Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Back to school videos

Although there is still a week left in the summer, we've started classes at the university, and I'm busy with my new classes and new students and some new ideas for promoting our program. I neglected the blog this summer. I guess it was nice to get away from computer screens and keyboards for several weeks.

Now that I'm back on the computers, and having been impressed by our summer visits to the Acoma, Navajo, and Hopi Nations, I've been listening to some of my American Indian music, and found that I really like Buffy Sainte-Marie. Here is an old video and a newer one to share her music with you.






There are a couple other great versions of that "No no Keshagesh" [No no greedy-guts] here and here. Good art usually does have to exaggerate and simply to make its statement more effectively and with greater beauty. But I think Buffy is fairly honest and accurate in these songs, even for a couple good examples of socially-conscious art.

Hope to see some of you at Critical Mass this Friday afternoon at the Old State Capitol.