Conscious Choice: Reviews

January 2008 | Art & Soul

Reviews

FILM

Persepolis
Directed by Marjane Satrapi
and Vincent Paronnaud
(sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis)

In a Venn diagram, where one circle represents those who dig animation, and a second circle represents those who go for stories about growing up in Iran, the intersection between the two is tiny at best. But missing Persepolis (a movie rooted solidly in both of these genres) would be a huge disservice to anyone who considers himself open-minded. In the film, as in the book, Marjane Satrapi, the subject and author of the original series of black and white graphic novels, takes us from her childhood during Iran’s revolution and aftermath to Europe where she attempted to escape to safety and freedom. After years of struggling to fit in (both as a foreigner and an awkward teenager), Marjane returns to Iran to face the changes that have occurred to her home in her absence.

With a voice cast that includes iconoclasts like Sean Penn and Iggy Pop, you can trust Satrapi’s tone to be firmly anti-establishment. Iranian officials have already denounced Persepolis, labeling it “anti-Iranian,” but they underestimate the urgent need for Westerners to experience this story. With new “intelligence” reports on Iran coming in almost daily, the clear, uncluttered images in Persepolis give a well-needed human and sympathetic face to a culture about which we know all too little.
—Adam Sarasohn

Meeting Resistance
Steve Connors and Molly Bingham
(meetingresistance.com)

In the weeks after May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, the insurgency was born. Although it was initially dismissed as insignificant, the insurgency (and the quelling of it) has since occupied the U.S. force’s focus — and become the cause of a great deal of debate on all sides.

The conventional narrative about the insurgents themselves — that they are predominantly foreign fighters, that they were old Ba’th loyalists, that the whole thing was pre-meditated — are challenged head-on in Meeting Resistance. The filmmakers, both established photojournalists, say that they embarked on the project with no intention of challenging the official narrative, but what they saw, heard and ultimately put into their film compelled them to do so.

The film couples talking-head interviews with eight insurgents (whose identities are obscured) with images of Adhamiya — a middle class neighborhood in Baghdad, which owes a great deal of suffering to the former regime. Each subject — a teacher, an Imam, a Syrian, among others — speaks eloquently and at length of his or her own reasons for being involved in the insurgency. Some are personal, some religious, some nationalist. All are compelling and complicated.

Besides the obvious intrigue and significance of hearing these stories, so different from the official talk of military strategy, the film also offers some stunning visual imagery. At times, it appears that Adhamiya is a neighborhood that most Americans could just about imagine as their own. The people who populate it are not the wretched, war-torn souls or the angry pundits some would have us believe. Rather they are workers and parents and shop patrons. Plain people.

It’s a disturbing realization, but one that brings both the war and the insurgency down to a human scale.
—Eric Larson

MUSIC

Aphrodesia
Lagos By Bus
(Cyberset)

One of the nice things about following a band from birth is watching their maturation and the gestation process of their music. Aphrodesia’s 2003 Shackrobeat Vol 1 exhibited magnificent bursts of energy — these Fela-inspired gals and guys were playing a heady Afrobeat. 2005’s Front Lines was much of the same, with more depth and fuller grooves. But perhaps it was their trip to the legendary Shrine to play alongside Femi Kuti that kicked Aphrodesia into full gear. Lagos by Bus is an astonishing, spellbound recording, thick with deep pockets of bass and triumphant stabs of horns. It is a patient, full-bodied effort that spins beautifully from beginning to end. And while everyone shares numerous duties, the lead vocals of Lara Maykovich and Maya Dorn are gorgeously woven into the fabric of each melody, the meaning behind the words a telling tale of their sustainable nature. What is certain to sustain is a long and fruitful career for these Bay Area innovators.
—Derek Beres

Pieces of Peace
Pieces of Peace
(Quannum)

The excitement surrounding this 1972 debut of Chicago funk outfit Pieces of Peace must have been thick. Unfortunately, six months touring abroad did the band in; by the time they returned, this record was shelved. The band’s handiwork, both before (they backed the legendary “Is It Because I’m Black?”) and after (Donny Hathaway; Earth, Wind & Fire; Phil Collins), is well known. Yet it took thirty-five years for the actual release of what is an incredibly lush and textured outing by this soulful seven-piece band. All we can say in reflection is this: at least it finally saw the light of day. The eleven-minute journey “Yesterday’s Vision” is a history lesson in everything that was right in this post-Motown exploratory era. On par with names like Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers, with longer, rich soundscapes and a varied list of instruments (tuba, flute and congas included), someone’s got to be sitting in the Windy City saying “Damn, I’m glad I found this one.”
—D.B.

BOOKS

The Authentic Confucius:
A Life of Thought and Politics
by Annping Chin
(Scribner)
$ 26.00

Buddhism has been on the rise for the last decade in the U.S., but to most Americans, Confucius remains a cipher. We’ve all heard the fortune-cookie faux wisdom applied jokingly to his name, and insensitive old movies are rife with ridiculous “Confucius says…” comments to imply eastern wisdom. But who, actually, was the historical Confucius?

Chin explores, through historical documents both well-known and recently-discovered, the biography of the man whose thinking guided China through all its permutations. Though Confucius didn’t really venture into public life until he was fifty, his explorations in thought and political theory still resonate today.

Chin’s painstaking work at recreating this ancient life belies her love of Confucius. What Chin finds is a man as prone to mistakes as any human being, an occasionally fussy man sometimes given to contradiction and inexplicable behavior. The fact that he laid out a complex description of how to live and function in both the physical and moral worlds is not the result of some superhuman brain, but the work of a wise old man, born more than 500 years before Christ. As China rises in prominence on the geopolitical stage, it’s more important than ever that we understand its most revered philosopher.
—Paul Constant

Peak Everything:
Waking Up to the Century of Declines
by Richard Heinberg
(New Society Publishers)
$ 24.95

The title may sound apocalyptic, but Peak Everything is much more than a doomsday rattle. Heinberg, who’s written extensively about peak oil, takes a look at the massive expenses of our culture and suggests that we are at the apex of many different achievements — cultural, technological, and political — and that we should change the model before we’re forced to.

It’s not the horror show you’re probably imagining. Because of relatively cheap shipping costs and massive machines that run on fossil fuels, currently only one percent of all Americans are farmers. Heinberg predicts a huge expansion in citizen farmers, and he sees the transition to a post-industrial society as largely dependent on them. He even creates a “Manifesto for a Post-Carbon Aesthetic” that explains how ideals lost in the industrial age — including pride of workmanship — will return.

Heinberg suggests that in this time of great change, one of the key challenges we face is to save the things that matter. —P.C.

Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple
Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True
by Gay Hendricks
(New Word Library)
$18.00

In need of a life shake-up? Try imagining yourself on your deathbed. Now answer that age-old question: if you were going to die tomorrow, would you say your life was a complete success? According to Gay Hendrick’s new book, Five Wishes, by answering this honest and sometimes painful-to-face question, you can come up with a set of “deathbed wishes” — and hopefully snap your life back into focus.

Partial self-help and somewhat biographical, Five Wishes chronicles Hendrick’s search for meaning in life. Through his direct experience seeking and finding his soul mate, mending old family wounds and living consciously, the reader is urged to take hold of his or her own life and seek answers to what would truly bring ultimate happiness. It’s certainly not a unique idea to support the notion of living life to the fullest. However, with some helpful hints from Hendricks, the reader is encouraged to take action and make changes sooner rather than later. Life is short. Why wait?
—Amy Pennington

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