💎MY FAVOURITE THINGS💎 || If You Don’t Know Me By Now

I’ve found myself shifting from moments of blissful hope to abject melancholy over the past fortnight. As I wrote in a blog post last week, these moods have been inspired by the likes of Trevor Noah’s Social Contract segment, Claudia Rankine’s The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning and Hiro Murai’s visual compendium to Michael Kiwanuka’s Black Man In A White World. These creative expressions are searing and cathartic in their own way. Guiding lights in the darkness. I only hope genuine change marks the next chapter for one and all.

8:46 🖥

I was in need of a good laugh last weekend and dived back into Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones special to get my fix. Chappelle is one of the few comedians who cuts through the noise and seemingly gets away with taking aim at the P.C. police. So when the release of 8:46 on YouTube came up in my feed the following day I knew I had to tune in. I’ve never seen the Maryland native look so abjectly disdainful in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Why does it take a comedian to help us swallow the bitter truth? To accept the fact that a white man, in a position of power, knelt on the neck of an unarmed black man for nine minutes while the world simply carried on. While the twenty-minute segment is uncomfortable viewing, I’m grateful to Chappelle for wearing his heart on his sleeve, and bringing a sense of closure to this disgusting affair.

Gurrumul 📹

When I came across this link on Monster Children, offering a limited time look at a handful of choice Madman documentaries, I knew I had to tuck in. Watching this ninety-minute profile on the late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was a surreal experience for the simple reason that I’d never known him when he walked the earth. Gurrumul was a blind man and the most successful Indigenous musician to grace the airwaves. After listening to his debut solo album from 2008 I can well understand why. While I’m ashamed to say his voice was altogether foreign to me, it felt so close, so full of love and understanding. It’s refreshing to know that Australia’s most successful Indigenous artists never sold himself down the Murray Darling to play the white man’s game. If you enjoy this doc as much as I did you can make a donation to his foundation here.

Watchmen 📺

This is one of the smartest adaptations of a celebrated IP — based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons infamous graphic novel from the nineteen-eighties — that I’ve ever come across. There is something so potent about watching this new series, created by Damon Lindelof, in the wake of these seismic protests in America. It’s hard hitting. A profound mix of historic events coupled with incredible storylines and extraordinary performances (Regina King and Don Johnson are sensational). What is so refreshing about the limited series is its ability to tackle race and prejudice on a completely new level. The opening scene, a graphic portrayal of the 1921 Tulsa massacre (the African-American Wall Street), brought Kimberley Jones viral video to mind helping to prove that systemic injustice is the ultimate evil. Check it on Foxtel Go.

Backstabbing Bastards & Backstage Passes 📚

A few newsletters ago I jumped on my soapbox for Al Kooper’s Act Like Nothings Wrong. After receiving his memoir in the post, I’ve been savoring tales that have left me smacking my lips. To conceive that this feller started out singing and selling milkshake ballads in the early sixties before worming his way into a recording session on Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone (the madman jumped on the organ never having played one before). This outrageous act would segue him into The Blues Project — the American answer to the British Invasion — and collaborations with Mike Bloomfield, Steven Stills, Shuggie Otis and more. The man had that rare ability to jump ship from one musical moment to another and always managed to find his way back to dry land. A scrumptious affair so far.

Outlaw King 🎥

I came upon David Mackenzie’s Netflix film while feeling sorry for myself last week. I remember watching this film with mild indifference when it first premiered a couple years back but streaming this period drama over again was a revelation. The film is an incredibly immersive look at the reign of Robert the Bruce, the Scottish King who successfully forced their English oppressors into submission. The film picks up where Mel Gibson’s Braveheart leaves off, a dismayed smattering of Scottish royals bending the knee to the vicious King of England. Chris Pine and his ol’ blue eyes carry this hard-hitting picture across the line while Florence Pugh shines bright as his significant other. If you’ve never set your eyes on Starred Up, Mackenzie’s last UK production, jump on it. It’s searing stuff.

The New York Studio Masters 🎙

I came across the world of Otis Spann while diving into Al Kooper’s early years with The Blues Project. The legendary R&B pianist was one of many world-class acts including John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Big Joe Williams who opened for the young Jewish upstarts at a little club in the Village in order to build their base. Kooper confesses that the whole setup, orchestrated by the MGM suits, made him uncomfortable but didn’t stop him asking Spann for piano lessons. After diving into the discography of Spann, I’ve come away with even more respect for the Mississippi native, who humbly accepted Kooper’s request with a plate of dinner as payment each night. This collection of master tracks from 1960 is ecstatic listening.

Rosemary’s Way 📹

My brother from another mother Kane Senes and I were lucky enough to sit down with Ros Horin, the director of Rosemary’s Way, a few days before the premiere of her new documentary feature at the 67th annual Sydney Film Festival. While the documentary is a rather bare-bones affair, it offers such a beautiful portrait of Rosemary Kariuki, a Kenyan immigrant who has committed her life to building a community of her own. Seeing Kariuki investing her time and energy with migrant women of all races and ages is so special. It sheds so much light on our lucky country and its melting-pot of voices. You can listen to our confessional chat with Horin here and stream the feel-good doc here.

Throughline 📻

I came across this National Public Radio podcast series by way of Fresh Air and have been thoroughly impressed with the coverage and production. While I learned so much in a recent episode on the history of American Policing, it was a discussion of Hong Kong’s future and legacy that got me hooked. The series, hosted by Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei, offers an immersive look at some hard-hitting social topics. It’s not easy to deliver objective fare in our politically charged present. Listening to these curious minds tackle delicate subject matter with care and resolve is a breath of fresh air, offering much needed perspective for these turbulent times.

The Casketeers 📺

I normally don’t go in for any shade of reality TV. Not only are there so many great films and teevee shows on my list, but the whole premise of cinema verité in the age of the Kardashians leaves me apoplectic. I’ve never given a passing thought to the daily lives of funeral directors but watching this New Zealand Maori couple tackle the intimate process on this Netflix show has left me duly impressed. Seeing Francis and Kaiora Tipene celebrate the lives of the dearly departed has helped me to face my own fears of death. Seeing each and every Maori family celebrate the passing of their loved ones with song and dance, often for days at a time, is strangely cathartic. For when we have the capacity to celebrate someone’s life, to grieve their passing with tears and laughter, we come to fully appreciate the beauty of living.

Bob Dylan Has A Lot on His Mind 🖥

Robert Allen Zimmerman has been my guru ever since I devoured his captivating autobiography Chronicles Vol I. The man is so much more than a musical icon. He is a humanist and family man with a heart the size of his home state of Minneapolis. Reading the following conversation with NY Times critic Douglas Brinkley gave me reason to breathe a little lighter in this turbulent time. It’s so special to know that the seventy-nine year old titan still has his finger on the pulse, his emotional barometer as healthy as ever. Not only did this chat offer some incredible music recommends but promises to make the future that much brighter.

“Good news in today’s world is like a fugitive, treated like a hoodlum and put on the run. Castigated. All we see is good-for-nothing news. And we have to thank the media industry for that. It stirs people up. Gossip and dirty laundry. Dark news that depresses and horrifies you.”

Tom Wilson 👤

I devoured this incredible Rolling Stone article on the extraordinary life of Tom Wilson, a revered music executive and studio producer whose light and legacy was eclipsed for far too long. The man worked with Bob Dylan, assigned to the Prince of Folk just as he was going electric. He tapped The Velvet Underground as one of his first groups when he moved across from CBS to MGM and championed the likes of The Blues Project, Mothers of Invention and helped Simon & Garfunkel go platinum by electrifying The Sound of Silence. The fact that Wilson was a black man from the South made his success that much sweeter and yet it cannot be denied that his lack of renown (I’d never heard of him!) comes down to the colour of his skin. I stumbled across this fan-made website which is devoted to reframing his legacy. Definitely worth a gander.

Shaka Bundu🎙

I subscribed to the Bandcamp page of Awesome Tapes From Africa earlier this year and recently received an email touting Penny Penny’s music and merchandise. I’d never heard of the South African native but after listening to his debut LP I’ve been hungry for answers. The man is mythic in so many senses of the word. Giyani Kulani was a former janitor turned pop-star, a man who used his newfound fame to enter into the political space and more recently received his very own reality show Penny Ahee which follows Kulani and his eighteen offspring (!!!) . Listening to the rhythmic undertones of this 1994 album conjures up images of Manchester’s infamous Hacienda nightclub, immortalized in Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People. Only set in Johannesburg. A riot of a good time.

MY FAVOURITE THINGS |If You Don’t Know Me By Now

“I can’t tell you. As a man watching another man go through something like that, what it makes you feel like.”

Shaka Bundu🎙