for the art of it

music and politics have always gone hand in hand. and if you take the time to read lyrics and dates you'll find an artists words are typically birthed from an internal conversation spawned by a struggle that's happening in the world around them. usually never taking into account the impact their introspectiveness can have on a nation too afraid to open their eyes to reality. being in south africa just 21 years after apartheid i've come to learn it was the music of the mexican immigrant-detroit born sixto diaz rodriquez who took this country by storm and transitioned the afrikaans community through an anti-establishment breakthrough. watching the recently released documentary searching for sugar man i was fascinated with how a man who couldn't make a name for himself in the states, was kinda of a big deal in south africa.

with an obsession to fill my ipod with local music, it was serendipitous to be in mabu vinyl my second week in capetown and see the posters of the movie hidden beneath the south african music section. at the time i didn't realize it was the owner who was encouraging me to go see it. once i saw the movie, it was his very shop and story that birthed the arrival of rodriguez in concert for the first time in capetown in 1988.

on another lazy afternoon i popped in the labia theatre to check out the black power mixtape 1967-1975 documentary. a depiction of the black power movement told by sweden journalists in the late 60's early 70's. taking you through an amazing montage of research and archival speeches by stokely carmichael, martin luther king, eldridge cleaver and angela davis. surprisingly in the theater that day was another african american; an older gentleman in his late 50's from new jersey who moved to africa to teach english in angola. after watching he took me through his own stories of harlem and the riots in the south and was even able to pick out a few people he knew in the movie. we both thought how ironic on the other side of the world, we'd both be here at the same time discussing american politics covered by sweden during a time apartheid was running rampant.

these soundtracks, a must own, these flicks, a must see.

promise they will leave you with lots to ponder as the u.s. stands on the heels of another election.