Sometimes I feel ashamed to call myself Rasta.

Here's a quote, translated from finnish to english to catch a wider audience. In some essence, reading something like this makes me feel ashamed to be associated with any other dreadlock.

Here in the western world there are alot of feminists, some even with dreadlocks. Some of them are women that have been left (by their men) many times because they treat their men like doormats. New boom is that these women are driving a sort of "womans liberation in rastafari". In reality empresses live peacefully in trinity, with their families and are quite satisfied and do not understand where order has vanished when they try to drive things without consorting and support from their kingman.

Review: Anthony B - Rise Up

In the portable.

The thing is, i havent really been a big fan of any recent jamaican production be it dancehall or roots. Later even more so. Anthony B - Rise Up is exception! This album has been in my celly for couple of weeks now and i still find myself cueing it to my playlist.  And belive me, that happens very rarely with any artist or genre. Riddims sound abit thin here and there but as said, playing mostly on a celly. Im sure tunes sound better on a soundsystem. Nothing new in Anthonys flow and the lyrics are at times a bit overused. And ofcourse there is bunch of familiar riddims but im so bad remembering any names. Back to basics right?

So whats so good about it then?

Its really good album as a whole and each tune stands in its own. I dont follow new music so much but i think this is kinda rare these days. Ofcourse its up to each and everyones personal taste but for me, Rise up is breath of fresh air! Lots of feats on the tunes and they are not the  obvious choices either.  Horace Andys hook on the Enter The Kingdom Of Zion raises the atmosphere quite nicely and later, Lukie D touches my musical nerve in the right way. Good tunes from from a let go. And like a cherry on a top, lovers cut of a lost love and beyond called Weeping Willow.

For those of you with a spotify account, you can listen the album here

Free flow meditations #2

Ises Itinually!

Odd 15 adults and lots of kids gathered today in the Kaisaniemi park to talk about how to get together in Ifficial level. And like i was kinda predicting in my blog entry last night, one of the biggest questions was  about bowing down to babylon if we people would form a religious community.  Word religion is definetly intimidating to people and maybe rightfully so too.

Allthou there are quite a bit of legal rulings on how a group of people can actually form a religious community and what sort of pressure would that cause to individuals with their own sprititually, i think the biggest question we are facing is that do we have the qualities that it takes to work together for common goals?  Or even if the goals are not common, do we want to help out each other thru our personal works. It takes humbleness, comprimising and respect to make anything like what we are visioning for everybody that wants to get involved.

Obviously, its no-ones intention to "form a religion" here. And everyone who shared their thoughts in the gathering today, made it very clear that its not a new mansion we are trying to build, or even join any existing ones. But its We, as Rastafari people need to come together and try to make our works for the benefit of us, here and now and future generations.  Do we have that courage, humbleness, will to compromise and motivation to work for betterment of our own society with our own rules? If the answer is yes i have another question for you.

We will lay down our own roots and no matter what others call it, its still your roots, your dirt, your nutriants and your trunk that matters to you, so why would it be a bother if someone points a finger at you can says "religion" when you know for Iself that its the works I's do that matters.  Having a legal status only enables as to do the works better.

But then, its still about the dogma that heavily dictates our actions. I can see that with every bredrin of mine, even if they might disagree with that.  I can see that in my own actions too so im not blaming anyone. But i want to reach each one of you and again, ask a question. Are we so narrow minded that we can't find ways to work together - personal vibes left aside ?

But atleast one concrete thing was settled today. On His Majesty's Earthstrong, 23rd of July, nyahbingi. So come one, come all and let as rally round, cetralize and organize!  We really can make things happen if we take things into our own hands.

*edit*

Ps. I wanted  to wish good Journey to I sis Empress Earthbaby!  I know you are sitting in the plane already halfway across the planet to the hills, we will see when you head back home! Blessings!

Free flow meditations ..

Lets first start with some techno babble. I've installed this new software called Spotify already like 3 months ago or so. Played with it but at the time i didnt find to be so usefull to already existing stuff. Then last night, i was hanging out late with our neighbours and one guy was playing music from spotify.  Dunno, has it changes abit or something but it had quite a different feeling to it. And to this night in time and space.. I've been listening to quite a lot of very nice uk production. What a really nice supprise!

Few weeks ago a bredrin of the mine send invitations to gather around in Helsinki and try to get something ifficial thing going on. From what i've heard, quite a lot of families are going to attend. Lets see what will be the outcome of the rally.

One topic that people are going to talk about for sure is that should the families try to organize somesort of society and gain a sort of legal status as a religion. Basicly meaning that if there's certain amount of kids in single district, they would get "rastafari" as choice of religion for "religion class".. 1 roots hour in week. This sort of a thing is bound to raise some discussions.

There's the obvious question is ofcourse and in boiled down form: is rasta a religion. But its obvious so lets think of a another angle. And its just a  hypothesis.

Am I afraid of so called "rooting down" if i wouldnt want to be part of that sort of a movement ?

 Gosh, dub in the background is making my head dizzy - vibronics, forward ever. And it seems to have disoriented my direction of thought.  But as i really want people to share the feelings back - here, in private mails, hint! - heres a question for you. No matter what you think, put it outside the box and let me know what "rooting down" means for you..

Anyway, one thing is for sure, nothing bad can come of what is happing tomorrow.  Raspect for all the princes, princesses, queens and kings who attend tomorrow, in spirit or present.

Blog ends with Ranking Joe's Zion High streaming from spotify. And special bigups for Vilhelm from Tulitauko Sound for first establishment called emBASSY and bringing Ranking Joe. 2 heavy nights still coming, one with finnish dubstep crew Clouds and their live set + Mungos Hifi and later in the summer Kenny Knotts + Helsinki roots embassy =)

Ranking Joe in Helsinki (shot by Riinah):

I read "god" here and "god" there, but I'd like to see your definitions of God.

Been abit quite lately but there was one conversation this morning in Bloodandfire website that got me writing some thoughts.

Discussion was started out about people question the motives of repatriation and led to a question presented by one  member of the board.

Quote:

I read "god" here and "god" there, but I'd like to see your definitions of God. Yes, who (or maybe what) is God?

Please define God

I didnt meditation on this much but i got me writing down my feelings. This is what was written.

Was this addressed to me? All i can say on this matter is that if you don't know what god is, its futile to understand it from the words of others. But i can try - and propably fail.

God is a manifestation in the I, in my heart, actions and thoughts. Concept that motives and helps thru the times when its required, Its personal thing, not a communal. Even thou the most visible part of a god is religion, the essence that is visible to me as a person is how god manifests thru My works and how it affects those. In that matter, i have no will to describe what god is for others nor can i describe what God really is, like is he/she/it a person? Spirit or a ghost ? Living ? Dead.. All those points doesn't matter for me because i feel god is within me, i and i. Rastafari.

Thats my definition of God. I don't claim that this is the right definion, that would be arrogance and it would lead to conflicts, religious wars and what not.. But it is the vision that i currently have, life is learning experience - so maybe even tomorrow i could say that there is no god at all. Just people with their own minds, some positive, some negative, some who are easier to be influenced by those who want the power over people and those who do not. And finally, i don't see His Majesty as a god but a vessel, an icon that God used to reveal itself to me. And for this simple, i do not even want to go into depate that would dictate what is the real god.

But on the contrast, writings like Kebra Negast, Fatha Negast, Testaments, Psalms, all "holy" writings, they describe people who wrote them, people who edited/translated them and how their personal manifestation of god was visible to them. That was the reason why I mentioned god in the first place as Kebra Negast tells a story of Queen of Shaba and how that story reflects and affects the people whom's historical (true of false) story it is. Those writings might not be what i accept as true identify or meaning of God but they are writings that do affect the image of God as communal figure of one particular time and thru that exposition and natural way of human learning (relying on work done by others before me as a starting point for my own work), it also affects how i as a person view God.  

Epic Fail ?

You tell me. Feel free to drop in your comments on this matter. Knowing that someone actually reads my ramblings would definetly encourage me to write more often.



Btw, i added a linke to this post which leads to Myspace, to a profile of  King Alpha Records. There's a toon in the page called Soul-Live-Jah. All I can say is that even the tips of my dreads tingle when i listen to that tune. Massive respect to Jah Zebi for putting the works forward! Truely forward!

http://www.myspace.com/kingalpharecords