Scoreless in Seattle

Seattle's Capitol Hill is a vortex of wind, rain, dancing trees, shot glasses of cayenne pepper-drizzled health blasters, vinyl and candles. Music. Coffee. Done. An LA escapee could get used to this.

For Information:

http://occupylosangeles.org/

http://occupywallst.org/

Occupy LA. Be present in your presence.

OCCUPY LA: Day 2-- October 2nd, 2011

There is no them. There is only us.
We point fingers blaming and bow heads in frustration and look to others for communication. Yet, its all our creation. Downtown LA, at City Hall, at 1st and Spring Street, there is a protest happening. A gathering of humans. A movement of Solidarity, that when solid, can solidify our country. Install the We back into We The People. There is a revolution growing. A revolution ending the absurdity of Corporate America. The absurdity of a nation with a democratic government that is not deriving its power from the people. The absurdity of a system that places self-interest over harmony and justice. Profit over people. Consumption over culture.

This isn't a month long sit in the park and walk down the streets. This isn't a year of sign waiving and marching into banks. This is a commitment to a world of equality. A world of cooperation. A lifestyle derived and rooted in consciousness. We make the decision to have our money in banks. We make the decision to wear clothing that is stitched with slavery. We make the decision to get paychecks from businesses that rape the earth, declare bankruptcy and give CEO bonuses. Businesses that make a commodity out of our privacy.

Take a deep breath. Think about your decisions. Don't worry about what you've done. But make changes this next time.

You'll never get there if you're taking the wrong road.

Come join us downtown LA. All day and night. Or join Occupy all over the USA. Wherever you are, we're Occupying. Get inspired. We can change this by joining together, by showing solidarity that we recognize we're no longer represented by our representatives. That democracy has been forgotten. That the United States has become untied and is living a lie.

Its not a matter of hope. Its a matter if you want to change yourself. Thats where this all begins.

So Begin!

Some Serious Inspiration...

Shabazz Palaces- Live on KEXP

"Black Up" is out.
After about 100 listens, you start hearing it for the first time again.

Between the band's recent deluge of interviews and shows, we're catching the signal that Ishmael's score for Tough Bond is in synthesis- as is a plan to get these cats on a stage in one of the mot remote regions of East Africa, to play for an audience of a few thousand Turkana nomads.

We could use a few extra hands. Anyone?

by sharing words and ideas

The oral tradition alive and well in Kibera.

SHABAZZ PALACES: "BLASTIT"

Finally, we give you Blastit- our video for Shabazz Palaces. The track is from their self-titled EP. A few months ago, we made a good friend in Ishmael Butler, AKA Butterfly, of Shabazz Palaces. He's bringing our favorite voice in hip-hop and the mysterious sound of Shabazz to bear on the score of our film. There is pure magic in this union.

The full-length debut record from Shabazz Palaces, "Black Up", will be out in June on Sub Pop. Not to be missed. It's already my favorite record of the year and it will likely stay that way.

I don't think I've smiled as I did today in a really long time- thinking of our friends in this video from Isiolo, Mombasa, Meru, the Turkana village of Attir and how happy they would be to know that people here can see them and feel a ray of their African sunshine.

A day in the Beat Cave

Modeselektor. Happy Birthday. Coffee, 1 press, 2 cups, spinach, more than you'd think, a cookie, a website born, an argument outside between "Gregory" and a man who should have sent him something in the mail, helicopters, tourists taking pictures of gargoyles, underwear, dancing, Kenyan music videos, Mombasa turned into Nairobi and we are one step closer to the dawn of the Tough Bond.
Just another day in the Beat Cave. However, those days are numbered, as we soon relocate to the Pueblo, an elevated cliffside dwelling with a view, a crew and a whole lot to do.

The Star of the Show

We Love Sinbad from Village Beat on Vimeo.

Feeling lovey-dovey? Overwhelmed? Generous? Do it. Make a donation on this page (button below), or go visit our profile at Creative Visions:

www.creativevisions.org/​projects/​villagebeat.html

Life as Unusual

Friends in angry fruit costumes, friends multiplying, red peppers needing love, the Fall on the best coast, mornings waking beside Our Mother Pacific, scrambling around like hermit crabs for a shell, wild rivers and music. After a month inside the kaleidoscope, we're back to work, getting ready to tell a grand story.

Customs

Search me. You'll find more than you can handle.

Our very first music video, shot for the boys of the K.M.U. underground hip-hop outfit in Nairobi's Kiamaiko slum over two days in their neighborhood of tunnels and slaughterhouses. Fyetux (a.k.a. Will-O) was our connection to the otherwise impenetrable Kariobangi street kid crew. In return for his introduction, we shot a video for their new track. "Polisi" tells the story that not every cop must be a "fisi" (hyena/corrupt mo-fo). Real exposure for musicians in Nairobi is when your video hits the "big screen" circuit of the bumping matatus (taxi buses) that transport thousands of people every day to and from the city and slums. From Lil' Wayne/ T-Pain to Elephant Man to local heroes, the DVD medleys are non-stop. Village Beat gets up in the mix.

KMU- POLISI from Village Beat on Vimeo.

The Beat is coming home

tO mAkE a VILLAGE iN the StrEETs.

Goodbye for now beloved Kenya! Goodbye friends. Thank you for letting us be changed by your lives. Thank you for naps in your living rooms, on skins under your stars, for your bravery in new places alongside us, for chapatis and philosophy, for your trust in us that could only have come from the look in our eyes. We'll be back to go further, to give and to receive even more. For now, let's tend our own gardens and prepare for the next celebration.
Tough Bond. Coming soon.

Brothers

Some of us are lucky enough to have one. This is Echumu, Andrew and Awatchi. Brothers. Seeing them in town, you'd have no idea they are related. It's only when you lower your head to stand with them, awkwardly inside the tiny shack where their mother drunkenly rages, that you see the common origin, the forces that make grave their youthful eyes and drive a fault line of necessity through their family.
Here they lie on the pile of wood that- with the help of neighbors, two lead carpenters, a gaggle of imperfectionists sharing one hammer, the moral support of their lazy but always affable father, time and a bit of determination- we hope, will become their home. We built the place. Painted it. Even put beds inside. But they've never known what a home looks like, or how it works. We'll find out what happens when we come back next year. A year off of the street. A year away from their mother. A year to explore their bond under one roof.

I'm a simple man.

Just give me my miraa and I'll give you this smile all day long.
Baba Echumu- enjoying the show as the bones of his boys' new home go up, a stone's throw from his doorstep.

What's the password?

The American behind the bullet-proof glass looked at his monitor and grabbed the snaking microphone, "Mr. Julius? Window 9". His warm-showered, gelled hair looked like plastic in the fluorescent office light. His accent was Jersey.
Outside they had cued for hours in the purple darkness. Men on the left, women (and shouldered babies) on the right. They had emptied their empty pockets. Held their arms up, turned around. Embassy security was tight after a bomb ripped 400 people there in 1998.
No more chances.
****
First 20, then 50, then 100 dreams tentatively walked into the waiting room, looking around for clues of how to act, how to better their odds. Their verdicts would come in only a few hours.
****
Kenya: I want to attend my daughter's wedding. Please.
America: Your application is denied. Outdated bank statement.
Kenya: But...
America: That's all for today, sir.
Kenya: I will not leave this place without a visa.
America: Call security. Next, please. Lemuya, Julius?
Kenya: Yes, sir!
America: Why do you want to go to the US?
Kenya: I am a Pastor, attending a conference for Pastors in South Carolina. I am invited by so-and-so.
America: What do you do for income, Mr. Julius?
Kenya: I am a pastor.
America: I suggest you save for a few years and come back, Mr. Julius, your ties to Kenya are not particularly strong.
Kenya: I have a family-
America: Yes, I understand, but your ties to Kenya are weak.
Kenya: Weak? I am a Pastor with a Parish.
America: Do you own land? A business? You have no money. How will you support yourself in America?
Kenya: You mean for the one week conference?
America: Yes.
Kenya: The church is paying for everything, it says right here-
America: I'm sorry sir, that's all for today.
Human: Excuse me, I am a friend of Mr. Lemuya here, we've worked together here for 2 years doing various community development projects. He's my main man in Kenya. I trust him with everything. What's the problem?
America: His ties to Kenya aren't particularly strong.
Human: What does that mean?
America: No money, no business, he could make so much more money in America, the risk is too high that he'll stay for us to admit him.
Human: He's a pastoralist. A nomad. They own nothing but cows and goats.
America: Nomads don't get visas. Come back again in a few years.

****
What are we doing? In those years, must he shed his identity? Must he go to school, get a job, open accounts etc? Money. Our password is money. I am so ashamed.

****
Until this peaceful warrior lands on American soil, you'll have to come to Kenya to be his friend, to hear his stories and his laugh, to dance with him and to feel the supernova that is emitted from his heart.

****

Wolfy

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll sleep on your house.

Sinbad. Bad to the Bone.

This kid makes it really really difficult to think of leaving Kenya in two weeks. Our relationship started six months ago, divided by a camera, as we documented his existence as the notoriously most glued-out street kid in Isiolo. After a few months, the camera disappeared and we became friends rather than working partners. He's now left glue, left the streets, and has beat all odds by entering a boarding school where he will finish elementary school and startle his teachers with his enormous bursting open heart and, somehow, still-intact, genius brain.

Annaliza

Mary Poppins