I got to the theater late and missed it!! :'( :-[ :-X :-/
<br><br><br>Please flog me now.<br><br>OK, but I did get to see the DJ Spooky performance and that was INCREDIBLE. In fact, here's my review of that in case you are interested. I'd love to see reviews of the Zappa film as well! <br><br>------<br><br>DJ Spooky Remixes Birth of a Nation!!!!!<br><br>I witnessed an absolutely incredible performance last night at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.<br><br>DJ Spooky, that Subliminal Kid, did a live remix of the notorious 1915 'epic' Birth of a Nation, remixing both the film itself as well as an original soundtrack in front of a live audience. It was mesmerizing and incredibly powerful; I was totally blown away. I don't know if anyone has ever done anything like this before, but I don't think this will be the last we'll hear of it. History in the making my friends.<br><br>For those who aren't familiar with the film, it was the first movie ever screened at the White House, and was the favorite film of president Woodrow Wilson. The film is an absolutely appalling piece of racist propaganda, presenting a complete misrepresentation of the facts surrounding the Civil War and the Reconstruction, and African Americans are depicted as lecherous barbarians by whites in blackface. The Ku Klux Klan are depicted as the knights in shining armor who come in to save the day (!!!)<br><br>Folks, this is seriously powerful stuff and is as relevant today as ever. DJ Spooky has transformed this abhorrent yet significant piece of American history into a true work of art. This work needs to be seen (and heard!), as amazingly enough the thread of lies and propaganda espoused in this film are still alive and well today in modern American society. And this work is able to make that point abundantly clear using only music and scenes from the film itself, with no heavyhanded browbeating.<br><br>And the music was incredible as well, blending Alan Lomax field recordings with free jazz and patriotic americana into a potent dub stew that really adds richness, focus, and intensity to the visuals. And it was all mixed live, including the film itself! Turns out he was syncronizing everything on a Titanium Powerbook using Max/MSP.<br><br>Best of all, there is another performance this evening: anyone in the SFBay area who is interested should check out:<br><br>http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Eyesandears1.shtml<br><br>Spooky says that next year he plans to expand the work to include orchestral elements as well as narration and live performance by others, including perhaps William Defoe. Sounds incredible.<br><br>A must see!<br><br>As an aside, this work is also extremely potent evidence of the value to society of allowing copyrighted works to enter the public domain, as well as strong validation of the basic ethos of Hip-Hop culture.<br><br><br><br>
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