Talk To Your Body

tina — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Emmert and Nathaniel Kane are Das Black Milk’s two songwriters and they’ve done an excellent job on their latest album Talk to Your Body; it’s probably their best work yet.

Many of the songs focus on notions of domestic turmoil in a paranoid dystopia, which I think reflects the current time we’re living in. In “Laissez-faire,” the second single off the album, Das Black Milk sing, “Laissez-faire, let them devour each other,” probably referring to the idea of how our lives are basically the social constructs of powerful organizations and institutions that are simply seeking to increase their capitalistic goals. The band continues: “Another confession dictates our direction,” but the question is whose confession are they referring to and why does it have such control over us? It makes you wonder.

Music blogger Jester Jay was dead-on when he wrote that “Talk to Your Body reverberates with post punk and 1960s garage rock sounds, but also reveals traces of electronica and tatters of punk. It's a fun listen that defies expectations.” These different types of music give the album a unique sound that is quite rare.

One cannot take for granted the amazing contribution of Ray Kline, the newest member of the band. Kline brings a whole new level to the DBM sound and is responsible for the integration of new and different music styles on Talk To Your Body. Overall I’d say this is a great album; it’s fun to listen to and it’s an amazing diversion from mainstream music.

Written by: May Abu Jaber, November 24th 2010

Quest for Honor

mandy — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Directed by Mary Ann Smothers Bruni

SB Productions

Should the fate of our lives be put in the hands of another human being merely because we are women? The right to feel secure in one’s own body is a basic and fundamental human right that should be employed by all human beings, despite their race, sex, gender, religion, age, and class. Unfortunately, many individuals run the risk of being physically, sexually, emotionally, and psychologically abused merely for being women.

Out of every three women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching seventy percent in some countries. Violence against women is borderless. It knows no boundaries. It does not limit itself to the privileged or the poor, and it can be found anywhere and everywhere, amongst our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts and friends. Quest for Honor provides its viewers with several real life cases that illustrate the hideous practice of so-called honor killing in Kurdistan. Runak Faraj, Kulthum Murad, Hemin Kaikay, and Lawen Asad investigate, interview, and challenge societal traditions and norms by revealing how a simple claim about women’s sexuality can result in her death.

The claim that women have brought shame upon their families becomes an incentive that legitimizes the cycle of violence against women. Although Quest for Honor focuses on honor crimes that have occurred in Kurdistan, one has to recognize that these cases repeat themselves over and over again in many different countries. Thus, the film should be considered to be a building brick that educates the general public by providing the latter with a visual representation of gendered violence.

Are honor crimes motivated by a patriarchal construction of society? Runak Faraj, editor of Rewan (Dawn), the Women’s Media Centre newspaper in Sulaymani, and her colleague Kulthum Murad try to answer this question by conducting several interviews with people of varying social statuses. “I’ve come for your opinion as an official,” Faraj tells Ali Hama Waso, who is the mayor of Rania. “There is a large number of women killed here.” His answer: “This is the case throughout Kurdistan, and the number hasn’t increased. Besides, men aren’t responsible for women’s suicides, women burning themselves or throwing themselves in the lake. The trouble is not Kurdish men or cultural expectations."

Although I support Mary Ann Smothers Bruni’s attempt to demonstrate the relation between honor crimes and patriarchy, I believe analyzing honor crimes solely as a patriarchal oppression disregards the legal, economic, and cultural structures present in every society that generate grounds for violence. All in all, Quest for Honor provides enough evidence to aid international media reporting on honor killings and facilitate the advancement of the women’s movement globally by embarrassing and shaming those countries that condone such atrocious practices against women.

Written by: May Abu Jaber, September 7th 2010