Everything should be said before one starts talking.
Some American states didn’t allow the broadcasting of the film of the match or even filming any other of his matches against white boxers.
This man liked women. He was involved with Moulin Rouge star Mistinguette, German spy Mata Hari, sex symbols Lupe Velez and Mae West. Then he got married with a white woman and had to flee to Canada then to France to avoid prison for the violation of the Mann law which forbade the transport of women between states for prostitution or immoral acts, which of course he denied, but was still convicted of and sentenced to a year imprisonment.
Popular novelist Jack London wrote in a New York newspaper that it was a match « between a colossus and a pygmy. Jim Jeffries must emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove the golden smile from Johnson’s face. »
On July the 4th, 1910 in Reno, Nevada, Jack Johnson won the « Fight of the Century » against « The Great White Hope ». This is called history.
A hundred years later, the 4th of July 2010, a small art space called « La Fundación de la Rebelión » opened in Paris. Not yet history but oh, yes, yes, how we would like it to be…
Va te faire enculer, sale fils de pute, is what a French footballer told his team manager in the dressing rooms during world cup 2010.
« Va te faire enculer » means « fuck you », with the precision that it should be up the arse. It means that one wishes the addressed person to be anally penetrated by an erect penis, or something that looks like it.
« Fils de pute » means « son of a bitch » and translates quite well. Except that in French, pute is only a prostitute and never a female dog. So, the insult designates the child of a woman who had her vagina penetrated by an erect and ejaculating penis for financial compensation. The father of the thus born child is not directly mentioned in the insult, even if he is the one paying.
« Sale » means « dirty ». It translates perfectly and can be added in front of most «hate speech». But was it from the team that actullay reported it to the press?
The 7th century saw the first attempt at notating time through the scoring of Gregorian chants. Pope Gregory’s political aim was to unite Christian Europe by having people sing the same hymns and music everywhere. Now what you really must check out is this must have jazz compilation and this year’s pop revelations.
In the 50’s Foucault stated that Western culture was leaving History to enter a time of Space. My hypothesis is that we are entering a time of Rhythm. But hey, who am I to have philosophical intuitions? Could there be something hidden in African percussion? Between the beats? Inside the beat?
«Casse-toi, pauvre con» could translate as «fuck off, you moron» and became quite a famous sentence in France since its current President said it to a visitor at an agricultural fair. That was before his historical « this in unacceptable » statement, which he adressed to the press about the footballer.
Isn’t he right? Insults are unacceptable.
I only know the gesture, timing, carpet and compass from the Muslin prayer. The Christian one, I never quite got how it worked. Is it that the longer you pray the more chances you get to see your wishes answered? Is it quantitative? If it’s a trick why don’t they spend more time on their knees? Look at pianists, the time they spend on their instrument. Do you know any great musician who made it by praying rather than practising? Can one do it like for school punishment: pronounce a hundred times god god god god god, then please please please, make make make it it it it it it ha ha ha happen…
If it’s qualitative, it’s another story.
As a kid I never understood how people could slightly believe in God. I thaught it was a package. Is it about intensity then? Grit your teeth and stop breathing for a minute.
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And if music was an extra-terrestrial form of life? A virus?
Director Bob Wilson asks choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi who is dancing a 17th century piece for him:
« What does this movement mean? »
« Nothing » she says, « it doesn’t mean anything, it’s full of meaning, it’s abstract. »
With sentences like that, you get the feeling of understanding something… of life maybe. But then again, in front of a bad abstract painting, it doesn’t really help, does it?
This is unacceptable. Fuck you - up the arse. Did you know that certain spit is the worst substance for medical analysis?
Another idea that does something to me is Bootsie Collins’ wife doing his costumes. When I heard that, something changed in my life. Isn’t it what art is supposed to do to you. I love you Bootsie.
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It’s on Arte, the most serious TV channel in France, a programme called The Wednesdays of History. And you hear them talk about the race war. Yes, a serious documentary. As there is only one known human race on earth, why would serious people talk about races? Hum? I wonder.
Yes, there are different types: tall ones, muscular ones, there are differences in nail shapes, in thumb size… and lots of other features. As a matter of fact it’s mostly the skin colour, the hair texture, and the shape of the nose, which seem to define up a race...
So, in order not to re-re-re-produce, re-re-re-re-perform this nonsense, Arte, you should talk about the melanin war, the frizzy-versus-straight-hair war, but not the race war. Can you please stop talking about something that doesn’t exist? It is complicated enough as it is. Thank you, pauvre con de réal.
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I’m still translating: « Change your mind like you change rhythm, improvise when everything is easy. Always follow your instinct without loosing your mind. Laugh at your disagreements and find harmony next to your loved ones. That’s why you’re driving one. New Volvo c70. Life offers much more than a Volvo. »
And there’s another one: « Be ready for new adventures. Live life to the fullest. Surrender to temptation. Have fun with small things. Surprise your loved ones and yourself. Have no principles by principle. That’s why you’re driving one. New volvo c70 convertible coupé. Life offers much more than a Volvo. » Who the f. writes that ? They should dare and show themselves up. Can they improvise when everything becomes easy?
Just imagine the brainstorming... ouh... smell the marketing manager’s sweat?
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Egyptian scholar Izzat Attiyah caused a stir and raised many eyebrows when he issued a 2007 Islamic ruling urging women to breastfeed their male colleagues to avoid illicit mixing between men and women at work. The act, the scholar argued, would establish a symbolic maternal bond between the men and women and would inhibit any sexual relations.
Beikan’s decree perhaps tries to be a bit less scandalous. It suggests that the women pump breast milk so that men can drink it out of a glass instead of suckling from the women’s breasts. But then another prominent cleric, Sheik Abi Ishaq Huwaini, quickly weighed in, insisting that, in fact, men need to suckle in order to make the relationship permissible under Islam.
« I am a writer and not the spokesman for a million punks » said Jack Kerouac.
Anyway, the post-critical terrace named La Fundación de la Rebelión now open in trendy Montmartre (Paris) could also have been called The Laughing Oyster, The Word Made Flesh, The Happy Duck Club, Giordano Bruno, The Sound of Copper, The Bang Terrace, La Noblesse, Nobility, Senghor’s Aesthetic, The Danger of Jazz in Art... or Jack Johnson (the boxer not the surfer).
To be followed…
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