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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Music / Conflict of Interest / Visual Art The Twilight of the Goodtimes: Charles's Forgotten Photographs, Forgotten Album Covers, and Forgotten Bits of Music at Western Bridge

Posted by on Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 12:43 PM

Mudede family
  • Mudede family

Charles will give a talk about his discovery of hip-hop as a teenager living in Zimbabwe. Building from a lost letter he wrote to a New York radio station, WBLS, he will discuss the impact that the new music (Run-DMC, MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B and Rakim) had on his developing imagination and his relationship with his parents, who were so distressed by the mechanical "boom, boom, boom" sounds coming out of his bedroom, they moved him out of the main house and into a mother-in-law cottage.

In that cottage, Mudede started to build a theory that connected the new music with the emergence of the modern African family, the realities of post-independence Zimbabwe, and the post-national utopian promises of globalization/Americanization. That theory, which is still in development, he calls "The Twilight of the Goodtimes," and the talk will flesh out this theory with forgotten photographs, forgotten album covers, and forgotten bits of music.

The talk is free, and it's Wednesday, December 9, at 7 pm at Western Bridge. It's related to the exhibition Parenthesis, my review of which here.

 

Comments (9) RSS

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Josh Bomb 1
The Twilight of the Goodtimes?

that sounds DYNAMITE!
Posted by Josh Bomb http://www.satanosphere.com on December 2, 2009 at 1:13 PM
baconpussy 2
Sounds like it's all best forgotten, then.
Posted by baconpussy on December 2, 2009 at 1:46 PM
LogopolisMike 3
This actually sounds pretty awesome... though I'm really smiling because the title of the talk has inspired my brain to create a mash-up of Twilight and Good Times and seriously Jimmie Walker as a sparkly vampire is really, really funny.

If you happen to live inside my brain.

Which admittedly is a uniquely acquired taste.
Posted by LogopolisMike http://logopolis.typepad.com on December 2, 2009 at 2:11 PM
4
My goodness, Charles, it's ok to not to turn every bit of life as you see it into something with cosmic significance. Things don't always link up, they just "are". Sometimes good things happen, sometimes poo poo happens, sometimes things get lost, sometimes you throw them away on purpose. If you think you have an explanation for everything, lie down in a dark room until the thought passes. Really, you'll feel much better.
Posted by the analyst on December 2, 2009 at 2:16 PM
TVDinner 5
"Charles started to build a theory...". No! Really?
Posted by TVDinner http:// on December 2, 2009 at 2:23 PM
6
Wow. I think it will be fascinating to learn how hip-hop helped Charles overcome the struggles of being a socially and economically marginalized, ghettoized youth in...oh wait. Let's try again. I think it will be fascinating to hear how hip-hop helped Charles overcome the stigma of not being quite rich enough to have an olympic-sized pool, and express the hardship of a people taken from their native homes and forced into the tyrannical hardship and ghettoization of having to live in a guest house. That's almost as bad as servant's quarters!
Posted by Subdued Excitement on December 2, 2009 at 3:03 PM
7
The talk is free...


Yeah, we sort of guessed that...
Posted by bigyaz on December 2, 2009 at 3:55 PM
hartiepie 8
"The talk is free."

No shit! Charles' talk is always free and easy....

But everyone has his price--- How much will you pay me to go?
Posted by hartiepie on December 2, 2009 at 3:56 PM
sketchyalibi 9
Free is probably too much to listen to that pompous idiot chat about his pathetic life.
Posted by sketchyalibi on December 2, 2009 at 3:59 PM

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