It was a brief homecoming of talent and entrepreneurs. DV (Delicious Vinyl) owners Mike ‘Floss’ Ross and Rick Ross presented a night of fun, food, and music. Along with Rapper’s Delight catering, some live painting by our main man Jonas Lynch aka David Lynch on the 1′ and 2’s… (inside joke). It was a cool afternoon, even thou it got a bit chilling… some fire and good food calmed the coldness…
One Love to Delicious Vinyl brothers Rick and Mike Ross. And hugs to our brother Dennis Coxen from Wax Poetics.
Dig it!
Javier Neciosup is Alex Acuña’s son and owner of Lima Lounge Restaurant in the city of Tarzana, Ca. Jonas is been hire to do several paintings for the restaurant. We (listen recovery Jonas managers) suggested to take him to the event and do it in a better and more uplift atmosphere, Jonas agreed to paint live at the DV Wax Po show. It’s the 1st painting of many that Jonas will be creating in the next few months. Some of the other characters his painting for Lima Lounge are: Eva Ayllon (Peruvian Afro Queen), Chabuca Granda (Peruvian Iconic singer), Ronaldo Campos de la Palma (founder of Peru Negro Enssemble Afro Peruvian Band and Dance group), Nicodemes Santa Cruz & Caitro Soto (part of Peru Negro in the 60’s and 70’s / Iconic Afro Peruvian legend).
Ok, so I waited to send this note to you until the weekend. I have had many people email me about being jealous (even though Bronwyn says the proper term should be “envious”—don’t worry, I didn’t know either) and I wasn’t about to send this note out until everyone was in a better mood. : )
An old landlord of mine had a magnet on her fridge that read “Life is what happens in between making plans.” Our plan was to take an 8-hour bus from Cairo to Taba (at the Egypt/Israeli border), then cross the Israeli/Jordan border, and then take a 3-hour cab to Petra. However, after spending a few days in Cairo and seeing plenty of their buses, that plan started to seem less and less desirable. Although the cabs in Jordan are supposed to be nicer, that isn’t saying much. The buses are awful; overcrowded, smoking, no AC, people hanging out the back doors (literally), etc… and the bus terminal looks like chaos (make that chaos on steroids)—and did I mention it’s the desert? We also weren’t sure if there was a reliable route back (even the Egyptian travel agents at the hotel couldn’t tell us, and when they tried to call the bus company, no one ever answered).
Although we both would LOVE to see Petra, we reminded ourselves that this is a vacation, not an archeological expedition, and that more comfortable and western-friendly methods of getting to Petra would have been very expensive, and should have been booked in advance. Renting a car was out of the question.
So we asked ourselves, where would we like to spend our weekend before Turkey? We wanted to go somewhere close and relatively inexpensive (to both get there and stay there), so we chose Mykonos. To go from the Greek Islands to the desert was rough, so we’ve retreated back and it freakin’ rocks. We just got here and went to dinner. I won’t bore you with more fantastic sunset pictures but I do hope to show you pictures later about the insane nightlife this place has to offer. So far most of the girls we’ve seen look like Nicole Ritchie clones, and when they remove those fantastic (that is me being sarcastic) bug-eye sunglasses, they all look like they haven’t slept in 2 days. Tons of gay men as well, crazy that they would have been imprisoned in the country we were in 6-hours prior. I never thought I’d say this but oh those tolerant Greeks!
So Obama came and left Egypt. He apparently didn’t need my help, which is unfortunate, because I would have loved to play some basketball with him and/or save his life. I watched his speech on TV and it was fantastic. He highlighted and gave promise to so many issues that I have seen and read about this region. I have never felt so proud to be an American.
I also wanted to spend a few seconds (errrr… sentences) on a few things I didn’t highlight from Cairo.
–When I first saw this sign I was shocked—I had only seen such pathetic displays in books about civil rights. The picture is attached, “No Ladies in the Door.” I hope that provides a final exclamation mark on my comments about the prevailing attitude towards women around these parts.
–We visited a carpet/rug-making school/workshop. When kids are very young (5 or 6), many parents have them forgo school for a “better life” making carpets. This “better life” should make us all very thankful. The attached pic is of a young kid making a silk rug. There is a good chance that is all this kid will do his entire life. A 3 x 3 meter piece takes 3 months to make, hence the US $15,000 price tag (although he will probably only pocket $200/month of that).
— Walking fast through the market someone yelled at us, “Hey you, you walk like an Egyptian!” That was the funniest thing someone yelled at us (although “I love you” to Bronwyn was funny the first time, but maybe just to me). For some reason they also yelled “Shakira” at her numerous times. Since she looks nothing like her, we are still confused. –Gambling in Egypt – they only accepted US dollars—very strange. I’m in Africa, and they only take Uncle Sam’? (BTW, we only bet $40 just to say we did, and we lost)
–Many people fish in the Nile. Looking at the water it doesn’t seem like a good idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
— People just hang out on the freeways. I’m still not sure why but I have seen small buses pick them up. I think it’s an artificial bus stop, but I’m still not sure. It looks incredibly dangerous.
–Leaving Egypt I was asked to show my passport and boarding pass 6 different times. Seriously, 6 times.
In Cairo, we ate twice at a fantastic restaurant called Abu El Sid (www.deyafa.net) very close the Marriott. The first time Bronwyn outlawed pictures (it’s a semi-classy joint) but the next time I demanded it. I’ve attached pics of the falafel (which is flat and light in color, unlike the more rounded and dark ones I’m used to in the US) and it was amazing, as was everything else. We didn’t really sit at tables, more like a coffee table seating.
At this restaurant, and like most others, smoking the hooka is part of the meal. They call it “shisha” and it smells AWFUL – sickeningly sweet, like rotten cotton candy or what I would think a gummy bear factory would smell like. I hate the smell of cigarettes, but I literally BEG for people to light up just to drown out that shisha smell. And thankfully the food is so good (at least at this restaurant) it momentarily overwhelms the nauseating fumes.
So since it’s the weekend, I don’t mind telling y’all that I’m off to the beaches of Mykonos and then to visit the nightlife. I’ll update you later but please note internet access is not as pervasive on this crazy island and I may be “dark” for a bit.
Written by Marcel Camus / Vinicius de Moraes / Jacques Viot
Starring Breno Mello / Marpessa Dawn / Lourdes de Oliveira / Léa Garcia
Music by Luiz Bonfá/ Antonio Carlos Jobim
Cinematography Jean Bourgoin
Editing by Andrée Feix
Distributed by GAGA Communications
Release date(s) June 12, 1959 (France)
Black Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in the modern context of Rio de Janeiro during the Carnaval. The film was an international co-production between production companies in Brazil, France and Italy.
The film is particularly renowned for its soundtrack by bossa nova legend Antonio Carlos Jobim, featuring songs such as “Manhã de Carnaval” (written by Luiz Bonfá) and “A felicidade” that were to become bossa nova classics. According to Time magazine, it played a crucial role in the life of Ann Dunham, the mother of American president Barack Obama. [1]
Black Orpheus won the Palme d’Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival[2] as well as the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film (in those awards the film was credited as a French production; only in the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Brazil credited together with France and Italy).
In 1999, the film was essentially remade as Orfeu by Carlos Diegues, this time with a soundtrack featuring contemporary Brazilian pop singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso.
The movie opens with images of white Greek statues that explode to reveal black men dancing samba to drums in a favela. Orpheus (Breno Mello) is a trolley driver in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as a playboy. Although engaged to be wed, he does not seem very enthusiastic about the concept of marriage and spends the majority of the film trying to avoid his fiancée, Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira).
The film begins with Orpheus and his fiancée going to get a marriage license. The clerk at the courthouse makes reference to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, causing Orpheus’s fiancée to get jealous and assume that there is another woman in his life. After they get the license, Mira agrees to loan Orpheus the money to buy her own ring because Orpheus wants to get his guitar out of the pawn shop for the carnival. When Orpheus gets home, he finds that his neighbor Serafina’s (Léa Garcia) cousin named Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) has been visiting. Death (the man in the skeleton suit) is after Eurydice. This is shown in a scene in which the man chases her down and Orpheus gallantly goes to her rescue.
Orpheus, upon seeing Eurydice, wins her graces by playing her a song on his guitar. He is impressed upon her telling him the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and letting him know that she knows he knows of it also because of the song which he had just been playing. Orpheus is a pleasant break from the insanity of Carnival, which seems to agitate Eurydice’s already frightened state. The two of them fall in love, yet are constantly on the run from both Mira and Death, both of whom wish to kill Eurydice.
On the day of Carnival, Eurydice dresses in Serafina’s costume in order help Serafina spend more time with her navy man; the costume keeps Eurydice’s face concealed. During the festival, Orpheus uses every excuse to be able to dance with Eurydice (who is supposed to be Serafina) rather than with Mira. He consistently tells Mira to get back to her place.
Eventually, Eurydice’s identity is revealed and she is forced once again to run for her life from both Mira and Death. This time she is not so lucky and is killed accidentally by Orpheus in his own trolley station when he turns the power on and electrocutes her. Death says “Now she’s mine” before knocking Orpheus out. Despite the obvious fact that she is dead and the less obvious fact that he is the one who actually killed her, Orpheus looks for Eurydice within the Bureau of Missing Persons. The janitor there tells him that the place holds only papers and that no people would be found there. The illiterate janitor asks Orpheus if he can read, then tells him his reading ability will not help him find his love. The janitor, taking pity on Orpheus, takes him down the stairs and to the place of a Macumba ritual, a regional form of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé.
At the gate, there is a dog named Cerberus, after the three-headed dog of Hades in Greek mythology. At this ritual, Orpheus is able to channel the spirit of Eurydice through the body of an old woman. Orpheus calls out to her and asks to see her, but Eurydice begs him not to look toward the voice, lest he lose her forever. When he looks back to see Eurydice, her spirit leaves the woman and he loses her forever (This is in direct correlation to the Greek myth in which Orpheus is able to save his love Eurydice but loses her forever when he looks back at her).
Orpheus wanders in mourning for the remainder of the film. His wanderings take him to the City Morgue, where he retrieves Eurydice’s body. He carries her in his arms across town and up the hill toward his home. (The Greek Orpheus also wandered around after Eurydice’s death, refusing all other women until he is killed by Thracian Maenads in the heat of Dionysian ritual.) Like the Greek Orpheus, this Orpheus is killed by a group of apparently crazed women. As we see Orpheus’ and Serafina’s shack burning (a fire set by Mira, no doubt), Mira flings a stone that hits him in the head and knocks him over a cliff to his death as he carried Eurydice’s limp body.
There are two children, Benedito and Zeca, who follow Orpheus around throughout the plot. They believe that it is Orpheus’s guitar that causes the sun to rise in the morning. After Orpheus death, Benedito insists that Zeca pick up the guitar and play so that the sun may rise again. Zeca plays, and the sun does rise. A little girl comes by, gives Zeca a single flower and the film ends with the three of them dancing.
Peace to all the Listen Recovery family & friends,
This is kidragon aka Muhammad Abdul Lateef. I want to share with everyone snapshots from my blessed journeys to Mecca & Medina (Saudi Arabia). Ever since I became Muslim back in 2003, I’ve always had this burning desire to visit the two cities of Mecca & Medina. Mecca is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Islam. Medina, a city roughly 210 miles north of Mecca, is where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) migrated to after facing persecution & oppression in Mecca. Medina also contains the blessed tomb of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The two along with Jerusalem are considered to be the three holy cities in the Islamic tradition.Thank God, I’ve been blessed to travel to Mecca & Medina 3-times in the past 4-years. My first trip was in 2005 with Omar Qureshi aka DJ Omega. The second was for the Hajj/pilgrimage in 2006/7, and recently during the summer of 2008. Each visit has its own blessed story and is filled with volumes upon volumes of special moments and experiences.Words fall short in describing the beauty and spiritual wealth of Mecca & Medina. Tranquility & peace resides there. I mean you can actually FEEL that there is a Prophet & great Messenger of God buried in the earth. There’s a lot of love in the air and it motivates you to learn more about the Prophet’s life, mission, & purpose…
Mecca and Medina is a meeting place where the human being can come as he or she is and peacefully surrender their mind, body, & soul to God. Engaging in sincere and intimate supplication, it’s an environment where you witness your heart come to life and where your spiritual cup gets filled. Dreams are not like dreams back home and you get to meet people of immense spiritual capacity. While there your main concern becomes calling upon the Lord of the Worlds and pouring out every request & plea within your heart. It’s unlike anything of this world, and I encourage those who are capable and willing to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad to make that journey…May God open the doors for all us,
kidragon
facebook: kidragon
La Ilaha Ilala – There is no God but God
Allahu Akbar – God is the Greatest
The Green Dome in Medina (below is the blessed tomb of The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) & his closest companions Umar Ibn Al-Khatab & Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, May God be pleased with them)
Masjid An-Nabawi (The Mosque of the Prophet pbuh in Medina)
Medina
Inside the Mosque of the Prophet (pbuh)
The Kaba during the pilgrimage
Pictured here is a funeral prayer at the Kaba. A reminder that our mortality is REAL and that holding onto to things of utmost importance is the key to life.
A beautiful moment of a woman reading the Quran at the Kaba
(Photo by Nushmia Khan)
(Photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
(photo by Nushmia Khan)
The Grand Mosque seen from the streets of Mecca
Mina: a tent city near Mecca where pilgrims stay during the Hajj
Mind you this isn’t the only thing on the menu. They have Carl’s Jr., McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Chilis, & Applebees there too!
Blessed Shuyukh (Teachers) – Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad (UK), Shaykh Abdul Hadi (USA) Shaykh Yahya Rhodus (USA), Shayhk Hamza Yusuf (USA), Shaykh Abdulah Al-Kadi (Saudi Arabia) (from L-R)
Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Abdul Hadi (from L-R)
The Lava Tracts in Medina
kd & the Shaykh from Turkey
After you complete the Hajj…you shave your head!!! (Women just have to snip a lil bit)
During the Hajj in 2006/7, I was blessed with meeting Habib Umar from Yemen. Habib Umar is a direct grandchild of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He comes from a noble family of piety and knowledge and travels the world inviting humanity to the message of his great-grandfather.
Great-grandchildren of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
The building behind me locates where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born (Mecca)
kidragon & Omega @ a well in Medina.
Omega outside the Grand Mosque in Mecca
THE END
Thank you to the Revelli brothers for their love & support. One Love.
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