Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus say they:
'have always been concerned with the sacred or — perhaps more accurately — the loss of the sacred. We are searching for its echoes and traces which are scattered and hidden in surprising and forgotten places.
We have spoken in the past about the theology of Icons in the Eastern Church. They are fragments of a restored creation; elements of nature that have been transfigured to create images of heavenly glory. We are not claiming that our music in any way realizes this ideal, but it is an idea that has influenced us almost from the inception of RAIJ. It has been an even more explicit inspiration for this album and its title, Beauty Will Save the World, which is a quote from Dostoevsky, a writer steeped in the Orthodox tradition.
In the Western tradition, art is illustrative and beauty is an aesthetic concept whereas to the Eastern Church art is sacramental and beauty is the pursuit of divine truth, so questions about the sacred and the beautiful necessarily converge.' (NPR)
Long Hot Summers - The Story Of The Style Council: Documentary about the band that Paul Weller formed after The Jam split up in 1982, with insight from key members, collaborators and fans. 'When Paul Weller announced The Style Council's arrival in March 1983, he'd come a very long way. In fact, at the age of just 24, he was already a musical veteran with six albums and nine Top 10 singles under his belt with The Jam. As their leader he had become a deity-like figure and for his fans, The Jam's split was unimaginable. But creatively restless and of inquisitive mind, Paul jettisoned them at their height to form a collective with an eventual core line-up of Paul with Mick Talbot, Dee C Lee and Steve White. Over four albums and 17 singles, The Style Council made a stand and became the standard bearers of progressive soulful pop and social comment. This is their story.'
'have always been concerned with the sacred or — perhaps more accurately — the loss of the sacred. We are searching for its echoes and traces which are scattered and hidden in surprising and forgotten places.
We have spoken in the past about the theology of Icons in the Eastern Church. They are fragments of a restored creation; elements of nature that have been transfigured to create images of heavenly glory. We are not claiming that our music in any way realizes this ideal, but it is an idea that has influenced us almost from the inception of RAIJ. It has been an even more explicit inspiration for this album and its title, Beauty Will Save the World, which is a quote from Dostoevsky, a writer steeped in the Orthodox tradition.
In the Western tradition, art is illustrative and beauty is an aesthetic concept whereas to the Eastern Church art is sacramental and beauty is the pursuit of divine truth, so questions about the sacred and the beautiful necessarily converge.' (NPR)
'Victoria Williams - Happy Come Home' is a film by D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus of the storytelling, improvising, tree-hugging, spellbinding talent that is Victoria Williams.
Pennebaker explains that: 'David Geffen asked us to make a short video portrait of Victoria Williams, whose first record he was about to release. He wanted radio stations to see what she looked like. So we took her back home to Louisiana and made a half-hour film with her that we loved.'
The remainder of the film can be found here, here and here.
Grant Alden writes in 'No Depression' that: 'Victoria’s records and concerts are like one imagines church should be. They are open and honest and celebratory, full of delight and respect, able to sweep black clouds to the side with a soft breath.'
Pennebaker explains that: 'David Geffen asked us to make a short video portrait of Victoria Williams, whose first record he was about to release. He wanted radio stations to see what she looked like. So we took her back home to Louisiana and made a half-hour film with her that we loved.'
The remainder of the film can be found here, here and here.
Grant Alden writes in 'No Depression' that: 'Victoria’s records and concerts are like one imagines church should be. They are open and honest and celebratory, full of delight and respect, able to sweep black clouds to the side with a soft breath.'
Long Hot Summers - The Story Of The Style Council: Documentary about the band that Paul Weller formed after The Jam split up in 1982, with insight from key members, collaborators and fans. 'When Paul Weller announced The Style Council's arrival in March 1983, he'd come a very long way. In fact, at the age of just 24, he was already a musical veteran with six albums and nine Top 10 singles under his belt with The Jam. As their leader he had become a deity-like figure and for his fans, The Jam's split was unimaginable. But creatively restless and of inquisitive mind, Paul jettisoned them at their height to form a collective with an eventual core line-up of Paul with Mick Talbot, Dee C Lee and Steve White. Over four albums and 17 singles, The Style Council made a stand and became the standard bearers of progressive soulful pop and social comment. This is their story.'
Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right - In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Ed Meese, and Tim LaHaye in the Council's early days to Kellyanne Conway, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, and the DeVos and Mercer families today.
In Shadow Network, award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson chronicles this astonishing history and illuminates the coalition's key figures and their tactics. She traces how the collapse of American local journalism laid the foundation for the Council for National Policy's information war and listens in on the hardline broadcasting its members control. And she reveals how the group has collaborated with the Koch brothers to outfit Radical Right organizations with state-of-the-art apps and a shared pool of captured voter data - outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in a digital arms race. In a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Shadow Network is essential reading.
Our Lady Peace: When Mark Van Doren, the American poet and teacher, wrote his famous work, "Our Lady Peace" in 1943, he couldn't have imagined the concept of rock'n'roll, let alone that a Canadian rock group would adopt his title for their name. 'Our Lady Peace were one of the quintessential bands of the 1990s alternative boom. The group shared qualities with many of its guitar-driven contemporaries, such as angsty power chords and propulsive beats. But front person Raine Maida's iconic jolts from chest voice to falsetto singing and enigmatic, labyrinthine lyrics helped set the group apart from the pack.'
Some of the above are rediscoveries and others new discoveries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment