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Inspiring creative responses to 21st-century life through writing, art, music, social science, spirituality, and philosophy.
Author-Poet Aberjhani reviewed:
BLACKsummers'night (Amazon.com Exclusive Vinyl w/CD) ~ Maxwell
Upon its release the first week of July, "BLACKsummers'night" matched the success of Maxwell's 2001 CD, "Now," by debuting at number one on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. (Reportedly, only Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" CD had more sales for the week but was not eligible for the chart.) This is possibly Maxwell's most ambitiously creative album since 1998's "Embrya." Many found that particular set of music too abstract in comparison to his mega-hit 1996 debut, "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite," which established the artist as one of the pioneers of New Millennium Soul. "BLACKsummers'night," on CD and vinyl as in concert, has drawn and likely will continue to draw strong approval from the singer's fans and critics worldwide. Those critics who feel obligated to lean in the opposite direction may wonder out loud what the results might be if Maxwell chose one day to channel some of the intensity of his romantic compositions into a collection of songs dealing with serious social and political issues? Such an effort, some critics might wager, could produce a modern version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," or Club Nouveau's undervalued classic, "Listen to the Message." Speculations to the side, the nine songs on "BLACKsummers'night" stand better than well enough in their own right. The set opens with the trip-hoppish and uniquely Maxwellian groove titled "Bad Habits," a song that seems to place listeners at the brink of a break-up that moves back and forth between barely controllable ecstasy and overwhelming regrettable sorrow: "This is the highest cost, take you and make you off/ Love you and leave you lost, will you forgive me..." The erotic angst grows even deeper in the second song, "Cold," in which we hear the first overt hint to the meaning of the album's title: "As God as my witness, my summer's gone frigid, my summer's gone frigid/ I know you can hear this." The third track is the immensely popular "Pretty Wings," which spent a month at the top of the singles' chart, and a snippet of which Maxwell first introduced on the web in 2008. "Pretty Wings" lends strong support to the singer's statements in recent interviews where he asserts that he matured a great deal while out of the public spotlight for the past eight years. At a time when too many people resort to violence or stalkerish behavior at the end of a difficult relationship, the singer croons with altruistic serenity: "If I can't have you let love set you free/ To fly yo' pretty wings around..." Each of the first eight songs is a stand-out with vocals that are more powerful than ever. They take listeners through an odyssey of love lost, love discovered anew, and then explored straight through to the burning screaming hilt. The ninth track is a jaunty instrumental appropriately titled Phoenix Rise, courtesy of Maxwell's creative alter ego Musze, that provides the perfect punctuation to the entire set. A major component of the Maxwell's success from the beginning has been a spiritual quality within his music that enhanced its appeal to no small degree. It was easily evident throughout the Embrya CD, and in his cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work." On BLACKsummers'night, the spirituality comes through most dynamically in "Help Somebody" and "Playing Possum." The former drives its point home with the echoing plea, "Give a little mo-o-o-o-o-o-orrrrrrrre!" and this chilling request: "If you see the future, ask it if I'm there,/ Ask him if I'm there/ Ask it to tell you, did I ever make a stand..." Moreover, while the title of "Playing Possum" may sound lighthearted, it is performed as a tearful elegy that calls for a loved one to "Come back from the dead" and ends with the final weeping sob of "Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhhh..." The CD throughout is flavored heavily tastes of nujazz, the distinct smooth sounds of what the world embraces as neosoul, and elements of world music. For this, in an interview on [....], Maxwell acknowledged his band members: "I made this album and these albums with the assistance of so many great people. Musicians on this album are at the top of their game. To be in that zone or that place where you're just making music because you really love it... you can tell the difference I think." by Aberjhani co-author of ELEMENTAL: The Power of Illuminated Love and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History) |
Author-Poet Aberjhani reviewed:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona DVD ~ Javier Bardem
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The idea of naïve innocent Americans abroad in the world and preyed upon by charming seductive Europeans is a favorite theme in classic works by cosmopolitan novelist Henry James. Celebrated director and writer Woody Allen, whose greatest hits include such notable movies as Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Mighty Aphrodite (1995) gives that theme a very modern, humane, and somewhat wicked twist in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. He accomplishes that entertaining feat with a stellar cast featuring Rebecca Hall as Vicky, Scarlett Johansson as Cristina, Javier Bardem as Juan Antonio, and Penelope Cruz in her Academy Award-winning role as Maria Elena. Woody Allen is a film master of complex character studies and social entanglements that lend themselves to philosophically absurd interpretations. Through his quirky brilliant perspective and the film's laid-back narration by Christopher Evan Welch, we meet best friends Vicky and Cristina. Two beautiful talented young women at crossroads in their lives, Vicky has recently received her master's degree in the somewhat improbable subject of Catalonia and is preparing to get married. The more free-spirited Cristina is a budding filmmaker who recently completed a twelve-minute short about "why love is so hard to define," and is now trying to determine which direction her life should take next. Barcelona, one of Spain's most beautiful cities, provides the perfect cultural retreat--rich as it is with history, poetry, music, and the art of Antonio Gaudi and Joan Miro--where they hope to gain some inspired perspective before moving on with the next chapter in their lives. The women's planned idyll seems both innocent and sophisticated enough until they meet the calmly intense painter Juan Antonio Gonzalo. In less than five minutes after meeting them, even before learning their names, Juan Antonio invites Vicky and Cristina to fly with him for the weekend to a small town called Oviedo where, he proposes, "I'll show you around the city, we'll eat well, we'll make love." Vicky is shocked by this proposal while Cristina is intrigued. Both ultimately accept the offer for different reasons and the weekend concludes with some surprising results. After Cristina is sidelined by an inflamed ulcer, the cautious Vicky finds herself more intimately involved with Juan Antonio than probably any engaged woman should be with a man other than her fiancé. The threesome get their romantic priorities in order when Vicky's fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) comes to Barcelona; and Cristina ends up moving in with Juan Antonio. All seems to progress as it morally should when Juan Antonio's ex-wife Maria Elena re-enters his life like a storm whirling in from the desert. Surely it testifies to the magnitude of Penelope Cruz's dramatic gifts that she is physically absent from almost the entire first half of the film and then practically dominates the second half with her captivating portrayal of Maria Elena. Though Juan Antonio and she are officially divorced, he feels obligated to take her in following an attempted suicide. As a character, Maria Elena is a cluster of contradictions and paradoxes, part madwoman and part genius, insufferable enfant terrible and seductive beauty. To her, it makes sense when she confesses to searching through Cristina's personal items to make sure she had nothing that could harm her, Vicky, and to be certain as well that she is "the right one" for her ex-husband. Nor does she see anything incongruous about her assessment of her relationship with Juan Antonio: "Our love will last forever but it just doesn't work." Oddly, she seems less prone to jealousy than she is to impatience with artistic mediocrity. According to her, Juan Antonio "stole everything from me, his whole style." Yet she screams at him with the exasperation of a dedicated mentor, "Do you realize what it is like for me to realize you will never reach your full potential?!" Her eventual acceptance of Cristina goes a lot further than tolerance and she actually throws a tantrum when Cristina decides it is time for her to move on. Vicky and Cristina's involvement with Juan Antonio and Maria Elena at first seems like exactly the kind of slightly taboo, and very neurotic adventure that both women might desire for a temporary diversion. But with such a volatile mixture of characters all hungry to experience life's most pleasurable and daring possibilities, something disastrous is bound to happen. And it does. Just when any number of critics had started to proclaim the end of Woody Allen's career as a filmmaker of any real consequence, Vicky Cristina Barcelona shows him right at the top of his ingenious game with some very strong hints of more great work to come. by Author-Poet Aberjhani co-author of ELEMENTAL: The Power of Illuminated Love and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History) |
Author-Poet Aberjhani reviewed:
Dream Reachers by Betty Dravis
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
In the end, however, the error would have been mine because Dream Reachers, the surprising new book by Betty Dravis and Chase Von, does indeed serve as literary host to this author and certified legends like Eastwood and Kennedy. What makes Dravis and Von's book work so well is the wide spectrum of personalities and eras presented in their very entertaining book, with Dravis drawing on early-career encounters to showcase a number of bonafide stars and political heavyweights-- while also employing along with Von more recent interviews with "legends in the making." Among the latter are actress/singer Kiara Hunter, entertainment reporter Crystal Myrick, nujazz singer Nhojj, country music star Tanya Tucker, and several dozen more dream chasers who managed to transform hope and determination into measures of achievement and fulfillment. Hopefully, the greater part of my measure is still ahead of me and not behind. The different voices, diverse perspectives, and varied nature of individuals' journeys presented in Dream Reachers make the book as fun as it is inspiring. Here, in closing, is an excerpt from my chat with Chase Von: Chase: How did your time spent in the military [U.S. Air Force] enhance your writing? Aberjhani: Thank you for that question! My time in the military marked my beginnings as a professional writer. I was very fortunate in that I was able to serve as a military journalist/editor with the base public affairs office. And the thing about being a journalist with a weekly deadline in the military is that you learn how to write whether inspired by a particular muse or not. You know there's a job to be done and an entire base population counting on you to get it done because they need the information you're providing--so you do it, period. Chase Von: Your list of awards is astounding! Your name is listed in a byline besides the great W.E.B. Du Bois himself! You have also won the Best Poet and Spoken Word Artist in the 2006 Connect Savannah Readers' Poll. The Poet of The Month January 2007 at THE WRITING FORUM. You're the recipient of the Irene Tromble McAlister Literary Prize! The "Critic's Pick" for "Best Savannah Author" in the CREATIVE LOAFING Entertainment Magazine's "Best of Savannah Year 2000" poll. And you have also been selected for inclusion in CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS (published by Gale), which since 1962 has been the most authoritative reference on World Authors! Did I miss any, and do these things just happen with you putting yourself out there? Or do you have to enter into contests and win to be recognized? Aberjhani: I don't enter literary contests because I tend not to win them [laughs]. The awards that have come my way--including the CHOICE Academic Title and Best History Book awards--have all been bestowed by people and organizations who decided that my work provided something valuable for the reading public and for that reason deserved greater recognition. But I have to tell you that I received my greatest award when I gave a presentation for the Poetry Society of Georgia. It's the oldest literary organization in the state and many of its members at that time were senior poets who used to joke about needing `new blood' to stay alive, so they were happy when I was an active younger member. Anyway, after my presentation, I got a standing ovation which by itself was deeply moving. But then this one poet (the great Patricia Robinson King) who at the time I think was almost 80, sitting in the front row, looked at me and said, "I don't usually stand because these old legs of mine make it difficult, but I'm going to stand for you." I shook my head and said, "Oh please don't," because she used a walker and I knew it was painful for her. She couldn't clap her hands because she was holding onto her walker but that great poet insisted on standing and nodding to acknowledge her approval of my work. I cried over that for a year. Aberjhani author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History) and The American Poet Who Went Home Again |
Author-Poet Aberjhani reviewed:
You Are A Genius by David Coney
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Considering his professional background in electronic engineering technology, it would have been understandable--maybe even expected--if Coney had chosen to present his readers with a book filled with the kind of dense imagery and cryptic metaphors that provide some poets' work with its literary flavor and texture. The Savannah-born author, who now makes his home in Atlanta, chose instead to draw on inspiration derived from his days as a youth growing up in public housing; as well as from his experiences as an adult surveying the nature of personal relationships, and the spiritual and social conditions of individual human beings. As poets often do, Coney takes us inside the nuances and lessons of romance in such poems as "Midnight Interlude," Love You Down," and "No Time for Love." However, in poems like "Femininity," "Sacrifice," and "Grace," he goes beyond the romantic to honor the lives and contributions of women. In "Grace" in particular, he explores the deeper consequences of what he sees happening to the souls of women forced to shoulder the full weight of family households when their spouse are either absent, or otherwise disengaged: "...With the absence of man, she becomes what is needed/ Her softness takes a back seat, because she will not be defeated..." A similar and yet different message comes through in "Freedom." Ironically and surprisingly enough, the great prize this poem offers is not a treasure of wealth, sexual acrobatics, or political power and influence. His is a somewhat enigmatic mystical offering in the form of personal liberation: "...For the first time you can enjoy your rhythm/ Enjoy your flow without any criticism/ You are now witnessing my perfect evening/ I'll give you what you want; it's called freedom." Among the most compelling values that Coney champions in his work are expressions of gratitude for positive influences in his life and remembrances of simpler--as in less technology- and fear-dominated times--framed in postcard stanzas. One such acknowledgment may be found in "People of the Soil," a heartfelt homage to Savannah State University (an Historically Black College/University (HBCU) that opened doors to higher learning for America's minorities at a time when many others would not). Likewise, "What I Remember about Fellwood Homes" is Coney's tribute to a childhood that clearly was not impoverished by life in public housing, but enriched by a daily culture that fed the poet's mind, body, and spirit: "...I remember women mixing up starch to put on their doilies/ I remember drinking powdered milk/ I remember the smell of McWillie's boiling crabs/...I remember making lifelong friends." Some of the references in "What I Remember about Fellwood Homes" are so specific that only those who share Coney's memories can appreciate the full significance of the lines (which in fact was demonstrated during Coney's reading at The Book Lady Bookstore in May 2009 when former neighborhood residents attended and joined Coney in a call and response as they added their own memories to the lines of his poem). Yet, at the same time, the flow of his nostalgia at moments is so lyrically sweeping that it transcends the restrictions of geographic or personal boundaries and achieves the welcomed warmth of human universality. Moreover, this particular poem is historically significant because the housing project Coney writes about was once Savannah's oldest but in recent years was demolished. It has now been replaced by "sustainable Fellwood," a modern environmentally-friendly project designed to accommodate both low and moderate income families. The seventy-five poems that comprise YOU ARE A GENIUS accumulated over a period of some twenty years. That means the degrees of intensity and angles of perspective they reflect can sometimes fluctuate and flutter like butterfly wings of unfolding time. Each poem is a quiet marvel unto itself, the lines and syllables illuminated by wisdom and compassion from the heart of one generation and presented with love to the soul of the next. by Aberjhani author of The American Poet Who Went Home Again and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History) |
Author-Poet Aberjhani reviewed:
Moon Charleston and Savannah (Moon Handbooks) by Jim Morekis
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
It is doubtful there's another writer around who could have done this timely and precise guide to Savannah quite as much justice as Jim Morekis has. From his work as a former editor for the now defunct Savannah Creative Loafing, to a notable stint at the Savannah News Press, and now as editor-in-chief of Connect Savannah, he has come to know the ins and outs of his native Southeast to a degree that few people do. That extensive knowledge and intimate familiarity with the area serve him and readers extremely well in Moon Charleston and Savannah. Take, for example, the simple fact that he provides would-be visitors to Savannah with a wealth of insights both on how to reach it as well as how to get around and thoroughly enjoy its food, entertainment, special events, and rich cultural diversity once they arrive. Included in the sports' department is a true insider's guide to a "Kayaker's Paradise." Moreover, Morekis' writing is a pleasurable experience in itself. Note the excited and informative manner with which he describes the impact of Charleston upon one's contemporary senses: "What may surprise you the most about this incredibly historic city is how alive it is, how young in spirit despite the length of its chronology." This 350-page guide is one which natives of Georgia's and South Carolina's great coastal cities, and tourists to it alike, can learn from, utilize, and generally treasure for a very long time to come. by Aberjhani author of The American Poet Who Went Home Again and ELEMENTAL: The Power of Illuminated Love |
Posted by Robby Baby (Poet of Amour) on November 27, 2009 at 4:00pm

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Posted by Author-Poet Aberjhani on November 15, 2009 at 3:00pm
Want to read my book? Here I give you the chance to do it. Check below if you wish to buy it ($15.95) or download it for free. Take care my friends, always.
To buy the book, you may want to visit Lulu.com, and order it.
Posted by Pedro M. Rosario Barbosa on November 15, 2009 at 2:37pm
Posted by Kimmy Van Kooten on November 14, 2009 at 9:48am

Tagged: Television.Reporters, Press, Directors, Media, Newspapers
Started by Doris Anne Beaulieu in The CTI News Room Nov 23.
Michael Jackson in concert around 1995. (photographer unknown) You probably can’t read the words in the note next to the accompanying photo of Michael Jackson, but they were handwritten by the ...
Tagged: African, Music, News, Movie, American
Started by Aberjhani in Music and You. Last reply by Kimmy Van Kooten Nov 16.
IT MAKES ME WANNA HOLLA AND THROW UP BOTH MY HANDS!!!!FACTS…HUMAN BEINGS, INVENT COMPETIION FOR WOMEN…WOMAN WON RACE… OTHER WOMEN SAY SHE SHOULD NOT WIN BECAUSE SHE IS NOT A WOMAN, BECAUSE SHE HAS ...
Started by SOFIA PEACHES in The CTI News Room. Last reply by Author-Poet Aberjhani Nov 15.
3 Free Dissertation Topics??? Really??? Well… You must be reading this post just to confirm if the statement is true OR “Free Dissertation Topics” under discussion are those that must have been ove...
Tagged: uk, online, help, writing, topics
Started by Cassidy David in CTI Creative Marketing Tips Aug 20.
www.invite5.com/20570HU I know that everyone could use a little extra money in this economy, yet not very many people have the funds to invest. THE BAR is a new search engine that is paying people ...
Started by Tracee A. Hanna in The CTI News Room Jul 4.
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