Wu Tang Clan at the Congress Theater

I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of live hip-hop. When I began attending concerts in the 1980s, I imbibed a steady diet of live punk, prog rock and jazz and have always had a bias against the use of recorded music in concerts. In my mind a concert has always involved someone singing or playing an instrument without any prerecorded “help”. However, after seeing Wu Tang Clan’s excellent performance on January 8 I think that I am going to have to broaden my outlook a bit.

The concert was held in the Congress Theater, a grimy former movie palace which was built in the 1920s and does not appear to have been cleaned since the advent of sound film. This is probably why the management never turned the lights on even after the show was over. The venue has a post-apocalyptic feel which reminded me of the theater in “Escape from New York”. This makes it the perfect place to see rappers who originally took much of their inspiration from watching 1970s kung-fu films in Manhattan grindhouses. As we waited outside in the cold, the thing that impressed me the most about the audience was its diversity (at least in terms of age and race if not gender) I saw several other forty year olds as well as some kids who were probably not born yet when Wu Tang released Enter the Wu Tang. Even the couple in line in front of us were speaking Dutch.

The show began with Que Billah a local rapper backed up by the Shocking Truth Band and a dj His energetic set consisted mainly of covers of older rap tunes by Nas and De La Soul and a few incomprehensible originals. Throughout the show he brought more and more people onto the stage which only added to the confusion. Although the performance was well received, many people in the audience seemed to be holding back as if they were conserving their energy for the later acts. Rapper/20^th Ward Aldermanic candidate Rhymefest continued the live band trend by appearing onstage without a dj, backed up by Zzaje, a local band whom he often performs with. Highlights of the show included a version of his collaboration with Kanye West, “Brand New”, in which Rhymefest coaxed an nerdy looking audience member onto the stage to perform a surprisingly good rendition of the “Kanye-part” and a slower number which he delivered sitting on a stool like a late sixties soul singer. During the course of the show he gave out nearly a hundred CDs since as, he explained, he was “going to be an alderman soon” so he did not “need the money”.

However, the audience was really there to see Wu Tang Clan and as the group members walked onto the stage in their winter coats as the familiar sample from Shaolin versus Wu Tang that starts off Enter the Wu Tang began, the crowd erupted into cheers that were so loud that most of their opening song, “Bring da Ruckus” was nearly drowned out. The most impressive thing about seeing Wu Tang Clan live is the intensity of having eight or nine MCs on stage at once. Unlike most rap groups who have one or two rappers on stage at a time, the members of Wu Tang trade lines back and forth, rap in unison or in small groups of three and four to give their performances greater intensity and variety than most other hip hop artists. Most of the original members were in attendance although RZA is in China directing a movie and Raekwon was out due to an unspecified family emergency. (However, further research revealed that he was performing in New Jersey to promote a new solo recording that night.) However, like every good team, Wu Tang has a deep bench and these missing members were ably replaced by Streetlife and Cappadonna. Later in the concert ODB’s son came on to perform his father’s signature tunes “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Brooklyn Zoo”. The first twenty minutes of the show was devoted to a medley of tunes from Enter the Wu Tang which they tore through at breakneck speed as if they were trying to fit in as many songs as possible in the short time that they spent on stage. They barely stopped to catch their breath between songs which they often performed in shortened versions lasting only two minutes. After this they turned to material from later albums like The W and from some of the members’ solo projects such as GZA’s acclaimed Liquid Swords. Even a relative newcomer like Cappadonna got to perform his signature tune “Run”.

One criticism that the Wu Tang Clan often receives is that they play the same songs every show which makes their concerts pretty predictable. However, they have managed to turn this predictability into a virtue since so much of their show is dependent on audience participation and the energy that the crowd is able to generate. At the Congress Theater the crowd ate it up and spent the entire show on their feet engaging in impromptu sing- alongs and cheering loudly whenever the Wu Tang Clan acknowledged the fact that they were in Chicago. At some points in the show, it felt like the balcony, where we were sitting, was bouncing up and down as if we were on the deck of a ship. Unfortunately, the Wu Tang Clan’s performance ended abruptly after a little over an hour when someone in the balcony set off a smoke canister. At first many of us thought that this was part of the show. However, the smoke obscured the band and the crowd in front of the stage began clearing out since the smoke was irritating their eyes. We were sent off with a reminder from Methodman to buy some Wuwear in the lobby and with a few choice words for the people who ended the concert early (and their mothers) the Wu Tang Clan left the stage.

Heidegger in Translation

Book Reviews

The Essence of Human Freedom and The Essence of Truth

Martin Heidegger

translated by Ted Sadler

London: Athlone Press, 2002

Several times during his career Heidegger said that he had originally

planned to add a section on the history of metaphysics to his

magnum opus Being and Time

Although he never did this, these two volumes

give us an idea of what such a section would have looked like,

which is why they are such a welcome addition to the Heidegger texts

that we have in English. These lectures were delivered at a pivotal time

in Heidegger’s career; he had published

Being and Time a few years earlier

and was about to begin both his ill-fated attempt at political engagement

and a change in his thinking that transformed him from a

philosopher of Being into a philosopher of poetic thinking. These two

volumes are translated from a series of lectures that Heidegger delivered

at the University of Freiburg between 1930 and 1932 and they deal

with many of the thinkers who were most important to the development

of Western metaphysics. Heidegger’s style in these lectures is more

like the standard philosophical inquiry that he did in

Being and Time

and

The Essence of Reasons than the more poetic work that he did in later

texts like

Poetry, Language and Thought. The first volume, The Essence

Freedom

, which was originally published in German as Volume 31 of his

Gesamtausgabe

, focuses on the meaning of Being in Aristotle’s Metaphysics

and on the development of the concept of freedom in the work of

Kant with special emphasis on his

Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of

Practical Reason

. The second volume, The Essence of Truth, which was

originally published in German as Volume 34 of Heidegger’s

Gesamtausgabe

focuses on two truly foundational works of Western metaphysics,

the Cave Allegory from Plato’s

Republic and Plato’s Theaetetus.

The translator is Ted Sadler who is the author of

Heidegger and Aristotle:

The Question of Being

and Nietzsche: Truth and Redemption. The translation

as a whole is excellent, especially since these are essentially lecture

notes and Heidegger’s prose is normally dense and full of wordplay. My

only criticism is that Sadler rarely includes the original German vocabulary

of important Heideggerrean terms such as

Wesen for essence or

Entborgenheit

for reconciling. He does, however, include an excellent

glossary of both Greek and German terms.

Heidegger begins the

Essence of Human Freedom by introducing

the contradictory nature of human freedom: it is at once a “freedom

from” (p.4) and a “freedom for” (p. 16). Rather than trying to resolve

this contradiction immediately, Heidegger is content to let it play itself

out through his discussion of Kant and Aristotle’s work because it leads

him to the root of the question of freedom, which is ultimately the

question of being itself, since freedom is a “way of being” (p.28).

Heidegger spends much of the second chapter in a lengthy discussion

of the concept of being [

ousia] in Aristotle’s Metaphysics. At first this

looks like a lengthy digression, but it allows Heidegger to lay the groundwork

for a discussion of freedom and causality in Kant’s work. For the

Greeks, being was understood as constant presence (p.78), so any discussion

of freedom (or being-free) must also include a discussion of

freedom as a process that unfolds through time.

Heidegger takes up this definition of freedom in the second part of

the book, which is a lengthy discussion of causality and freedom in

Kant’s work. The importance of causality to Kant’s discussion of freedom

reveals the temporal natural of freedom as a constantly unfolding

process (a being-free) which really must be discussed in terms of being

and time. But, as Heidegger points out, Kant’s idea of causation is

problematic because he had not properly surveyed the ground of freedom,

which is being itself (p.140). This makes it difficult for Kant to

unify his two ways of freedom (the possibility and the actuality of freedom),

since his discussion of causality is never able to get beyond causality

itself. Therefore Kant is unable to focus on the “first cause” which,

as Heidegger pointed out in

The Essence of Reasons, is being. As

Heidegger frames the problem of freedom in Chapter 3, freedom is not

a thing or a property of man, but man is the possibility of freedom

(p.93). Kant’s overemphasis on causality leads him to see freedom as a

thing that is separate from man and is produced through external causes,

so it is not the ground or essence of humanity.

In

The Essence of Truth Heidegger deals with the problem of freedom

on a much more fundamental level through his discussion of

Theaetetus

and The Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s The Republic. This

is one of Heidegger’s most clearly written and accessible works and I am

surprised that it has not been fully translated until now, particularly

since it anticipates so much of Heidegger’s later work. The book opens

with a short discussion of truth as correspondence, which, Heidegger

argues, is a notion that is so self-evident that it actually stands in the

way of our getting to the truth of truth (p.5). Instead, Heidegger argues

we need to go back to the more originary idea of truth as

aletheia or

truth as “unhiddenness.” which we find in the Greeks. After a short

discussion of

aletheia in the Pre-Socratics, Heidegger begins a detailed

reading of this concept as it is developed through the Allegory of the

Cave in Book VII of Plato’s

The Republic. In this discussion Heidegger

points out the essential similarity of the revelation of truth through

poetry and Plato’s presentation of truth as “unconcealing” which became

extremely important for Heidegger’s later work. He also finishes

the inquiry into the essence of freedom that he began in his discussion

of Kant.

Aletheia is both a “freedom from” delusion and a “freedom

for” the truth. (p.43). However, Heidegger finds Plato’s discussion of

“hiddeness” insufficient, so in the second part of the book he turns to

the discussion of knowledge [

episteme] in Plato’s Theaetetus.

Knowledge, like freedom, is not a thing but a comportment or way

of doing things. Thus knowledge is vital to human

Dasein (p114).

Heidegger refines this notion of

Dasein in an uncharacteristic move by

showing the relationship between knowledge as perception and the body.

We perceive things through our sense organs as sensual impressions that

are dispersed throughout the body, but it is the soul which brings these

individual sense perceptions together. Thus, knowledge and human

Dasein are dependent upon a working together of body and soul. Ted

Sadler has done English-speaking Heidegger scholars a great favor by

translating these two volumes. They present Heidegger at a pivotal

point in his career when he was refining many of his ideas about being

and time and developing new ideas which would lead to his turn to

poetic thinking a few years later.

Reviewed by Jonathan Derr

Documentary Review

War and Peace

Directed by Anand Patwardhan

First Run/Icarus Films, 2002

Anand Patwardhan’s excellent documentary

War and Peace on the nuclear

arms race between India and Pakistan is the sort of film that is often

ignored in the U. S. because it deals with issues that most Americans

feel are not of immediate interest to them. This is unfortunate for two

reasons: first it means that people are missing a moving and informative

documentary and secondly it is an indication of the complete lack of

interest that many Americans have about events occurring beyond the

U.S., Western Europe or the Middle East. This is an epic documentary

that was filmed in India, Pakistan, Japan and the United States to allow

Patwardhan to explore the complexity of this issue over the course of its

170 minutes. The film shows how a combination of religious fundamentalism,

nationalism and political corruption in both India and Pakistan

has lead to a Cold War style stand off that has come close to developing

into a nuclear war several times in the past few years. In addition,

it shows how the nuclear industry has affected the lives of ordinary Indian

citizens who live near nuclear test sites, and uranium processing

facilities.

The film begins with the assassination of Gandhi which for

Patwardhan symbolized the death of the potential for a tolerant, multiethnic

and multi-religious society on the Indian subcontinent. What

has occurred since Gandhi’s death, Patwardhan argues, is a gradual splintering

of India society and a corresponding rift between India and Pakistan

as religious fundamentalism became stronger in both countries.

This division has been exploited by political and religious leaders on

both sides who try to win support by demonizing their opponents.

Indeed throughout the film, we see religious and political leaders trying

to show some sort of a tie between religion, nuclear weapons and the

prestige of India. Ganesh is often shown blessing nuclear weapons and a

1998 underground nuclear test at Pokhran was actually held on the

Buddha’s birthday. We also see the scientists who created the Indian

nuclear program being praised by Hindu leaders at a special ceremony

celebrating India’s nuclear program.

However, Patwardhan also shows people who are trying to heal the

splits between the various communities in India and Pakistan. We see a

group of Indians, many of whom were officers in the wars between Pakistan

and India meeting with government officials, military officers and

ordinary citizens in Pakistan. We see a group of doctors who are traveling

to various nuclear sites in India to test people for radiation related

diseases and educate people about the dangers of radiation exposure.

We also see peace activists and artists who are trying to counter the

divisive rhetoric of nationalist politicians and religious leaders.

Probably the most moving section of the film is a series of interviews

with a survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima who visits India to

talk about his experience of the nuclear blast that destroyed his home

and killed his sister. He later invites Patwardhan and a delegation of

Pakistan and Indian peace activists to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki and

attend special ceremonies at the Hiroshima Peace Museum on Hiroshima

Day. Patwardhan includes footage from the nuclear blast at Hiroshima

to show the dangers of India and Pakistan’s current path.

The main issue in this nuclear race seems to be respect. The film

contains innumerable references by India scientists and politicians to

how the tests at Pokhran have put India “on the map” and how Indians

no longer need to feel inferior to other more powerful nations like the

United States. Even some of the leaders in the villages surrounding the

test site argue that despite the dangers of underground nuclear testing,

the prestige the test have lent their village are worth the risk. Patwardhan’s

goal is to show the real risk that these people are running and he succeeds

admirably.

Reviewed by Jonathan Derr

Ten Things I Learned from Martial Arts Films

1. Respect homeless people-Every time you run into a homeless begger in a martial arts film he is undoubtedly a kung fu master and probably your future teacher.

2. Respect the clergy-Monks, nuns and priests are always able to render a serious ass-kicking.

3. Respect the disabled- Disabled people use their spare time to invent their own undefeatable brand of  kung fu that is specially designed to take advantage of their disability.

4. If you go into a restaurant you will always be challanged to a fight.(This just goes without saying)

5. Return your library books- Think of the number of  kung fu movies whose plot revolves around a book taken from  a monastic library.

6. It is okay to fight "two on one" if you are trying to defeat a really, really evil villian.-Somehow this just  doesn't seem fair.

7. Respect women- This is just good advice in general, but apparently women who look like members of the PRC gymnastics team are always capable of delivering a serious ass-kicking.

8. Don't trust the government-they are probably evil Qing overlords who will wipe out your entire family as soon as they get the chance.

9. Respect the elderly- the older someone is the more serious the ass-kicking that they can deliver.

10. If you are really bad at something at the beginning of a movie, it just means that you will be even better at it by the end of a movie.