Daniel Dessinger

Month: February 2006

  • Paranda: Living Music Nearing Extinction

    paranda musician

    No music relaxes me like Paranda, except perhaps the Gipsy Kings. Something so organic. So natural. As natural as sitting on the banks of a muddy river in the jungle, watching the sun set over the palm trees. As natural as a little village with dirty children running around, kicking a can or playing some other game while the old men with dark faces like gnarled oak sit idly by, smoking and contemplating something infinitely beyond my comprehension.

    According to Dan Rosenberg:

    “Centuries ago, a slave ship crashed near the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. These African men and women, and some escaped slaves from nearby islands (and even some Pre-Columbian Africans living in the Caribbean) lived in St. Vincent for some generations. They mixed with native Carib and Arawak Indians. The Garifuna language is a mix of African tongues and Carib, and to this day, is one of the only languages spoken by Africans in the Americas that is not derived from a European language.

    In March, 1797, after a war over land (to make room for more tobacco and sugar cane plantations), the British exiled the entire Garifuna population from St. Vincent to Honduras. Half of the 4,000 Garifuna died in the passage. Since then, the Garifuna spread along the Caribbean coast of Central America, and if you travel in the region, you can find small Garifuna villages in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and a few in Nicaragua.

    Visiting Belizean Garifuna coastal villages like Dangriga and Hopkins feels like Africa. The scent of coconut milk, seafood, rice and beans is everywhere. In the evenings, the local bars are filled with Punta Rock, a mix of Garifuna traditional drumming rhythms and pop music that has swept the country to such an extent that Punta has become the national music of Belize. In the churches, you can hear drumming. The Garifuna religion, like the language, is a mix of African and Carib, combining the communication of ancestral spirits, living in harmony with nature, and the use of drums during religious ceremonies.

    Paranda is both a Garifuna rhythm and a genre of music. The basic rhythm can be heard in Garifuna traditional drumming styles that date all the way back to St. Vincent and West Africa. The Paranda became a genre itself in the 19th century, shortly after the Garifuna arrived in Honduras. It was there where they first encountered Latin music, and incorporated the acoustic guitar, and a touch of Latin and Spanish rhythms into the music. The Paranda reached its prominence in the early part of the 20th century, and has changed little since. Its instrumentation is totally acoustic, ‘Garifuna Unplugged’: large wooden Garifuna drums called ‘Primero’ and ‘Segunda’, shakers, scrapers, turtle shell percussion, and acoustic guitar.”

    Contributing Garifuna musicians include Junie Aranda, Paul Nabor, Jursino Cayetano, Aurelio Martinez, Andy Palacio, Lugua Centeno, Bugu X Jones, Simon Moreira, Gabaga Williams, and others. The producers of this album travelled through and recorded in Garifuna (African) villages in Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala.

    Sadly, only a few artists like Paul Nabor still live to share this beautiful music. This album was recorded in part to encourage further generations to pick up the art of the Paranderos. When you are recommended beautiful music full of history and rich in culture, you would be a fool not to stop and investigate for yourself. Paranda is available in Virgin Megastores and online atAmazon. If you want more information about the Paranda project or other Garifuna artists and recordings, visit www.stonestreetrecords.com and www.cafeint.com.

    This album was the first album in the “world music” genre that I ever purchased. It holds a special place in my collection because it was that first step into a new world of music. I had begun to love the listening stations at Virgin Megastore which always contained at least one world music station featuring different artists each month. No friend or commercial led me to them. I happened across them, listened, enjoyed, and brought them home to fill my speakers for weeks without interruption.

    Some people don’t listen to music unless they can understand the words being sung. I enjoy both for different reasons. American and British songs are great for when I want to sing at the top of my lungs or set some types of moods. But world music is untouchable when it comes to background music that lifts the spirit. I can suddenly feel pure and carefree, as though standing on a bright, majestic African plain, eyes resting on the wind blown grass. World music has the power to transport the mind to places the body is not presently able to reach. Call it a vacation in a box. I can hear the ocean’s waves, the rushing rivers, the screeching eagles, the melodic call to prayer.

    I guess you could say that world music was my first step toward defining the world traveler deep within. I love experiencing cultures. I love music from all nations. I have traveled to a few places, but my heart is set on the nations of the earth. There is so much beauty out there. I want to catch a glimpse of it everywhere I go.

  • Things I Love About My Wife

    you eagerly anticipate becoming the mother of our children

    you are not only honest, but you hold yourself to a standard of integrity that sometimes shames me

    you work hard, and you don’t take advantage of me

    you are gorgeous. your looks kept us together more than once!

    you are so beautiful that i will always eagerly anticipate intimacy with you

    you want me to protect and provide for you, without becoming helpless or losing dignity

    you pursue knowledge of ways to aid the health of the body through nature. you don’t buy into the mindless drivel that says chemicals and prescription meds are the answer to life’s problems

    you love fairy tales, and you judge all stories based on the C. S. Lewis Narnia scale

    you support me in pursuing my dreams, and you are willing to work through the problems that come with it

    you were intelligent and argumentative, even at the ripe, old age of 11

    you are an excellent writer – you give yourself far too little credit

    you express love in so many active ways that i am not very good at doing

    you sleep beside me, chasing away loneliness

    your presence in the house makes eases my mind

    you are constantly growing and willing to grow

    you want to move to another country with me (though apparently not to anywhere without plumbing)

    you listen to me and at least sometimes understand what i am saying

  • Know Your Audience

    so what does a person from the Philippines or Kuwait look for when arriving at this website? it is an interesting question. people rarely fit into prefitted expectations. they are like square pegs and round holes.

    yet since i recently added the neo counter tracking system, i can see that i’ve received 82 visitors from 13 countries. 13 different countries, and yet i haven’t been visited by all the English speaking countries. i don’t think i ever will truly understand people.

    i’d like to know more about you. i’d like to know what brought you here. i’d like to know if you were disappointed or surprised or even bored.

    some people treat their blogs like diaries or personal journals. i’ve done that in the past and i’ll do it again. but those people likely only attract their friends. since i have none, i’d like to know why you read anything here (actually, i have a select few friends – don’t worry).

    are you here because you are looking for a copywriter? are you here because you were looking for more theories on the television program LOST? are you here because you were trying to find decent bowfishing tips? are you here because you are looking for a social commentary on pop culture? are you here to read my thoughts on metrosexuals? are you here to read my opinions of MySpace? are you here accidentally? are you here to rant and rave about my criticism of Matisyahu?

    the possibilities are virtually endless. my topics are so frequently random that i do not know which ones actually bring people here to read. sometimes my writings are random because i am random, and sometimes they are random because i fear limiting myself to one topic. my MySpace blog was more limited to one topic, and i received a lot of positive feedback. but how do you stay so personal when your blog’s web address is listed on your business card? i don’t know. it was either a stroke of brilliance or sheer stupidity.

    if you would, take the time to drop me a line. let me know what brought you here, what you read while you were here, and your response to what you read. i like getting to know people. i like hearing their thoughts, beliefs, feelings, desires, and dreams.

    must have coffee… i feel like a slug… more later

  • Remembering Joy

    I get the impression that I’ve been depressing some of you lately with my criticisms and derision. I realized my tendency to focus upon the negative aspects of pop culture – i.e., those parts I wish to see transformed.

    I could just as well promote something useful every now and then to balance the critique. Not that I will likely do so right now, but I wanted to let you know that I will (see, I’m a reasonable fellow).

    I chose this photo as my immediate icon of joy. I need you to feel a little more of the joy in life if you are to help me make something better of this place.

    I spent several years actively drowning every joyful memory in my life. I was a teenager, doing what ignorant and unprepared teenagers do: I was trying to become someone better than myself to rise to the blessed status of everyone else. I cared for practically nothing else. I made decisions I had told myself not a year earlier I would never make. Why? Because I wanted to belong? Well, yes… but more than that, I made those decisions because I forgot joy. I forgot the pleasure of tackle football in the grass. I forgot the exhilaration of freeze tag in the Fall. I forgot the time spent sitting high up in the trees, peacefully contemplating life.

    None of that mattered, nor did it exist in my recollection. All I knew was that everyone seemed older, more popular, more experienced, and more aware of what it was all about. I focused on the dark things, and it led to cigarettes, hard drugs, seeking demons, and more than my fair share of self-loathing. I lost touch with the real. It didn’t take much, really. The mind is fragile, even though it is durable. I have been thoroughly flawed, but if there ever was one, I am one real man.
    On the other side, I have slowly learned to reintroduce beauty and laughter and peace and joy. I have learned why I need them. I have learned that it truly is goodness, rather than popularity or wealth, that makes my life worth living.

    In all things, remember joy. Collect joys like shiny stones in your pocket. Take them out regularly and enjoy them again. And don’t forget to keep searching for new joys. They’re out there for the finding.

    *Photo belongs to Julie Harris Photography

  • CSI: Culture’s Sadistic Infection

    Call it what you will, tv show creators are constantly stretching the boundaries of what society will accept and even enjoy. Some of you are thinking that this is going to be a moral rant, which it is, but it’s more than that. It’s an evaluation of pop culture’s obvious decline.

    Producers have at least some idea of what the people want. They know that shows challenging the intellect are doomed to flop, so they stick with what sells: sensationalism. I’m referring to that which is sensational, makes you blink or catch your breath, entices you, scares you, and so on. Today’s programs feed off of your emotions, off of your desires. The problem is that desire is fickle. It’s not an objective, logical, or intelligent thing. No, far from it.

    What was surprising and scary and sensational and provocative yesterday is less surprising today. People absorb all these images, sounds, stories, and ideas and they want to be thrilled again and again. That’s what it is. One way or another, people want to be thrilled. But you do the same thing over and over, and they’re not thrilled anymore. They’ve seen and heard and felt that before too many times. You’ve gotta push further to keep it on the edge, to show them what they haven’t seen before, to thrill them with something new.

    So you’ve got 3 CSIs, NCIS, House MD, The Badge, Criminal Minds, Crossing Jordan, South Beach, Desperate Housewives, Without a Trace, Ghost Whisperer, Bones, Boston Legal, and other shows i don’t even know about. Every single show i just mentioned has pushed the boundaries of blood and gore, sexual content, graphic violence, brutality, and provocative language.

    Look at the number of shows that picture corpses entrails. Look at the anatomically correct body parts strewn across floors and tables. Watch the crime reenactments where you can see people brutally beaten or attacked. Look at how dark and realistic the meth labs, the prostitutes, and the criminal world is portrayed. Look at what it takes to make a show successful today…

    This is our popular culture. Statistics show that we are barely in the top 20 most intelligent nations. I believe it. We don’t even stop to think about what we’re pushing ourselves towards. We have the choice of what to do with our time. i remember a time when people didn’t need to be accessible by phone, fax, or email 24/7.

    Here’s a homework assignment for all you youngsters (you qualify if you figured out how to get here):

    Watch a few different shows from 5 years ago. Then watch a few from 10 years ago. Then 15. Then 20. Know what you’ll notice? More dialogue, more wit, somewhat fewer cliches, and practically no brutal violence or visible sexual content.

    Am i a 60s buff with a chip on his shoulder? Hardly. Pop culture has been transformed from sugar-coated daydreams to dysfunctional family to sadistic, brutal fantasy.

    Does that sound like the progress of an ever-evolving society to you? Sounds to me like a country that missed the reality bus and wandered into hell.

  • Matisyahu: Big-Time Reggae

    I’m still fumbling for an explanation of why this man’s music made it on my local alternative rock radio station. I got this photo from Rolling Stone Magazine! What?!?! How the hell did he become so spectacular so fast?

    #1 He doesn’t have an in-studio produced record yet.

    #2 Nobody around here had ever heard of the guy before. He has no street cred.

    #3 A song from his live album suddenly gets premium play time repeatedly.

    4# He’s a practicing Hasidic Jew.

    5# He no doubt now has a bullseye on his chest because he’s an unashamed Jew making big bucks in the capitalist American culture.

    6# I listened to the lyrics of his hit song – it’s just like a dozen other Christian bands’ lyrics I heard ten years ago at Family Christian Bookstores or Mardel. His song didn’t sound any more original than Christian Reggae I’ve heard.

    7# The lyrics of his music have to do with God, living life according to a moral code, etc. Very “positive” lyrics, sure, but since when was that a selling point in the secular music industry?

    I have no problem with Matisyahu Miller personally or professionally. I liked the song well enough that I might even purchase his first studio record which is scheduled to be released by Epic in March 2006. I have no problem with him. It’s the industry big whigs that drive me up the wall.

    Think about it. If my assessment is accurate, there are some Christian reggae artists who are as talented and sound similar to Matisyahu but never get a chance in mainstream music. I can tell you of two Christian bands who have succeeded recently in the secular music industry – and ONLY two. They are P.O.D. and Switchfoot. Both have a large Christian following, but were accepted into the mainstream despite their faith, not because of it.

    Do I have a chip on my shoulder? Maybe. When I see every other religion given special favors and consideration while Christianity is treated as the oppressive white man in the midst of the suffering minorities, I get a little ticked off.

    What I want to know is, does Matisyahu deserve the instant fame and accolades? Is he really so good and special, or is he someone’s pet project because no one will feel oppressed by a Hasidic Jew in the industry. No one’s even heard of a Hasidic Jew in the industry. What concerns me is that someone felt like his other-than-average religion would be a selling point, like when minorities are chosen for scholarships. A person may be intelligent or talented, but I just don’t like people talking about this guy like he’s something other than he really is.

    What he is is a talented musician who blew up onto the scene because his faith is unique in the industry, it is a non-threatening minority, and it adds charm in the eyes of people looking to own music they can brag about as “culturally diverse.”

    I’ll still buy his album. I like reggae. But he doesn’t deserve Dave Matthews’ status or praise just yet.

    photo borrowed from rollingstone.com

  • My Excuse for Haphazard Writing

    It occurs to me that if you read, oh let’s say, ten of my posts in a row, you probably would wonder what the hell this blog is for. I wonder sometimes myself.

    It all started with MySpace – yes, the beast of the marketplace that will one day vanquish Google and take the title of “Supreme Being On the Web”. As I was saying, it all started with MySpace. I joined because a friend of mine insisted. Pretty soon I was all into it: decorating my profile page, selecting the music, uploading the right photos, looking for friends, and writing my first real blog. I still have two blogs I started on Blogger.com before then that rarely see any action.

    But MySpace was different. I could see when people were visiting my profile, I knew how many times my blog was viewed. I had a list of people who had subscribed to my blog and I could see pictures of their faces. It was personal, man. I loved it. I shared very personal thoughts, ideas, emotions, and memories with those people. They responded to many of the things I wrote. I had total strangers who weren’t even subscribers send me emails to thank me for sharing how much I love my wife. I touched people’s lives.

    Of course, I couldn’t always write on the heavy, emotional side. A guy needs a break. The unfortunate side of blogs is the relatively short attention span of most people. If you stop writing for more than two days, you just lost a chunk of readers. My goal was to build a readership and then try to transport them to this website.

    It didn’t work. For one, I started writing here more often than there because I was using this for business and I wanted to show how I can write. Not only that – i was impatient too. My MySpace readers needed another month or two at least to become habitual readers of my blog. Then they would have taken the time to click to another website just to read my stuff. Well, live and learn.

    Right now, my blog pages are being viewed approximately 200 times per day. It’s not that I’m trying to feel important. What I’m trying to do is build a reputation. This is me slowly establishing rapport with a community of readers. Yes I’m building a reputation through each contract writing project, but the reputation is with a small group of businesspeople. I want to reach the masses. I want to connect with the everyday man and woman. I don’t want to be anyone’s savior. I don’t want to be a celebrity – just one of your favorite writers.

    The haphazard topics and photos come from whatever stage of growth I’m now in. I have a lot of opinions. I don’t necessarily need to share them all. I guess this is both my way of building a readership and honing my craft at the same time. Perhaps a handful of people someday will be able to say that they enjoyed the priceless journey of watching me evolve and mature into an excellent writer – a poet. That is my hope. For now, I’m just more than a little bizarre.

  • Pegasus News Coming Soon

    Pegasus Logo

    Well, it’s coming soon. I don’t know what that means yet, but it’s going to happen. Pegasus News is going to launch their news website, and we’ll finally get to see if their idea is a bang or a dud.

    Honestly, I think it could go either way. They’ve been advertising like mad cows on CraigsList for at least the past 6 months, looking for interns willing to work for nothing but to say they have experience with a company that hasn’t even officially launched. The first time I read their ads, I was irritated. “Be on the ground floor of something big!”

    Maybe. They have eyes as big as saucers over at Pegasus News. Their goal is to cover news from the regional level all the way down to the neighborhood level. To do what they’ve envisioned will require both extensive involvement from everyday people across the metroplex and enough public interest to read whatever is posted. Seriously, the neighborhood level is too microscopic in my opinion. If I can’t find out what’s happening in my neighborhood without a computer and an internet connection, I don’t deserve to know. City news I can understand, even though I have my doubts as to how many people will come to read about what’s going on in their city.

    The only way I see to draw the people in is to pull off a very successful and expensive marketing campaign – i think a radio blitz would do, if you cover the major stations like 106.1, 105.3, 102.1, 102.9, 97.9, 101.1, 107.5, 106.7, and whichever non-dance Hispanic station is currently most popular. KISS FM is, of course, the most important station because it is by far the most popular in the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex. I think Classical 101.1 or The EDGE come next in importance because one covers the ultra-wealthy and high cultural folks and the other covers the local band scene.

    But in the radio campaign, they’ll have to hit their restaurant review and info section hard in order to draw enough people. Food is the number one thing that everyone in the Metroplex has in common. Tell people where the cheap places, the happening places, the trendy places, the ultra-modern places, the world fusion places, the mom and pop shops, the hole in the walls… I mean everything. They’ve got to play it up and have the info to back up the ads. They’ve got to know the best foods, the happy hours, the live music, the busiest and least busy nights, the ambiance, everything.

    Do that, Pegasus News, and you may be able to keep enough people relying upon your website that they will eventually visit the rest. Then you’ll have to give people ids like MySpace – only their profile is used to help both the editors remember who writes and sends in good material and also gives the contributors a sense of pride and ownership to what they write.

    It’s going to be a complicated mess. I wish them the best. Hell, I’d even consider writing for them if they got their stuff together and started hiring copywriters.

    Mark my words. Pegasus News is the company to watch. They’ll either boom hard or bust hard. Because I like the concept they’re going after, I hope it works. I’ll let you know when they officially launch their news website.

  • 4 8 15 16 23 42 and the Dharma Initiative

    the numbers… the damn numbers! what do they mean?

    i thought i was on to something. i added all the numbers together and found that the total is 108. 108 is the total number of minutes they are allotted before they must reset the timer. the fact that the numbers which reset the clock happen to add up to the time allotted on the clock isn’t coincidence. but what does it mean?

    then i thought, there are enough numbers here to be a telephone number! i ran to the computer and searched for a 418 area code, thinking that maybe they had to continually redial an isp. this is extremely unlikely, since the the only places with a city code of 481 are in Uganda: Masaka and Kalisizo. not likely candidates. not to mention the fact that there would be no isp when this originated, right?!?!? Then again, the computer they use wouldn’t have been invented yet, right? at its very oldest, the computer used to reset the timer is circa 1980s, and the numbers have been around longer than that, right?!?!?!

    i read someone’s comment elsewhere that the number 108 relates to the amount of time it takes a satellite to circle the earth. i don’t think 108 minutes is accurate – the satellite would have to be moving faster than anything we know of. still, i hadn’t thought of the satellite angle. if there is some correlation, it could be that satellites are watching the island and the computer is meant to recalibrate or switch from one satellite to the next for best connection and angle.

    Heather had the idea to look up dharma in the dictionary for some insight. the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia says:

    dharma (där′ mÉ™) – In Hinduism, dharma is the doctrine of the religious and moral rights and duties of each individual; it generally refers to religious duty, but may also mean social order, right conduct, or simply virtue. Sacred law is the codification of dharma, and Hinduism itself is also called Sanatana Dharma [the eternal dharma]. In Buddhism, dharma has two distinct meanings: it refers to religious truth, namely Buddhist teaching as the highest truth; it is also used as a technical term to denote a constituent element of experience, or any existing thing or phenomenon.

    dictionary.com says this: dharma (n) : basic principles of the cosmos; also: an ancient sage in Hindu mythology worshipped as a god by some lower castes; dhar·ma
    n. Hinduism & Buddhism. The principle or law that orders the universe. Individual conduct in conformity with this principle. The essential function or nature of a thing. Hinduism. Individual obligation with respect to caste, social custom, civil law, and sacred law. Buddhism. the body of teachings expounded by the Buddha. Knowledge of or duty to undertake conduct set forth by the Buddha as a way to enlightenment. One of the basic, minute elements from which all things are made.

    certain parts seemed potentially relevant to the LOST hatch. of course, the preview made it look like they were going to find another hatch or man-made structure in next week’s episode. that will inevitably complicate things.

    i think the phrase “Dharma Initiative” deserves some toying with. there are multiple definitions for Dharma and for initiative. at first glance i can imagine multiple ways to understand the phrase.

    dictionary.com says this about “initiative” = in·i·tia·tive (n) – The power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task; enterprise and determination. A beginning or introductory step; an opening move: took the initiative in trying to solve the problem. The power or right to introduce a new legislative measure. The right and procedure by which citizens can propose a law by petition and ensure its submission to the electorate.

    so, based on the given definitions and uses for “initiative”, is the Dharma initiative an introductory series of steps taken to cause a desired result? is it an independent action without outside influence, control, or suggestion? or is it a procedure enabling a specified number of voters by petition to propose a law and secure its submission to the electorate or legislature for approval?

    the third may seem unlikely, but if you’re looking for the right to change the law, who knows? maybe somebody out there is willing to use human guinea pigs to show evidence why some law or understanding of law should be changed?

    food for thought.

  • my thoughts on architecture and old buildings

    there’s really no way to describe it accurately. everytime i drive by a vacant building, i wince and yearn to turn the car around, and sign the lease. it’s all that untapped potential. it’s all that space going to waste. it’s so many buildings with lives of their own missing out on the kind of destiny meant for their kind.

    i am the kind of guy who will work for a company located in a historical brick building and loft-like interior. i love the feel of history. those buildings don’t allow stuffy businessmen. suits and ties burst into flame upon entry. it’s a blue jeans kind of world, though your jeans may be black, green, orange, tan, or gray. in fact, they may not be jeans at all. but whatever they are, they announce to everyone else that you are here because you are serious about your art – your creative spark – not your GQ fashion sense.

    but what is it about these walls? what is it in the cracking, slightly corrupted surfaces that lend so much value to a thirsty soul? i do not know. but rooms have souls. at least, they have souls until they are whitewashed, sterilized, and turned into ultramodern embarrassments. give me the ones with soul. with character. with imperfections. give me the old movie theaters. the old hotels. the old taverns. give me rusty, half-missing fire escapes. but let it be real. let it be real.