into a particular understanding. Firstly, I would assume for the time being that music as in hip-hop is a ‘space’ within a ‘space’ or ‘art’ within a ‘art’ in a door within a door sense of understanding. This is in relation to the media—especially as there are no instances in which both are regarded with agency radically detached from society or an actual author. It is always from the outset a mechanical element in the sense that its constitutive elements—whether physical or conceptual—are externally united in time and space—Mikhail Bakhtin’s ‘Art and Answerability’.

Here with hip-hop and Nas, there is already an anticipating event in which we must regard the awareness of the author in relation to the filtering ‘space’ through which his art must always be processed—that the first element we have to look for in his art is the ways in which he has incorporated the media into his contents. Given the highly regulated and politicised manner of this space, how does he put together these elements into such an ‘art’ which must be defined in part by this space? How does his art incorporate this fundamental and transcendental fact into the dimensions of his art?—in ways that these factual and inborn elements would have no negative effects on the message he hope to portray and inform the outside world? Or, how does he appeal to these fundamental facts imbued in our understanding of the media as a commercialised space? How do you package a certain history created over hundreds of years into a ‘space’ regulated against any elements which display risks of undermining it and the power that overlooks it?

2bcont…

CLASSIC

DEATH & RE-GROWTH

How can it be re-presented without jeopardising or endangering what has already been dehumanised and acclimatised into a power-relational dynamic between oppressors and oppressed? I think appealing to the commercialised space of the media through which rap and hip-hop has been attached with negativities and so on proves to be the best if not the only way. I think rappers like Nas and Rakim or KRS-1 fully understands the nature of such a highly-commercialised space and its ties to politics and the oppression of all types of people. Therefore, the process of appealing through this filtering space demands their knowledge of history as well as the current climate in terms of the relationship between discourses and peoples and the tools with which these relationships are determined and expressed. Where do they draw their inspirations from?—the very grass-root conditions and contexts from which they emerge. There is no denial of the negative elements historically associated with their own image(s), rather, these are twisted into tools of expression and empowerment—against the very conditions which aspire to maintain the history and current atmosphere working against them…

Coming into terms with the nature of commercialisation and its attachment to politics and power and as well as to the poor conditions of low socio-economic spaces demands a new flip on one’s approach as to the ways through which he or she advances into the significance of this very ‘space’. It demands a set-back period in which the tools of expression has to go through a process of re-invention and re-consideration—hip-hop is in a state of 911—was the catch-phrase just prior to Nas’s HIP-HOP is DEAD album. Can we assume for the time being that this project exemplifies introspection and a rupturing event?—and that ‘Untitled’ is the moving forward phase? It’s almost as if rap-hip-hop has been denied its significance and attachment to the concerned people fenced in the mental and physical-dominance of history, rather, it is perceived by Nas as actually going through the very same struggle which is associated with its voices—that the very tool which gives audio to these voices itself is mashed up in the slow-mental death of its so called voices—that it has become for a while now a subject suppressed and robbed of its sovereignty to the disappointment of the people who created it and envisioned it as a liberating element; that it has become the opposite of that envision.

Its revolutionary characteristics and things which made it peculiar and different to its outside has been slowly pulverized into the commercialised-space it utilises for mobility. The fundamental flip to its profitable sense needed to become or manually moved to its fore (since it has been slowly yet implicitly secluded)—such that its present face(s) needs to be destroyed or at least be seen as ineffective to those who rely upon it—such also that it needed to be deprived of its significance by announcing its DEATH and who better to do it than Nas?

2bcont…