The Moduli Space of Harmonic Maps

Sean Penn, Rae Abileah and the art of listening I found these two accounts very interesting to read together. In Mountain or Snakes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/mountain-of-snakes_b_146765.html, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/mountain-of-snakes-part-i_b_147239.html) Sean Penn reports his experiences traveling to Venezuela and Cuba and meeting with Chavez and Raul Castro. In her diary of the (http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2008/12/a-week-in-iran-raes-diary/, http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2008/12/week-two-in-iran-raes-diary/) Rae Abileah recounts her trip to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation Iran Peace Delegation.

These are two reports of visits to countries the US officially sees as pariah states. Penn is able to meet with high profile leaders. Abileah is part of an interfaith mission and meets with community leaders. But they both have an ability to listen without judging and they communicate that to the reader. They are not uncritical and they are honest about what they see and hear. And I came away convinced that relations with these countries can be improved, must be improved and that listening is the key.

Labels: code pink, communication, cuba, iran, rae, sean penn, venezuela

Yip Harburg Democracy Now, my favourite daily news program from the US, had a special edition on December 25th. Yip Harburg was the lyricist who wrote Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, April in Paris, It's Only a Paper Moon, Over the Rainbow and all the other songs in The Wizard of Oz. Born Isidore Hochberg he grew up in New York's Lower East Side in the years before World War I. He became a socialist. His nickname, Yip, is short for Yipsel, not a Yiddish name but the pronunciation of YPSL which stood for Young People's Socialist League. And he became a lifelong friend of Ira Gershwin. The Democracy Now episode features an extensive interview with his son, Ernie Harburg. He tells the story of his father's life through wonderful stories, historical insight and recordings. The hour long program covers Harburg's early work with the Gershwins, his work on The Wizard of Oz and his later career in movies and on Broadway. Yip Harburg's work always expressed his opposition to racism and his support for the poor and the working class. Songs like Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and shows like Bloomer Girl and Finian’s Rainbow are discussed in the context of his political views. Finian’s Rainbow, in 1947, was the first show on Broadway which featured an integrated chorus singing and dancing together. Inevitably Harburg was blacklisted during the McCarthy era and did not work from 1951 to 1962. He returned in 1962 collaborating with composer Harold Arlen on Gay Purr-ee, a Warner Brothers animated feature. Harburg and Arlen had collaborated on The Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland reportedly suggested them for the project. Ernie Harburg also discusses the nature of Yip Harburg's collaboration with Harold Arlen on The Wizard of Oz and I want to watch Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen again now. Listening to Harburg's story I wonder who is writing an anthem like Brother Can You Spare a Dime for our times. Hawksley Workman gives his interpretation of It's Only A Paper Moon in Stormy Weather and Rufus Wainwright sings in that film too. Maybe it will be one of them.

Labels: American song, McCarthyism, socialism, yip harburg