I Can't Give No Satisfaction

On the Grammy's last sunday, Sir Mick Jagger sang a tribute to the late Solomon Burke. When I was watching this, the only thing that struck me was the fact it was the first time Mick Jagger had ever performed on the Grammy stage, but DocOc brought up another side to this that intrigued me. He found it interesting that the man paying tribute to this great African-American artist was a British white man. But to me, this wasn't strange. Although the Rolling Stones are a british based band, everything from their sound to even their name are deeply rooted in American soul and rock. Their band name came from a Muddy Waters song, and they've been so heavily influenced by American blues and rock, I feel that Mick Jagger was a great person to pay tribute to Solomon Burke.

I do see how a white man paying tribute to a black man can seem to be making the world more vanilla but I think that the Grammy Academy made a good decision to enlist the help of Mick Jagger. Many people who watched the Grammy's this year had no idea what Lady Gaga was wearing let alone who Solomon Burke was, and by having one of the biggest rock stars from one of the greatest bands of all time introduce his music to a new generation of fans (who sorely need it may I add), then it is their responsibility to share this mans talent. If it has to be through a brit, then so be it. Any vehicle to help a man continue to give his greatest gift seems worth it to me, black or white.

What makes you different...

We've been talking a lot about race these past few weeks, and I've wanted to make an insightful blog post about my interactions in interesting race situations in that time. I wracked my brain, looked through pictures to jog my memory and... nothing. I could not remember a time in my young life in which I was in a place where someone's race mattered. My dads best friend and my pseudo-uncle Leon is black, my best friend in the universe is Peruvian, I grew up in a heavily jewish town, and I am a member of the B'hai Temple in Wilmette. I guess its a little weird that I've never been in a situation I can remember where race mattered, and it is not even that my whole life has been sheltered. My dad worked as a Dominick's security guard all around Chicago when I was growing up so I was exposed to different races of people from a young age. When Barack Obama was running for president, I was honestly annoyed by how much people brought up his race and how he would be the first black president. To me, that didn't matter. He was an intelligent man and a very engaging speaker and I didn't know why that was being over shadowed by his race or that it was some how a "surprise" that he could be as polished or "clean" according to Joe Biden. I had known black men who were very smart and incredibly articulate and I didn't know how that could be surprising...

This may simply be me babbling about my lack of racial tension in my life and how I've had a vanilla life, but I feel like I haven't. I feel like no matter what my exposure has been or will ever be, I'm not going to see race as a class marker or anything other that genetic code. I mean, if there was something about me that I couldn't control that people judged me on, I'd just want it to stop and feel like an equal, with equal opportunities to prosper and fail as the next person, but my only genetic oddity is that I am a 6 foot tall girl from Glencoe so maybe I can't really know what I would do in that situation but I would hope that is what I would do...

maybe this doesn't make sense, but I just wanted to explain my frustration with not being able to connect class discussions to my life in interesting blog fashion.

If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad?

We've been talking about how Huck Finn should end in class lately. Max was talking about a "Hollywood Ending" (I more equate it to a Disney ending but its cool Max) to Huck Finn and everyone more or less rolled there eyes because no story as complicated as Huck's could possibly end happily. But in the immortal words of Miss Sheryl Crow-

  If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad

What would be so wrong with Huck buying Jim then freeing him, letting Jim go back and be with his family and adopt Huck and have them all live happily ever after?

When things end well in books, people write off the book as the writer giving up. Like at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, many people believed that when J.K. Rowling ended the book with Harry and Ginny getting married and having kids named after their fallen friends, she was coping out of writing a real ending. But why does everything have to be sad? Why does every great piece of literature have to end bittersweetly? Why can't it be a big chocolate sundae with whipped cream? Why does it have to be baking chocolate?

I am a sap for happy endings, and I always think there should be more of them. Peony should have been able to marry David and lived happily ever after, instead of her having to go to an abby and be away from the man she loved. Tita in Like Water for Chocolate should have been able to marry Pedro and they could have had babies who were also incredibly sensitive to chopping onions and had crazy magical tears. Anna from My Sister's Keeper should have been able to live with her Kate after Kate's leukemia was cured. The world is sad enough, can't we allow ourselves to escape into a book that is complex but doesn't remind us of the sadness in the world we're trying to escape from?

Shameless Plug

Not really AIS related buuuuut...
Over the summer I interned at a local recording studio owned by Gary Fry, CSO composer /Emmy & Grammy winner. While working there, we worked on the score for a short film entitled Last Wish, starring former Bond Girl, Lana Wood. We also recorded the intro song "Tell Me" which I ended up mixing. It was in the papers a month ago or so (can be seen here). It's a very interesting film with great msuic, not that I'm bias or anything ;) but you guys should check it out for sure :)