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Not A Pretty Girl
Self-Evident
Ani DiFranco
2002 — So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
((( >>> )))
[FROM THE TOP]
September 11, 2001 — Ani DiFranco wrote “Self Evident” while looking out the window of her Brooklyn apartment, watching the Twin Towers struck, burning, and fall to the ground, ACROSS THE EAST RIVER on the south end of Manhattan.
Shock and Awe — When confronted with the “Shock and Awe” Time magazine cover and a black Sharpie pen, she responded quickly. The issue was printed “specially,” days after the oh so visual start of George Bush’s war in Iraq, and she was take back to 1963’s Hollywood blockbuster “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
“Holy Shit!”
The only words spoken by a French television photographer as he watched (and captured) the apocalyptic “moment” in time.
September 11, 2001 — (((VIDEO))) A French television crew, covering a broken water line in Lower Manhattan, was attracted to the loud hum of a commercial jetliner as it passed by overhead, and seconds later crashed into the North Tower of The World Trade Center, and exploded into a ball of fire.
ALSO: The trailer for the first “Summer 2002” Spiderman was running in select theaters on 9-11. In it, the Twin Towers were visually crucial, and it was pulled from theaters immediately. “Release the Pressure” was a song played by Living Colour at the Disney House of Blues in Orlando. It was December 28, 2001, and the band was making up for shows in their New Millennium Reunion Tour that had been cancelled after the attack.
“Not A Pretty Girl” — (((VIDEO))) Ani playing the Hollywood (Florida) Circle, just after George Bush’s “Shock and Awe” start of America’s disastrous war in Iraq.
ON THE RECORD — Ani DiFranco discography: Living in Clip (1997), Evolve (2003), So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter (2002).
“It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
What Ani DiFranco wrote on TIME magazine’s Shock and Awe “special issue,” as I dropped it in front of her, after the Q&A.
Ani has all the answers
When I called to ask if Ani DiFranco had finished the Jazziz Q&A that I had emailed to her, Ani’s tour manager, Tracy Mann, explained that Ani would prefer answering such questions, sitting down, face-to-face. Knowing I was in Fort Lauderdale, and Ani would be playing just 20 miles south in Hollywood, Tracy suggested I drive down to do an interview there.
None of the too-hip-to-be-cool, JAZZIZ editors were interested, saying Ani wasn’t what they considered a “Jazz” musician. After hearing “Self-Evident,” I was finding space in JAZZIZ for Ani’s story, no matter the Jazz elites’ so often narrow view.
Flying
Living Colour*
2003 — ColideOscope
(((( Euology ))))
JAZZIZ Q&A
After watching her sound check in the park, it was a pleasant surprise to finally meet Ani DiFranco. Climbing aboard her small tour bus (motorhome) where I had been waiting, she seemed a giddy little school girl as she waved the JAZZIZ Q&A above her head, and proudly announced:
Lookie,
I finished my homework.
— Ani’s original, hand-written answers to the JAZZIZ Q&A, proved surprising in many ways.
[ANI’S ANSWERS]
What makes you swing?
Cranking btw 60-125 hz in my guitar wedges.
Three records worth mentioning?
Uh: Jon Hassell “Facinoma”
betty carter “Inside”
Joe Henry “Scar”
Favorite movies?
Recently: “Magnolia,” “Memento,” oh man, just can’t remember … anything by Mike Leigh, Cohen Bros, them French guys who made “Delicatessen” and “City of Lost Children”
Favorite books?
Recently: “Red Tent,” “The Botany of Desire,” “Belcanto,” “The Poisonwood Bible”
Favorite television programs?
None whatsoever. Don’t watch.
What’s your favorite ride (car or otherwise)?
Uh. my ’69 Mustang Cobra Turbojet … 428 under the hood. yup. uh huh.
When and where were you happiest?
Well … maybe 97-99. (sigh*)
What sport moves you?
Can’t thinka one.
Guilty pleasure?
Fuck guilt.
War … What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing. say it again.
Who do you invite to your last supper, and what’s on the menu.
My near and dear. it’s a potluck.
The most important lesson you’ve learned?
Ask me tomorrow.
What does “Jazz” mean to you?
America. Trancendence, racial unity, to name a few.
Where were you born?
Buffalo, New York
Where do you live now?
Buffalo, New York
and New Orleans when nobody’s looking.
Ani’s voice, had always been direct, but sharpened noticeably after 9-11. “Self Evident,” was her personal description of her seeing the planes as they struck the Twin Towers. It’s a view, from across the East River, out the window of her Brooklyn apartment. What she wrote was as pointed, political, and critical as ever. She made clear her view that we 9-11 was a result 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 a white supremacist, Republican party.
[FROM THE TOP]
Vernon Reid*’s “Flying,” is the Living Colour* guitarist’s hauntingly sweet and melodic tune, starting with “I jumped out the window to get to the parking lot,” and describes 9-11 as “a wonderful day to go Flying.” It was included on ColideOscope, Living Colour’s first record after 9-11, and its first since 1993.
Linda Zacks (“Friendly as a Hand Grenade”) is the painter whose work illustrates the video for Doug Wimbish’s “Danger,” another piece “inspired” by Osama Bin Laden. [LADELL MCLIN]
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.
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 by Ani as she watched, out the window of her apartment in Brooklyn while watching, on the other side of the East River, out the window of her apartment 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.
“I dream of touring like Duke Ellington, on my own, private railroad car.”
—30—
After saying she’d rather not answer the JAZZIZ questions in writing, Ani asked to answer the questions in person, face-to-face. Fair enough, and actually preferred. As she walked into her touring motorhome where I was waiting to ask the questions, with a big, little girl smile on her face, she waved in the air the questions that she had received via email. “Lookie,” she said enthusiastically, “I finished my homework.” But she was still looking forward to a face to face where she could voice her opinion more expressively, and I was happy to oblige her. Buffalo, 15-years-old, long blonde hair “Haybaby,” Joni Mitchell-like, Shaved her head and donned Jack Boots to scare off the old, creepy men in the audience.
“Self-Evident”
Ani DiFranco
2002 — So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
((( shock to the system )))
Vernon Reid wrote “Flying,” his memory of having seen the attack on New York City, his hometown. It is a haunting melody on Living Colour’s CollideOscope, its first album after reuniting just before 9-11.
CoLors*…
This is a Voyage into Sound.
inst. of change [THE ELECTRIC GUITAR]
the players
INSTRUMENTS OF NOISE.
take it to the bridge
BLUE. The Original Color of Sin.