“What Have We Who Are Slaves And Black To Do With Art?”

Up and down the ladder I go, chasing after 'truths' then grounding myself in realities. In that vein I ran into this interesting piece at n + 1 about Ralph Ellison, high art, and black culture. Even if you are unfamiliar with Ellison, as I am, it offers some worthwhile contemplations on the role and value of pursuing universal, humanistic truths and thought systems, particularly as a non-white. It caught my attention with this about one of my fave authors, Jorge Luis Borges. It seems impossible to read widely and deeply without coming across thinkers with beautiful ideas but odious, annoying prejudices so it didn't strike me too negatively (there's also something to be sid about context); anyway what caught my thoughts was the sophisticated excuse for Borges bias and what the article's author, as well as Ellison, have to say about it.

"Some time ago I came across a skinny little book bearing the title With Borges. It is the recollection of a brief stint in a young man’s life spent reading to the Argentine giant of letters, Jorge Luis Borges. Much in the book was familiar – Borges lived with his mother into his sixties, he devoured books with a fiendish voracity, his blindness in old age necessitated that others read aloud to him – but one tiny passage, an aside, was new and striking to me: in it, the memoirist notes that though the great cosmopolitan boasted a taste for everything under the sun, from ancient Nordic folk verse to kabbalistic number games to cheap Westerns and detective stories, Borges nonetheless remarked that there was absolutely nothing he could find of universal importance in American Negro culture. It was simply too provincial. And because, as he saw it, Negroes had failed to produce a “universal culture” – like that of the ancient Greeks, the English, the Arabs, the Chinese, the Jews – because they could offer nothing of equal worth to the rest of the world, they were therefore in a sense inferior. This was Borges’s view and it is something that I have come to think about often. "
- "What Have We Who Are Slaves And Black To Do With Art?”, T.C. Williams, n + 1

Cotto vs Judah: X-PLOSION @ MSG

Another weekend and another great fight in the column for 2007. This time I had the pleasure of watching Puerto Rico's rising star Miguel Angel Cotto against Brooklyn NYC's own 'Super' Zab Judah for a version of the World Welterweight Championship title from Madison Square Garden. This was on the eve of the (in)famous NYC National Puerto-Rican Day Parade. The Boricuas were definitely out in full force representing for their man. In the name of Caribbean and Latino-American solidarity I had to do likewise, especially safely above the fray as I was sitting in the company luxury box.
Flag waving aside it really boiled down to two men in the ring, both of whom I have rooted for on many occasions, and neither of whom disappointed that night. Zab Judah ended up taking a fantastic beatdown that saw him take a knee for mercy in the 9th and eventually led to a referee stoppage in the 11th. Still Zab fought with more heart and class than any of us had seen from him in some time. I'll not be the first or the last to say that this kind of event is what boxing needs: local attractions with passionate followings, fighting outside of the scuzzy casinos in their hometowns, and leaving it all in the ring. I love MMA as much as the next guy, but really few MMA bouts can hold a candle to the protracted round-after-round drama of boxing. Hopefully Cotto will continue defending that belt at MSG and other promoters will follow the lead of Bob Arum back into the arenas.

Bashing Bush like a bongo

I flipped by the evening news last night watching the magix box with the moving people when my undeveloped senses were assaulted by a repulsive sight: Dubya trying to get down .



I'm forced to join this fellow and GAG.


Video here.

Sao Paulo Bans Billboards

Walking down the concrete canyons in Manhattan many a caveman is forced to grunt, spit and irreverently scratch at his jock as he is bombarded by incessant and derivative advertising from most all angles. Yes, the occasional Victoria Secret cleavage shot pleases his near-reptilian cerebellum, but at what cost? Sensory overload, and possibly even a seizure as his undeveloped but nonetheless jaded neurons fire volleys of cynicism at this strange world. However a proper, professional and cosmopolitan caveman realizes that this is one of the defining marks of the (post?) modern age and has resigned himself to it As such this news from one of my favorite places comes as an incredible and pleasant surprise:

SÃO PAULO: Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the "delete all" button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings.

In fact they went through with it as of this last January. Their justification was that advertisers had violated every code and regulatory attempt to manage billboards within the city. Down there (like anywhere) money talks, so it isn't hard to imagine the captains of commerce flouting the edicts and decrees of some scruffy city council. So the only solution was to get rid of all of the billboards, a truly neanderthalic response.

The law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash,” [wrote] Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author ... “For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

The BBC's article mentions the race & class dimension of this in pointing out that Brazil's advertisers have been slow to reflect the emergence of non-white Brazilians into the consumer class, instead sticking to the tried and true blonde-and-eyes-blue formula in casting models. Instead of side-stepping and double-speaking about it as a US corporate stooge would instinctively do, one exec straight out said:

"Advertising exists to sell products. We don't have a social responsibility, we have a commercial responsibility," he says ... "It's my responsibility as an individual, but not my industry's. My industry's not made for that."

However there is one North American habit that the sararimen also resort to in the Orbis Tertius that is Latin America: playing the victim of 'political correctness'.

"It is not politically correct to talk about the million-plus posters and signs that small businesses and mechanics' shops have up all over the place, because they are poor," said Francesc Petit, a prominent advertising executive who has spoken out against the law. "It's easier to attack McDonald's and Coca-Cola and the banks, because that doesn't offend anybody."

So take note fellow cave-dwellers: the absence of representation for the poor and black Brazilians is of little import, however please release a grunt of sympathy for the oppressed and besieged corporations. To think, now they will have to come up with fresh new ways of getting the word out about their irresistible double quarteirão com queijo (with diet Coke on the side of course).

I doubt this ban will stand for long against the will of the monied, so I hope I make it out there before the mental detritus re-pollutes the city. Here are some pictures of the billboard post remains. Enjoy the unique sight while it lasts!