Creativity never die

Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

“My Back Pages” (2006-2008) by Paul Villinski
There is a simplistic political thrust to a lot of this work, but environmental sensitivity is mostly nil. Some questions for the artists here are: Thought about your carbon footprint lately? Are more iterations of this tired Surrealist idea needed? Are you really giving the objects you’re using a second life, or just enabling them to last longer and take up more space?

Oh How i like the idea to combine those butterfly. Nice art!

Earl Palmer Died at 84

Earl Palmer (October 25, 1924 - September 19, 2008), a session drummer whose pioneering backbeats were recorded on classics like Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. Palmer died after fighting a lengthy illness.

Born in New Orleans in 1924 and later moving to Los Angeles, Palmer worked extensively in both cities, recording with some of the music world's all-time greats on thousands of tracks.

His beats form the backdrop on Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High," Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" and "I Hear You Knockin"' by Smiley Lewis.

Read more about this here.

Do you like Dangdut?

If you like dangdut, this news might cheer you up.

Dangdut music lovers in the U.S. will soon enjoy a special treat as legendary singer Rhoma Irama is scheduled to perform in Pittsburg, where he will also speak at an international conference on Islamic culture.

If you do not know about dangdut, i give you several information from several collectible sources.

Dangdut is a genre of Indonesian popular music that is partly derived from Arabic, Indian, and Malay folk music. It developed in the 1970s among working class Muslim youth, but especially since the late 1990s has reached a broader following in Indonesia. It was initially labeled lower class music, but this image has gradually changed over the years with more listeners coming from outside the country, notably Japan and the U.S.

A dangdut band usually consists of a lead singer backed by four to eight musicians. The term has been expanded from the desert-style music, to embrace other musical styles. Modern dangdut incorporates influences from Latin, house music, hip-hop, R&B, reggae and even Western classical music.

A recent Dangdut music singing competition in the U.S. was won by an African American, Arreal Tilghman of Delaware. Tilghman is currently in Indonesia, teaming up with local musicians in crafting what would become the first dangdut music album with an American singer.