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World Music Star Emmanuel Jal Featured at Global Forum for Media Development
Jal is a young rapper from southern Sudan, who for five years was involved in the bloody
civil war in Sudan. He was adopted by British aid worker Emma McCune at the age of 11, and taken to Nairobi, Kenya, where he got the chance to change his life and get an education.
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Bridging a Faith Divide
By Tom Carter, The Washington Times
Mr. Pearl says "I have not forgiven [what they did to my son]. I am not going to forgive. I am dialoguing as a soldier. Dialogue is my weapon. ... I am fighting the hatred that took Danny's life. We don't have armies, but we have the good will of millions, the coalition of the decent."
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Shining light on terror of darkness MUSIC REVIEW - Los Angeles Times - Daniel Variations
"Daniel Variations" is compelling, lofty, universal and very powerful.
The second movement is remarkable. "My name is Daniel Pearl" is the text. These are the reporter's last words, but they also take us back to the biblical Daniel. Here Reich creates the chilling sense of ritual by repeating the words over and over in long tones, hesitating each time after "Daniel."
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In The Highlands By and By
By Charles Williams
I started a family tradition in the early 80s when I was in music school and too poor to afford a Christmas gift for my mom, who was also a musician. So instead, I would compose holiday themed song, manipulate other musicians to sing and play on my recording, and then give it to my mom. I did this yearly until her death in 1996 from breast cancer. This particular song was one of her and my favorites. Every year I kept trying a different style setting for the annual composition. That year I decided to make it a celtic-tinged tune. My mom was a big fan of Broadway musicals, so I conceived the idea of a George Cohen style piece. The idea is a setting in an Scottish pub on a Yuletide night after a hard day's work at the local factory. Working class men are sitting and drinking while a tin whistle begins playing a tune....Then I imagined a fiddle joining in and the festive level rising. After the statement of the melody, a character enters. A lusty waitress, tough as nails in her right, and begins singing about the promise of the holiday season, but with a rough edge. I was trying to visualize a scene from musical.
So I called up Danny and asked him if he would do it and he said sure. He came over to my house where I had recording gear stacked in a corner of my living room. The song is actually a little challenging to just read and play in the moment, so when I put the music on the stand in front of him and gave him the tempo, he looked up at me and said, " you tricked me!" We both laughed. He said, " OK, put some coffee on, this may take awhile..." An hour later when we were done, Danny said, " hey, don't you pay the musicians around here?" I said, " Of course, what's your rate?" He answered, " How about a bagel?" So we went out for a bagel.....
After his death, I found the recording in my pile of stuff and listened to it. The lyric seemed strangely foreshadowing in retrospect. Almost like a message from him....It's odd how that can happen. I wrote it for my mom, but it has come to represent, to me, Danny in a larger context. Almost a calming voice to me now....Here is the text. (I used the Scottish 'dinna kin' which means of course, "I don't know".)
In The Highlands By and By:
Oh lend me your ears, my brothers
Lend me your ears tonight
I've a message of Hope from the Highlands a yonder
A message from the King of Light
I dinna kin if the fight be over
I dinna kin if the King has won
I only know that the message from the Highlands a yonder
Is a message of a newborn son
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It's the song I'm singing
And the bells are ringing
In the Highlands by and by
I'm glad to be able to share a slice of my life's intersection with your dear son with you. I've been meaning for the last four years to get this to you and his son. I have an acoustic jazz group these days and when we did a CD in 2002 I wrote and recorded a waltz that I dedicated to Danny. It's called 'In Lieu of Flowers'...I will send a copy of that along to you also.I treasure my memories of him and consider him a singular human being that I was blessed to know as a friend. You must be very proud of him.
The Smartest Kid in Class
By Hollye Dexter, author
Hollye Dexter is author of the memoir Only Good Things and co-editor of the anthology Dancing At the Shame Prom (Seal Press). Her essays have been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul- Answered Prayers, and Character Consciousness as well as online at Fem2pt0, The Next Family, The Shape of A Mother, and BackPage Magazine. She writes regularly for iPinion Syndicate and AOL Patch News. A singer/songwriter with four albums out, she also founded the award-winning nonprofit Art and Soul, running workshops for teenagers in the foster care system. In 2007 she received the Agape Spirit award from Dr. Michael Beckwith (from The Secret) for her work with at-risk youth. She is on staff for the San Miguel Writer’s Conference and a visiting author at UCLA extension. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
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