Tisha Ragin - My Blog

NEW YORK – Most rappers boast about their intellect, but few go out and actually get a master's degree in medieval and Renaissance literature so they can spit better rhymes.
Then again, most rappers aren't Baba Brinkman.
The 33-year-old Canadian, who when talking is just as likely to quote from Ice-T as make a reference to evolutionary psychology, has put his life at the service of hip-hop, a form of music he sees as limitless in its power.
To prove it, he's rapped a version of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century "The Canterbury Tales." He has also waded into science, tackling Charles Darwin's "The Origin of the Species," and has rapped about market economics.
"Every message is conducive to this medium," he says. "People would say, `Well, maybe in theory. But what have you got?' That's where the `Canterbury Tales' idea came about: If I can rap medieval poetry, then that will show people the boundarylessness of the genre."
Brinkman, along with his frequent DJ collaborator Jamie Simmonds, is currently revisiting Chaucer with their "The Canterbury Tales Remixed" at the SoHo Playhouse following a successful run there of "The Rap Guide to Evolution" this fall.
The show sandwiches three of the Canterbury Tales between the epic poems of Gilgamesh and Beowulf, turning these dusty old works that torture adolescents in classrooms into remarkably current and vivid stories.
"This is bigger than me; it's bigger than you, bigger than rap," Brinkman says at the top of the show. "It's bigger than fingers on triggers and bigger than gangsters slingin' the crack/That's just the latest version of an ancient story/The rage of warriors hungry for fame and glory."
During performances, Brinkman prowls the stage in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and often interacts with Simmonds, who scratches out beats on his turntables and is prone to layer Mobb Deep cuts over strings.
The two met in 2008 in the southeast English city of Brighton and instantly bonded over their love of hip-hop. Simmonds, a 36-year-old Englishman, came from a recording studio background and was more used to spinning records to tipsy dancers in nightclubs than providing the music for a rap about behavior patterns of primate species.
"We just really connected. I really liked that it was something so different. It kind of opened a whole new world for me as well. The theater world was something I'd never been a part of," Simmonds says. "I really enjoy a challenge. And that's exactly what it was. It was putting myself out of my comfort zone."
Brinkman hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, and planted trees in the Rocky Mountains every summer for over 10 years. At Simon Fraser University, his master's thesis drew parallels between the worlds of hip-hop music and literary poetry.
After graduating, Brinkman, who was born Dirk Brinkman, has taken his award-winning hip-hop theater shows to dozens of cities around the world, including several stops at the Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland. One show often leads to a commission for another from audience members stunned that Brinkman's raps can tackle any complex idea.
"Everything we do is a tribute to hip-hop. I think I'm pretty rare in that I actually got an English master's degree because I wanted to be a more versatile MC," he says.
"I wanted to explain to people that rap is not 40 years old. I mean, hip-hop as a culture is 40 years old and the thing we call rap today is 40 years old, but rhymed storytelling is ancient. Every culture's got some variation."
In many ways, his remixed Chaucer is a return to his roots. After getting his master's, Brinkman toured with a version of "The Canterbury Tales," which by then included The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale. For the new show, he's rewritten everything and collaborated with Simmonds on original music.
Deciding to rap about "The Canterbury Tales" makes a perverse sense. Brinkman explains that Chaucer wrote a rich and elaborate tapestry of medieval social life, combining snapshots of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.
There was another reason, too: "He's dirty," says Brinkman, laughing.

"He's the Slick Rick of that era," Simmonds adds.

"`The Canterbury Tales' are so unashamed and a totally piercing portrait of human nature and human foibles. And I think rap is that as well. It doesn't blush when it looks at human behavior," Brinkman says. "It's all on display in rap — warts and all. And that's what `The Canterbury Tales' is, too."

In the show, Brinkman's lyrics — performed over Simmonds' moody, orchestral score — explain the work through a cheeky modern lens. In the Pardoner's Tale, Brinkman raps that the title character is "a medieval televangelist. He's Creflo Dollar, he's Ted Haggard, he's got mad swagger like Jimmy Swaggart."

In the same tale, Brinkman offers a way to understand the three drunken men who seek to kill Death: "Think Boyz in the Hood; think Menace to Society/Just from the Middle Ages, of the Flemish variety."

His work on Chaucer led to "The Rap Guide to Evolution," "The Rap Guide to Human Nature" and "The Rap Guide to Business," which he was commissioned to write to welcome a new class at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"Human capital, it's tough to quantify," he rapped in one song. "But without it your business will not survive/Human capital, it's tough to quantify/You got to offer people more than just a nine to five."

Brinkman and Simmonds have both moved to New York and are preparing to take full advantage of their three-year work visas. Their evolution rap will tour in the spring and the Chaucer work is now enjoying a run until early January, and may tour as well.

The two are plotting a new rap guide, perhaps on religion or maybe on climate change. Whatever it is, it won't be fluffy. "I'm not exactly drawn to small talk," says Brinkman. "As an MC, I want to tackle the most controversial, interesting things in the world."

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Online:

http://www.bababrinkman.com

http://mrsimmonds.bandcamp.com

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week's death of Kim Jong-il, although his untested young son will be at the head of the ruling coterie, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.

The source added that the military, which is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, has pledged allegiance to the untested Kim Jong-un, who takes over the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since it was founded after World War Two.

The source declined to be identified but has correctly predicted events in the past, telling Reuters about the North's first nuclear test in 2006 before it took place.

The comments are the first signal that North Korea is following a course that many analysts have anticipated -- it will be governed by a group of people for the first time since it was founded in 1948.

Both Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung were all-powerful, authoritarian rulers of the isolated state.

The situation in North Korea appeared stable after the military gave its backing to Kim Jong-un, the source said.

"It's very unlikely," the source said when asked about the possibility of a military coup. "The military has pledged allegiance to Kim Jong-un."

North Korea's collective leadership will include Kim Jong-un, his uncle and the military, the source said.

Jang Song-thaek, 65, brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il and the younger Kim's uncle, is seen as the power behind the throne along with his wife Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister. So too is Ri Yong-ho, the rising star of the North's military and currently its most senior general.

The younger Kim, who is in his late 20s, has his own supporters but is not strong enough to consolidate power, analysts said.

"I know that he's been able to build a group of supporters around himself who are of his generation," said Koh Yu-hwan, president of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

"So it is not entirely elders in their 70s, plus some like Jang in their 60s, who are backing him. These young backers will be emerging fairly soon."

Koh said the coterie was put in place by Kim Jong-il before he died. "The relative calm seen these few days shows it's been effective. If things were not running smoothly, then we'd have seen a longer period of 'rule by mummy', with Kim Jong-il being faked as still being alive."

He said the younger Kim would accept the set-up, for now. "Considering the tradition of strongarm rule by his father and grandfather, things can't be easy for him," he said.

"REGIME SURVIVAL"

Ralph Cossa, an authority on North Korea and president of the U.S. think tank Pacific Forum CSIS, said it made sense that the ruling group would stick together.

"All have a vested interest in regime survival," he said. "Their own personal safety and survival is inextricably tied to regime survival and Kim Jong-un is the manifestation of this. I think the regime will remain stable, at least in the near-term."

He added in a commentary that the new group may be inclined to reform, but stressed this was far from confirmed.


"Over the long term, there appears to be some hope, primarily emanating from Beijing, that Kim Jong-un will take North Korea down the path of Chinese-style reform, apparently based on the belief that Jang is or will be a 'reformer'."


"Who knows, this may be true. While this could relieve the suffering of the North Korean people over time, it will do little to promote the cause of denuclearization, however."


The high-level source also said North Korea test-fired a missile on Monday to warn the United States not to make any moves against it. Pyongyang however had no immediate plans for further tests, barring an escalation of tensions.


"With the missile test, (North) Korea wanted to deliver the message that they have the ability to protect themselves," the source said.


"But (North) Korea is unlikely to conduct a nuclear test in the near future unless provoked" by the United States and South Korea, the source said.


The unpredictable North's nuclear program has been a nagging source of tension for the international community.


Pyongyang carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, and has quit six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia on abandoning its nuclear program and returning to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.


The high-level source also said Beijing was only notified of Kim's death earlier on Monday, the same day North Korean state television broadcast the news. Kim died on Saturday.


A leading South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday China learned of Kim's death soon after it occurred.


China has given no official comment or even hints suggesting it was told of Kim's death before the public announcement.


Beijing, the North's closest ally and biggest provider of aid, has pulled out the stops to support the younger Kim.


The government has invited him to visit and, in an unusual gesture, President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping also visited the hermit state's embassy in Beijing to express their condolences. Roads leading to the embassy were blocked.


Mainly, the prospect of instability on its northeastern border worries China and it sees the younger Kim and his coterie as the best prospect for keeping North Korea on an even keel.


North Korea has been pressed by China to denuclearize and is willing to do so on condition that North and South Korea, the United States and China sign an armistice replacing a 1953 ceasefire agreement, the source said.


The two Koreas have been divided for decades and remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice but no peace agreement. The United States backed the South, while China supported the North in that conflict.


Pyongyang is also convinced there are U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea and demands Washington pull them out, the source said.


(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jonathan Thatcher)

PHILADELPHIA – An appeals court has overturned the attempted prostitution conviction of a Philadelphia woman who was accused of offering sexual favors for World Series tickets.
Authorities had alleged that Susan Finkelstein posted a racy online ad, then met with an undercover Bensalem police officer in October 2009 and offered to perform sexual acts in exchange for tickets to see the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees.
Finkelstein acknowledged placing a "goofy" ad on Craigslist and hoping to use her "feminine wiles" to get tickets, but denied offering favors and said she wasn't a prostitute.
At trial last year, Finkelstein was acquitted of prostitution but convicted of attempted prostitution.
The state Superior Court ruled Tuesday that since Finkelstein was cleared of the more serious prostitution count, she could not be convicted of attempt because the proof required to sustain both charges was the same. Also, the court noted, Finkelstein was not engaged in "sexual activity as a business" and said the crime of prostitution was not intended to "criminalize private illicit sexual relations."
Finkelstein's attorney, William Brennan, said his client was elated by the decision.
"This woman should never have been charged in the first place," he said.
Stephen Harris, chief of appeals for the Bucks County district attorney, said prosecutors disagree with the court's reasoning but that no decision has been made on whether to appeal.
"Our view is that if you're selling sex for something of value, and certainly a World Series ticket is something of value, that is a business transaction," he said.