Frequent Updates on YouTube

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Update: Now you can follow the Kanji Hanzi World at YouTube to the right here. Thanks to the excellent service FriendFeed. - BTW: Art Ensemble of Chicago is obviously still a very interesting group. Got quite a few visits from people searching Google. Art Ensemble of Chicago website. "The Art Ensemble of Chicago featuring Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Famoudou Don Moye, Corey Wilkes and Jaribu Sahid."

The Kanji Hanzi World on YouTube

Seems like a frequent reminder is needed here. There is simply too much amazing stuff on YouTube to keep up with, so I'll do my best to guide you to the Classics and the Best New Stuff. According to my refined taste(s) :-)

Today I added a funky Art Ensemble of Chicago, plus one clip with AEoC playing with Cecil Taylor, and Adrian Belew Power Trio. Happy listening.

Beautiful 'Distraction': Adrian Belew

I am - really - producing material about Kanji and Hanzi, but got a bit distracted on Twitter. Again. Never mind. I had intended to post this video sooner or later. Now it got sooner.



I am not a fan of lists, but I think Adrain Belew is moving to the top of my three best guitarists ever: add Jimi Hendrix and the awfully underrated Guitar God Frank Zappa. Adrian is thus the greatest one alive, in my opinion. On top of that he is an amazing singer.

Silly me: forgot http://adrianbelew.net/

David Byrne in **BIG** Hong Kong

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It's has some practical advantages to live in "Virtual", China. I get updates about what's happening in China, new blogs in Beijing etc. Here is a more funny one:


The information I got said that David Byrne - ???: more later - would play at the Convention Center in Hong Kong tomorrow, January 19, 2009. So far, so good.... I knew that Hong Kong had been "integrated" into larger China, but I never knew that Hong Kong had grown this much!!

(click on image for 100%)

Of course the first map somehow got it wrong. It's absolutely true that David Byrne will perform in Hong Kong tomorrow - full tour schedule 2009 here - and with a bit of luck the already luck citizens of Hong Kong might get a ticket here.

And luck is with us here too. YouTube is a MAIN distraction. There is simply too much great stuff there to avoid spending at least a couple of hours there each and every day. Make sure to check in at the regularly updated Kanji Hanzi World there. New stuff like Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane has pushed down Talking Heads a few step. Unfortunately this video can't be embedded here, but here is the link:

Talking Heads - Live in Rome 1980
07 Crosseyed & Painless

There is a series of videos from this absolutely stunning concert in Rome. The one above is perhaps my favorite. Partly because you can see (the slightly younger) Adrian Belew perform his magic close up.

Nothing to not used for advantage. Just because I reluctantly pushed down two clips with Art Ensemble of Chicago to make room for Pharoah Sanders, I can post the first AEoC video HERE!! Enjoy Warsaw 1983. Most amazing live band I ever saw! Live.

Welcome to Virtual, China

In case you see "China" on some profile, somewhere: My exact location in China is a place called Virtual. Bring out your maps and see if you can find this extremely attractive "township". IN the meantime you can enjoy the video above. It's created by Zhang Yimou, the director of the utterly beautiful movie HERO:

张艺谋 張藝謀

It seems like it's very difficult to get decent looking Chinese to appear on web pages, so I will use images to make it possible for us analphabets to see what it actually says.

More videos: MUSIC VIDEOS on YouTube!

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Need a break from Hanzi, Kanji and the World? Why not take a look at

The Kanji Hanzi World at YouTube?

Even if Julia Nunes still is a favorite, there is plenty more to see. Most recently I added two clips from a Warsaw gig (1983!!) with Art Ensemble of Chicago, probably the greatest live bend there ever was. Another pet project is the Adrian Belew Power Trio. And so on. Tinariwen?

A small and very carefully selected LISTENERS DIGEST for those really wanting THAT EXTRA when consuming the universal language of Music! PEACE!

Video: Straight Talk from Norman Finkelstein

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As I wrote recently I will avoid too much off-topic posts here, but now and then I will inevitably stumble upon something that is too good to let go of. (Besides: this is my official living room and I am free to whatever I like, as long as it's legal.) Like this video with Norman Finkelstein:

Do you think this guy can speak like this everywhere, despite the fact that he is a highly respected scholar?? No. The authoritarian intimidation mafia is of course doing everything they can to silence him. On some people the age old black art of intimidation just don't work.

A rare video here

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This will not be a habit here, but since there already was a fanaticism label here, I thought it to be rather meaningful to post this video:

No comments, though. It's pretty much doing all the stuff by itself, with minimal and delicate assistance from Max Blumenthal.