Re: Zorn and "An Open Letter of American Jews to Our Government"?
Hi,
I am curious what Zorn's and/or the radical jewish culture people's position would be towards the Israel-Palestine conflict and the position of the American government towards this. What triggered my interest is an article I read on this "An Open Letter from American Jews to Our Government" (www.peacemideast.org). Is anything known about Zorn's position on the propositions made there?
I think this is an interesting topic. But, I agree with Joseph in that I doubt very many opinions would be shared by such a broad community as the Tzadik people. However, many of them have in fact spoken out quite openly about this topic, especially Elliot Sharp (check his diary on his webpage). Also, ealier this year Sharp, Marc Ribot, Anthony Coleman, Frank London and many others organised a benifit concert under the banner of "Israel Out Of The Occupied Territories" and so on. However, the behavior of Zorn himself is, as usual, in my opinion peculiar. In the 80s and early 90s he was the bad boy of punkjazz and hardcore with censored CD covers and so on, and suddenly he turns to "Radical Jewish Culture" with the energy of a train, with very little explanation to his audience what is going on. So far, the only hint I'm aware of is the comment on all the Masada albums abotu "cultural Zionism". But what is "Cultural Zionism", what's Zorn's point? It's funny that Zorn can seem so passionate about this topic, but on the other hand not have the slightest interest in wether other people understand what it's all about. I can't think of many other artists who seems to care so little about how they are percieved by their audience. Of course, I'm not suggesting that all musicians should make a manifesto explaining their political views. But perhaps Zorn simply loves the endless speculation and misunderstandings? I mean, it would not take much of an effort for him to stop articles like the following (which have been discussed here before): "John Zorn and Zionism" http://www.furious.com/perfect/zornzion.html Or maybe it just boils down to Fred Frith' famous comment to Zorn: "You're an apolitical dumbshit" ;-) Cheers. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Hi, Some Dave Douglas thoughts on the matter (which they don't seem to enjoy so much, btw) http://www.tomajazz.com/perfiles/douglas_eng.htm Best, Efrén del Valle _______________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger Nueva versión: Webcam, voz, y mucho más ¡Gratis! Descárgalo ya desde http://messenger.yahoo.es
Hi all, thanks for your comments! Efrén del Valle wrote:
Some Dave Douglas thoughts on the matter (which they don't seem to enjoy so much, btw)
I don't find it easy to figure out what he means, basically. (Not only with respect to radical jewish culture). Plus some not overly kind moves towards Efrén and some boastful fits... an odd performance. Efrén, do you feel like getting more explicit on who doesn't seem to enjoy why? Best wishes, Fritz ############################################## Fritz Feger mail@fritzfeger.de www.fritzfeger.com ##############################################
Hallo Fritz und jedermann,
I don't find it easy to figure out what he means, basically. (Not only with respect to radical jewish culture). Plus some not overly kind moves towards Efrén and some boastful fits... an odd performance.
Yeah, an odd performance to say the least. I really didn't seem to understand him either, but in some aspects we agreed. However, due to those interruptions Douglas wouldn't let me get to the point where those agreements showed up. A pity.
Efrén, do you feel like getting more explicit on who doesn't seem to enjoy why?
I was mainly referring to Douglas himself based on his reactions whenever the political subject was touched upon. If you read the interview, you may have noticed that all those weird bursts came when politics appeared. I didn't want him to justify himself or his ideas, but at least get an explanation of something that we have been discussing here for a long time without firm conclussions. It proved to be worthless. Maybe the first one to blame is Zorn himself, for he's being promoting a cultural movement that doesn't seem to have obvious foundations or maybe we aren't smart enough to see/understand them. Where does culture end and where do politics start? That's one of my first questions. Secondly, why shouldn't I interpret the RJC as some sort of nepotist and exclusivist attitude? What do Selfhaters and Jenny Scheinmann really have in common? Does Shrek have anything to do with Jewish music at all besides using a Yiddish word? If you are promoting some sort of cultural movement, aren't you supposed to explain what the whole thing is about without the need to promote some sort of manifesto? And nobody really seems to want to answer to dozens of questions that we've been making. I thought it was a good opportunity to clarify some of them but I felt that wasn't the way to go, at least with Douglas. I've got some more interviews scheduled in short and I'll get back to the subject. Let's see. Gruss, Efrén del Valle a.e: Cecil Taylor Unit: "It Is In The Brewing Luminous" (Hathut) _______________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger Nueva versión: Webcam, voz, y mucho más ¡Gratis! Descárgalo ya desde http://messenger.yahoo.es
participants (3)
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Arthur Gadney -
Efrén del Valle -
Fritz Feger