Life's Bone

Ana Karakasheva, Denitza Gerginikova. and Milena Dabova being danced.
Music by Barnakustika.
Camera and promotional artwork by Elena Kalpakchieva.
Lighting by Desislava Chongarova
Location: The ancient bath in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

GRACIAS, Part I


GRACIAS, Part II



GRACIAS, Part III

In general, I have tried not to make my blogs too long and have dedicated longer discourses to my other blogsite...Mything Links. But I decided to post this here. If you don't have time, I understand. Tony Blair's speech on the video below is about 15 minutes long. The text that follows is basically the speech in print, minus a few introductory homages. I like to listen to the speech and read along...mostly since my mind seems to wander. (It's not easy being me.) I think it is a potentially important project. The speech by Tony Blair at the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation at the Time Warner Centre, New York on Friday, May 30th, 2008

Last month in Westminster Cathedral, I set out the purpose of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. It will concern itself with the six leading faiths: Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish. Today we launch the first of a series of partnerships to give effect to that purpose.

Let me describe the reason for this Foundation. The world is undergoing tumultuous change. Globalization, underpinned by technology, is driving much of it, breaking down boundaries, altering the composition of whole communities, even countries and creating circumstances in which new challenges arise that can only be met effectively together. Interdependence is now the recognised human condition.

So, the characteristic of today's world is change. The consequence is a world opening up, and becoming interdependent. The conclusion is that we make sense of this interdependence through peaceful co-existence and working together to resolve common challenges.

In turn, this requires an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional as well as an intellectual response consistent with this conclusion. A sentiment that we are members of a global community as well as individual nations means we must be global citizens as well as citizens of our own country.

All this sounds impossibly idealistic.

But if the analysis of the nature of the world is as I set out, then it is in fact the only practical way to organise our affairs. Idealism becomes the new realism.

This is especially so since the world is changing in other ways too.
Power is shifting east. The centre of gravity of political interest and political power is moving. The emergence of China and India, has been obvious, in prospect, for years. Now it is here in our lives, in practical impact. And not just in the Far East, but the near East too.

Just think of an institution like the G7; think of when it was founded and its members; think if it were invented today and how different that membership would be. The 20th Century order is history. There is a new reality. We have to come to terms with it. And it implies, at its fundamentals, peaceful co-existence or catastrophe.

Into this new world, comes the force of religious faith. Gallup have kindly made available for me today, the latest polling information in their rolling poll of religious attitudes, which is a hugely important source of analysis.

Here is what the polling shows.

Most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe most Muslims don't. Most Muslims want better relations but believe most Christians don't. Most Americans think most Muslims do not accept other religions. Actually most Muslims say they want greater and not lesser interaction between religions.

In answer to the question: "is religion an important part of your life", many Muslim countries' citizens answer in the high 80's or 90's as a percentage; in the US it is around 70%; in the UK and mainland Europe it is under 40%. Interestingly, though, even in the UK over a third of people say it is important.

So: religion matters and there is a lot of fear around between the faiths.

In summary, you cannot understand the modern world unless you understand the importance of religious faith. Faith motivates, galvanises, organises and integrates millions upon millions of people.

Here is the crucial point. Globalisation is pushing people together. Interdependence is reality. Peaceful co-existence is essential. If faith becomes a countervailing force, pulling people apart, it becomes destructive and dangerous.

If , by contrast, it becomes an instrument of peaceful co-existence, teaching people to live with difference, to treat diversity as a strength, to respect "the other", then Faith becomes an important part of making the 21st Century work. It enriches, it informs, it provides a common basis of values and belief for people to get along together.

I believe, as someone of Faith that religious faith has a great role to play in an individual's life.

But even if I didn't, even if I was of no faith, I would still believe in the central necessity of people of faith learning to live with each other in mutual respect and peace.

That is the "why" of the Foundation. Now for the "what".

There are many excellent meetings, convocations, conferences and even organisations that work in the inter-faith area. We do not want to replicate what they do.

We do not want to engage in a doctrinal inquiry.

We do not want to subsume different faiths in one faith of the lowest common denominator.

We want to show faith in action.

We want to produce greater understanding between faiths through encounter.

We want people of one faith to be comfortable with those of another because they know what they truly believe, not what they thought they might believe.

There will be four specific aspects to our work on which we concentrate today.

First, the Foundation aims to educate. We begin today with the association with Yale University. Yale's School of Divinity and School of Management will help design a new course called "Faith and Globalisation". It will run over three years.

I will lead a series of seminars each Fall, starting in September 2008. The idea is to create a course which, over time, can become an enduring part of Yale's teaching; can be spun off to other universities in different parts of the globe; can stimulate original research and be a resource for those working in this field.

We are going to use new and interactive media to engage young people of different faiths. Annika Small, who has done such a brilliant job with Future Lab in the UK bringing together software and education, has agreed to head up this part of the Foundation's work.

We are in discussion with leading publishers about a specific publishing imprint for the Foundation and with others to create a set of programmes explaining the world of faith. We will make announcements of these partnerships later in the year.

We will use the material we design not just for young people and faith communities but also for business and the worlds of commerce and politics.

We cannot afford religious illiteracy. No modern company would today be ignorant of race or gender issues. The same should be true of faith.

Secondly, we are announcing the first of our partnerships to mobilise those of faith in pursuit of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Today we call on the 4 billion people of faith in the world to help do more to end the scourge of malaria that has killed so many millions of our fellow human beings and will kill many more unless eradicated.

We are joining with the Malaria No More Campaign, a wonderful organisation whose mission is to end death through malaria in the next 5 - 10 years. Saleema will talk more about it. Put simply over one million people die of malaria each year. Their deaths are preventable. In Africa, 40% of victims are Muslim. But across much of Asia, malaria continues to strike and combating it is a huge opportunity for people across the faiths - Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist as well as the Abrahamic faiths - to act in unison.

The solution lies in distributing bed nets and medicines. The resources are becoming available. But the need to get the bed nets and medicines to the people and see them properly used, is where the faiths, who are present in each of the affected communities, can help. Our purpose will be to help mobilise the different Faiths in pursuit of this goal.

Thirdly, we believe that inter-faith interaction can benefit from a physical structure to which people can come, to learn, to discuss and to contemplate. We have agreed to partner the proposal initiated by the Co-Exist Foundation to establish Abraham House in London.

Though expressly about the Abrahamic faiths, it will be open to those from the wider faith community. It will be a standing exhibition, library and convention centre for the inter-faith world. The extraordinary success of the "Sacred Texts" exhibition at the British Library last year shows the potential for such an initiative.

Finally, we will help organisations whose object is to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religious faith. Though there is much focus, understandably, on extremism associated with the perversion of the proper faith of Islam, there are elements of extremism in every major faith. It is important where people of good faith combat such extremism, that they are supported.

To summarise, the possibilities of a world of change are enormous.

This is a century rich in potential to solve problems, provide prosperity to all, to overcome longstanding issues of injustice that previously we could not surmount. But it only works if the values which inform the change are values that unify and do not divide. Religious faith has a profound role to play.

For good or for ill.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation will try to make it for good.

Ana Karakasheva, Denitza Gerginikova, and Milena Dabova continue rehearsal for the performance. Music by Barnakustika.

Ana, Denitza, and Milena explore the old bath in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and work out nuances of their dance. Desislava Chongarova sets lights. Elena Kalpakchieva films. Music by Barnakustika.

It is a wonderful thing to go to a city where buskers are around every street corner willing to perform for whatever one might pitch into the hat, or into the instrument case laying open in front of them. In many places such public performances occur without restriction. Along the walking streets of Copenhagen it was an ever-changing scene of acrobats, jugglers, dancers, and musicians. In Paris, even on the subway, the buskers hopped on and off the trains with perfectly timed routines of puppetry or soulful violin or song, performing and passing the hat as they walked the length of the car and got off at the next stop. One could stare out the window and ignore them or one could enjoy the entertaining ride. It seems like a vestige of a past time before television or radio. A time where music and art were quite simply one with the everyday commerce of life. A vague nostalgia comes over me whenever I stop to watch a dancer on the street or a musician performing. It is not a thing on my Ipod, on my radio or on my tv. It is something I find just walking along a street. And it seems so important to me that they are doing this. That they are embellishing me, an idle passer-by, with a larger sense of my self. A self that is social and creative. If you find yourself walking down some street as a tourist, tip the buskers. For they are the ones who add such charm to what, without them, would be just another day.
Barnakustika on the street. Perhaps in Spain...Barcelona or maybe Palma.

Later they become friends......

Mothra, 1961



And.......

Ben Folds, 2008

"Beautiful Letters are so dangerous...." Ana

In 2003 Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth create a documentary of sorts entitled The Five Obstructions. In this film Von Trier asks Jorgen Leth to re-make his 1967 film "The Perfect Human". Leth re-makes the film five times. In each case Von Trier imposes limitations or obstructions that Leth must comply with. In The Five Obstructions we see Leth's efforts to re-make his film. This is the 1967 film that Leth re-creates again and again. ( minus approx. 2 minutes as formatted for Youtube)
The Perfect Human, Jorgen Leth.

This video is ten minutes long and is Part I of a documentary by Bill Moyers on the subject of filtered news, news as entertainment, and news as a controlled delivery of images serving corporate and/or political interests. The documentary aired in 1990, almost 20 years ago and still speaks to the manipulation of news as we know it today. The film is about an hour long and is presented in 6 segments on my other blogsite: Mything Links. Scroll down to the end of my post archive and click on Mything Links if you find this good food for thought, and want to see the rest of this film. I am sorry that the audio on these clips is noisy, but hopefully you can cut through that) d.

A classic from 1961 first performed by Ben E. King, formerly of the Drifters. Here it is played by Kinloch Nelson on "The Yellow Rose", a custom guitar built by Bruce Petros.

Ana Karakasheva, Denitza Gerginikova, and Milena Dabova, rehearsing for a performance called Barnakustika. Barnakustika is the name of a trio of street musicians Ana met and danced with while in Palma, Spain. Street performers. or buskers as they are often called, frequently group and re-group spontaneously and various instruments may play in and out. I don't know if this is the case with Barnakustika or not, but I will try to find out and revise this description with additional information if possible. I also hope to be able to post the actual performance of this dance which I believe will take place soon in the old bath in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Ana dancing in her home after a month of dancing on the streets of Palma, Spain.

Two toes on the foot of Lefty's left leg. Ana has new work you must see. Coming soon. Meanwhile, a glimpse of Ana's toes mid-rehearsal in the ancient bath of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I will post more tomorrow on Ana.

Sorry to start my blogsite up with such attitude, but I got interested in Westbrook Pegler after Sarah Palin quoted him directly in her acceptance speech. "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity and dignity". She did attribute the quote as being from "a writer". The writer was Westbrook Pegler. In all fairness to the things coming from Sarah Palin's mouth, her speech was written by Matthew Scully, a senior speech writer for George W. Bush. Post speech by Palin here are several reactions to her/his reading material:
Following the Palin acceptance speech New York Times columnist Frank Rich provided an analysis of the political significance of quoting Pegler. Mr. Rich noted that "Pegler was a rabid Joe McCarthyite who loathed F.D.R. and Ike and tirelessly advanced the theory that American Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe (“geese,” he called them) were all likely Communists." He suggested that Palin's use of a quote from "once powerful right-wing Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler" was intended to send a subtle but unmistakable signal to far right wing supporters.

About the same speech, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote: "Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that 'some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.' It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list." (This was RFK Jr's personally posted blog response today on The Huffington Post.)

Since I began my intermission on August 30th, a lot has happened...most of which you know about - and most of which is not good, or at best, ridiculous. I would put Sarah Palin in the latter category. I am sure she is quite personable. If she was my next door neighbor I would find her entertaining conversation across the backyard fence. I might even try to hit on her if Todd was out dog-sledding. Just kidding, but I would actually love to spend an evening with Tina Fay role-playing Palin. But who would I be? I think if I role-played Phil Hartman role-playing Ernest Hemingway that might be good, but I'm not so good as to play such a part. So back to reality, if you are a man and have some viagra- driven interest in Sarah Palin, vote her down from the White House steps and onto the Penthouse pages. I know it is a little late to enter the race, but I do think I may be the better choice for the vice-presidential position. First of all, as self-appointed Mayor of the unincorporated town of Pottsville, (pop.44 or 45) I have brought numerous changes and improvements to this area. For one thing, I painted my house green with red shutters. A symbol of Christmas. As an advocate for the environment, I have introduced the plant exchange program with my neighbors. From it's humble beginnings of giving my next door neighbor some morning glory seeds in exchange for several Canna bulbs,
this program has nearly doubled in the past year to include the neighbor across the road who says he has some Salvia to throw into the mix. As a staunch supporter of animal rights, I have personally stood at the side of the highway waving at quarry truck drivers so they would slow down. As a result, only two neighborhood dogs have been run over this year as compared to the three that got flattened last year. As far as international relations and health care, I can only stand on my record as having been unequivocal in my support of improving the flow of medicinal herbs from Mexico to the USA. No, I am not a hockey mom, but I am a firm believer in the idea that moms should play
hockey. In conclusion, what is the difference between me and a pit bull? I have bigger balls. But putting such aside, I would feel that if necessary, in a National crisis I have much more experience should I need to pick up the red phone and talk turkey with Russia than Sarah Palin. And in the interest of Country First, yes, I can cross dress, if it saves innocent lives.

Hello Saferide is a Swedish indie pop band led by Annika Norlin. Annika Norlin also performs under the name Saekert! whose songs are delivered in Swedish. Two pieces by Saekert! are posted below.
"Get Sick Soon" by Hello Saferide, Annika Norlin - vocals.

"For varje hjartstag" (With every heartbeat)

"Vi kommen att do samtidigt"