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Tag Archives: Death

Otherworldly Videos: Afrogalactic Postcards


This series is from National Black Programming Consortium and features actor Alem Sapp:

This work is a series of video podcasts in which the receiver ‘intercepts’ 60 second messages from ‘travelers’ either trying to find their way home or trying to run as far away as they can, but always hoping to maintain a connection with those they’ve left behind, or those they seek. These postcards express the pathos and longing of homesick travelers alienated from both the place they come from and the places to which they travel. They are communications of love and frustration. They are instructions and signs.

This reminds me of stories about people who are terminally ill and decide to create videos of themselves to give messages to loved ones they are leaving behind. It reflects how media of any kind is larger than life in their ability to travel time and space to speak beyond the grave or distance between people.

“Black Hole”

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Posted by on October 22, 2012 in Film, Media, Otherworldly Videos

 

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Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: My Poetry


For Black Poetry Day, I will celebrate by doing the first post of my own poetry. Here is a poem I wrote for my friend who has to deal with the deaths of a a friend and a family member this year:

“Papa Ghede” in Haitian Vodou By Rob Wolf

Turn, Turn, Turn

Death visits us all

But for some it comes

Sooner, lurking at corners

For the moment to jump into

The continuous turn

Of the revolving door

Pushed forward by its

Invisible force, we are unable

To push back, only to

Look through the clear glass

At years now behind.

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Death to Punk


I bet you were thinking I wanted Punk music to die. Nope. This is about the upcoming documentary about the band who predated Punk, Death. Founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1971, the band consisted of three Hackney brothers, Bobby, David, and Dannis. Starting off as an R&B group, they switched to rock in 1973 after seeing an Alice Cooper show. The group recorded several demos at United Sound and received attention from Columbia Records executive, Clive Davis, however, Davis was not comfortable with their name and stopped giving support. Death released copies of “Politician In My Eyes” with “Keep on Knocking” on their Tryangle label, but later discontinued as Death in 1976, right before the Punk era began.

The brothers formed other bands after that, including The Fourth Movement, a gospel rock band, and reggae band Lambsbread. Sadly, David died in 2000 from lung cancer, and was replaced by Bobbie Duncan from Lambsbread when Death reformed in 2009, after the label Drag City released the seven 1974 Death songs. In January 2011, Drag City released another album, “Spiritual • Mental • Physical,” which consist of songs from earlier demos. The documentary about the band, “Where Do We Go From Here?,” tells their story and how they are finally getting recognition as a protopunk band after 35 years. In addition to that, Bobby Hackney’s sons are part of a band called Rough Francis, who do tributes to Death and were vital in getting out the word about the band.

Death – Politician In My Eyes

NPR interviewMetro Times article and Suicide Girls interview

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2011 in Documentary, Music

 

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