Staff Benda Bilili are a group of Congolese street musicians. They live around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa, and play music which is rooted in rumba, with elements of old-school rhythm’n'blues and reggae. The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarist, who are all disabled (they suffered from poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. They are backed by a younger rhythm section consisting of ex-sheges, abandoned street kids who were taken under the protection of the older members of the band. The soloist is an 18 year-old boy who plays guitar-like solos on an electrified one-stringed lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can.

(via.)

amazing artwork for the cover of the harry j all stars single “liquidator.” and check wikipedia for the harry j-skinhead-obama conspiracy theory!

This single became one of the anthems of the emerging skinhead youth subculture; together with other instrumental hits released in the UK through his own subdivision “Harry J” on Trojan Records, on a compilation album of the same name. During the 2008 United States presidential election, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama campaign used the song “I’ll Take You There” by the The Staple Singers at the closing of his stump speeches on the campaign trail. The beginning of the song “I’ll take you there” features an introduction which was lifted from “The Liquidator”.

point dume, malibu. (loc.) 5/29/10

the aston martin db5 station wagon may be my favorite car ever.

According to the movie website cinematical, this map of California dates back to 1927 and was used by Paramount Studios to use the American West to represent locales from the rest of the world. Pretty cool.

a beautiful song and music video from the incomparable flying lotus, one of our moment’s real musical treasures.

now that i’m here, my greatest urge is to speak to you of dental care. my generation had a rough go dentally. our dentists were the army dentists who came back from world war two and believed that the dental office was a battle ground. you have a better chance at dental health. and i say this because you want at night to be pacing the floor because your fuse is burning inside of you because you want to do your work because you want to finish that canvas because you want to help your fellow man. you don’t want to be pacing because you need a damn root canal. so, floss. use salt and baking soda… take care of your damn teeth.

i never got a degree myself because i lacked some of the things that you have. i got it eventually… i got one now. but it is proof that you had the courage, the discipline, you stayed conscious,… at least part of the time… you sacrificed, and you got through boot camp. maybe it wasn’t so pretty. maybe you got through by the skin of your teeth. but you have accomplished the first run in your mission in life.

in 1967 i went to left school. i came to new york city. i went to brooklyn because i had friends at pratt and i stayed there. i met robert mapplethorp and we lived on hall street. i learned from him, i learned from my friends and their teachers. we walked on clinton… on st. james… the same places you walked. we bought our supplies at jake’s. we ate at that corner diner on st. james and had grilled cheese sandwiches and egg creams and dreamed. and when we went out to the world, we went to new york city, to the chelsea hotel. sort of like pinnochio.

i think of this like pinnochio because pinnochio went out into the world. he went on his road filled with good intentions, with a vision. he went ready to do all the things he dreamed. but he was pulled this way and that. he was distracted. he faltered. he made mistakes. but he kept on. pinnochio in the end became himself because the little flame inside him, no matter what crap he went through, would not be extinguished.

we are all pinnochio. and do you know what i found? after several decades of life. we are pinnochio over and over again. we achieve our goal. we become a level of ourselves. and then we want to go further. and we make new mistakes. and we have new hardships. but we prevail. we are human. we are alive. we have blood. pratt was part of my initiation. within its environs i got courage and i gained confidence to do what i had to do in my life.

i think about in being a fellow pinnochio… oh, i actually forgot what i was going to say…

what should we aspire to as we go on our road? when i was in my early 20s, i was lucky to have william burroughs as a friend and mentor. when i was with him and i asked him this question: “what should i aspire to?” and he thought, and he said: “my dear, a gold american express would be good.” but after that he said very thoughtfully, “build your name.” and i said, “william, my name is smith.” and he said, “well, you’ll have to build a little harder.” but what william meant when he told me to build my name, build a good name, because a name is not to get famous. he wasn’t talking about celebrity. he was talking about let your name radiate yourself. magnify who you are. your good deeds. your coat of honor. and as you go through life your name will serve you.

we might ask ourselves, what tools do we have? what can we count on? you can count on yourself. believe me, your self is your best ally. you know who you are. even when sometimes it becomes a little blurry and you make mistakes or [inaudible], just go deeper. you know who you are. you know the right thing to do. and when you make a mistake, it’s alright. as the song goes, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again.

when you proceed on your course, never forget you are not alone. you have friends and family. but you also have you ancestors. your ancestors sing in your blood. call to them. their strength through the ages will come into you. and then there are your spiritual ancestors. call on them. they have set themselves up through human history to be at your disposal. jesus, he said, i am with you always, even into the end of the world. allen ginsburg, walt whitman. they are with you. choose the one you wish to walk with and he or she will walk with you. don’t forget that. you are not alone.

when i left home, i asked my father what advice he could give me. my father was very intelligent, very well read. he read all the great books, all the great philosophers. but when i asked his advice, he told me one thing: be happy. it’s all he said. so simple. i’m telling you, these simple things: taking care of your teeth, being happy. they will be your greatest allies. because when you’re happy, you ignite that little flame that tells you and reminds you who you are. and it will ignite, it will animate your enthusiasm for things. it will enforce your work.

be happy, take care of your teeth, always let your conscience be your guide.

well, i wish you god and good luck.

video via the daily swarm

update: i transcribed this speech for the hearing impaired.

Michael Nesmith is owed a heavy debt of gratitude by P.T. Anderson. This music video is also basically the birth of MTV, so I guess we all owe him thanks since MTV eventually created the world’s greatest television show Lost “Jersey Shore.”

Via Wikipedia:

the video clip for “Rio.” …in a roundabout way, helped spur Nesmith’s creation of a television program called Pop Clips for the Nickelodeon cable network. In 1980, Pop Clips was sold to Time Warner/Amex consortium. Time Warner/Amex developed Pop Clips into the MTV network.”

thx abk

the one with the bubbles coming out of its mouth. on display in LACMA’s amazing collection of mesoamerican art.