Reviews

Naomi Wolf’s newest work, The End of America, is billed as a call to defend democracy. While her writing is impassioned, the book is marred by the very vague nature of what she tells us needs to be done—including some thoughts that are actually quite demoralizing—as well as some bizarre historical comparisons.

You Back the Attack! We Bomb Who We Want!: Remixed War Propaganda, a new book by Micah Ian Wright is unlike any peace book you’ve ever read. Published by Seven Stories Press, Back the Attack is actually a unique picture book that takes historical propaganda posters from World War II and alters them into satirical critiques of the “War on Terrorism�? and the Bush domestic policy.

The events following 9/11 have been harried, and often times overwhelming. There has been a flood of new publications since that year trying to piece together a comprehensive analysis of what occurred, what is presently going on and most importantly, why?

On the night of January 17, I found myself at Sounds of Brazil (SOB�s) in New York to see Antibalas, an Afrobeat orchestra with heavy influence from the legendary African musician and revolutionary Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Antibalas� music is very heavy and makes the body move, sometimes involuntarily, with strong trumpets and various saxophones leading a hardcore Afrobeat generated by guitars, bass, electric piano and other instruments.

"We�ve got five million ways to kill a CEO� chants Boots Riley, MC for the Progressive Hip-Hop Band �The Coup�. The Coup�s newest album, Party Music is non-stop, full of funky beats and on-point politics. The album�s lyrics address issues of corporate policies, police brutality, gender roles, and speaks out about the necessity for revolution. The issues brought up within the lyrics are very easy to relate to.

Who would think a bookbinder, an accountant, a tomboy, a vengeful comedian, and geniuses like Newton, Marie Curie and Einstein would have anything in common, let alone the formulation of E=mc2?

Every now and then a book is published that asks us to redefine our view of the past and in that redefinition, challenges us to look anew at what type of future we want. Priscilla Murolo and A. B. Chitty have written just that kind of book: From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend, published by The New Press.

In a time when civil liberties are under attack, Minority Report tries to make a statement on ethical implications of how far "authorities", in this case, the "PreCrime Unit" should go in order to attain security. This movie introduces a troubling moral ambiguity, considering PreCrime's success rate (no murder has been committed in it's six year existence). It asks what we should be willing to sacrifice in the name of security, and how much faith should be placed in a "flawless system".

Lauryn Hill's new album Lauryn Hill Unplugged 2.0 is exactly what it claims to be. It is "unplugged," meaning that it's not dubbed, digitally mastered, or studio produced. This is just Lauryn, the true woman, without the standard industry packaging.

May 11th, was Black 47's last show at Connolly's before embarking on a national summer tour. Connolly's is about as crowded as it usually is on Saturdays; I see some faces from previous shows as well as some newcomers to the scene. My friend and I immediately rush to the front to get a good view of the performance.

Watching MTV today, makes it seem that capitalistic materialism has taken over music. From bands like N'SYNC, created primarily to make money rather than music, to Hip-Hop artists who blatantly advertise products in their songs, socially conscious musicians seem to be few and far between. However, a deep look into the underground of music reveals a different kind of artist. Immortal Technique is one of those.

The Legend of Bhagat Singh is one of several new movies about the famous Indian revolutionary to come out of India this year. The movie is fascinating for its portrayal not only of an important historical figure and period, but of a man who possessed exemplary revolutionary traits of courage, discipline, and sacrifice.