Vita Foster

Dredging for Atlantis

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:16:00 +0000

Writing is in the eye of beholder, especially when it comes to poetry. This slim book is Tabios' fourteenth collection of poems. It is divided into three parts. Section I, "Dredging for Atlantis," consists of ekphrastic poems "utilizing the painterly technique of scumbling." Although ekphrastic poetry is usually a poetic response to a piece of visual art, in this case all but one is a "textually scumbled" poem of Mina Loy. Since I have not read the originals, it's hard to tell what, precisely, that entails.

Section II's poems "scumble from Kinta Beevor's memoir, A Tuscan Childhood." Section III's poems "scumble from John Banville's novel, Athena." The two sections are written in reverse hay(na)ku form, consisting of tercets of three, two and one word lines. The form was invented by Tabios herself and inaugurated in 2003 on Philippine Independence Day.

Most of the poems are short and in many cases did not grab my attention right away. Yet, many contained a startling turn of phrase that invited deeper contemplation, an effect I crave and the reason why I read poetry. Others just made me wonder what Tabios was smoking.

As a writer who is not fond of editing, my favorite has to be the last one, "*****," that starts with:

Edit it down. Edit it Down.

Written by: Vita Foster, June 10th 2007

SoukSonik

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:48:00 +0000

By Jef Stott

Six Degrees

After listening to the first 10 seconds of SoukSonic, I had no doubt that Jef Stott's work is strongly influenced by Middle Eastern music. According to his label's profile, Stott is a musical anthropologist who plays several traditional Middle Eastern string and percussion instruments. His anthropological training "inform[s] his sensibility about cultural relativism and issues of appropriation”--an intriguing statement since souk is Arabic for "marketplace."

The album is basically Middle Eastern-infused techno. It is at times too frenetic, as though Stott hit the fast forward button and liked the results. At other times, it almost strays into trance, though the tracks are too short and the tempo too fast.

Stott is an experienced producer, but SoukSonic eschews the full-bodied mellowness of the instruments and sounds as though it used a synthesized facsimile rather than the real thing. Overall, the EP is worth a listen, but not memorable enough to get into my favorites playlist with the possible exception of the infectious “Lamacet.”

Written by: Vita Foster, June 8th 2007

The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:30:00 +0000

By J.M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer, Jake Page

Smithsonian Books

Quick, name the world's oldest profession! It's not what you think, say the authors of The Invisible Sex. The world's oldest profession is, most likely, midwifery. The combination of larger brains and narrower pelvises required adaptations that led to women no longer being able to give birth solo. The book's title itself illustrates the thesis: were women truly invisible in societies of the past, or did they become so because of anthropologists' biases? Is the notion of worldwide patriarchy truth or, as everyone's favorite misogynist might say, projection? And what is "woman," anyway? Not all "women" are biologically female; the reverse is more rare, but also happens

It seems that each time a co-author is added to the roster, the resulting tome becomes vastly more unreadable. At 279 pages dense with information, The Invisible Sex is not for the faint of heart, but still very readable. It should be a required reading for those interested in anthropology and feminism. The authors pile on example upon example of unfounded assumptions that seemed self-evident to (male) anthropologists in the past. The skeletons that archaeologists unearthed and proclaimed to be female or male are not thus stamped, and the assumptions on which this determination was based (i.e. males are bigger or females don't hunt), in retrospect, seem flimsy. It is unlikely that women stayed in the cave awaiting the man who "brought home the bacon," yet that is the image most people have of prehistory. Maybe this is why we say, however jokingly, that prostitution is the world's oldest profession. Feminism did not explode the assumptions of prehistoric archaeology until 1984; fortunately, great strides have been made since then. This book is one of them.

Written by: Vita Foster, April 8th 2007

Nazrah: A Muslim Woman's Perspective

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:08:00 +0000

Directed by Farah Nousheen

Arab Film Distribution

Muslim women have received a lot of media attention recently: driver's license bureaus insisting they remove their head covering, fellow travelers regarding them suspiciously and with pity, and an enterprising Australian woman recently came out with a “burqini” that allows Muslim women to swim without violating their modesty standards. Rarely, though, do Westerners get to hear from Muslim women themselves.

Farah Nousheen is an activist based in Seattle, WA. Nazrah (Arabic for "perspective") is her first documentary, consisting of interviews she conducted with Muslim girls and women from the Pacific Northwest of the Uniteds States.

The film looks like it was recorded with a handheld camcorder, and sometimes the interviewee's face drops out of the frame completely. What is compelling is not the visuals, but the message and the variety of views. Nousheem interviewed a variety of women: though most are of Middle Eastern descent, several are African American and one is a white convert, whose acquaintance with Islam began when she saw a scroll in a museum. They are activists, housewives and law students. Their shared religion unites them much more strongly than I expected given the uneasy racial relations in the mostly-Christian U.S.

The documentary begins with a discussion of hijab. Most of the women did not seem to view it as a symbol of male oppression, but rather a sign of devotion to Allah. Some view it as another way to make themselves beautiful, albeit in a modest way. The sheer variety of scarves from market footage supports that idea. One woman chooses not to wear hijab because, in her eyes, a woman who wears hijab represents all Muslim women to Westerners – and she wants to be seen for herself.

Nousheen interviewed several girls from the Islamic School of Seattle. Even there the opinions ran a wide gamut. Some girls cover their hair, others do not. Some outspokenly object to being seated behind boys in classes, while others feel more comfortable in sex-segregated environments.

For a rather short (55 minutes) documentary, Nousheen touches on many topics, in some ways doing them a disservice for the lack of depth given to a given issue. Only a couple of women talked about sex; one focused on rape, saying that the blame should be divided between the victim and the attacker - one for being enticing, the other for succumbing to weakness. A lesbian woman recalled her initial fears of being "struck by lightning" despite a former lover telling her that being a Muslim and a lesbian are not mutually exclusive. Another area that deserves more in-depth focus is how these women reconcile being an American and being a Muslim. Few touched on it, one mentioning Western interference in Palestine and Americans' surprise at being hated by most Arabs.

The video ended with a voiceover by Nousheen speaking of her gratitude at being able to serve as the envoy for these women's stories in a culture of over consumption, an interesting dig.

Written by: Vita Foster, March 1st 2007

Animal Crackers

admin — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:54:00 +0000

By Wee Hairy Beasties

Bloodshot Records

In the last few years, so-called 'kid rock' has become big business, boosted by big names, CNN articles, and nationwide tours. Animal Crackers is a folk-rock, alt-country album aimed at children and, presumably, parents driven insane by the thirtieth rendition of "Row, Row, Row your Boat." The singers are Jon Langford, Sally Timms, and Kelly Hogan, backed by Chicago's Devil in a Woodpile.

My experimental sample of one, aged two and a half, liked the first track, "Wee Hairy Beasties," and requested an encore. I enjoyed the rousing chorus, but quickly got tired of the echo effect of the female singers repeating each line. By the third track, my son had enough and asked me to turn it off. For someone who enjoys everything from the Doodlebops to Nine Inch Nails, that said a lot.

The album did not improve on the solo listen. Some of the lyrics are clever, and older kids will appreciate the word play on tracks like "Animal Crackers," if the sparse arrangements can keep them listening long enough. For adults, the animal metaphors may get old fast.

The piece de resistance is "Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel," At 4 minutes and 43 seconds, it is by far the longest of the bunch, and tells the story of a squirrel and his wife, Marjorie, the singing bee. They enter a singing contest. They only know one song, but the performance is so amazing that it makes other performers jealous, and they spread nasty rumors about the couple. The audience chases them through the streets with torches, but all ends well when the pursuers get lost in the woods and eaten by Cyril's friends while Cyril and Marjorie sing happily ever after "far away from humanity." I'm not naive enough to believe that kids should not be exposed to violence, but that was too much.

Toenail Moon" was the most enjoyable track on the album. Sally Timm's voice is excellent and the lyrics are amusing. Although the enhanced CD is advertised to contain a video for the song, my Mac claimed otherwise.

Written by: Vita Foster, February 23rd 2007