PUB: Enter the write a story for bedtime competition

Competition Rules

  1. The A.Vogel Dormeasan ‘Write a Short Story for Bedtime’ competition 2011 will run from 28th March to 28th October 2011. Entries can be submitted any time during this period, but must be received no later than 28th October 2011.

  2. Four prizes will be awarded – 1st: £500, 2nd: £300, 2 x 3rd: £100 each

  3. Competition winners will be announced in the magazine Your Healthy Living (YHL) and will be published online on both YHL and A.Vogel websites in early 2012.

  4. Entry is free and is open to UK residents only, over the age of 18. Submitted entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been previously published. Entrants should use a one-word pseudonym to prevent judges being aware of your identity and use their real name on only on the entry form.

  5. Each month a story will be selected as a Pick of the Month and featured online on both websites with a brief extract published in Your Healthy Living magazine. The author will receive £50. These stories will appear under the pseudonym and so will remain eligible for consideration for the main prizes.

  6. The competition is not open to members of A.Vogel or Your Healthy Living staff or their immediate families.

  7. Entries should be in English with a minimum length of 1500 words; maximum 3000 words. Apart from erotica and children's stories, there is no restriction on subject matter. However, due consideration will be given by the judges on the appropriateness of the short story for bedtime.

  8. Entries should be submitted by email to editor@yourhealthyliving.co.uk using Microsoft Word or as a pdf. Postal entries can also be accepted and should be addressed to:

    The A.Vogel Dormeasan Short Story competition
    Your Healthy Living 
    JHN Productions Ltd
    Unit2, Three Hills Farm
    Ashdon Road
    Bartlow
    Cambridgeshire
    CB21 4SD

  9. Entries must double spaced on one side of the paper, with page footers showing title, pseudonym and page number only, and accompanied by a completed entry form available from participating retailers or online at www.avogel.co.uk/story or www.yourhealthyliving.co.uk. Postal entries will not be returned so please keep a copy. No corrections can be made after receipt.

  10. Email entries will be acknowledged electronically. If you require acknowledgement of receipt of a postal entry please enclose a stamped addressed postcard marked ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

  11. Worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author, but A.Vogel and Your Healthy Living will have the unrestricted right to publish any story, either in full or as an excerpt, on websites and in any subsequent anthology. Entrants must be prepared to take part in publicity.

  12. No competitor may win more than one overall prize. The judges' decision is final and no individual correspondence can be entered into.

  13. Submission of an entry to the A.Vogel Dormeasan ’ Write a Short Story for Bedtime’ competition implies acceptance of all the rules of the competition.

 

PUB: Call for entries: Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize > Geoffrey Philp's Blog

Call for entries: 
Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Commonwealth Writers – a world of new fiction


Today the Commonwealth Foundation made the call for entries for the new Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize.  The prizes are part of a new initiative, Commonwealth Writers, an online hub to inspire, inform and create a community of writers from all over the world. Together with the prizes, Commonwealth Writers unearths, develops and promotes the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth.


Awarded for best first book, the Commonwealth Book Prize is open to writers who have had their first novel (full length work of fiction) published between 1 January and 31 December 2011. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £10,000. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000-5000 words). Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000. The winners will be announced in June 2012.


Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Margaret Busby said “The significance of a prize such as this becomes greater with each year.  It is vital to encourage and celebrate the talent of newly emerging novelists whose words have the potential to inspire and enrich the entire literary world.  Searching out and promoting the best first books of fiction internationally is a serious task, a great honour and a wonderful challenge.”


Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bernardine Evaristo said “This wonderful prize will turn the spotlight on the increasingly popular short story form and aims to support and encourage short story writers worldwide.”


As one of the Commonwealth Foundation’s culture programmes, Commonwealth Writers works in partnership with international literary organisations, the wider cultural industries and civil society to help writers develop their craft. Commonwealth Writers is a forum where members can debate the future of publishing, get advice from established authors and ask questions of our writer in residence.


Commonwealth Foundation Director, Danny Sriskandarajah said “As one of the Commonwealth Foundation’s flagship projects, I’m delighted that we’re putting the prizes firmly on the contemporary map of new writing and launching a dedicated Commonwealth Writers website to extend our global reach.”


 Full rules and entry and eligibility information is available at www.commonwealthwriters.org 

 

PUB: Poetry contest. Fish Publishing Poetry Competition

Fish has been running the poetry contest since 2006. Previous judges include Brian Turner, Leanne O'Sullivan, Michael McCarthy, Peter Fallon and Matthew Sweeney. To view our catalogue of anthologies containing the winning poems from previous poetry competitions click Fish Books.

 

Billy Collins - Poet. Judge of the 2012 Fish Poetry Prize

2012 Fish Poetry Prize opens for entries Aug 2011. Billy Collins (Poet Laureate USA 2001-2003) will be judging. He will select 10 poems to be published in the 2012 Fish Anthology.

Fish Publishing runs the poetry competition each year, and publishes the winners in the annual Fish Anthology. This is launched during the West Cork Literary Festival in July.

 

 

 

 

Poetry Contest Summary 2012

OPENS: 1 Aug 2011
Closing date: 30 March 2012
Results: 30 April 2012
Judge: Billy Collins

Poetry Contest Prizes:

The winner and nine runners-up will be published in the 2012 Fish Anthology.

First Prize - €1,000

Second Prize - a week at the Anam Cara Writers' & Artists' Retreat in West Cork's Beara Peninsula, with €300 traveling expenses.

The best ten poems will be published in the 2012 Anthology and each poet will receive five copies of the Anthology.

All winning poets will be invited to the launch of the 2012 Fish Anthology. This will take place during the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2012.

[ Back to Top ]

 

 

Poetry Contest Rules

  • No entry form is needed. Entry is mostly on-line, or by post if required.

  • You can enter as many times as you wish. One poem per entry.

  • The poetry contest is open to poets of any nationality writing in English.

  • There is no restriction on theme or style.

  • Poem length is restricted to 200 words.

  • The winning poems must be available for the anthology and, therefore, must not have been published previously.

  • Fish holds publishing rights for one year after publication. Copyright remains with the author.

  • Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email.

  • The judges' verdict is final.

  • No correspondence will be entered into once work has been submitted.

  • Poems cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered. Do not put name or address with the poem, but on a separate sheet if entering by post, or in the correct place on the online entry system.

  • Overall winners of the Fish Poetry Prize may enter again, but will not be eligible for the first prize.

  • A poet who has had two poems in Fish Anthologies may not enter for three years. They may enter other Fish Prizes in that time. (This is designed to give opportunities to a wider circle of emerging poets).

  • Entry is taken to be acceptance of these rules.

 

[ Back to Top ]

 

Poetry Contest Entry Fees

The cost of an Online entry is fixed in Euro and the conversion into your local currency will be done automatically by your credit card company according to the current exchange rate.

 

Online Entry

Postal Entry

Per Entry

14.00

16.00

Critique (Optional)

30.00

32.00

 


 

[ Back to Top ]

How to Enter

You can enter online or by post. The cheaper option is to enter online.

Online Entry to Poetry Contest

To Enter online, simply submit your poem(s) through our online entry system on our website. Please do not send poems as email attachments. 

MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS NOT ON THE POEM. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALL SHORT-LISTING AND JUDGING IS DONE ANONYMOUSLY. YOUR POEM IS AUTOMATICALLY LINKED TO YOUR AUTHOR NAME IN THE SYSTEM.

If you have any difficulty submitting your poem(s), post your problem at Feedback and Support.

 

CLICK HERE TO ENTER ONLINE

[ Back to Top ]

 

Postal Entries for the Poetry Contest

To enter by post, please include entry fee and poem in the same envelope. Do not put your name or address on the poem - put all contact details on a separate sheet. Cheques payable to 'Fish Publishing'. NOTE: cheques must be made out in the currency of the country from which they are sent, to the value of the fee. Receipt of entry by email only. Poems will not be returned. Critiques will be returned by email unless requested by post.

Post to: The Fish Poetry Contest, Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland

 

INFO: Breath of Life—Lee Morgan & Freddie Hubbard, Cherine Anderson, 18 Stevie Wonder covers

Meet The Cookers: Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard, and then get down with the Princess of Dancehall Soul music Cherine Anderson, and close out your week with 18 superb covers of four Stevie Wonder compositions.

 

http://www.kalamu.com/bol/

 

Both of these trumpeters made bold, brassy statements full of bravura and intensity, and nowhere is the fire encouraged to burn more brightly than on a Freddie Hubbard album, Night of the Cookers, on which Lee Morgan sat in on the Claire Fischer composition “Pensativa.” Even though it was a lilting bossa nova, by the end of the duel, both trumpeters are throwing down in a take-no-prisoners sonic duel. Morgan solos first in a muted passage that pays tribute to Morgan’s former boss Dizzy Gillespie, but once past the opening solos and they begin trading fours, both men play open horn with no restraint.

 

This is a famous session, renown in jazz circles. Indeed we have featured it before on BoL. This time however, we foreground the two trumpeters so that many of our younger fans can fully appreciate the magnificence of their trumpet battle royale. To paraphrase what I wrote back on January 28, 2008, if asked to select who is the better of the two, I would have to say they both are!

 

We are fortunate to be able to hear them together at the height of their powers. Isn’t it truly a blessing to be able to listen to and be invigorated by music of this caliber?

 

Give thanks for the twin titans of jazz trumpet who graced us with sterling and often startling music, music that makes your arm hairs rise up and your big toe go rigid following the twists, turns, elaborations, and sonic arabesques. Man, this is jazz.

 

—Kalamu ya Salaam

ECONOMICS: Herman Cain's Sorry Defense of His 9-9-9 Plan > Mother Jones

Herman Cain's Sorry Defense

of His 9-9-9 Plan

Wed Oct. 19, 2011
 

 

They're wrong.

That was front-runner Herman Cain's short and sweet defense against critics who said his 9-9-9 tax reform plan would hike taxes on the working and middle classes during Tuesday's GOP presidential debate. Cain's plan would wipe out the current federal tax code and replace it with a 9 percent sales tax, a 9 percent corporate business tax, and a 9 percent income tax. Cain took plenty of heat in the debate after multiple analyses of his 9-9-9 plan—this one by the Tax Policy Center is eye-opening—found it would dramatically increase taxes for the working and middle classes while dramatically slashing taxes for the wealthy.

Or, in chart form (via Kevin Drum):

Tax Policy Center

 

Tax Policy Center

But Cain repeatedly insisted that his critics—and the outside analyses—were wrong. "The thing that I would encourage people to do before they engage in this knee-jerk reaction is read our analysis. It is available at hermancain.com," he said. His plan, he went on, "is a jobs plan, it is revenue-neutral, it does not raise taxes on those that are making the least."

Here's the problem: The analysis (PDF) on Cain's website doesn't support what he's saying. After reading it I called the group who conducted the analysis, northern Virginia-based Fiscal Associates, but no one answered; if they call back I'll update accordingly. [Updated: see below.] Ezra Klein read the Fiscal Associates analysis, too, and had this to say:

Somewhat oddly, the analysis (pdf) Cain posted from [Fiscal Associates] has the word 'draft' emblazoned on the bottom of every page. Confidence inspiring stuff. But even the draft analysis doesn't tell us much. What we need to know to decide whether the plan will raise taxes on those making the least is what tax wonks call 'a distributional estimate'—an estimate of what different income groups will pay under the new proposal. There's no such estimate in the Fiscal Associates Draft.

To be clear, it's not that the analysis confirms or debunks Cain's claim that the 9-9-9 plan won't jack up taxes on the poor and middle class. The analysis doesn't even say what the impact will be. Which begs the question: Did Cain even read the analysis before citing it to defend the 9-9-9 plan on national TV? I emailed the Cain campaign this afternoon for clarification but have yet to get a response.

[UPDATE: This afternoon, I spoke with Gary Robbins, a former tax expert at the Treasury Department who now runs Fiscal Associates and who the Cain campaign hired to analyze the 9-9-9 plan. Robbins confirmed that his analysis, contrary to what Cain says, does not look at how the 9-9-9 plan would impact tax rates for low- and middle-income earners. "I wasn't asked to do a distributional analysis," he says. "Rather I was asked to look at whether it was revenue-neutral, which it is." Robbins says he doesn't necessarily agree with the Tax Policy Center's analysis, but adds that he needs to look at their methodology before making a conclusion about the plan's effects.]

 

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Andy Kroll is a reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Email him with tips and insights at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. Follow him on Twitter here. Get Andy Kroll's RSS feed.

 

OCCUPY WALL STREET: My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters > Rolling Stone

My Advice to the

Occupy Wall Street

Protesters

Hit bankers where it hurts

 

--> -->  

 

By Matt Taibbi
October 12, 2011 8:00 AM ET
-->
Protesters with the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement demonstrate in New York.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

 

I've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower Manhattan are a great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and a long-overdue middle finger to the financial elite. The protesters picked the right target and, through their refusal to disband after just one day, the right tactic, showing the public at large that the movement against Wall Street has stamina, resolve and growing popular appeal.

But... there's a but. And for me this is a deeply personal thing, because this issue of how to combat Wall Street corruption has consumed my life for years now, and it's hard for me not to see where Occupy Wall Street could be better and more dangerous. I'm guessing, for instance, that the banks were secretly thrilled in the early going of the protests, sure they'd won round one of the messaging war.

Why? Because after a decade of unparalleled thievery and corruption, with tens of millions entering the ranks of the hungry thanks to artificially inflated commodity prices, and millions more displaced from their homes by corruption in the mortgage markets, the headline from the first week of protests against the financial-services sector was an old cop macing a quartet of college girls.

That, to me, speaks volumes about the primary challenge of opposing the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption, which is that it's extremely difficult to explain the crimes of the modern financial elite in a simple visual. The essence of this particular sort of oligarchic power is its complexity and day-to-day invisibility: Its worst crimes, from bribery and insider trading and market manipulation, to backroom dominance of government and the usurping of the regulatory structure from within, simply can't be seen by the public or put on TV. There just isn't going to be an iconic "Running Girl" photo with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or Bank of America – just 62 million Americans with zero or negative net worth, scratching their heads and wondering where the hell all their money went and why their votes seem to count less and less each and every year.

No matter what, I'll be supporting Occupy Wall Street. And I think the movement's basic strategy – to build numbers and stay in the fight, rather than tying itself to any particular set of principles – makes a lot of sense early on. But the time is rapidly approaching when the movement is going to have to offer concrete solutions to the problems posed by Wall Street. To do that, it will need a short but powerful list of demands. There are thousands one could make, but I'd suggest focusing on five:

1. Break up the monopolies. The so-called "Too Big to Fail" financial companies – now sometimes called by the more accurate term "Systemically Dangerous Institutions" – are a direct threat to national security. They are above the law and above market consequence, making them more dangerous and unaccountable than a thousand mafias combined. There are about 20 such firms in America, and they need to be dismantled; a good start would be to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and mandate the separation of insurance companies, investment banks and commercial banks.

2. Pay for your own bailouts. A tax of 0.1 percent on all trades of stocks and bonds and a 0.01 percent tax on all trades of derivatives would generate enough revenue to pay us back for the bailouts, and still have plenty left over to fight the deficits the banks claim to be so worried about. It would also deter the endless chase for instant profits through computerized insider-trading schemes like High Frequency Trading, and force Wall Street to go back to the job it's supposed to be doing, i.e., making sober investments in job-creating businesses and watching them grow.

3. No public money for private lobbying. A company that receives a public bailout should not be allowed to use the taxpayer's own money to lobby against him. You can either suck on the public teat or influence the next presidential race, but you can't do both. Butt out for once and let the people choose the next president and Congress.

4. Tax hedge-fund gamblers. For starters, we need an immediate repeal of the preposterous and indefensible carried-interest tax break, which allows hedge-fund titans like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson to pay taxes of only 15 percent on their billions in gambling income, while ordinary Americans pay twice that for teaching kids and putting out fires. I defy any politician to stand up and defend that loophole during an election year.

5. Change the way bankers get paid. We need new laws preventing Wall Street executives from getting bonuses upfront for deals that might blow up in all of our faces later. It should be: You make a deal today, you get company stock you can redeem two or three years from now. That forces everyone to be invested in his own company's long-term health – no more Joe Cassanos pocketing multimillion-dollar bonuses for destroying the AIGs of the world.

To quote the immortal political philosopher Matt Damon from Rounders, "The key to No Limit poker is to put a man to a decision for all his chips." The only reason the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie Dimons of the world survive is that they're never forced, by the media or anyone else, to put all their cards on the table. If Occupy Wall Street can do that – if it can speak to the millions of people the banks have driven into foreclosure and joblessness – it has a chance to build a massive grassroots movement. All it has to do is light a match in the right place, and the overwhelming public support for real reform – not later, but right now – will be there in an instant.

This story is from the October 27, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone.

 

__________________________


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rethinking the

'Occupy' Movement

in Atlanta

 

BY WILLIAM JELANI COBB
11:32 AM Oct 19th, 2011

Was 'Occupy Atlanta' allowed to slide because it's mostly white?

Troy Davis Park, which was until two weeks ago known as Woodruff Park, sits at an odd angle on Peachtree Street and Edgewood Avenue – two of the main thoroughfares in downtown Atlanta. A little more than a century ago the area where the park stands became ground zero in the 1906 race riotthat claimed dozens of black lives and scarred the black business district that once thrived there. Most days now it serves as an overlooked municipal greenspace near Georgia State University where homeless people gather and street vendors hawk tourist merch. That is until two weeks ago when Occupy Atlanta arrived with a multitude of tents. It’s now where young activists began organizing media and medical camps, and where the space has been unofficially renamed in honor of a man murdered by the state of Georgia a month ago.

Last week, Atlanta Mayor (and my Howard University classmate) Kasim Reed issued a deadline that Occupy Atlanta had to evacuate the park by 5 p.m. this past Monday. For his part, the mayor was in an uncomfortable position – faced with complaints from local business owners, he was contemplating arresting peaceful activists in a city that built its reputation as home to the most famous peace activist in the world.

An hour before the deadline roughly 200 people were camped out, the grounds dotted with tents, information tables and clusters of young activists sitting cross-legged in circles. On the northern end representatives from the AFL-CIO, a few local affiliates and a cross-section of labor rights organizations took turns explaining why it was crucial for their groups to support the Occupy movement. A few hundred feet away a group of college-aged activists were singing improvised protest songs and an elderly man shouted semi-coherent declarations about his grandfather, racism and white people in general.

Aside from the spectacle, though, Atlanta was its rush-hour normal and the only official presence were the widely loathed parking enforcement officers who found a windfall in ticketing people who’d come out to observe the demonstration. By 5:15 it was clear that Occupy ATL had been head-faked by the mayor, who extended the deadline for their exodus from the park.

Had Reed gone forward with his threat to evict the protesters we might’ve seen a photo negative of the civil rights movement, one in which a black police force arrests white protesters who are demanding that the nation heed its own conscience -- and doing so just two days after the Martin Luther King Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall.

That Bull Connor moment might still be in the offing, but Mayor Reed did issue a statement saying that civil disobedience was a crucial part of the city’s history. The activists got to put one in the win column.

Yet for all the symbolic importance of Occupy Atlanta remaining in the park, their victory managed to underscore the reasons for my basic distrust of the movement. Five years ago, the city enacted stringent laws directed at the homeless population -- most of whom are black -- downtown. Had any of the homeless who mingled among the activists on Troy Davis Park attempted to sleep on the grounds out of necessity, not political symbolism, they would have been quickly evicted or arrested.

Thus, there are a few ways to look at the (mostly white) Occupy Atlanta, but it can't be overlooked that much of their success lies in who they are, not what they stand for. No big city mayor wants news cameras showing images of labor organizers or white college students being dragged into police cars. I suspect that a movement that is purportedly about chastening the over-privileged has itself banked on that very privilege.

Consider that the national unemployment level is now roughly what theblack unemployment level was during the economic boom. It’s possible to see the Occupy Atlanta, and by extension the many other Occupied Americas, as a reaction of white people momentarily experiencing conditions that have become permanent realities for black people. And while anyone with a sense of current events welcomes the public finally demanding accountability for the rogue money men who’ve plunged us into an economic tailspin, its worth asking what will happen when the economy recovers for the rest of the country and black America resumes its recession-as-usual conditions.

This is perhaps too cynical, but it’s certainly possible that, like the Tea Party, the Occupy movement coheres through a common but fleeting anger and thus people of color should keep an eyebrow firmly raisedregarding where our concerns fit in this situation.

But those thoughts were drowned out as the various Occupiers chanted, sang and bull-horned about the righteousness of the cause even as the rush hour-traffic began to dwindle. They settled in for another night in the park -- alongside the homeless men who had been there all along.

 

>via: http://www.loop21.com/content/rethinking-occupy-movement-atlanta

 

 

__________________________

 

 

 

By Guest Contributor Manissa McCleave Maharawal, originally published at In Front and Center

In the past few weeks friends and family from around the country have asked me, with a deep urgency in their tone: “What is it like to be there? What does it feel like? How would you describe it?” These questions throw me because, like any project of describing life as it happens around you, when you are very much in it, it feels impossible sometimes. And so instead of describing what Occupy Wall Street feels like I say: “It is all happening so fast, it changes everyday, it is overwhelming, I am tired but I am also excited again, I’ve made new friends, new lovers and new enemies, I couldn’t have imagined my life would be like this a month ago.”

OWS 1

When I said this to my friend Amy last week she laughed and replied, half-jokingly: “That sounds like the start of the revolution.”

“Not yet,” I replied “but we’re trying.”

But my inability to answer this question has been nagging at me: Why is it so hard to describe what it feels like to be part of this movement that is not really a movement, this moment, this space? Maybe the fact that it is hard to describe is part of its strength?

Here is the thing: Occupy Wall Street has changed a lot over the past two weeks. It has grown tremendously, garnered more and more media attention and seems to be staying put for a while. While two weeks ago I walked away from Liberty Plaza thinking of how beautiful and inspiring it was, but also worried about how long it will be there, now the terrain of questions have shifted, it isn’t: When will the cops kick us out? but How will we grow? How do we sustain all the people that have come here? Should we occupy somewhere else too? That doesn’t mean that the cops getting rid of us isn’t still a major concern, but simply that now we feel like we are semi-established in some ways, or at least in enough ways that we can sustain something.

OWS 2

That said, on Friday I realized how much I have grown attached to the actual space of Zucotti Park when we were threatened with eviction by Brookfield Properties, the private real estate company who owns the park. That day I woke up at 3am and made my way over to the park, anxious and deeply sad that it might all be over. Arriving at the park I saw friends, old and new, and we hugged in the chilly pre-dawn air, “I don’t want to lose all of this” I kept saying over and over again. “We won’t” they replied, “and even if we do we’ll build it somewhere else.”

We didn’t lose on Friday morning, and the feeling of being surrounded by thousands of people willing to stay in the park, refusing to back down even if the cops threatened arrest was powerful beyond what I can express here. The moment made me realize that the way that I feel about all this, and the way I talk about it, has shifted. All of a sudden I am using personal pronouns– this is “our” movement, “we” are worried about the cops kicking us out. I don’t know when this happened but at some point I started feeling some sense of ownership over this movement. And I’ve started calling it a movement. I’ve started saying things I never thought I would , things like “in the movement….”

As I wrote in my last post, I still think OWS is more of a space than a movement, a space of radical possibility, but I also think it is becoming something else. It is a space, but it is also a moment: a moment in which radical critique of our political and economic systems and the harm they have caused, a critique that many of us have had for a while, feels possible to have on a larger scale. It is a moment in which people who never thought they would be out on the streets protesting are protesting. And this is revolutionary in itself.

1

So what does it feel like to be part of Occupy Wall Street, to be there everyday almost? In some ways it has become an addiction, I wake up some mornings telling myself that today I won’t go by, that today I will take the day off and go back to being a graduate student. But somehow I find myself there, either to go to a working group meeting, a working group sub-committee meeting, to attend a training, to go on a smaller march, to see a performance, to hear and be a part of what is being discussed in General Assembly that night, or just to hang out at the margins and observe what is happening for a few minutes. There is the celebrity watching aspect to being in that space, as all the leftist intellectuals and left-leaning pop culture icons make their stop-by (a conversation I had with a friend: “I saw Deepak Chopra last night” “well I saw Talib Kweli tonight” someone else chimes in: “Neutral Milk Hotel a week ago was my favorite”).

But this is not what is addictive about being there. What is addictive about being there is that this space, this moment, this movement, suddenly has me thinking about things in a new way. It suddenly has me hopeful again. And it has me excited to think about my own, and all of our, potentialities and possibilities. Everything feels possible again. I never thought I would feel this way.

And I’m not the only one- like I said above, I’ve made new friends, good friends, friends all of a sudden I can’t imagine my life without. And I’ve made the occasional new enemy, the kind of enemies that you see at smile and nod at but know that you share different theoretical views, different personal views, different perspectives. This enemies are necessary too for without them the space wouldn’t be what it is: a place of frustration sometimes but yet hope and expectation too.

But what does everyday life look like at OWS? This is hard to describe because it changes depending on what time of day you are there, what day of the week it is, what the weather is like, who is there, what is happening there. It can seem both incredibly chaotic yet incredibly organized. It can seem underwhelming yet overwhelming. Sometimes it seems like just a bunch of people standing around holding signs or sometimes it looks like groups of people milling about, sitting on the stairs, on the ground, sleeping on top of tarps. But look more closely: what these people are actually doing, what this space is actually doing, is shifting the terrain of our imaginations. These bodies in this space are inherently challenging.

More pragmatically though:

You can hear OWS before you see it now. If it is during the evening General Assembly, which can last for hours, you can hear the voice of hundreds of people talking in unison, amplifying one person’s words so that everyone can hear them- the General Assembly has grown so much in the past two weeks that now the “People’s Microphone” needs 2 and sometimes 3 waves through the crowd so that everyone knows what is going on. I get chills every time I see this process in action- something about the way it makes everyone listen, repeat and really take on what someone is saying. You can also hear the drum circle on the west side of the square that has hundreds of people playing in it, dancing around it, the rhythm they make bounces off the walls of the office towers around the square and reverberates throughout the square. And above all this you can hear the general din of hundreds of people in one space together: talking, debating, arguing, or just sitting with friends and being in that space together. Every time I bike towards Occupy Wall Street, dodging cars and buses and taxis on Broadway, my heart starts beating a little faster when I hear this din, I start biking faster and I can’t wait to just be there. To hear what is being discussed in that night’s General Assembly, to meet my friends, to attend a meeting or just to wander through and see what there is to see, make a new sign, or browse through a book in the library, eat something from the food station or just generally observe the beautifully overwhelming spectacle of it all.

OWS 3

A few nights ago I was there around 10pm when it was drizzling and everyone was getting under their tarps and sleeping bags and settling in for the night. I was with a friend from out of town who is trying to start up Occupy New Orleans (read about that here). She is also a street medic, so we made our way over to the medic’s station, someplace I have only wandered by but never stopped at. The medic’s station is impressive in that you can smell it before you see it: it smells of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol. And indeed while we were standing outside of it they were disinfecting and washing down their entire area, scrubbing the concrete and all the surfaces clean. The medic we spoke to was slow speaking and one of the calmest people I have ever met.

“Oh yeah we’ve had to deal with some serious stuff,” he said, “but this is one of the best teams I’ve come across.” He went on to describe how they had doctors and nurses on call, a whole team of street medics at all times, as well as access to low-cost or free clinics in the neighborhood. He offered help to Occupy New Orleans in whatever way he could, and together they brainstormed supplies and ways that OWS might be able to help.

OWS 4

Thinking about this moment of solidarity and support while winding our way out of the park around all these tarps with people’s feet poking out at the bottom of them made my heart swell for a moment. When I got home I joked to my roommate: “If you get sick, go to OWS, they have better free healthcare there then anywhere.”

And in part this is the point: that OWS is such a challenge to the state because it is, in many ways, functioning by itself. It is governing itself, it is feeding itself, it is making art, making music, reading a book, sitting on the steps and talking to friends, it is taking care of itself. This is radically different than a march or a rally, which have ending points. I realized this last week when after the big Wednesday march (which my friend Sonny writes about here), I got drinks with some friends, and we all sat around and talked both about how amazing the march was but then we also asked the inevitable question of “What’s next?” And as this question was being asked, I realized that it was the wrong question for OWS. It is the wrong question for a few reasons: because when we are reproducing everyday life we don’t need to ask “What’s next?” because this question is already answered. But it is also the wrong question because in a movement without leaders and without demands, the question isn’t “What’s next?” but rather: “What do I want to do next?”

The next day on the subway coming home from another evening at OWS (7pm General Assembly and then an awesome dinner from the food station: beans and rice and pizza and apples and ice cream and salad and macaroni and cheese. While in the food line someone came and made everyone sanitize their hands and then passed out plates and I felt so well-taken care of for a moment), the people I was with asked each other exactly this question: what do we want to see happen here, in this movement, in this space? The answers were varied: Z. wanted there to be more occupations, C. wanted there to be walking tours of banks, A. wanted more dancing and singing, I wanted to re-write the declaration. This moment felt so different than the night before, and this difference matters because it is the difference between endings and beginnings.

Occupy Wall Street is not an ending, it is a beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HISTORY: Field Notes: A look back at The Crisis > kiss my black ads

Field Notes:

A look back at The Crisis

 

 

 

By Kristy Tillman

Originally founded in 1910 by W.E.B DuBois The Crisis magazine became the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The journalʼs original title was The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races; inspired by James Russell Lowellʼs poem “The Present Crisis”. Published monthly, by 1920 its circulation had reached 100,000 copies. Predominantly a current-affairs journal, The Crisis also included poems, reviews, and essays on culture and history.

The cover design featured a variety of visual techniques, with heavy use of illustration in the earlier years. During the Harlem Renaissance DuBois featured many of the artist from at era for the cover designs. However, as time progressed you can see the cover design featuring photography as the the primary medium almost exclusively.

 

 



 

 

 

 

OBIT: Piri Thomas, Author of ‘Down These Mean Streets,’ Dies - NYTimes.com

Piri Thomas,

Spanish Harlem Author,

Dies at 83

Piri Thomas, the writer and poet whose 1967 memoir, “Down These Mean Streets,” chronicled his tough childhood in Spanish Harlem and the outlaw years that followed and became a classic portrait of ghetto life, died on Monday at his home in El Cerrito, Calif. He was 83.

 Tyrone Dukes/The New York Times - Piri Thomas in 1971. His memoir was an influential portrait of life in Spanish Harlem.

Signet Books

The 1967 memoir, "Down These Mean Streets," was a best seller and eventually a staple on high school and college reading lists.

The cause was pneumonia, his wife, Suzie Dod Thomas, said.

The memoir, a best seller and eventually a staple on high school and college reading lists, appeared as Americans seemed to be awakening to the rough cultures that poverty and racism were breeding in cities. A new literary genre had cropped up to explore those conditions, in books like “Manchild in the Promised Land,” by Claude Brown, and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

“Down These Mean Streets” joined that list. The memoir, Mr. Thomas wrote on his Web site, had “exploded out of my guts in an outpouring of long suppressed hurts and angers that had boiled over into an ice-cold rage.”

The novelist Daniel Stern, reviewing the book in The New York Times, called it “another stanza in the passionate poem of color and color-hatred being written today.”

In the memoir, Mr. Thomas described how he was brought up as the only dark-skinned child among seven children, the son of a Puerto Rican mother, Dolores Montañez, and a Cuban father, Juan Tomás de la Cruz. His dark skin, Mr. Thomas recalled, made him feel like an outlier in his own family and neighborhood, where he was taunted about this looks. Even his father, he felt, preferred his lighter-skinned children.

He described the bravado, or “machismo,” that he affected on the streets. Protecting his “rep” led him to “waste” people who insulted him, he wrote. He sniffed “horse” — heroin — even though he knew the consequences. “The world of street belonged to the kid alone,” he wrote. “There he could earn his own rights, prestige, his good-o stick of living. It was like being a knight of old, like being 10 feet tall.”

As a merchant seaman in the Jim Crow South, he wrote, he persuaded a white prostitute to sleep with him because, he told her, he was really Puerto Rican, not black. He then enjoyed stunning her by telling her she had just slept with a black man.

He returned home while his mother was dying in a poor people’s ward at Metropolitan Hospital and resumed his old ways — selling and using drugs and robbing people. In one holdup he wounded a police officer and landed in prison for seven years, a harrowing time he vividly evoked. It was in prison that he finished high school and began thinking about writing. He found, he wrote, that words could be used as bullets or butterflies. He called writing “the Flow.”

“It came very naturally,” he told an interviewer. “I promised God that if he didn’t let me die in prison, I would use the Flow.”

The book, with its harsh language and scenes, was banned by some schools but soon became assigned reading in many others. The poet Martin Espada said its influence was enormous.

“Because he became a writer, many of us became writers,” Mr. Espada said. “Before ‘Down These Mean Streets,’ we could not find a book by a Puerto Rican writer in the English language about the experience of that community, in that voice, with that tone and subject matter.”

Carolina González, a professor of literature at Rutgers University, said her students continue to find the book “very immediate and descriptive of their lives.”

After the memoir Mr. Thomas spent much of the rest of his life lecturing about it. He also wrote two novels, “Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand” (1972) and “Seven Long Times” (1974), several plays and the collection “Stories From El Barrio” (1979). He also set his poetry to music.

John Peter Thomas was born on Sept. 30, 1928, in Harlem Hospital, where he was given the Anglo-Saxon name. “They wanted to assimilate me,” he said in an interview in 1995. “Whoever heard of a Puerto Rican named John Peter Thomas?” His mother called him Piri.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Peter Stacker and Ricardo Thomas; four daughters, SanDee Thomas, Raina Thomas, Tanee Thomas and Renee Shank; three stepchildren, Michael and Laura Olenick, and David Elder; seven grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.

Despite Mr. Thomas’s hardships, Olga Luz Tirado, his onetime publicist, said he had retained a sense of humor. She recalled taking him to a reading in Brooklyn in the 1990s. “On the way back I took a wrong turn and said to him, ‘Piri, I think we’re lost,’ ” she told a reporter. “He asked, ‘We got gas?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said: ‘We ain’t lost. We just sightseeing!’ ”

 

 

VIDEO: Wynton Marsalis 50th Birthday Concert + Much More

Live From Lincoln Center: Wynton at 50

Wynton Marsalis at 50 premiered October 13, 2011.
Check Local Listings to see when it's airing on your local PBS station.

You can watch the full performance online from Friday, Oct. 14 to Friday, Oct. 21.

 

Live From Lincoln Center, produced by Lincoln Center's John Goberman, makes the world's greatest artists accessible to home viewers in virtually every corner of the United States. It remains the only series of live broadcast performances on American television today. Approximately six major Lincoln Center performances are televised to a national audience of millions each year. In addition to its 13 Emmy Awards and 53 Emmy nominations, Live From Lincoln Center has won two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Grammy Awards, three Monitor Awards, a Television Critics Award and many others.

Wynton Marsalis turns 50 on October 18 and Live From Lincoln Center, which has featured Wynton and his music on a number of previous programs, will salute his milestone birthday with a special concert celebration, Wynton at 50. Joining him and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on stage will be other luminaries from the world of music and dance, including tap dancer Jared Grimes, vocalist Gregory Porter, pianist Marcus Roberts, violinist Marc O'Connor, Yacub Addy and Odadaa!, and Damien Sneed and Chorale Le Chateau. During intermission, Wynton will be interviewed by actor Wendell Pierce.

Wynton Marsalis
Keith Major
Acclaimed musician, composer and bandleader Wynton Marsalis.

Wynton is the second of six sons born to Ellis and Dolores Marsalis, who may be said to have created a musical dynasty: four sons — Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason — followed in the footsteps of their father with music the dominant force in their lives. Wynton, who began playing the trumpet when he was six, is so indelibly identified with jazz that it may come as a surprise to some to learn that he was thoroughly educated and trained in classical music. By the time he was 14 he had already appeared as a soloist with the orchestra of his native city, the New Orleans Philharmonic, and was a prized member of a variety of New Orleans music establishments. At 17, he became the youngest member ever admitted to the Boston Symphony's summer music academy, the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, where he proceeded to win its prize for outstanding brass student.

Two years later he moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School, one of the world's outstanding music conservatories and a constituent member of Lincoln Canter for the Performing Arts. The buzz began to spread about this remarkable new musician in town, and he was soon expanding his classical music education with studies with the master jazz drummer Art Blakey. Simultaneously, he was forging a career as a classical music solo trumpeter, appearing as soloist with the likes of the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He also, at the age of 20, began a career as a classical music recording artist; he is the only musician ever to receive Grammy Awards in both the classical and jazz fields in the same year, 1983.

When the New York Philharmonic, which had been absent from the airwaves for nine seasons, returned to national radio in 1975, Wynton Marsalis was an early soloist on its broadcasts. As a guest during the intermission of one of the concerts, he revealed to the program's host and commentator, Martin Bookspan, the startling news that it was likely to be his last as a classical musician: from that time on his life would be devoted to jazz.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Mark Bussell
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

 

In 1981, Wynton formed his own jazz band and toured the length and breadth of the United States, rekindling an appreciation and love for the medium and serving as inspiration for a whole new generation of jazz musicians. Six years later, in collaboration with Lincoln Center, he co-founded a jazz program which proved to be so successful that in 1996 Jazz at Lincoln Center was installed as one of the constituent members of Lincoln Center, alongside the likes of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard School. Wynton is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The scope of Jazz at Lincoln Center embraces far more than the orchestra's performances: There is a Band Director Academy; a concert series called Jazz for Young People; NEA Jazz in the Schools, a web-based, multimedia curriculum; a Middle School Jazz Academy; a series called WeBop! for children from eight months to five years old; and a yearly High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival.

Live From Lincoln Center is produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., in cooperation with Thirteen/WNET in New York. Please visit http://www.lincolncenter.org/ for more information.

Visit Live From Lincoln Center at the PBS Video Portal to view clips, interviews and more from the program.

via pbs.org

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It may be hard for those who discovered jazz in the late 1970's and early 1980's to wrap their heads around it, but trumepter Wynton Marsalis turns 50 years old today. Despite his position as one of jazz's most revered voices and organizers, I always saw him as the new kid on the block.

Clearly that's no longer the case. A look at his discography (jazz, classical, soundtracks, etc) reveals more than 70 releases, an average of more than 2.5 releases a year since his debut in 1982. That's a staggering output, and much of it is fine music. And yet, for all his output, and all his awards - nine Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize among them - he is also a lightning rod for controversy. Here's an excerpt from his Wikipedia entry - footnotes and all - that spells out the issue:

Marsalis has been criticized by some jazz musicians and writers as a limited trumpeter who pontificates on jazz, as he did in his 1988 opinion piece in the New York Times "What Jazz Is - and Isn't".[1][2]

Jazz critic  Scott Yanow acknowledged Marsalis's talent but criticized his "selective knowledge of jazz history" and his regard for "post-1965 avant-garde playing to be outside of jazz and 1970s fusion to be barren" as the unfortunate result of the "somewhat eccentric beliefs of Stanley Crouch.[3]Trumpeter Lester Bowie said of Marsalis, "If you retread what's gone before, even if it sounds like jazz, it could be anathema to the spirit of jazz."[4] In his 1997 book Blue: The Murder of Jazz, Eric Nisenson argues that Marsalis's focus on a narrow portion of jazz's past stifled growth and innovation.[5] In 1997, pianist Keith Jarrett criticized Marsalis saying "I've never heard anything Wynton played sound like it meant anything at all. Wynton has no voice and no presence. His music sounds like a talented high-school trumpet player to me."[6] Pierre Sprey, president of jazz record company Mapleshade Records, said in 2001 that "When Marsalis was nineteen, he was a fine jazz trumpeter...But he was getting his tail beat off every night in Art Blakey's band. I don't think he could keep up. And finally he retreated to safe waters. He's a good classical trumpeter and thus he sees jazz as being a classical music. He has no clue what's going on now."[7] Bassist Stanley Clarke said "All the guys that are criticizing—like Wynton Marsalis and those guys—I would hate to be around to hear those guys playing on top of a groove!"[8] In his autobiography, Miles Davis – who Marsalis said had left jazz and "went into rock"[9] – hedged his praise of Marsalis by suggesting that he was unoriginal. He also found him too competitive, saying "Wynton thinks playing music is about blowing people up on stage." In 1986, in Vancouver, Davis stopped his band to eject an uninvited Marsalis from the stage. Davis said "Wynton can't play the kind of shit we were playing", and twice told Marsalis "Get the fuck off."[10]

Some critical exchanges have included insults. Besides insinuating that Davis had pandered to audiences, Marsalis said Davis dressed like a "buffoon." Trumpeter Lester Bowie called Marsalis "brain dead", "mentally-ill" and "trapped in some opinions that he had at age 21... because he's been paid to."[2][9] Marsalis in reply said Bowie was "another guy who never really could play."[9]

Marsalis was criticized for pressing his neo-classicist opinions of jazz as producer and on-screen commentator in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz(2001). The documentary focused primarily on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong among others, while ignoring other jazz artists. David Adler said that "Wynton's coronation in the film is not merely biased. It is not just aesthetically grating. It is unethical, given his integral role in the making of the very film that is praising him to the heavens."[11]

If his playing is a bit staid, and his desire to record - if not recycle - jazz classics on a number of his releases a but redundant, his contribution as a composer, as the director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and in particular his live playing make him a formidable talent. And that's enough for me.

While an excellent http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2010/11/02/wynton-marsalis-%E2%80%9Cwynton-live%E2%...">Breath of Life posting of Marsalis' live music is no longer available on their website, I have a copy, and am sharing it againfor you to hear. Enjoy.

Direct download: 02_Wynton_Live.mp3

__________________________

 

WYNTON MARSALIS /

“Wynton Live”



Source: Breath of Life – (BoL Mixtape – November 1, 2010)
MP3 02 Wynton Live.mp3 (82.75 MB)

wynton 29.jpg 
Wynton Marsalis needs no introduction. He is undoubtedly the most recognized name in contemporary jazz. He has more Grammy Awards than any jazz musician living or deceased. (He also has Grammy Awards for classical music.) And the roll call of honors goes on and on: cover of Time Magazine, prestigious music commissions, accolades, a Pulitzer Prize, and other awards too numerous to mention.

But he is also a controversial musician whom some regard as too opinionated, and others think him too conservative, especially with regard to his definitions of what is and isn’t jazz. One knock from some jazz insiders is that he is all technique and very little emotion and innovation.

Although he has recorded copiously, I find myself returning to his live recordings for the most part, especially on those sessions where he is less strict and more spontaneous. There are only five selections on this Wynton Live Mixtape and yet it’s over an hour and a half long. Indeed, the last song (“In The Sweet Embrace Of Life”) clocks in at 55-minutes; and it’s worth every second.
wynton 22.jpg 
Wynton is no longer a young a lion—he was born October 18, 1961 in New Orleans—but I believe he is playing better jazz than he ever has. The opening track demonstrates how he has matured as a ballad player. He no longer plays with pristine precision. Now he is just as likely to employ smears and off-kilter phrasing. What he does with“You Don’t Know What Love Is” is more lusty than romantic, more a deep declaration of carnality rather than a hapless lover lost in heartbreak. Needless to say, I find this fascinating because it sounds so unlike the younger Wynton Marsalis.

The aforementioned marathon concluding track (“Sweet Embrace”) is a tour de force of writing as well as performance. I love the band’s singing at the end precisely because it is what it is: instrumentalists doing shout choruses just like the old bands used to do. Not many ensembles could pull off this strenuous workout with both the technical expertise and the emotional sincerity (and joy) that flows from these guys.

But for me the real eye-opener (really that should be “ear-opener”) are the three middle tracks taken from Wynton’s new album, From Billie Holiday To Edith Piaf: Live In Marciac, which includes a DVD in addition to the audio CD. It’s a band of young cats channeling styles from earlier eras. Two pianists are listed on the credits and since I haven’t seen the DVD, I can’t tell you which pianist it is that nails that Erroll Garner thing on “Sailboat In The Moonlight” but outside of Mr. Garner himself very few pianist even attempt that approach. The band swings so hard, you’ll get vertigo just nodding your head to the rhythm. 

Also, I need to give special kudos to saxophonist/clarinetist Walter Blanding whose sound is both robust and seriously smooth, not like in smooth jazz, more like in aged cognac—that shit will knock you out. There is a raucous edge in this band’s sound that tips you off that these cats ain’t just playing at playing jazz. They sound like they getting married to the music til death do them part.

What is distinctive is that they don’t come off like they’re trying to play in an old style. Naw, they sound like they are having a ball and that’s just the way they play except young musicians don’t get to this level of swing-ability by luck. In fact, this particular set reminds me of some of the old New Orleans sit down bands, playing in what I call the Buddy Bolden mold, i.e. swinging hard, full of blues and playing like this is the last time they will ever get to play. But there is more, this concert of material associated with Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf also includes special guest accordionist Richard Galliano who more than holds his own.
galliano.jpeg 
When Galliano and Marsalis go head to head, their solos both intertwining and challenging each other, it is a masterful display. I’ve heard a lot of accordion (what some people call “the poor man’s organ”) but this is the first cat I could envision playing modern jazz of this caliber as a soloist. But you’ve got ears, you can hear that for yourself.

My final note is about Wynton’s take on “Strange Fruit.” This shit is the bomb-digity. My man tears into this oration with nary a nod to propriety. At some points he sounds like he is going to hurt something… or hurt someone. In fact, if you used this one for a blindfold test, most people would never guess Wynton Marsalis. And that’s the beauty: Wynton has gone beyond the limitations of young Wynton.
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I know the common misconception is that artists grow more conservative as they grow older. I don’t think that’s the case with artists. Entertainers, for sure end up merely trying to recapture bygone glory, but true artists keep reaching and as they grow older they have a wider palette of experiences to draw on.

These middle three tracks are enough to convince me. If you’ve only heard young Wynton you really haven’t heard Wynton. He’s playing with more than technique, here is the authority that only time can bring. Weathering the vicissitudes of life has given him more texture and timbre, a wider range of emotional dynamics; there is both more seriousness and more joy to Wynton Marsalis’ whole approach. 
wynton 20.jpg 
This is the kind of music that makes you want to shout: oh, hell yeah, play that shit!

Enjoy the new sound of a mature Wynton Marsalis.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

wynton live 01.jpg 
Live At The House Of Tribes (recorded 2002)
01 “You Don’t Know What Love Is” 

wynton live cover 02.jpg 
From Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf (recorded 2008)
02 “Sailboat In The Moonlight”
03 “L’homme A La Moto”
04 “Strange Fruit”

wynton live 03.jpg 
Live At The Village Vanguard (recorded 1990 - 1994)
05 “In The Sweet Embrace of Life”

 

>via: http://www.kalamu.com/bol/?http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2010/11/02/wynton-marsalis-“wynton-live”/