posted on September 18th, 2007 by Tobias in Article, Design, Fashion, Movie, Politics
Hm, while our general opinion about Puma´s attempts to connect with Jamaican popular culture (for more information on how their little adventure trip back in 2004 ended up, check The Afflicted Yard, The Guardian and FIRST magazine #4 (spread 2). By the way: does anybody have that Channel 4 documentary called “Trainers, Reggae and the Olympics” by John Deol and Paul Blake? I accidentally deleted my copy…) is not a big secret, everybody can decide on his own what he/she thinks about “Riddim” magazine.
Why I´m writing about this? Well, Puma and Riddim now cooperated and put out a limited edition version of the Clyde sneaker (which it looks like Puma kinda tries to make the next Superstar) that – like every Puma “sneaker” – is perfectly described by the lyrics of German rapreggaefunk-hero Jan Delay: verse 2, line 13. Nuff said.
posted on September 15th, 2007 by Tobias in Movie
About 2 months ago, I posted a link to an interesting WIRED article comparing nowadays don´t-give-a-fuck-about-copyright trend to the ever-exisiting remix-culture in Jamaican popular music.
If you liked the article, you might also be interested in this one: during a stay in Leipzig (GER), my Norwegian friend Frode from Spreadshirt told me that there´s a pretty nice movie out there, dealing with almost the same issue. It´s called “Good Copy, Bad Copy – a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture”. Best thing about it: It´s under a Creative Commons license that allows you to download the whole flic for free. Get your torrent now.
posted on September 4th, 2007 by Tobias in Movie
Long before them people from Vice Magazine could call Dancehall the new punk rock, The Clash mixed up British and Jamaican musical influences and created their very own one-drop-soaked version of the no-future sound.
More than 30 years after their first live appearance and four years after his Joe Strummer´s death, director Julian Temple draws an incredible portrait of The Clash´s lead-singer. Strictly recommended.
P.S. Also check the cover-version of the Clash´s “Guns of Brixton” performed by German punk-rockers Die Toten Hosen and Reggae-superstar Gentleman at YouTube.
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posted on July 19th, 2007 by Tobias in Movie
We first came across that multiple-award-winning film by director Stephanie Black, when we saw the official poster hanging on the wall at Tuff Gong on Marcus Garvey Road, Kingston, Jamaica, in early 2004. Unfortunately, there were no more copies of the VHS/DVD available back then and all our endeavours to get one haven´t been successful since then.
Today, a friend of ours send us a link to what looks like an authorized full-length version of “Life and Debt†on Google Video. Even though the video quality is quite poor, it´s well worth watching.
The film tells how “the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the (Jamaican) people whose lives they impactâ€.
Please also take a look at the official website of the film: www.lifeanddebt.org which gives you links to finally get the DVD featuring a whole leap of additional footage.
