A Bigga Ford.

By now you might have heard of the delightful Tessanne Chin. She's that Jamaican songstress and media-darling who recently swept all before her on the way to triumph on "The Voice" USA. Charming, centred, adroit and demure, our Tess rode da riddims of her native wordsong into the hearts and souls of millions.

Well, for every Tessanne, it seems there's an anti-Tessanne.

In a turn of events, closely resembling a Maury Povich premise, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has become the latest flashpoint Jamaican dialectician. Boombastic epithets, viral memes and all.

A nuh Missis Chin likkle girl dis ... it's the bumboclaat antithesis.

Loyal bro, Doug, stumps for Rob's political survival just like sis Tami pulls for Tessi's rising star. Comparisons end there. Y'see, Tessanne is a goodaz gyal, while our Mayor makes uncool copy and has running beef wit' da local sheriff - Police Chief Bill Blair.

"Babylon newspaper seh so, I and I seh so, so what more the people want to reveal?," mused the Rasta prophet. Now, if everyone's commenting on the same thing, it's that much harder to be original.
Enter those easy-to-reach cultural signifiers for Jamaica, add a dash of reticence to appear culturally adrift - cue tricolour Marley memes.

As Rob rhymes with Bob - bobsled down this linguistic luge with me. Paraphrasing Rastafari dread style and pattern is its own cottage industry. Broadsheets, blogs and twitter parody accounts, like @MayorRobMarley, leap enthusiastically at typical Marley-brand imagery to feed Toronto City Hall's Tuff Gong-show.

 

 

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." (Proverbs 20:1).

 

Rob Ford's synapses, inebriated and along for the ride, default to bad words in the face of Bacchanal. Not unusual by itself, until incongruity rears its ugly head in a too-cute performance of base guff, communicating on more levels than he likely understands.

And the hits just keep on coming. Wheel up selecta!

  

 Jamaican language is a dynamic mix-up-mix-up of English and Patwa. Perpetually evolving. It is confident and coolly captivating in cadence. Together with its kin, Reggae, we have a contagious combo. Only the uptight are genuinely immune, but the case of  Mr. Mayor shows signs of advanced Yardie-mylitis.

 

Despite being as good a bloodclaat Ja-fake-an mimic as rassclaat Snoop Lion, Natty Rob is no Mystic Man like Peter Tosh, who once scandalized polite society by releasing a song entitled ... yes, "Oh Bumboclaat!"

 

 

My Tessanne Chin references are admittedly a tad gratuitous, but the piece was desperately seeking beautification, y'nahmean?

 

In realworld Jamaica, politicians often flex like rockstars, and cops too. I crack up - no pun intended - visualizing the unseemly outcome if this played out on the public scene there. Rob Ford clashing with a top cop and cussing him all kine a claat! 

 

If, after a storied career, he wasn't approaching retirement I'd have just the match-up. Robamuffin vs. Legendary Supercop (and coincidental namesake), Cornwall "Bigga" Ford. Then again, they're both facing impending retirement, so why not?

 

#Readytorumble meets #Mannersanddiscipline Uptown.

Ringside sell off.

  

... say "hi" to Bob ...

... the discovery of an old diary of mine set me straight on a couple things ... through much of spring 1981, prepping for exams I should've passed the year before, I was wrapped up in an academic cocoon ... hence, contrary to well-intentioned fiction fashioned over three decades, it seems I didn't hear of Bob Marley's passing until the morning after it happened ...

... I was downing breakfast and coffee before heading for the Library, and with nothing being particularly romantic about the experience, I felt extra-cheated in that moment by the news ...

... losing Bob was personal ... consequently I avidly devour every posthumous detail, anecdote, article, book and video ... the cosmic vacuum left behind on that May 11th, when he drew final breath en-route to Jamaica, subsists on persistent postscript ...

... enter Kevin MacDonald's film Marley, the brand-new-heavy, a two-and-a-half hour feature-documentary illuminating the life of musical icon Bob Marley ... it's the latest manifestation of a kept promise, Bob's own pledge of presence-in-perpetuity ... "you a go tyad to see me face, can't get me out a di race" - (Bad Card)

... the globo-ubiquity of Brand Marley is remarkable for its straddling of high and low places ... Anna Wintaur of Vogue and Laura of the Bushes can attest, similarly too the random street stencils spotted by my daughter in San Miguel, Mexico ...

... with Bob firmly ensconced in the pantheon of revered rockers, responsibility for turning out a product such as "Marley" surely daunts stout effort and best intention ... indeed, directors Stone, Scorcese and Demme publicly flirted with head credits, before MacDonald, just into his teens in '81, stayed aboard to deliver an updated primer on the sensibilities of his subject ...

... the thirty-odd year wait for family and key collaborators to sign-off on the film has seen gradual leakage of memorabilia and memories over time, feeding several tomes and bolstering the overall industry that is The Legend ... familiarity with many of the extant photos of Bob Marley only sweetens the freshness of an image that registers as rare or new ...

... as I become aware that so many people are yet unaware of Robert Nesta Marley's mixed racial heritage for example, or even the fact that dreadlocks can actually be kept clean, I'm reminded that the film's target zone is vast and ever-expanding ... future generations will now be challenged to place this extraordinary life in context of a wider narrative ...

... Marley the documentary is poised to infuse some clarity into the smokescreen and engage viewers who are hip to only isolated aspects of this musician's mythology and mystique ...

... y'see, nearly everyone has an idea who shot the metaphorical sheriff John Brown, and accepts that a double negative is clumsy syntax unless you're singing No Woman, No Cry, but it behoves me to point out that too many settle for the reductive cliche of stoned Rastaman, an "irie mon" simplification of a real revolutionary ... this is about to change, say "hi" to Bob the man ...

... much of his story is a matter of public record, and we've watched and studied as the phenomenon grew ...

"in the darkness there must come out a light,"
- (Could You Be Loved)

... but it hasn't always been clear where to start when initiating new attention to the Bob Marley allegory ... by beginning on shores across the Atlantic, Marley strikes a first note as crisp as Carly Barrett's rimshot drumroll ... deliberate pacing and lengthier edits lend languid riddim to the film that, in the end, doesn't feel too long ...

... spiced with revealing footage of previously anonymous individuals like Bob's Bavarian nurse and the half-sister he never knew, in addition to new footage of the usual cast of characters, the final cut is consistently compelling,  a story all should see ...

 ... the upshot is a linear look at Bob Marley's timeline - a simple, modern approach if ever there was one - humanizing, touching the familiar and unfamiliar on the way to a choke-up ending, which we know is coming but get to experience all over again ...

... as we ponder what was, what might've been and what will be ...

... rastaman vibration is positive ...

... birthdays are great for philosophizing on human immortality, a deliberate oxymoron ... on examination you'll find, amid the acclaimed and elevated, many musicians ... this is because music strums a soulful chord in our special complexity ...

... February 6th marks the birth of Bob Marley, one such, who would have turned 67 this year had he not died ... for "died" read "transcended to a higher state," the only time it's allowable to express yourself like a Waco Branch Davidian to make your point more reverential ... 

... incidentally, a Marley relative reportedly perished at Waco, so perhaps I shouldn't make light ... still, it's safe to say Bob's umm, ... ascension ... was more assured by his passing, unlike the demise of nearly all who take that "final taxi"...

... Bob's image has been preserved better than King Tut in iconic photography and sound recording, meaning Jamaica, Africa, Europe and the entire "mix-up, mix-up" world can visualize him in his vitality each and every Earth Day ...

... we naah go tired to see Bob face ...

... not like the ones I used to know ...

... if you've never heard the song White Christmas recorded in 1965 by The Wailers, with a fresh-out-of-his-teens Bob Marley wailing the lead vocal, I recommend you add it to your holiday programming the next time this season rolls around ... at the very least you'll get to hear the youthful legend adapt the lyrics to suit his tropical experience of the holiest Christian festival ...

... "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
not like the ones I used to know"...

... but my 2011 Xmas pictured Irving Berlin's original dream ...

... despite a paucity of real snow in my formative years, there was often plenty of the aerosol variety, and, even as the best-wishes remain the same, the parameters of enjoyment may shift ... to quote another modern Jamaican Christmas offering ...

"I wish for all mankind,

a Warm Jamaican Christmas time,

where there is no snow,

where the good sensimilla grow" ...

... meltdown mash-up ...

... "Bless my eyes this morning, Jah sun is on the rise once again, the way earthly things are going, anything can happen" ...
- ("So Much Trouble In The World" - Marley)

... by now readers of this blog will be familiar with my conviction that there's never a bad time to reach for a Marley lyric to support a thought ... Bob Marley tailored his songs around specific concerns but also for universal applicability and while he never actually used the word "meltdown" in song or, to my knowledge, interview, recent events may very well have given him opportunity to do so ... for sure there's plenty occasion these days to employ the term ...

... the earthquake/tsunami double-whammy in Japan, as if it isn't catastrophic enough in terms of loss of life and damage, is precipitating crises at several nuclear facilities, feeding fears of Chernobyl-style reactor meltdowns of massive consequence ...

... "in this age of technological inhumanity, scientific atrocity, atomic mis-philosophy, nuclear mis-energy, it's a world that forces lifelong insecurity" - ("Survival" - Marley) ...

... the growing challenge to the autocratic status-quo in the Arab world is widely characterised in Western media as systemic meltdown but is probably more akin to a populist derma-peel than a grasp at Washington or Westminster-style democracy ...

... "every man got a right to decide his own destiny ... so arm in arm, with arms, we'll fight this little struggle ... soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionary" - ("Zimbabwe" - Marley) ...

... collective unrest or act of God doesn't hold a monopoly on the phenomenon of meltdown, in fact it is just as likely, perhaps moreso, for any given individual to manifest this state through uncontrolable anger, psycho-chemical breakdown or both, as in the case of one sick cyber-stalker who I've had to report to police ... then there's the force majeure called Teflon Charlie ...

... with Charlie Sheen's dramatic severance from the Two and a Half Men TV sit-com keeping news cycles distracted, all the apocalyptic internet chatter around the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 and the looming fly-by of the asteroid Apophis, you'd think we have enough cataclysm to contemplate ... not so ...

... you may have heard of Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, it's said to be close to burnout, soon to collapse on itself in a showy, stellar meltdown known as a supernova ... the dying star is considered old for its type and could stage this spectacular exit tomorrow, or in a gazillion tomorrows, but in the context of our universe, that means soon ...

... Marley, in the astral gleam of stage lights, represents a supernova in the musical firmament ... acceptance of the supreme authority of nature is central to Rasta spirituality and is perhaps the best prescription for dealing with meltdowns ...

... "have no fear for atomic energy, 'cause none a dem can stop the time" - ("Redemption Song" - Marley)

... interestingly enough, I journey to Australia in a matter of weeks at the kind invitation of the Supanova Pop Culture Expo ... I'll see Brisbane where cyclone Yasi wreaked havoc only a month ago ... a Jamaican Down Under, like Bob in '79 ...

... "Jah love, Jah love protect us" - ("Positive Vibration" - Marley)

... everliving Legend ...

... this is the thirtieth year since the untimely passing of Bob Marley in May of 1981 ... had he lived to this February 6th he'd be marking a sixty-sixth birthday and the unanswerable questions, as to how his musical art shoulda-coulda-woulda evolved, presumably wouldn't have to be asked ...

... it could be argued that death hasn't slowed Marley down much, even though his dependable output of new music was no longer possible after the sessions that became the LPs "Uprising" and the posthumous "Confrontation" ... Bob, in his performing days, passionately making music, was every inch a live wire, his concerts always giving of his soul, making it less likely that mortality would be more than a minor limitation ...
 

... these thirty years, come to think of it, could be just the proof our world needs that there is indeed an afterlife ... Bob must be working hard in Zion because the fruits of his labour still manifest with metronomic consistency ... the proliferation of his image keeps his work top of the mind as everyone who ever took a photo of him or with him is proud to show it in public ...

... the family franchise could not want for a more solid cornerstone ... Bob Marley's image is globally prominent and versatile enough to be embraced by upscale urban couture and the T-shirt vendor at bend down plaza (a humorous Jamaican term for ... sidewalk merchandising) ... there is no built-in obsolescence because of the strong Rasta alliance to cultures of struggle as pioneered by the Soul Rebel on world stages ...
 
... Bob then, has become the pan-cultural face of a people straddling past, present and future ... if there's doubt, just reference the authority of his back catalogue, the ubiquity of his internet footprint, the emulation by his progeny and the testimony of his broad range of admirers (there are even Bluegrass and Bossa Nova tributes to his Reggae canon) ... the exploits of his several sons speak for themselves and his daughters hold it down too ... word that Cedella, the eldest, will be designing Puma athleticwear for Usain Bolt to wear in 2012 is yet another mouthwatering Marley prospect ...

... yours truly was blessed to attend two concerts by BMW, one of the 1977 London dates at the Rainbow Theatre, and a one-off at the acoustically unsuitable New Bingley Hall in Staffordshire, England the following year, which was more of a love-in-graced-by-the-guru than a music event ... for me these experiences, and a collection of Marley ephemera, buttress an undying regard for the lessons of his life and its ripple effects ... sufficient to underline Bob's honest capacity to enlighten and entertain at once ...

... the catch-all label "icon" can be over-used but in Bob Marley's case it can't convey every dimension ... I guess "Legend" comes closest ... it is, appropriately, one of Bob's nicknames and the title of the distilled greatest-hits collection found in every home ... this year's official release of the final concert of Bob Marley and The Wailers, a September 23rd 1980 Pittsburgh show, is titled "Live Forever" ... my sentiments exactly, Happy Birthday Bob ...

... flee from hate, mischief and jealousy...

... I had no intention of starting the year on a heavy note because the outlook for me depends on positive vibrations, but news of the shooting and loss of life in Arizona this weekend touched a long-exposed nerve ... in the U.S.A., a country with so much to offer the world, there are some baffling smoke signals ...

... "life is one big road with lots of signs" ... this 1979 Bob Marley lyric from the strident anthem "Wake Up And Live" goes on to advise ... "flee from hate, mischief and jealousy" ... Bob's focus was on metaphorical signs and scriptural prophecy rather than literal letraset and amateur calligraphy ...















... it's either naive or deliberately negligent to overlook the connection between the election of the first African American to the highest office in the land and the overt vitriol that comes to the fore when progressive energies meet conservative resistance in the current political tug-o-war game ...

... inflamed passion can manifest as insanity in ways stranger than fiction and it gets even more distressing when people (who should know better as citizens of the self-proclaimed leader of the free world) resort to calling for (or alluding to) gruesome deaths for holders of opposition viewpoints ...

















... democracy, as fair a blueprint for governance as humankind has yet devised, needs to see itself as just that, a man-made template that requires periodic updates in the manner of today's state-of-the-art electronics ... other countries have experimented, the time is past-due for U.S.A. Democracy 2.0 ...

... after centuries of not-entirely-proportionate division of assets, the U.S. is now left to deal with a quest for equilibrium ... while it's understood that there'll be disagreement along the way, surely there is nothing to be gained by obstinately defending a right to bear ever-more-destructive firearms instead of voting towards enlightened alternatives ... even compromise would be improvement, but no, we must adapt for hollow-points and Glock semis because founding fathers decreed it for a bygone age ... some floundering fathers continue to decree it, with defensive and offensive rationale, while the walking-dead in America and it's regional slipstream continue to live nine-millimeter lives ...
















... in this part of the world we are able to lean on the democratic cornerstone of Freedom Of Speech but do we really require an M-16 to defend that right in a mall parking-lot or at a tea-party? ...

... it doesn't take deep contemplation to imagine what some people feel at the sight of a confident Michelle Obama, speaking freely as FLOTUS, when simian references recall another lingering archaic notion intended to injure ... elsewhere there's the oblique approach, but the words you twist to make your own today may return to haunt your tomorrow ...
















... I saw a re-run of "Bowling For Columbine" last week ... the shock factor has diminished significantly since first release due to repeated cases of people "going postal" and the hawkish stances staked-out by the paradoxically called "right-wing"...

... Limbaugh disciples and ilk, with clear kneejerk reactions to a wave of first-time-evers in American politics, unquestionably kindle brush-fires that feed on the feeble minded and potentially trigger actions like the barbaric attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her constituents ... tell it like it is ...





















... despite the proliferation of signage, or maybe because of it, the astounding reality of Palinite sophistry will not have the power to ultimately carry the day, I predict ... common sense tells me so (to reclaim a favoured phrase from the pipsqueek braintrust), but it is also possible that the sign-makers could worsen matters by learning to spell, correctly pronouncing "nuclear," "Iraq" and "Ahmadinejad," while re-loading a full ammo magazine into a semi-automatic weapon before getting shot or subdued ...

... an afterword-to-the-wise of A(mer)ri(ca)zona ... don't shoot that sheriff (Dupnik) ... check his post-event remarks, then resume the Bob lyric ... "riiise, from your sleepless slumber"...

... i-slam, you-slam, livin' on almshouse lane ...

... there's nothing like the threat of a little koran or bible burning to prompt waves of indignation and reflexive repercussion ...

... the post 9/11 world is crying out for a new kind of detente ...

... growing up Jamaican you're not often exposed to that sort of secular vitriol nor are you given any divine answers to life's questions, but you are supposed to become familiar with supernatural mysticisms ... geographically blessed, the island was fashioned out of disparate strands by that very kind of energy ...

... looked at another way, I come from this vibrant land in a region which boasts country-comforts and urban challenges both plentiful and real ... they combine to make it a great place to practice faith ...with more churches per square mile than anywhere else in Christendom (Guinness Book of World Records), the people are into faith ... if the colonially-imported fundamentals of high and low Christianities don't entirely engage, then check the knowledge of faith-systems anchored in the enduring African nature of the popular zeitgeist ...

... this is an age of resurgent tribalism ... I choose my images thoughtfully for this post, knowing there are those who will constipate at the sight of a dreadlocked last supper or sigh at the repeated use of Bob Marley's image as a banner ... instead of a currently active representative ... or anything else for that matter ... ... well, while Marley is still the benchmark standard, there was a prior time when non-dreadlocked Prince Buster invoked Allah and became Jamaica's scandal ... and all the rage ...

... public focus on Prince Buster's Islamic involvement has faded in time and the currently-informed will now recognize Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal, deported recently to Jamaica from England via Africa, as the scandal du jour ... and the outrage ... once again giving Jamaica a home-grown link to the apparently insoluble impasse between Christians and Muslims ... both camps appear to insist on moral and territorial ascendancy ...

... inter-faith tension is nothing new ... what could be new is a neo-Rasta application to the friction based on the intrinsic one love/one heart tenet ... simplistic as it sounds ... for ultimately this must be the bottom line ... "a man is just a man" as Garnet Silk sang ... freedom of faith is an inalienable right but not if one belief occludes the liberty of another perspective ... then it becomes tyranny ... no faith has a veto on this ...

... most of us in the human family have been exposed by now to the top messengers and palliative philosophies of Rastafari, the pre-eminent Ethiocentric Jamaican belief-system ... and have had a taste of that rhythm ... or riddim ... in spite of the anomalous fact that the spearheading ambassadors of Roots Rock Reggae, Bob Marley and The Wailers, never actually got to Rock The Casbah like that timeless Clash refrain, in an Islamic country ...

... nonetheless, the vibe permeates ... in Canada I had the pleasure of reasoning with random Iranians across a language barrier during one of GB's memorable Bob Marley birthday bashes at Vancouver's Graceland niteclub back-in-the-day, grooving to half-Muslim, half-Christian Ivorian singer Alpha Blondy and some stunning Reggae-Rai fusion from North Africa ... 'mongst plenty Jamaican raggamuffin dancehall ...

... I understand ... or overstand, that arabs and muslims can identify with themes found in Rasta-inspired Jamaican music ... Algiers, Lagos, Paris, London, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and New York are fertile ground for cultural interface when the theme is togetherness ... music as healer ...

... Jamaica's metaphysical dimension engenders psychological pride in the face of often jarring mismanagement and rampantly destructive social habits, but its dynamism is also its strength ... witness the creative outlook and humor of the people ... and the patwa (patois), that ever-more-phing language of choice ...

... any guy burn dis ya bible? ... brimstone an' more fyah!!

... one word that has taken on alternate meaning after treatment from Jamaica's relentless etymology machine is "almshouse" (i.e. poorhouse ... literally an address where alms are collected for the poor) ... in the Jamaican context its original meaning, though not lost, has given way to popular meanings ... foolishness, fuckery, combativeness, cussedness ... wickedness an' badmind ...

... though this might sound like hot air to those inclined to dismiss, it's meant as an elementary discourse on an entangled situation ... so just imagine, as Bob did ... if Imam and everyman, and woman ... and I man ... could be Irie man ...

... leave out the almshouse ... simple key open complex lock ...

... Distant Relatives ...

... "if this world were mine/I'd play rub-a-dub all the time"... you'll sometimes hear me spontaneously sing this out in my best Dennis Brown style, as if to broadcast the contentment a reggae soundtrack brings to my very heartbeat ... when I mix-up my selection with other styles of Jamaican music or hybrids thereof, and intersperse chosen tracks from non-Jamaican genres, I find I can enjoy continuous musical companionship ... I've collected audio this way forever and do appreciate other music-forms ... so, when I experience a tasty tune, a solid LP/CD or cross-genre fusion, I indulge my sensory need by extending the collection...

... enter the Nasir Jones-Damian Marley alliance ...















... Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones is a pre-eminent New York rapper and son of Mississipian jazz'n'blues musician Olu Dara (if the birthers ask), "Nas" needs no introduction to the hip-hop world ... Damian Robert Nesta Marley a.k.a. "Jr. Gong" also bears the name of his father ... the Iron, Lion, Zion scion of his lineage ... his mother, Cindy Breakespeare, won the 1976 Miss World Competition ...

... in spite of this princely pedigree ... or perhaps because of it ... the aristocratic duo forged a strong relationship in studio and on stage ... and straight to the ears of each other's core audience ...














... it should be noted that the recent "Distant Relatives" CD is only the latest fruit of their joint effort ... and that it was a long time in the making rather than a hastily convened affair ... significant too that musicians were in-studio with the vocalists ... resulting in a rewardingly cohesive stand-alone work ... eloquent and contemporary in content yet traditional in concept ...













... perfomer ego is an easily identifiable tendon in the muscle fibre of Hip-Hop, and frankly, a large part of why we buy it when we do ... or reject it when we find ourselves discomfited by it's more uncompromising tones ... similarly ... regurgitative versions of "the half that's never been told"(another reference to a Dennis Brown classic) and millenarian Rastafarian themes can cause a listener to move and groove in approval, or close-up and pose-off if left cold by the message ... Nas and Junior Gong know that one way to eschew ego and regurgitation is to skew toward the often-imitated-but-never-duplicated Bob Marley model ...













... lo and behold ... there's ample room onstage for conscious message, dancehall skank, Hip-Hop hype, colorful urban-lingo, two-finger gunshot salutes and a couple of maturing princes under the banner of Bob Marley's Ethio-visionary worldview ... the result is an assuredly honest collaboration worthy of props inside and outside artificial human borders ... these figurative distant relatives make modern music in a philosophical state of unity (or I-nity if you can dig it) ... served up and followed up by tours, TV talk-shows, press-junkets and special appearances ...














... to dismiss conviction of purpose and sincere belief in this mission as preaching ... or to judge song titles like "Count Your Blessings"or "Patience" (two of my faves) as light or trite in sentiment, is as egregious as adding negative stigma to the word "liberal"... and twice as damaging to one's edification ...













... upliftment for Africa at home and abroad is the aim here ... the philanthropic use of generated proceeds and serious countenance of these "riddim piranhas/like two Obamas," bespeaks a common calling and sense of purpose ... the sort of thing that elevates better music above other good music ... this is exemplified on "My Generation" which successfully updates the last track on the Melody Makers 1991 album "Jahmekya"... Joss Stone and Lil Wayne are drafted in on that one for more width ... elsewhere, strategic Stephen Marley vocals and co-production chops add weight ... and ... there's the late, great Dennis Brown again, sampled on "Land Of Promise" to rootsify the proceedings ...













... guest appearances by Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan add extra Africa to great effect including a cool turn on the summarising final track "Africa Must Wake Up"... which incidentally can segue sweetly into "T.I.A." (This Is Africa), first cut on his own release "Troubador", which features a "Simmer Down" Bob Marley sample ... K'naan's link to Africa's World Cup 2010 with "Wavin' Flag", and Damian's appearance on that CD too, ties it all together appropriately ... which is the whole point innit, One Blood/One Love ... movement of Jah people ...











... no matter how you cut it, this recording is a Marleyesque statement ... that it partners seamlessly with Nas and K'naan's Hip-Hop agenda seems the most natural thing in the world ...

... "Distant Relatives" had me at "As We Enter", the irresistable opener subsequently co-opted for a slam-dunk dubplate remix for Stone Love ... back in the day, my own grandparents lived one minute above where Damian lived as a toddler, at the foot of Russell Heights in Kingston, Jamaica ... passing by, I'd curiously crane my neck to catch a glimpse of this golden child of famous parentage ... now he's a hard-working standard-bearer of his father's unstoppable legacy and a bridge-builder through intelligent collaborations and his own solo output ...

... see 'ow t'ings work? ... keep it locked ...

... y viva Espana ...

... a rousing chorus of "Y Viva Espana" will echo for at least four years following Spain's triumph over The Netherlands and the world in a gritty Sunday kickabout yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa ... the rest of us would do well to learn some of their silky ball control and the choral refrain of that song ...












... in the aftermath of the month-long tourney I feel like a glutton who has eaten too much of his favourite food, washed it down with a pint of Guinness and topped it off with a rich chocolate bar ... the World Cup for me is a sumptuous stew of stimulants ...

... foremost of course are the games themselves, but there's also this boyhood pipedream that will never go away ... imagine playing in such a high-profile showcase, dribbling around tackles to score a super-goal or three ... if you've ever laced on a pair of boots you'll not only know what I mean, but you'll also forgive my going from the sublime to the ridiculous by including a photo of this bunch of unlikely lads ...













... the modern game, with its hierarchies, tactical approaches, theatrics, personalities, gamesmanships and economics, gets to preen at regularly scheduled competitions ... paramount is the gran'daddy of 'em all, the FIFA World Cup, which is all that and football too, lest we lose sight of the eleven-a-side, battle-for-the-ball aspect of the spectacle ... and what a spectacle! ...












... the 2010 incarnation, like all the others that preceded it, had its share of talking points ... the recurring beefs about the ball and the referees are nothing new if you are familiar with the beast, nevertheless, the monumental undertaking served up enough sporting entertainment to provide me another landmark against which to calibrate any retrospective of my life, via memories World Cups stretching back to 1970 ... the English have even kept the spectre of the previous one alive, ho hum ...

... but this one was a little bit different ...
















... enter the red, gold and green of Africa ... the HD-3D update, forty years since TV's first technicolor Cup coverage ... the sights and sounds were even more global than usual with a prominent afrocentricity building on previous Cameroon, Senegal, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago campaigns ...

... plaudits to FIFA for 'lowing the vuvuzelas ... challenging yes, but we all had so much fun saying the word, didn't we? ... especially the American media who were engaged as ever over the veracity of the very sport itself ... truth is it really doesn't matter what the haters think of the offside rule and diving (FIFA euphemistically calls it "simulation"), scoreless scorelines or the pretty-boy coiffure ... the growth of this sport is inexorable by definition ... if yu 'ave foot, yu can kick ball ...

... notably, and true to the nature of this movement, the U.S.A., and their style of play, is one of the bright beacons on the horizon ... indefatigable heart beats in that team and it is reflective of the national character ...

... New Zealand was the only undefeated team on the field ... Switzerland made a lot of friends and hopefully fewer folks will mix up Ghana with Guyana now ... don't fret, Brazil will recover, the football they played in the first half of the quarter-final they lost to The Netherlands strutted the elusive panache they were accused of lacking ... a big-match contribution from Ronaldinho might have flipped that script ... but alas ...

... in the unforgettable department, I nominate the Asamoah Gyan overtime penalty drama in the Ghana/Uruguay affair, and the goal-line officiating gaffe when Germany made the proverbial penny drop in England ... (speaking of goal-line gaffes, remember Robert Green?) ... that Carlos Puyol header is still bulging the net, just like Siphiwe Tshabala's opening strike for Bafana Bafana ... Van Bronkhorst's drive, Maicon's improbable near-post swerver and Forlan's classy volley ... plus, I'll watch Lionel Messi play any chance I get ... seeing is believing ...

... when there are so many individual storylines and the attention of the world is tuned in to one frequency, it's a great time to relay a message ... the powers that be came up trumps with Nelson Mandela and polishing up the Say No To Racism campaign ...












... a positive sentiment in any arena but particularly so in futbol where "there's work to be done - so let's do it little by little", as the Marley lyric goes ... discernably, amid the din I heard Bob singing "Could You Be Loved" at every match ... a so it fi go, considering how intertwined reggae sensibilities are with both football and Africa ... check Stephanie Black's film Africa Unite ...














... Brazil is ground-zero in four years and you can bet Bob Marley will be there to "Lick Samba" ... I'll be watching too, enjoying the global swagga-flex that should be a substitute for war ... though admittedly, it could easily spark conflict as well ...

... yep, in 2014 I'll have one eye on the game's global relevance ... the other eye will be on the lookout for that diminutive World Cup mascot (who is likely to re-appear in the country whose icons he repeatedly belittles with tracing tongue), if only to witness his one kick of a next-generation Jabulani on the biggest of stages ...

















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Post Script addendum: - Jamaicans will get "a kick" out of the writing credits for the Spanish pop standard "Y Viva Espana" ... ... seems it was co-written by one Eddie Seago (sic.)

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... thou art Bob ... 65 candles ...

... February 6, 2010 might have seen a smiling Bob Marley blowing out 65 candles on an ital birthday cake, no doubt surrounded by grand and great-grand children, at a Birthday Bash to mark the occasion ... ... c'est la vie ...

... every once-in-a-while I encounter an incredulous query as to why Bob is such a revered figure ... few things irk me more ... but to balance that, even fewer things are as easy to counteract with anecdote, scholarship and evidence ... the veracity of Marley's outsized global footprint is unassailable ... so this time, rather than reiterate descriptives of The Legend, I've chosen to make commentary on random artistic interpretations of Marley appeal ... all gleaned from internet searches ...

... even a cursory surf yields numerous examples of Marley Art inna every style an' fashion ... many incorporate de rigueur Rasta colours indicative of Jamaica and Africa ... increasingly there are efforts which use the full hundred (or "hun-dread" - Bob loved wordplay) in terms of the color spectrum ... check the above work in oil by an artist called Andree ... below, a stretched canvas print titled "Get Up, Stand Up" by Ingrid Black that not only invokes Africa but various other cultures too, opting for hues of brown ... pan-culturalism in full effect ...

... soft tones selected also for the bloodstained, stencil texturing of the pensive-young-hipster-Bob, displayed on the Flickr photostream of user roxycrisp, remind the viewer Marley was both magnetic and prolific before iconoclastic dreadlocks and international exposure came along ...

... the aura of mysticism grew around Marley as his spiritualism chrystallized ... so too his status as griot-philosopher, elemental in world outlook ...

... I sometimes speculate about which specific aspect of Bob's life triggers someone to create a piece ... obviously the artist identified as jtabije was inspired by the Redemption Song lyric ... was it a sense-reverence for words that called for black and white presentation?... thoughts of war and peace?... lions and doves?... islands and continents?... all day and all night?... there's even a Buffalo Soldier if you look closely at this one ...

... it's a fact that there's more to Marley than marijuana ... and there's more to marijuana than Marley ... still, Bob was assuredly complicit in the inspiration for an entire industry of ganja art ... one result of this is that the stiff-necked can only see that dimension ... not so the artistic invention of samihavia who fuses a jacketed, mature-business-Bob to media and the music industry with clever choice of image, color and material ... interperative ites, green an' gold ... yet proudly Rasta ...

... statues, busts, caricatures ... literal renderings and photoshops ... not to mention the merchandising artwork on everything from tissue paper and belly rings to fashion gear and whatsitnot ... there is a lot of future landfill out there bearing the unauthorised image of Bob ... this will always be, given the pervasive popularity of the subject ...

... but there's also a growing body of expression touched-off by memories of Bob Marley and The Wailers, personal and second-hand ... I have no idea if artist T. Noll saw Marley in flight or if photographs sufficed to inform his depiction in oil-on-canvas of the incendiary depth of a Marley performance ... at any rate that inspiration made the original canvas 8'x9' in dimension! ... also available in smaller, numbered, hand-signed reproductions ...

... high-mindedness in the art world can minimize works on popular icons and famous-faces ... and to be fair, there is plenty sycophantic naivete on offer ... however, some of this Marley art reaches the psyche, touching inside with sheer honesty-of-effort and love ... strong Bob attributes, speaking to the enduringly positive legacy of this influential life ...

... in a visionary creation by Jamaican/Canadian artist Barrington Robinson, dubbed "Independence Now And Forever", there's inherent rapture of free-spirit ... a man and his movement of Jah people ... to the world! ...

... as a full fledged Marley appreciator from ever-since ... there isn't a time when I don't hear something new in the message, feel the power of the clenched fist, or revel in the lessons of Bob's emphatic life ... his art continues to flourish and multiply, one way or another, with every passing birthday ...

** UPDATE ** ... now open ... The Berhane Selassie Art Gallery ... located at Tuff Gong International, 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, Jamaica ... for more Marley art ...