6 posts tagged “nina simone”
To be quite frank, Ms. Simone is much less effective with prose than lyrics and melody. This is not about insight into her psyche or much reflection on the challenges and triumphs of her life. If you’re looking for that, if you’re interested in her passions and emotions, stick with the music. You’ll find no new access here. If you want to know about her life’s loves, her relationship with her family, and her near constant lack of business acumen, well, this is for you.
This is not what I was hoping for. I wanted her to delve deeper into her connection with the civil rights movement. A good portion of the middle passages deal with this part of her life but only anecdotally. I yearned for a stronger discussion of her politics and how she reconciled that with her music and her career and her station. I wanted less about how her relationships with men dominated her emotional state and effected her movements.
What we do get, however, are glimpses into her genius and how, despite suggesting up and down at the opening of the book that she wasn’t proud of her skill as a musician, her awareness of her own genius gave her a unique point of view. Wealth was not really a concern for her but respect – for her celebrity, her craft, and her skin – were incredibly important to her. This ego -- a hallmark of her career, her performances, her relationship with her audiences – rears it’s head often. I found these glimpses into how she saw herself most fascinating. We could all learn to demand to be treated with the kind of respect Ms. Simone often required.
As Jimmy noted, “We are the creators of the worlds we live in.” If that’s the case, might as well make it a world where our own brilliance is acknowledged.
Mildly recommended but, really, I’d just recommend picking up as much of her catalogue as you can. The recent re-issues Nina Simone Sings The Blues, Forever Young Gifted & Black, and Silk & Soul are great starts.
Well, not really this week, more like this month but after a deep conversation about online courtesy, decency and communication standards with Anna this morning, I was reminded that I've been holding on to some interesting things that I've been meaning to share.
- Make your emails CLEAR compliant. CLEAR is an acronym for a method of writing emails that will make them shorter and to the point and reduce the number you receive if you and your colleagues follow its simple guidelines
- Write like Lincoln - Just send the nasty grams to yourself
- How to master the subject line to get your email read
- Don't say no in an email. Tim includes a video clip where he explains the limitations of email in conveying true meaning and intent and why you shouldn't say no via email
- Making your Email More Effective; A Lesson from Lincoln, Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms, 03.16.07
I'm a big stickler for good email communication, particularly at work. We even recently had compliance training about proper email etiquette.
Author Vladimir Nabokov said in a 1969 New York Times interview that "there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile--some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket."
Now, nearly four decades later, there is just such a typographical symbol-- :-), or :) for the minimalists, and it'd be tough to find a tech-savvy person who hasn't leaned on it. There's also a special typographical symbol for a frown-- :-( -- and one for a cool dude in sunglasses -- B-) -- and one for a wink -- ;-). There's even a typographical sign for wearing a baseball cap-- d=D.
- The Web Smiley's motto: Grin and Bear It, C|Net, 03.13.07
I over-use emoticons in IM (where I'm less sure about people getting the nuance of my writing) and probably under-use them in conversational emails.
The subject of online courtesy or "netiquette" (what an outdated word) is frequently discussed in old media. Some blame the impersonality of the media itself. Others say that people haven't changed at all "" the Internet is just another venue in which people can malign and mistreat each other. On some level this is true. It's an extension of the playground, where adults can pick on one another without a teacher's watchful eyes upon them.
Younger Internet users are the ones who actually seem to be using the Web to form online communities, make friends and promote their art via sites like Facebook, Myspace, Bored At and Second Life. It's the so-called grown-ups pulling each others pigtails and bullying the meek.
- Bad Behavior 2.0, Portsmouth Herald, 03.30.07
I won't really get into how sweeping (and sweepingly wrong) the second paragraphs generalization is. What I found most interesting is her thought that netiquette is an outdated word. I'm inclined to agree but have no idea what should take it's place. Any thoughts?
This post's soundtrack:
- Dora by Kyoto
- That Easy by Clara Hill
- Soon by Jazzanova
- I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free by Nina Simone
Video: Show us a great music video.
It occurs to me that I don't see music videos very often anymore at all because I'm old and don't watch the music channels or search them out online.
Although, I did spend a good portion of yesterday checking out Nina Simone footage on youtube.
Maybe that will be my new distraction, watching the music that is most popular on my last.fm page.
Audio: Share a great love song.
This is real love:
Bonus: NPR is all about MLK, today, and has newly found tapes of one of his speeches and a whole lotta other good material.
