Joshua Redman : June 2009

Photos from the Musee Mecanique

The Musee Mecanique in San Francisco is "one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines." Pretty cool stuff -- the kids liked it, and so did I (no surprise). Here are some detail shots.

Pistol Packin Parishioners

“Every gun that's made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms...is spending the genius of its scientists, the sweat of its laborers.”
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th President

The Misanthrope pulled this article from EnViSiOn, A Canadian Perspective Visually and Verbally Expressed with Passion

I have to thank Jonathan Turley for this article, and for proving to me that Arkansas is a creepy place.

Guns and God: Arkansas Legislators Move to Armed the Faithful in Church

Legislators in Arkansas do no want to have to chose between god and guns. They are pushing legislation to allow citizens to pack heat in the house of God. Grant Exton is a gun owner and president of the state’s Concealed Carry Association insists that they are simply trying to give all churches the right have armed congregationalists. Gun owners can then lock and load for Jesus.

This does not go over well with Little Rock pastor John Phillips for good reason. In 1986, he explained: “A gentleman came into the church. He was mentally deranged, and at the end of the sermon, pulled out a gun and shouted something about baptism and proceeded to shoot me in the back a couple of times. I still carry one of the bullets embedded in my spine.”

This could pose a difficult choice for gun owners of what weapon is best suited for a particular sermon. A Glock might be suitable for a New Testament sermon, but the Old Testament is strictly non-automatic weapons only. Easter might call for something cute like a derringer while Christmas deserves a MAC-10.

Lepa Brena concert controversy

Lepa Brena is unarguably the biggest showbiz star from former Yugoslavia (btw, I heard on twitter that the phrase `former Yugoslavia` is a pleonasm, but I can`t keep from using it). Biggest star in a Balkan country by default means that the star`s area of expertise is folk music. What`s interesting about Lepa Brena is that she was a pan-Yugoslavian folk star, never sticking to one position or the other, even later the war broke out and after it ended.

This old picture of hers is a sound illustration of what I`m saying.

Since Serbia was the biggest meca for folk music at the time, it was merely ordered that she chose to fall in Belgrade, and later the war start her own folk music production empire.

Brena came into public focus only recently when she proclaimed a pair of months ago that she would be doing a `worldwide tour` which also included Sarajevo and Zagreb. That caused a lot of fuss in Bosnia and Croatia, because apparently, Brena is seen over there as a Serbian nationalist because of this video where she`s dressed in a military uniform.

Now, we could discuss the character of the video (and the music, for that matter) but when her overall image and attitude is concerned, of all the folk stars throughout the former Yugoslavia, Brena always struck me as the least nationalistic and the most Yugonostalgic one. But it simply goes to prove that there`s even a lot of bad blood between the nationalists in all former Yu-republics, and that it takes just a tiny push to make an avalanche of hate, as shown by endless youtube, blogs and forums comment discussions that are unacceptable to translate because of the fullness of SerboCroatian language when it comes to curses.

On the other hand, Brena`s succesfull concert in Sarajevo and the sold-out forthcoming gig in Zagreb show that there are loads of masses that don`t like all that much around the nationality, which is ever a right thing.

Now that I mean about it, there are just a handfull of performers who really are cosnidered persona-non-grata in other republics, with serious reasons: Marko Perkovic Thompson in Serbia, or Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic in Croatia, for example.

Lepa Brena concert controversy

This old figure of hers is a good example of what I`m saying.

Since Serbia was the biggest meca for folk music at the time, it was simply ordered that she chose to come in Belgrade, and after the war start her own folk music production empire.

Brena came into public focus only recently when she announced a couple of months ago that she would be doing a `world tour` which also included Sarajevo and Zagreb. That caused a lot of fuss in Bosnia and Croatia, because apparently, Brena is seen over there as a Serb nationalist because of this video where she`s dressed in a military uniform.

Now, we could discuss the type of the video (and the music, for that matter) but when her overall image and attitude is concerned, of all the folk stars throughout the former Yugoslavia, Brena always struck me as the least nationalistic and the most Yugonostalgic one. But it just goes to show that there`s still a lot of bad blood between the nationalists in all former Yu-republics, and that it takes only a tiny push to build an avalanche of hate, as shown by endless youtube, blogs and forums comment discussions that are impossible to translate because of the richness of SerboCroatian language when it comes to curses.

On the other hand, Brena`s succesfull concert in Sarajevo and the sold-out forthcoming gig in Zagreb show that there are lots of people that don`t like all that much about the nationality, which is always a good thing.

Now that I think about it, there are simply a handfull of performers who actually are cosnidered persona-non-grata in other republics, with good reasons: Marko Perkovic Thompson in Serbia, or Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic in Croatia, for example.