Petition: Indigenous Studies For All Australian Students

Indigenous Studies For All Students

Greetings All!!

How the journey between birth and death is experienced is largely dictated by ones perception, with conditioning beginning at a very young age. For too long this conditioning has employed a biased view that has seen the creation of cultural stereotypes and views that achieve nothing more than erode the awareness of our natural interconnectedness.

If you believe it is time to address the imbalance that exists in our perceptions within this world then please take 2 minutes to make a difference.

1. Take 1 minute to sign the following petition to the Australian House of Representatives to legislate to make Indigenous Studies compulsory for all students. http://www.gopetition.com/online/17774.html

2. Take another minute to forward this message to all your friends in your email list.

In Peace!!!


NB. Please note that a hardcopy petition is also being generated so as to be inline with the acceptable standards to be acceptable and presentable to the House as determined by the Standing Committee on Petitions.

Youtube: Queens of Carnatic singing

The intoxicatingly beautiful vocal music of south India

from MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite

Queens of Carnatic singing: Nithyasree Mahadevan: 1, 2 and 3. Sudha Ragunathan: 1, 2, 3 and 4. And the legend of the legends, M.S. Subbulakshmi, in her film appearances from decades past: 1, 2 and 3, and as an elder stateswoman of Carnatic vocal artistry: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Online music promo article

Here's a very interesting article from the NY Times about online promotion of music:

Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog

By CLIVE THOMPSON

Published: May 13, 2007

Jonathan Coulton sat in Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn, his Apple PowerBook open before him, and began slogging through the day’s e-mail. Coulton is 36 and shaggily handsome. In September 2005, he quit his job as a computer programmer and, with his wife’s guarded blessing, became a full-time singer and songwriter. He set a quixotic goal for himself: for the next year, he would write and record a song each week, posting each one to his blog. “It was a sort of forced-march approach to creativity,” he admitted to me over the sound of the cafe’s cappuccino frothers. He’d always wanted to be a full-time musician, and he figured the only way to prove to himself he could do it was with a drastic challenge. “I learned that it is possible to squeeze a song out of just about anything,” he said. “But it’s not always an easy or pleasant process.” Given the self-imposed time constraints, the “Thing a Week” songs are remarkably good. Coulton tends toward geeky, witty pop tunes: one song, “Tom Cruise Crazy,” is a sympathetic ode to the fame-addled star, while “Code Monkey” is a rocking anthem about dead-end programming jobs. By the middle of last year, his project had attracted a sizable audience. More than 3,000 people, on average, were visiting his site every day, and his most popular songs were being downloaded as many as 500,000 times; he was making what he described as “a reasonable middle-class living” — between $3,000 and $5,000 a month — by selling CDs and digital downloads of his work on iTunes and on his own site.

Read the full article here...

CD: Cheb i Sabbah - Devotion

Devotional Global Electronica

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Cheb i Sabbah

Devotion (Six Degrees, 2008)

One of the masters of global electronica, Cheb i Sabbah, returns to the Indian subcontinent for inspiration with yet another extraordinary CD, his 7th, titled Devotion. Like a good wine, Cheb i Sabbah gets better with time. With the help of Indian and Pakistani musicians he delivers a rich tapestry of South Asian beats and melodies, including Bhajans, Kirtans, Bhangra, Qawwali, Hindu devotional. The seamless integration of electronics with ancient songs and instruments is not as easy as it seems, but ...

CD: Mamak Khadem (Persian)

Forever Seeking Persian Excellence

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Mamak Khadem

Jostojoo Forever Seeking (Banyan Tree Production, 2008)

Most world music fans would easily recognize Mamak Khadem’s voice by her work with the popular Persian ensemble Axiom of Choice, but that would just be a sliver of this songstress’ career. Lending her exquisite voice to movie and television soundtracks like The Peacemaker, Traffic, The Profiler and ...

Bjork in China protests Tibet

Raise your flag!

from MetaFilter by finite

Björk, in Shanghai, on Tibet: Declare Independence! [YouTube]
Bjork's Shanghai surprise: a cry of 'Tibet!' - Bjork's protest a sign of things to come for China - Björk Exposes China's Greatest Weakness - Bjork Shouts Out To Tibet During Shanghai Show - Chinese furious at 'Tibet-independence' Bjork

Shanghai Daily says "Let's hope that Bjork's controversial parting comments do not lessen the likelihood of local music fans enjoying more of these acts in the future" without offering readers any hint as to what the comments were about.

Declare Independence on mefi previously: 1, 2

CD: Songs from a Persian Garden

Delectable Songs From A Persian Garden

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat

Songs From A Persian Garden (KKV/Valley Entertainment, 2007)

Songs From A Persian Garden features a delectable collection of contemporary Persian world music pieces performed live. Singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat join forces with Iranian and European musicians to create a seductive and fresh sound that will be app...

Mongolian Overtones

from MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite

In Mongolia, overtone singing (or hoomei, as it's known locally) is mainly a guy thing, but there are exceptions to the rule, for example, the Hoomei Women's Group. More commonly though, women who want to sing do so in an exquisite, soaring style like this and this. Sometimes the men do the hoomei thing while the women do that soaring thing. Then there are those lovely choral arrangements. And then there are those rare moments when the YouTube poster's description of a clip just hits the nail square on the head, as with this one: amazing.
These guys are getting throaty just outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

This fellow's really working those upper partials, presented in a clip that also features some glimpses of Mongolian life. Lots of horses.

N. Sengedorj of Mongolia demonstrates khöömei throat-singing.

Here's a cool little combo, with some hoomei going on.

Click here to see Metafilter discussion on the post