Disco Berimbau (Riera Remix): lyrics and foto vid

brooklyn, new york

here's a disco remake of the samba classic by composer, Baden Powell, wonderfully remixed by my producer and co-writer, Daniel Riera, with fotos by Rami Hyun.

another one bites the dust in my video upload project. just one more and i'll be done with all of my current releases. :) feel free to comment on the YouTube page!

lyrics:

quem é homem de bem não trai
o amor que ele quer seu bem
quem diz muito que vai, não vai
e assim como não vai, não vem
quem de dentro de si não sai
vai morrer sem amar ninguém
o dinheiro de quem não da
é o trabalho de quem não tem
capoeira que é bom não cai
más si um dia ele cai, cai bem

capoeira me mandou
dizer que ja chegou
chegou para lutar
berimbau me confirmó
vai ter briga de amor,
tristeza, camará

when he plays that bow and string
what magic he can bring
so sing, my berimbau
send my song across the sea
and tell my love for me
i need him, berimbau

you can find the track on iTunes here

Moody: lyrics and video upload project

brooklyn, new york

you know how on YouTube artists (or their fans) will upload a video with just a still fotograph (or sometimes the lyrics) just so people can hear the song? well, i hadn't thought to do that for myself until a few weeks ago. it took me a while to get to cause i was busy, but also terrified at trying to learn another medium: iMovie. a day later, though, and here's what i made.

a little more than just a foto still, here's a little montage of pictures for my song, Moody, by my fantastic friend, Edwina Morgan (with picture #3 by Dave Moore). i really liked the result, and it turns out that the pictures tell a bit of the story. watch out til the end of the video if you will. the pace picks up a bit.

i'm hoping people will enjoy the work and it'll be yet another avenue out there for people to listen to and enjoy my music. i will be doing this for all of my other released songs to date as well.

xxxo

lyrics:

i don't wanna hear, i don't wanna know
i'm tired of hearing them say
that they know what's good for me
"just breathe," i've heard all that by now

cause everybody knows how to live your life
what you gotta do
everybody but you
i know what's good for me and sometimes i'm just

moody, up and down sometimes i'm
angry, what the hell, i'm going
crazy, nothing to do just let it be
feelings come and go

wanna come to me, wanna give me love
wanna give me life
how about some freedom?
time and space to choose

easy to tell someone how they got it wrong
thinking you are right
i've read the tao te ching
applying it is no simply thing. so i'm

(chorus)

darling, i wanna see you
don't want to sleep now, i really miss you
if i could see how i'd let it go too
instead i dream how it'd be to kiss you again

darling...
i don't want to hear, i don't want to say...
i really miss you...
"just breathe," i've heard all that by now...
darling...

Hierophany: Ochún Rising

san francisco, california

the following is a foto exhibition of a performance art piece i did at Our Lives Post 9/11, a four-day conference hosted by We Are Change, on september 9th, 2010 in new york city. speakers included Cindy Sheehan, former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and Dick Gregory, fellow activist and contemporary of Dr. King. the performance continues my exploration of/with/within the afro-cuban deity, Ochún. (see here, and here.)

a last-minute addition to the program, the piece was the sudden expression of a years-long gathering of inspiration, research, and materials (including folkloric studies in havana, cuba), not the least of which were custom-made costume and jewelry pieces by bay-area designer, Yahroe Hill, and jeweler, Patricia Rabellizsa. it was the first time these pieces were shown publicly.
the mask was created by Yahroe. in the practice of brasilian candomblé, orixás are often depicted with a beaded veil. after seeing a similar theme in Yahroe's work, i thought that a metal veil would facilitate dance and movement, as well as highlight Ochún in her manifestation as Caridad del Cobre, or Our Lady of Copper.  the modular collar piece and a necklace were made by Patricia, augmented with items i've collected over the years. concept design for all the pieces was by myself. the designs were executed in close collaboration with the artists over a number of months.

the piece begins with Ochún in a state of struggle, and is a progression to a place of joy, liberation, and strength. her presence at the conference signified an act of solidarity with the 9/11 Truth movement and a reminder of the love which drives the true revolution.

 

 

special thanks to Jeremy Henry and Natasha Junejo for documenting the evening, also to Brian Reeves, gallery curator.

plan B

brooklyn, new york

 for AB, my dearest friend

we could be fugitives

brooklyn, new york

for CMG

mouth full of fig

brooklyn, new york
     8/26/10. for JTF

my mouth is full of figs
overfulover
flowing. not just their ripe and
alien bodies
strange seeds flesh like muscletissue
but leaves as well protrude from my mouth
gathered small bundles (twigs too)
full--over  flowing
verdant figgreen

it’s dedicated to you
the drops collected on my back
as if i were the landscape
harvesting the dew
the morning moving down a hill
one body water
it’s the morning i’ve waited to gather
shadow an eyebrow thick

i’m cultivating in new york city
i’m drawing crops from afar
because soon our mouths will live together
and feed on the crop stored my cellar
the slope of my back
          my garden plot mouth full of fig

i'm fluoride-free! - how to remove a highly toxic industrial waste product from your water

brooklyn, new york

“...any person who drinks artificially fluorinated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person mentally or physically." Charles Perkins, chemist. 1952

in my last blog post i spoke about some of the environmental poisons in our food, water, and air. inspired by the research i had done, i decided to do something about the fluoride present in my drinking water, courtesy of industrial corporations enabled by the u.s. government. (click here to find out if the drinking water in your area is fluoridated. but don't get too optimistic: as of 2008, 60% of water in the united states contained fluoride, with an aim to increase that number to 75% by this year [source].)

for those of you who don't know, despite the zeitgeist that fluoride is beneficial for your teeth, the material is actually a hazardous waste, a byproduct of the aluminum, nuclear, and phosphate (chemical fertilizer) industries. fluoride is found in rat poison, cockroach poison, Prozac, Sarin Nerve Gas, anesthetics, hypnotics, and other psychiatric drugs. and yet thanks to the brilliant masterminding of Edward Bernays, founder of public relations (a nice name for studied mind-control), who spearheaded water fluoridation, most of us don't question it's presence in our toothpaste, drinking water, and as an unlabeled ingredient in our foods.

fluoride's side-effects include bone degradation, cancer, damage to the hypothalamus & thyroid, kidney & liver disease, increased susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease, and dental fluorosis - get that. but what's perhaps most shocking are the decreased i.q. and mental & emotional sedation associated with fluoride, and the allegations that the chemical was originally used in Nazi germany and communist russia to keep camp inmates docile and under control [sources: 1, 2]. hmm, i wonder why it's in our water?
i've provided a number of articles and videos below which document fluoride's toxicity and the origins of fluoridation, the most overwhelmingly conclusive of which is the professionals' statement calling for an end to water fluoridation, but this post is meant to provide solutions: YOU CAN FILTER YOUR WATER! :) here is a list of filtration and distillation options:

i purchased this filter with the CFA-P sediment filter attachment (this piece can help avoid filter clogs in areas like new york where the water has a lot of sediment).

you'll notice that my filter is a two-stage. there are also three-stage filters and filters for an entire household's water system. just be sure to purchase one that explicitly states it filters fluoride.

some other options are a reverse osmosis filter, as well as a water distiller. distillers don't actually filter water, but vaporize and recondense it, leaving all chemicals and residues behind. what's left is pure H2O. this might sound enticing, but the jury is still out as to whether this is good for your body or not. naturally occuring water contains beneficial minerals for your body. distillation removes these minerals leaving the water with the capacity to suck those minerals out of the body as it passes through the digestive tract, hence i decided not to go with distillation but a filter instead.

lastly, it's important to consider filtration for shower water as well, given the skin's ability to absorb water and other substances topically. i haven't purchased a shower filter yet, but this website offers some options.

i did a good amount of research comparing filter efficacy and price. the links i've listed were the best options i could find. as you can see, the filter i purchased isn't too expensive ($129); i think it's well worth the price to remove the poison that's currently in our drinking water.

please let me know if you decide to filter your water or are already doing so! i'd love to see the comments section full of folks who are taking their health back into their own hands.

INFORM YOURSELF! - FURTHER INFORMATION ON FLUORIDE

a playlist i've created with salient clips on water fluoridation, beginning with The Fluoride Deception, a short documentary based on Christopher Bryson's book by the same name, and including newscasts from mainstream and alternative media - http://www.youtube.com/KIDAKIMBO11#g/c/E853F248F8DC96D0

from the professionals' statement calling for an end to water fluoridation - “...the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safe drinking water standard for fluoride (i.e. maximum contaminant level goal or MCLG) of 4 parts per million (ppm) is unsafe and should be lowered. despite over 60 years of fluoridation, the report listed many basic research questions that have not been addressed.”
“...fluoride has a statistically significant association with a wide range of adverse effects. these include an increased risk of bone fractures, decreased thyroid function, lowered i.q., arthritic-like conditions, dental fluorosis and, possibly, osteosarcoma.”
“of special note among... animal studies is one in which rats fed water containing 1 ppm fluoride had an increased uptake of aluminum into the brain, with formation of beta-amyloid plaques, which is a classic marker of Alzheimer's disease pathology in humans.”
“[infant] formula made with fluoridated water contains 250 times more fluoride than the average 0.004 ppm concentration found in human breast milk in non-fluoridated areas.”
“...the predominant benefit of fluoride in reducing tooth decay is TOPICAL and not SYSTEMIC. To the extent fluoride works to reduce tooth decay, it works from the outside of the tooth, not from inside the body. it makes no sense to drink it and expose the rest of the body to the long term risks of fluoride ingestion...”
“in 2000, the publication of the UK government sponsored “York Review,” the first systematic scientific review of fluoridation, found that NONE of the studies purporting to demonstrate the effectiveness of fluoridation to reduce tooth decay were of grade A status, i.e. ‘high quality, bias unlikely’.”
“...the industrial grade waste products used to fluoridate over 90% of America's drinking water supplies (fluorosilicate compounds) have never been subjected to toxicological testing nor received FDA approval for human ingestion.”
“...industrial interests, concerned about liabilities from fluoride pollution and health effects on workers, played a significant role in the early promotion of fluoridation.”

from the effect of high-fluoride water on intelligence in children - "the iq of the 60 children in the high-fluoride area was significantly lower... than that of the 58 children in the low-fluoride area. more children in the high-fluoride area... were in the retardation... or borderline... categories of iq than children in the low fluoride area..." 

"repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him." quoting chemist Charles Perkins - http://www.preferrednetwork.com/FLUORIDE_STUPIDITY.htm

"A series of epidemiological studies in china have associated high fluoride exposures with lower i.q.." quoting Dan Fagin of Scientific American - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS108377+02-Jan-2008+PRN20080102

"the whole structure of fluoridation is founded on quicksand. It is founded on statistical errors." quoting Dr. Hans Moolenburgh in his book, The Freedom Fight - http://sonic.net/~kryptox/editors/moolen.htm

from fluoride added to children's milk in schools throughout uk city - "in germany, belgium and luxembourg fluoridation of water was rejected because it was classified as compulsive medication against the subject’s will and therefore violated fundamental human rights."

for more information and ways to get involved visit the Fluoride Action Network

TOTAL EMERGENCY, TOTAL TRANSFORMATION: extermination through food, water, and air

brooklyn, new york

"i had the right to remain silent, but i didn't have the ability." -- Ron White


let me tell you a little bit of my story.
i came to new york city to pursue my dreams. fame, glamour, lights, glory. and with my MTV and VH1 debuts earlier this month, and my television broadcast premiere last week, you might think that that's exactly what i've been focused on. the reality, though, is quite different.

i'm happy for the success and continue to push my work out into the world, but since arriving in april my world has shifted inexorably by the truth i've discovered through untold hours of internet research and reading. i spoke about some of the subjects of my research in the interdependence imperative but as my awareness has grown on these issues of dire concern, it has become more and more definitive that all the sick madness of the world is simply the symptom of a plan so sinister that most people will laugh when i say what it is: that we are being exterminated.

my apologies to the light of heart. my apologies to those for whom this presentation is too blunt and jarring; i wish for the skillful means to be able to relay the dangers which ensnare us and the imperative to act swiftly and with conviction to all. but i have always lacked the ability to dumb down the truth. for those of you who are listening, please hear me and make no mistake: the time to act is now, at this moment, in every aspect and sphere of your life. you must take action, you must protect yourself and those you love, and you must do your best to keep the dignity and brightness of your human spirit above the waves of precipitous darkness.


but what am i talking about?
one need look no further than the elite's policies vis-a-vis the basic elements of life to confirm the conspiracy i had mentioned. there is perhaps no clearer evidence of the plot to destroy human life than the fluoridation of water and the fact that nazi germany put this into practice in the concentration camps of world war II. 
besides being labeled a toxic waste by the FDA, there are numerous studies which confirm fluoride's link to cancer, brittle bone disease, brain damage, and immune deficiency. but what is most interesting about fluoride's effect on human physiology --and what must have been the most enticing to the champions of the Third Reich-- is that it clouds mental ability, lowers i.q., and weakens mental resolve. it makes people lazy. it makes them dispassionate. it makes them unable to muster their strength for action.
does it make more sense now, when you hear the plight of the world and perhaps shrug your shoulders and wish you would do something, but come up with nothing? might you read these words and go back to life-as-usual?


i'm sorry to say, but very soon there won't be any life-as-usual. besides our water, the government has been spraying carcinogens and virulent bacteria en masse into the atmosphere. clearly distinguishable from from regular aviation contrails, these operations are known popularly as chemtrails. this is quite simply biological warfare being practiced on the american people and abroad.


our food systems have been hijacked by giant agribusiness monsters. genetically modified organisms (gmos) are now in 70% of our food products. the effect of this altered dna is never tested on human beings. (see here for studies on butterflies by hungarian scientists).
our food is becoming ever-increasingly low in nutrition. products such as high fructose corn syrup and aspartame, a known neuro-toxin, are everywhere in foods. these toxins, along with gmos, are introduced to the food supply through the revolving-door dynamic of the fda and other food regulatory bodies within government and the ceos of big agri and big pharma corporations. (see food, inc; the future of food; and the world according to monsanto for more.)
the mother of all food genocide schemes is called codex alimentarius-- a world trade organization-backed global food control system. codex will do such things as make vitamins, minerals, and herbs illegal; reintroduce 7 of the 11 most deadly persistent organic pesticides (like ddt) back into the food supply; eliminate food labeling, thereby killing organics; and by the wto's own projections, codex will result in the deaths of 2 billion people by the vitamin and mineral guideline alone, 3 billion including the preventable diseases from malnourishment which will result from this guideline.

do you understand what's happening? this is genocide. this is apocalyptic.
don't take my word for it, do your own research. but certainly do something. the times where you can roll over and wish you could or would do something about it are soon over. the problems are going to start coming to you now.
i'm not telling you this to be scared. i'm telling you this because if you're anything like i was, or i think most educated people are, you are aware but you're not activated. we need to turn-on and resist this flow. we need to support the direction of The Venus Project along with The Zeitgeist Movement and other models for social redesign and social change. in the transition phase we can support groups like We Are Change and infowars.com which propagate the truth. and all the while we can cultivate our compassion and awareness through groups like Shambhala, a branch of buddhism which encourages self-awareness and warriorship through non-denominational mindfulness practices such as meditation.


i chose to focus on food, water, and air today as they are the most basic life supports, but unfortunately there is a harrowing litany of threats in the economic, environmental, political, social, military, medical, and media spheres to uncover.
for the foreseeable future, i will use this blog as a sounding board for disseminating the independent media source material which has brought me thus far. i'll present the main issues along with various sources which back up the claims or legitimize the problem. for those of you curious to dive in, my playlists page on youtube is now exclusively dedicated to this cause, as well as my favorites page, where there are clips which are generally less comprehensive, though more compact and powerful.




i love you, and please know that we will survive this. the more people that awaken and begin to work against it right now, the less damage will be done.
we will rebuild this earth and it will be great.


yours in the fight,
KID AKIMBO

foto: Rami Hyun

[i urge you to comment. i hope that you understand why. please say something. use your voice. practice.]

iron mandala

brooklyn, new york

informed by my recent collaboration with bay area-based artist, Yahroe Hill, this piece is dedicated to the intersection of the afro-cuban deities, Ogún and Ochún, or more accurately in this case, Caridad del Cobre.
it is made primarily of found objects. (click to enlarge.)

brake pads, pipe section, mirror, coil, copper pipe section, gold ring, washers

Ochún aspect, peacock feathers

the interdependence imperative

brooklyn, new york

i've been doing research online. days' worth. looking into things i've been concerned about for a long time. whispers. murmurings hungry for quite some time. new world order, hyperinflation, sinking the dollar, north american union, water fluoridation, codex alimentarius, the history of the focus group, lrad, fema, rfid, cfr, pittsburgh g20, civil rights' suspension, "vaccines", trilateral commission, bilderberg, skull and bones, etc.. you probably have no idea what i'm talking about. and of course that's the biggest problem. i wouldn't have either until i locked myself in a room so to speak for a week and counting and plumbed youtube's depths for what may very soon be extinct nuggets of truth.

i'll get to all the details later.

but right now i feel the song within me of galaxies and stars. the universe breathing us in and out. and we breathe it. so much darkness, so much power, so much control all sides closing, and the only thing i feel will stop it is the recognition of the universe's breath. only then can we see the ecological, cultural, political, and physiological aspects of ours lives which are under fire as part of one giant system. it is said that this awareness brings compassion, for as we recognize our interconnection to all things we see that an attack on one of those elements is an attack on them all. we also recognize that just as disparate areas of our lives are in fact connected, so are we just as connected to one another as human beings. we share the same fate should our human rights continue to unravel. we can fight the from-an-eighth-inch-to-closed corporate fist on all sides, or we can submit to it happily as we're doing, with a vague sense of concern like hunger for a-nother potato chip as we wait for the next iphone launch. one giant system, one giant universe, contained in one single human, and as insignificant as one single breath. but which of course creates the whole universe again.

world powers are counting on this wholeness, this system, this fullness. their plans are comprehensive. and so we have to embrace our struggle in the same way, on all sides. an attack on one of us is an attack on us all.

so if you hear what i'm saying please say something. say "i," or "sanity," or something. make up your own word. do something daring. speak out. participate.   i dare you. your life depends on it.

re kindle

san francisco, california

as i’ve become more intimate with what it means to be an independent artist, i’ve come to appreciate more and more those moments of energetic salvation where the resources of time, energy, and in particular, inspiration, come flooding back. one of the most significant occasions of this rekindling came when i was last in new york city, collaborating with singer, Jasper James, and Ken Still, director of the 2009 OUTMusic Awards (one of Michael Jackson’s principal dancers) on a performance for the ceremony. the fire returned not in a moment with either one of my collaborators, but at a dinner with a new friend at the 24-hour Cafeteria in chelsea, it’s heat so purifying and healing because i hadn’t realized how burnt out i’d become, which is, of course, the greatest danger of all.

my thanks to L for the 100% honest conversation.
my thanks to the zeitgeist movement for offering the topics that are of the utmost importance in this day and age, and which haunt me constantly.

this is a foto exhibition of that fire i feel inside. thanks to Rami Hyun for the incredible images.

from the choreography, "millionaire galang," which is dedicated to Changó, the Yoruba deity of fire, thunder, lightning, and masculine power. 9/16/09 fotos: Rami Hyun

[comments are very welcome]

love, you can eat the leftovers

san francisco, california
this poem was inspired by an entry on my friend Michael’s blog, found here

you can stay
find a place, go ahead
i’m not going to rearrange the furniture this time
i’m not going to make you a bed out of the finest things
    i can find
you can make do with what’s on the floor
the scraps of food
the spaces not occupied
by my busy life

you’ve got a heartbreaking face  handsome
but i know you’re a little fucker
bitter powder keg. your eyes full of darts

who left you that way?
you won’t take comfort
in no place
i made you my best stews and soups
you poured them on me
disappearing down the hall
i know you’re going to
come and go as you please. sometimes
i don’t see you for months
your face changes
but there’s familiar disgust

i’m gonna make my apartment a sidewalk now
you can be a rose. take root
where you may
but you’re going to have to really want it
i’m not putting myself out this time
no fucking way



[your comments are encouraged]

spontaneous poem

san francisco, california

i composed this poem for the guests of the VIP Prescreening Party for the Fun Boyz music video on the eve of the event, monday, february 8, 2010

call me constance
who wouldn’t want this
the truth is evident
from what i say

the things i’m capable of
i do myself
and what remains
i delegate

to friends and helpers
the world’s my princedom
i come with treasures
of dignity

the ground you stand on
surely is sacred
not the ground but your feet
make it that way

everywhere we roam
the kingdom comes
the queendom
can not dissipate

holding inside
the peace the prize
the things we’ve searched for
all this time

we’ve met our maker
the time it takes to
realize we’ve come
a long long way