Film and Reality in "Freedom Writers" (2007, MTV Films)

Hillary Swank’s innocence in the 2007 MTV/Paramount production Freedom Writers may be a relic of the Bush years (the studio’s previous production was the sequel to Jackass): a wide-eyed, white and naïve teacher finds herself faced by the dark jungle of Long Beach, California, where her students’ tribulations and violent environments are beyond her comprehension. She teaches anyway, and one never discovers what Midwest town Erin Gruwell (Swank’s character) hailed from, and it matters little to the narrative’s rising action. What is important is that Gruwell was a scrawny fish far out of her familiar waters, and chooses to swim over sink; she is led to question the district’s distribution of resources, including funds for textbooks and class trips, and is met with a stoic and vicious assistant principal who aims to support the status quo of educator tenure and class choice, played brilliantly by Imelda Staunton. Gruwell’s father is both protective and encouraging, and, by the close of the film, speechlessly impressed by his daughter’s accomplishment. The school itself is itself a complicated challenge to her language arts curriculum, and Gruwell seeks support from an upper-level administrator early in the film—to subvert the dismissive and truly awkward school administration.

This film, about innovation in language arts curriculum and instruction, was made during the reign of No Child Left Behind, but is set in its reality, of 1994—when a set of real events upon which this film was based took place. It was the age of the Rodney King Riots and OJ Simpson trial when Gruwell prescribed her students read and consume with the intention of improving and establishing their own authority and autonomy. Perhaps the film’s highlight comes when inter-city youth, their behavior and ethics, are transformed through gaining perspective on the events of the Holocaust, in a museum. A renewed context for hardship established through historical perspective, Gruwell’s personal and engaging style in the classroom draws from students a new level of engagement—with her, and with each other.

What effect did the actions portrayed in this film have on public, federal education policy? The “tenured” public school teachers in the film—namely, a rival male teacher, who teaches only “honors level” classess—are despicably inflexible and cold to Gruwell; they are shown as irresponsibly making assumptions about their students and their likely behaviors and responses to assignments. Successful collaboration in public education, across distinctions of social class, race, and gender, might describe the aim of Teach for America—a federal program that sought to implant teachers into unfamiliar and nationwide classroom environments. Now in its twenty-first year, that federal program may still not ensure new and aspiring educators in unfamiliar environments aren’t met by stuck-in-their-own-mud assholes.

One might question whether or not schools “teach to the test” to the extent they felt forced to in 2006; the somewhat-relegation of No Child Left Behind guidelines to state systems of education may or may not enable more teachers like Gruwell. Reality is that one of the actors who portrayed one of Gruwell’s students was shot in front of a Denny’s in California, weeks before he had the chance to accompany his grandmother to the film’s premeire. Reality is also that the film’s producers cut Gruwell’s use of Zlata Filipovic’s Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo, but included her classroom use of The Diary of Anne Frank, and documented the real-life falling apart of Gruwell’s marriage. Reality is that Gruwell and her former students are available for speaking engagements; the Freedom Writers Foundation administers a teachers’ institute as well as a full web presence, including resources for students and teachers.

Learn more at http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org

Music and Occupy Wall Street

Late-grunge era San Francisco-based rockers Stephan Jenkins and Brad Hargreaves, the vocals and drums that have pretty much been the basis for the group Third Eye Blind, have assembled a new band, and have released one of the first true ‘pop’ protest songs about the Occupy Movement: the band posted “If There Ever Was A Time” to their Facebook page on November 16, 2011, available for free download. The accompanying Youtube montage of Zucotti Park clips dramatizes these lyrics:

[…] where are the youth, we need you now

if there ever was a time, it would be now

to make the masters hear this

if there ever was a time to get downtown

and get non-violent and fearless

things only get brighter when you light a spark

everywhere you go right now is Zucotti Park […]

While the words of the song don’t ring with as much liberty as “Stand!” by Sly and the Family Stone, Third Eye Blind’s effort in writing a 21^st century pop-protest song is notable, if diluted by its place in history: are the “masters” the same as who Dylan described in “Masters of War,” or in the revived Black Sabbath epic, “War Pigs?” When we get downtown, the bridge reveals what’ll happen: And news corps says you don’t have a plan/well sit down, man, I’ll tell you again/the plan’s to stand together up to greed. Advocating non-violent demonstration to the youth (“we need you now,” the song repeats) in a centralized location through song, on Facebook and YouTube—a distribution effort that costs virtually nothing—is an new embrace of an established form. Neil Young and friends wrote, recorded and released “Ohio” in May of 1970, in response to the tragedy at Kent State, where four protesters were shot; within about a month of the event, radio stations and record stores had the 45rpm single in-hand, backed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young harmonizing on Stephen Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom.” Dylan, Young, Sly, Marvin Gaye: legends, from a time when songs could espouse to being direct social commentary on what What’s Going On.

A few months hence, and already a strange democratic melancholy threads through Jenkins’ lead vocal call, if there ever was a time, it would be now. While this sentiment may be inscribed on cave walls and in caverns deep within the pyramids, and found rendered more interestingly across the canon of recorded American pop music, “If There Ever Was A Time” is a call to action, however implicit and vague, implanted within a rock song. The production employs the glossiest kind of modern pop: the acoustic guitar shines, drums swing in up-tempo, the chorus is melodically rousing. The whole affair reminds me of Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” except Third Eye Blind’s number didn’t come out of nowhere in the way that the Dave Pirner missing-children anthem did, and that the video-music distribution landscape looked very different in 1994—back when MTV ran the Tony Kaye-directed video incessantly, featuring images of children missing in America. In the original video, Pirner himself appeared at its close, asking viewers to call a hotline if they could identify any of the children shown. Regardless of the fact that MTV in the United States chose to run the video without Pirner’s closing statement (not wanting their program to become a public service announcement), the video was successful in locating missing children across the country, as well as in Australia and the UK. The song won a Grammy that year; Third Eye Blind would win a Billboard Music Award for “Semi-Charmed Life” three years later. This modern socially-minded song with an ethical but cumbersome title, “If There Ever Was A Time,” might reflect the tribulations of the rock outfit: dropped unexpectedly by Warner in 2004, a few albums in the last decade with no hits whatsoever, and, early in 2011, an eight-million dollar lawsuit by former guitarist Tony Fedianelli over songwriting credits. Third Eye Blind, which may be at work on their fifth album, currently includes Kryz Reid on electric guitar and Abraham Millett on bass.

The official video of “If There Ever Was A Time” isn’t likely to be seen on MTV, and the song isn’t likely to go multi-platinum, like Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” or Neil Young’s “Ohio.” The audio was used as a bumper on VH1’s Big Morning Buzz, but the video-- fast images of the police, the marches, dancing in the streets, cardboard signs flashing by in radiant hippie glory, a woman’s exposed belly painted “End the Fed”--while Jenkins appears in sunglasses, strumming his acoustic, is a made-for-YouTube production, helping define a new category in the realm of film. Video remixes abound, including ones of Jenkins’ acoustic performance in Zucotti Park; suggestions appear in the sidebar, offering Occupy performances by NOFX in Los Angeles, a haggard Joan Baez teaching the crowd “Joe Hill” on a cold November afternoon in New York, and a stunning live performance by Jackson Browne and Dawes, backed by a gospel choir on an original Browne tells the crowd he finished “last night,” posted by karinmoveon on Dec. 2, 2011. It’s both democratic and capitalist to sing a song of protest in a public (privately-owned) park like Zucotti or, virtually, through YouTube or Facebook; the factories where vinyl 45rpm singles were produced, and the studios and offices of MTV are no longer necessary to musical expressions that are calls to action, and that likely goes for a Jackson Browne live performance, an embattled Third Eye Blind making new, good use of their time, and the work of John L. Samuels Jr.-Esco, whose foresight in late September 2011 may give him claim to writing one of the earliest songs about the protest movement. It is a hip-hop number he created at Slag Studios in the Bronx, that he titled on YouTube “Occupy the Street Song (The Official Anthem)”; it is nearly five minutes of melodic vocal harmonizing around the words “stand up,” along with a quiet synthy string part, and one very loud kick drum. He posted his song, and accompanying video (featuring reverse footage of arrests in the street, and of the Twin Towers exploding) weeks before the Brooklyn Bridge blockade in mid-October.

Two months later, on the closing night of Philip Glass’ opera “Satyagraha” at Lincoln Center, Lou Reed told the crowd gathered outside—large enough to necessitate two repetitions by the crowd of the aged rocker’s words, so that all could hear-- “I’ve never been more ashamed than to see the barricades tonight. The police are our army. I want to be friends with them. And I want to Occupy Wall Street. I support it, in each and every way. I’m proud to be part of this.” Following the opera’s final performance, the esteemed composer himself emerged from the massive theater and into the cold street to address the gathered crowd. He wore a black knit cap and spectacles; I was not there, but wept as though I was, when I watched him repeat his prepared statement three times, realizing its relevance, and the challenge inherent to the artists, to find ways to share some truth in of our time:

“When righteousness withers away and evil rules the land, we come into being, age after age, and take physical shape, and move, a man among men, for the protection of good, thrusting back evil, and setting virtue on her seat again.” (Philip Glass at Occupy Lincoln Center, 12/1/11).

*****************

Sept. 2011—John L. Samuels Jr.-Esco, “Occupy the Street Song (The Official Anthem)”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF0zQwcMT14&feature=related

Nov. 11, 2011—Joan Baez at Zucotti Park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh1z-E5RDhM&feature=related

Dec. 1, 2011--Philip Glass at Occupy Lincoln Center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p1HWwh-rM8

Dec. 1, 2011—Lou Reed at Occupy Lincoln Center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDR4YCAGk7M

Dec. 2, 2011—Stephen Jenkins at Zucotti Park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h9d-mQbtyk

Dec. 4, 2011—Jackson Browne and Dawes at Zucotti Park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RalPB3ux4M&feature=relmfu

Everyone's Drumming (Putney, VT); December 2011

On the crest of the bleak midwinter, and on the shortest day of the year, I drove south through Vermont, following the Connecticut River, and the ribbon of highway that trails along its side. The sun was brilliant, and the air solid and chilly-- the breathable ice that lingers in New England had made itself fully entrenched, despite the shining and reflection of so much else. I gunned the engine, rising and falling with the curves of the hills, the flattest ground to be found in among the ancient river bed. Christmas was nearing, and I was on a journey, to gather a gift for my son.
Weeks prior, I had enjoyed a conversation with Gov't Mule drummer and percussion guru Matt Abts, and, after minimal prompting from me, raved about his custom-drum builder of choice: Nathaniel Hall, of Everyone's Drumming, in Putney, Vermont. Never a huge Mule-head, I knew of the band's mid-1990s, Allman-inflected roots, and original bassist Allen Woody's passing, but hadn't had the rock-star-mythic vision of these cats debunked by interpersonal ancedote-- until Abts told me of how he came to know Nathaniel, and own his first custom, handmade drum. Woody commissioned Hall to build a special African ashiko, to celebrate the birth of Abts' first child. Soon after, Abts commissioned Hall to design a specific djembe-shaped cajhon-- a triangular floor-standing drum with a wooden head. After hearing Abts' praise of Hall's craftmanship, I realized I had found a sorely-needed Christmas present for my seven-year-old son, Andrew. Our latest jam sessions had involved sticks striking table legs and padded chairs, a plastic Gotham City, and anything else in sight.
Well over one hundred miles from my house-- where the wrapping paper, scissors, and tape sat waiting on the kitchen counter-- I left the highway north of Brattleboro, and descended into the narrowed and winding hills of Putney and Westminster. Hall's workshop is a two story barn/garage located twenty minutes from any pavement and deep into the sprawling and ever-scenic southern Vermont woods, a gorgeous and elite territory, of second homes and legends of fame living somewhere among the web of mountains and dirt roads (members of Aerosmith, the Eagles, and others occupy the Connecticut River corridor, at least part-time). Hall greeted me warmly on the driveway-- we had been in touch via email, as mine was a last-minute order, whose finish Hall buffed for a final time as we talked. The first of the two-floor shop, if emptied, is just big enough for a one-at-a-time auto mechanic to work, and live in the space upstairs. Two arrays of rough shells-- the bases for dozens of drums Hall will complete, for use in schools, through a non-profit program-- were surrounded by an uncluttered maze of half-completed orders. Upstairs, Hall's main workbench is also surrounded by a wild variety of bulbous wooden shapes, all priority work to be done: torn or punctured skins, frayed sinews, cracked shells. Spools of quality rope, and racks of untrimmed hides sat to the left of Hall's main workbench upstairs, besides a battered boombox. He polished the exterior of my son's new drum with care, as he explained the importance of summer music festivals to his business-- and that, this summer already presents a problem, as the Gathering of the Vibes, the All Good Festival, and another fest are taking place over the same weekend. Last summer, to ensure his presence at the largest concerts, Hall devoted two 'crews' to being vendors, peddling both his careful and tuneful creations, as well as a line of PVC-based Toca hand-drums, for quick sale and profit to the spotaneous crowd that wanders through the marketplaces found at most music fests. This summer, Hall expects to run three vendor 'crews,' he explained, as he wound a thick nylon cord inexplicably into a handle around the thinnest part of my son's drum (above his initials, which he had woodburned into the side, prior to applying any polish). As a bright and fleeting December light poured through the second-floor window and onto Hall's workbench, I realized he was the first person I had heard speak of their plans for the summer of 2012; I looked around and realized how far ahead Hall may have his work schedule planned in his head-- like a sculptor, who can envision within an untouched chunk of maple an actual, dimensional instrument, built of tension, reflection, and empty space.
For his expertise and care, Hall's street cred among the jam-band circuit may actually be far larger than anyone may at first notice: surrounding his main workbench were drums in-for-repair from a number of well-known musicians, including Mickey Hart's djembes (based on the Abts signature cajhon). Hall has also designed and builds a signature drum for Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, and works closely with DrumSTRONG, a non-profit devoted to "drumming to beat cancer." (Still available is a custom drum to commemorate Gov't Mule's Jan. 2011 Island Exodus, according to Hall's website). In progress were also some custom drums for Bob Weir's new studio, TRI, built specifically to accommodate webcasts and live streaming of musical performances. In his office/showroom, one of Hall's most inventive and original creations sat in the corner: a pedal-operated "talking" drum, built of a wooden dogbone-shaped shell, and a careful arrangement of hardware, including steel cable, connecting both heads. Instead of demonstrating it himself, Hall was proud to show a video of Phish drummer Jon Fishman trying it out (after two minutes of fascinating tonal-glide rolls and fills, Fish descended into looking for-- and finding, through the wah-wah action of the foot pedal-- the approximate notes for Black Sabbath's "Iron Man").
I slipped the smooth brown drum bearing my son's initials into its new, padded case, shaped almost perfectly for Hall's unique creation-- with a veneered head, a drum to last my son's full life, to be used quietly with fingertips or raucously, sounding a deep and thick djembe-slap in many rooms to come. The Winter Equinox sun dropped quickly in my rear-view mirror as I drove north later that afternoon, with other, warmer, summer visions, of drumming beneath trees, and music-- a common beat, made carefully by master craftsmen like Hall-- threading together seasons of light and dark.

Discover more of Nathaniel's work here: http://www.everyonesdrumming.com/