Momentary Change of Pace: Just Because -- Laura del Sol and Cristina Hoyos in "Carmen"

Long ago I posted a couple of scenes from Carlos Sauras's film of his Flamenco version of "Carmen," a truly brilliant 1983 movie that has become practically legendary in certain circles.

This has got to be one of the most extraordinary dance sequences ever filmed, and there are many in this movie. I'd say it is like nothing else ever put on film, but it isn't -- because there are several Carlos Saura flamenco movies floating around, including "El Amor Brujo", "Bodas de Sangre", and "Salome" that are artistic knock-outs.

Saura's brilliance, of course, is in the transformation of a very ancient, tradition-bound and specialized dance form into a story telling form for film, and in his stunning staging (especially for "Carmen").

The larger point being "We're not really stuck on the treadmill repeating the same things over and over; we can use so very much from the past to create something new and startling and wonderful."

It's a message we need to keep hearing.

On To The Brooklyn Bridge -- I Love It!

This is Henry's stream, the Other Other 99 streamer. The jubilation of the marchers and the drivers is infectious.

Let there be honking! Let there be dancing!

"We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!" is being projected onto the Verizon Building.

Chris Hedges: This is What A Revolution Looks Like

Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, Dance Party 11/16/11

It's all about the dancing now.

From a few days ago:

The historian Crane Brinton in his book “Anatomy of a Revolution” laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis. Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.

"A Revolution Without Dancing is Not a Revolution Worth Having" -- Emma Goldman

[This is video of an Occupy Oakland dance party on October 10, 2011, their first day of Occupation at Oscar Grant Plaza -- aka Frank Ogawa Plaza -- in front of City Hall]

Last night, Occupy Seattle and Occupy Oakland both concluded their General Assemblies and began Dance Parties that lasted in Seattle for hours into the night, and may well have done the same in Oakland, though I am not sure, as I wasn't able to stay with the stream much past the end of GA, and supposedly, the Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall now officially closes at 10pm.)

(Livestreaming is a wonderful thing, but the technology is not perfected by any means; what you are actually seeing on the feeds at any given time is never entirely clear, as many Livestreams may be putting out archived material or material from other Occupations rather than live webcasts from whatever Occupation one has tuned into. Often, very, very often, live webcasting is choppy with frequent outages, and very often, too, there is no simultaneous verbal description of what is seen. Consequently, you just have to make your way through it as best you can.)

Of course previously, the Occupy Oakland GA approved calling for a General Strike on November 2, 2011, as an appropriate tactic in the ongoing struggle with The Powers That Be.

Dance Parties, whether regularly scheduled or impromptu, have become very much a part of the Occupy Movement. Sometimes the drummers provide accompaniment, but more and more, there are DJs spinning music on the record machine -- as there was last night in both Oakland and Seattle.

Funny thing. As I was pondering the very serious events in Oakland and Atlanta and other cities where evictions of Occupiers were carried out in the last couple of days, I kept thinking, "There ought to be dancing."

And there is. There is dancing. There are lots of ways to do it. Here's what they did in Vancouver in February of last year:



(How many times have I posted "Dancing in the Streets" over the last couple of years?)

What this sort of thing does is disarm both the police and the public. How can you argue with sheer joy?

Oou, I Like It Like That

The stories that are emerging from the Dance Party @ TJ's Event yesterday are kind of thrilling in a certain "You're not the boss of me!" way. Of course, it's only meaningful in the context of a Police State® running rampant, and what has been happening at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial -- dancing, fack! -- is about as minor an act of Civil Disobedience as can be imagined.

But the point is to get to Critical Mass. Everyone who actually practices in the field understands that. No individual act by itself in isolation IS that Critical Mass (as even Rosa Parks knew full well) but the cumulative effect of them over time, and the ability of these acts to spontaneously (well...) generate more, to act as a catalyst in other words, is the thing.

How can Forbidden Dancing ("El baile prohibido?") be that kind of catalyst? Is it even, reasonably speaking, civil disobedience?

Sure it is.

And despite his professed Libertarianism, apparently Adam's Actions at the TJ are Marxist no less! Well, after all, he's a featured installation artist at Russia Today, the notorious Soviet Commonist Television Station which hardly any Americans have access to.

I love it.

A performance artist. A provocateur. A rabble rouser. That's Adam and his buddy Medea.

Yes.

What they do does not necessarily directly lead to positive change any more than what Cindy Sheehan did directly led to the collapse of American support for continued war in Iraq and the other Imperial provinces and satrapies. What they do brings attention to a problem that needs to be addressed. In the case of the TJ Dance Parties, the problem is the overwhelming stupidity and brutality of the Authoritarian State we've been living under for some time.

When attention is brought to the problem, something can then be done. Without public attention, through the media and elsewhere, if something gets done about a problem, it is generally through backchannels, and ordinarily not in the Public Interest.

In that regard, it is interesting that when millions of people marched and carried signs -- repeatedly -- around the world in protest of the invasion of Iraq, it had no effect whatever on the actions of the High and the Mighty, whereas one woman -- and a few sweaty friends -- sitting by the roadside beyond the gates of Bush's "ranch" in Texas seemed to shake the Powerful to the core, no matter how much they mocked and disparaged her and her actions. They could ignore the millions but were caught short by one.

So it may be with the Dance Party Movement.

Oh yes, much more is planned, and the Fourth of July has been designated as Nationwide Dance Party Day. Protesting everything that the State has been doing to Stifle the People.

Long row to hoe, eh?

But you can't get to the end without taking that first step....



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Just as a style note, these people need some serious Latin Dance lessons. Pots and pans are good for rhythm, too. Also, they need to learn to get the chants right, id est: Individual: "Show me what Democracy looks like!" Group: "This is what Democracy looks like!" Of course, good luck with that with a bunch of Libertarians ("There is no 'we', this is a spontaneous collection of 'I's'". Groupthink is the Problem, not the Answer.") But give them time...☺

Without Further Comment

The Dance

Above is the image on Adam Kokesh's teeshirt when he was arrested at the Jefferson Memorial last week for "dancing." It is of course an image of Gandhi, a name bloggers have a long-time tendency to misspell -- not that I'm such a great speller myself these days -- and along with the misspelling, there may some misinterpretation of the Gandhian quest and message.

Well, of course the notion of disobedience of the tyrannical and the unjust is fundamental not only to the efforts in Mother India to dispense once and for all with British rule, but everywhere else in the world where oppression and tyranny and injustice prevail.

Disobedience of Authority is hardwired in some of us, as is... submission.

It is my understanding that the Dance Party at the Jefferson is to resume today at Noon time. I'm sure the Authorities will have prepared for the Disturbance, as the continued disobedience represented by dancing at the Memorial has been well advertised since the arrests last week. So the Park Police will probably shut the Memorial down, forbid access to anyone, and threaten to beat the shit out of anyone who tries to storm the barricades and dance beneath the statue of the Author of the Declaration of Independence.

The only question is whether a prohibition on "dancing" at the Jefferson meets the standard of tyranny and oppression and injustice, and whether the brutal crackdown by Authority on the "dancers" was warranted.

The matter is disputed.

Get Down Tonight



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UPDATE: As I expected, the Memorial was shut down after the Dance Party @ TJ's had been going for a half-hour or so. The SWAT team, of course, was called upon to maintain "order," but there were no arrests.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/04/jefferson-memorial-closed-by-police-over-free-speech-dance-party/

I love the note that supporters of Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Gary Johnson were part of the festivities. Libertarian darlings all.

Here's my question: why do so-called Libertarian candidates run as Republicans? Just wondering.

The Dance

One faction of the Establishment contends with the Other for Power, Money, Dominance, Sex -- and possibly Survival.

It's the Dance.

Interesting that the recent primary elections were characterized (by people like Glenn, but also widely throughout the Major Mass Media) as insurgents defeating -- or almost defeating -- the Establishment. No, I said. That isn't actually what was going on.

The three "insurgent" candidates who were featured -- Lt. Governor Bill Halter of Arkansas who has forced Senator Blanche Lincoln into a runoff, Dr. Rand Paul of Kentucky, son of long-time Texas "Libertarian" Confederate Congressman Ron Paul who defeated the KY Secretary of State for the Republican Senate nomination, and Congressman Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania who defeated Former Republican now Democratic Senator Arlen Specter for the Democratic Party's Senate nomination -- were all, I argued, very Establishment characters. There were no genuine insurgents -- as in non-Establishment -- candidates in these races. If there had been, we probably wouldn't have heard of them, and it is almost certain they wouldn't have won or even come within hailing distance of winning.

A sitting Lt Governor, a sitting Congressman, and the son of a sitting Congressman run for Democratic and Republican party nominations, and they are not "Establishment?"

Please.

No, they ARE "Establishment," and they represent factions of said Establishment.

Interestingly two of these crypto-"insurgents" are under fierce attack from the faction of the Establishment currently holding the reins of Power.

Joe Sestak, a middle of the road Democrat who would be considered conservative in any rational world, is being subjected to a fierce pummeling by his own and the other party over his offhand comment that the White House offered him a job if he would desist. Well, isn't that special. Republicans are making whatever hay they can out of the "revelation" -- and according to Digby are cranking up the Scandal Machine in an effort to get rid of Sestak and to cripple, even bring down, the President, whereas Sestak is bungling and bumbling the way he does, and not playing the politics very well at all.

Of course All the World knows how the Tedious Little Peckerhead, Rand Paul, in Kentucky is being ground up into chum for the Media and is being (occasionally) skewered -- or at least used for all-important fundraising purposes -- by the Democrats. He has been turned on in ways his father never was. Which strikes me as largely Kabuki because all the signs are that arrogant little twerp will indeed wind up in the Senate, where conceivably he can actually throw a tantrum and cause a ruckus and bring Government as an enterprise to a screeching halt. Conceivably, he could boot Lieberman out of the Catbird Seat, even give Little Lindsey a run for his money. Then where would we be? So of course all the Big Guns are turned on him right now, not so much to keep him from winning the seat (I think it is presumed he will win), but to attempt to... erm... socialize him somewhat to the ways of Our Government before he gets to the August Body.

Bill Halter in Arkansas isn't being given this treatment -- yet -- because he isn't seen to be going anywhere. If he defeats Lincoln in the runoff, though, you can bet he will get the same "scrutiny" Sestak and Paul are getting. [Note to add: What little polling I've seen indicates that neither Lincoln or Halter can defeat the Republican candidate. So "scrutinizing" Halter may not even be worth the trouble.]

Does that mean there are any real non-Establishment insurgents among this trio? Of course not. Sestak is as solid an Establishment figure as you can find, a retired Navy Admiral and sitting Congressman; he defeated a tired ancient Republican for the Democratic Senate nomination, and -- assuming he goes to the Senate -- he will be a solid Establishment Democrat in the August Body. On the other hand, the Tedious Little Peckerhead could turn into quite a problem in the Senate if he isn't tamed before he gets there. He seems to be undergoing an Extreme Makeover to sandpaper off his rougher anti-Government edges and to get him up to speed with the current Republican Party Line. He seems to be doing fine as far as that goes. And Republicans in Kentucky back him almost unanimously, far more so than Democrats back the Democratic Senate candidate What's-His-Name.

(A side note: Li'l Rand reminds me somewhat of Dr. Howard Dean; in fact, I think the two are complimentary, and the Tedious Little Peckerhead is running as a kind of mirror image of Dean. He uses some of the same rhetorical devices (with a twist of course: "I've got a message from the Tea Party. We've come to take our government back.") and -- somewhat disturbingly -- he actually looks a little like Dean and speaks something like him. But Dean, as Establishment as he was, was not welcomed as a Power Player, in fact he was denied even a modicum of respect in that regard. Of course that may have had something to do with the fact that he could never gain more than low double digit support in the 2004 primaries, in stark contrast to expectations, whereas the Peckerhead has not only defeated his Republican rival, he is -- by some polls --- way out in front of his Democratic rival as well. Might have something to do with it, I don't know.)

It's a dance. A show. Yes, of course, it is a real struggle for advantage and power -- within the Establishment. It is nothing at all like its marketing, though, of some sort of "insurgency" from outside the Establishment trying to worm its way into Power.

Real insurgents would be monkeywrenching the System, not trying to take it over by securing a place or a better place within it.

OT: Everybody Dance Now

I love this scene. It's from El Amor Brujo directed by Carlos Saura. I first posted the YouTube link on this site in December, 2007.



Here's another scene from the same movie:



Saura, Antonio Gades, and Cristina Hoyos are brilliant in everything I've seen them do.

Check out their Carmen.



[Note, this post has undergone a number of corrections, additions and adjustments since it was first put up. There may be more.]

Walk Like an Egyptian

I watched a little bit of Obama's speech in Cairo on al Jazeera English. He seemed to be very well received. The commentators on al Jazeera were thrilled and delighted.

But it seemed to me that for all the highflown speechifying, there wasn't a whole lot of policy difference between Obama in Cairo today and Bush practically anywhere between 2006 and 2009.

As very many others have pointed out, apart from tone, there really are no significant changes in Obama's positions vis a vis terrorist/muslim affairs and Bush's.

The ones who are out in the cold are the neocons and the Family Cheney.

So, for something completely different, here is American phenom Tarik Sultan dancing at Giza in 2005:



Now you dance.

(PS: here's a link to the post I used the picture of Akenaton in back in March of last year...)