[ inside ]
Ani DiFranco
“Self Evident” (BEARING TRAGIC WITNESS)
((play))
b/ French Television
Holy Shit! Holy Shit!
The only words spoken in the unexpected moment.
September 11, 2001 — A French television crew was doing a routine, broken water line story in Lower Manhattan when its attention was attracted to the extremely low-flying, hijacked jet, as it passed overhead, seconds before crashing into the North Tower of The World Trade Center, and exploding into a ball of fire.
Flying
b/ Living Colour (CollideOscope)
((play))
— Living Colour
Not a Pretty Girl
One week after George W. Bush’s “Shock And Awe” invasion of Iraq, Ani DiFranco answered a few questions, and played The Circle in Hollywood, Florida.
American Woman
Ani DiFranco’s Testament to Women, Truth, and the Idea of America.
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
— Ani DiFranco (Days After The Invasion Of Iraq)
— Ani DiFranco
April 5, 2003 — Less than a week after the United States invaded Iraq, Ani DiFranco was handed a copy of Time Magazine’s “Special” Shock and Awe Issue. Without hesitation, she picked up a Sharpie pen, and scrawled her feelings on the magazine’s cover.
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” she wrote, before signing her name at the end.
“I was 16 years old when I started playing in bars around Buffalo (NY) I was a cute little ‘hay baby’ with long blonde hair and an acoustic guitar.
I was attracting the attention of too many old men in the bar, so I shaved my head and put on boots to scare them away.”
— Ani DiFranco
— Colby Buzzell
2003
— Ani’s voice sharpen after 9-11, and her opinions became even more pointed, political, and critical of living under the authoritative (Republican) Thumb.
George W. Bush called it “Compassionate Conservatism,” but of course we would learn that there has never been anything compassionate or conservative about the white supremacist, Republican party.
Evolve, the second of Ani’s post-apocalyptic albums (CDs) was thoughtfully appropriate for the changing time. In 2003, touring in support of it and two others, the previous year’s So Much Shouting So Much Laughter, and In The Clip, a two-disc collection of 1990s live performances.
On The (Live) Record
— Ani DiFranco
— Ani DiFranco
It is in live performance that Ani most honestly reveals her musical soul. In the Clip is a fantastic example. Ani in all her onstage glory, singing and playing with passion, reading her poetry, talking and listening openly, and engaging her loyal fans, with elegant wit, sharp-tongued humor, and an unwavering grace.
“Self Evident“ (So Much Shouting) is a dark, politically critical, and socially conscious poem, written while watching the Twin Towers burn, from an apartment across the East River, in Brooklyn. Making the poem a song, The words are spoken atop a haunting and eerily ominous beat. A beat that attracted the attention of Chuck D., who covered it.
• INSIDE (CONTENTS)
• PICTURES IN TIME (PHOTOGRAPHY HISTORY)
• TIME MAGAZINE (100 PHOTOGRAPHS)
— dave.
• YouTube #1 / ORIGINAL NOISE
• YouTube #2 / ORIGINAL NOISE