OK, so, it's friday evening, and it's time for another Friday Night Concert.
This time, however, what I have in mind isn't exactly a concert, so much as it's a music video/movie. It's actually an amazing piece of work by a couple of Brits named Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgman.
Jamie and Duncan had made a little money back in the late 80s and early 90s producing some rap artists, and had an amazing idea as to what to do with it, for their next project. And what they decided to do was to travel the world with a portable audio-video recording studio, meeting other artists (of all kinds, not just musicians) to ask them what they thought about the meaning and purpose of life. They recorded each as they went, and offered what they had already acquired to each succeeding artist to add to as they desired, until they had assembled an amazing audio-visual collage. And the list of artists and musicians that contributed is stunning. World class authors, actors, singers, musicians, philosophers, and shaman from every continent on Earth.
And the result is pretty amazing.
YouTube has only one offering of the entire 'movie'. But there's something wrong with it (it jumps and repeats as it plays) and it's very long. But the original DVD did not play as a single movie, anyway. It was divided into titled segments, each of about 10 or 15 minutes. Which was a good way to present so much audio-visual information, because it gives us a break in between the segments.
I'm not going to link to the jumpy full movie. Instead, I'm going to list the links to the individual segments. Not all of them, though, because it would take too long to watch them all, and some of them are not appropriate for TOL.
(I must post a warning, here, that there are a few occasions in these videos where some offensive language is used. I apologize for that, and would bleep it out if I knew how. But I think the overall value of the pieces are so strong and positive that it's worth having to endure a few unfortunate word choices. Hopefully, we're all adult enough, here, to handle the imperfections of others.)
So here we go … The DVD begins with a segment titled "Time", and featuring artists including Eddi Reader, The Mahotella Queens, Revetti Sakalkar, and many more … Speakers include: Stuart Brand, Rabbi Kantor, Brian Eno, Zebulon Dread, Kurt Vonnegut, and Baaba Maal.
1 Giant Leap: TIME
The next segment is titled "Masks", featuring Linton Kwesi Johnson, Ravetti Sakalkar, Sanjay Verma, and others. Speakers include: Ram Dass, Anees Jung, Denis Hopper, Lynn Frank, and Mohammed Zulkiti.
1 Giant Leap: MASKS & ROLES
The segment entitled "Money" is in two part (for some odd reason) on YouTube, and features Grant Lee Phillips and Horace Andy, Kaolin Thompson, and others. Speakers include: Anita Roddick, George Nuki, Michael Franti, Fred Reid and Tom Robbins.
1 Giant Leap: MONEY
The segment titled "Confrontation" features Michael Franti, Jiggs, Spencer Love, Penny Shaw, and others. Speakers include: Tehamua Nikora, Fred Reid, David Oldfield, and George Nuku.
1 Giant Leap: CONFRONTATION
There are three segments titled "God: faith, God: Blasphemy (missing from YouTube), and God: Unity". The segment called "Faith" is missing the video, but the audio is so great that I had to include it. Whirimako Black (of New Zealand) sings from a Maori prayer book and it's amazing! And Ramu Majumdar's flute compliments her.
1 Giant Leap: GOD: FAITH
The segment titled "Blasphemy" is not available, but the segment titled "Unity" features Michael Stipe and Asha Bolshe, Tom Booth, Dave Randall and Pops Mohammed. Speakers include: Jerry Sadowitz, Linesh Shesh, Tom Robbins, Gabrielle Roth, Dennis Hopper, Hilda Bethelezi, Rabbi Kantor, Elders of the Tachi, Prabir, and Baaba Maal.
1 Gint Leap: GOD: UNITY
The next segment is titled "Inspiration", and features Baaba Maal and Ulali, Tanya Carovska, African Show Boys, Mustapha Tettey Addy Drummers, Ayub Ogada with speaker: T.O. Jazz, Kaolin Thompson,Ram Dass, Baaba Maal, Maxi Jazz, Kurt Vonnegut, Dennis Hopper, Tom Robbins, and George Nuku.
1 Giant Leap: INSPIRATION
There is a segment entitled "Sex", but I'm not going to post a link to that one, because as good as the music is, and as interesting as the discussions are, it's just not going to be appropriate for TOL.
After that comes a segment called "Death", featuring The Mahotella Queens and Duncan Bridgman. Speakers are Dennis Hopper, Tom Robbins, Kid Sithole, Pops Mohammed, Fred Reid, Davina McCall, Ram Dass, Nicholas Ellenbogen, and Dr. Rewati Sakalkar.
1 Giant Leap: DEATH
The last segment is titled "Happiness", featuring Michael Franti, Catto and Bridgman, and many others. Speakers: Tom Robbins, Gabrielle Roth, Kurt Vonnegut and the Elders of the Tachi Reservation.
1 Giant Leap: HAPPINESS