Melody Gardot: The Psalmist as Trauma Survivor

    Album: Currency of Man     Artist: Melody Gardot    ’Cause I believe in a world where we all belong, And I’m so tired o’ seein’ every good man gone.                      ~Melodie Gardot, “Preacher Man” The above quote is from a song that memorialises the brutal racist killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955. This is the track that sits at the zenith of the story arc comprising this series of original songs, a story arc that starts off with a compassionate soul’s expressions of anger and grief at injustice and ends with— well, something quite different. The album’s … Continue reading Melody Gardot: The Psalmist as Trauma Survivor

David Lynch on Consciousness, Creativity, and the Brain

““If you have a golf-ball-sized consciousness, when you read a book, you’ll have a golf-ball-sized understanding; when you look out a window, a golf-ball-sized awareness, when you wake up in the morning, a golf-ball-sized wakefulness . . .” ~ David Lynch Continue reading David Lynch on Consciousness, Creativity, and the Brain

Banksy: So Totally Fun and Games— So Totally Not

                        Film: Banksy Does New York       Director: Chris Moukarbel “There are crimes that become innocent and even glorious through their splendour, number and excess.” “When you go to an art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.”          ~ Banksy He didn’t apply for an arts grant. He didn’t receive an official selection. He had not one work displayed in a public gallery. He simply announced that for the month of October, 2013, he would take up an artist … Continue reading Banksy: So Totally Fun and Games— So Totally Not

The Tunisian Cafe, Part II— Caffeine Oasis in a Wayward Urban Desert

“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” – Henri J.M. Nouwen La Boheme Salon de Thé in Manouba has become our second home, our watering hole, our workplace, and our conference centre, the place where we meet friends, celebrate milestones, hammer out goals, resolve disagreements, watch soccer, or just bask in the radiance of a contented clientele and a congenial staff. Like most cafés here, even the cheaper, all-men’s cafés, the coffee and tea are good and you don’t need to buy more than one to … Continue reading The Tunisian Cafe, Part II— Caffeine Oasis in a Wayward Urban Desert