CULTURED BUT NOT PASTEURIZED!

Yesterday, I did something I used to be able to do with my eyes closed- I picked up my paint brushes. Roughly three calendar years passed me by and not even a stick figure scribble, but yesterday I started a series of portraits. I came across a shoebox of old photos. In that box was pictures of my dad with his hair all slicked back and wearing a wife beater to show off his thug muscles. He was posing cool for the camera sitting atop his Harley. That was the late fifties. My dad never made it to high school. He fought his way through life.

Why the three year Sabbatical? Going thru a nasty divorce can make a person pick up all sorts of bad habits. I picked up a few of the usuals. Cigarettes seem to calm the nerves when your ex is pushing ya into wanting to commit murder. Booze, well booze is a cheap way to go numb. Eventually my ex-wife became a distant ugly memory so I figured if I could not leave Babylon personally, I would make it leave me. So I quit the pack a day and stopped drowning myself in oceans of wine. A neighborhood crack head said the only difference between me and a wino was that I painted! I started beating the pavement with my face (army's cute way of saying push-ups) and covering many miles of running trails. Fresh air!
Only problem was I associated painting with bad habits. An incredible painter I know said he had gotten to the point where he could not even stretch a canvas without killing a six pack first. Every time I smelled turpentine, long lost cravings for nicotine would flood my mind. The cliche images of French painters with a glass of wine in one hand and a lit cigarette dangling from their lips. Yeah, and the nude model stashed away in the studio. That was my life. I had to put the brush down till my mind completely cleared.

Babylon was a Mesopotamian problem during Old Testament times but no other place on this planet qualifies more for the title of new Babylon than America. I mean entire cities like Las Vegas cater to the 7 Deadly Sins. Of course New York is the big apple. Boasting more temptation per square inch than the apple tree in the Garden Of Eden. Where is this story going? In circles- Culture is described as the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. A sinner is a person who transgresses against divine law. Somehow culture and sin can not exist without each other.



The original work in words of defiance and songs of praise!

This Culture is best described as a trio of mighty foot soldiers for the Most High Jah Rastafari. Joseph may only weigh 90 pounds but he's fearsome! The other two skinny guys, they got Joseph's back. Culture uses their music to march on Babylon. Every tune puts the boot to Babylon. Their art is pious indignation set to roots rockers. And rock the one drop it does. Joseph Hill, Kenneth Dayes and Joseph's cousin Albert Walker face impossible odds but Rastaman face it upbeat and optimistic. That is what I love best about Reggae. It's unconquerable spirit!



The deluxed remastered and therefore more dangerous edition!

Another sucessfull record review where I actually avoid talking about the record I am reviewing. Not so tuff being a critic.