Tawdry Travelogues By: Baba Brinkman

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Attention Seekers,

Name-dropping is so tawdry, but so are most things that instantly capture our complete attention. Twenty minutes ago I bid goodnight to my dinner companions, a group of five including the legendary English actor and playwright Steven Berkoff, theatre dynamo and James Bond villain extraordinaire. Steven regaled us with tales of theatre productions in the 60's when he shared the stage with a 24 year old Ian McKellan, and I reciprocated with a command performance of The Wife of Bath's Tale. It turns out he's also directing a play at the Pleasance Dome in Edinburgh this year, so we'll soon be sharing a venue. When I told him that we'd be performing 27 consecutive shows in Edinburgh, he retorted: “I have a tour of Australia coming up in September with 36 consecutive performances, two hours per night!" Nothing like a little healthy competition among playwrights...

If you don't know who Steven Berkoff is, then you've never seen Beverly Hills Cop. Check him out:

I'm writing from the Lowdham Book Festival in Nottinghamshire, where I have three days of performances and workshops in schools to keep me busy. Today I performed The Rap Canterbury Tales in five consecutive one-hour sessions starting at 9 a.m., for groups of students ranging in age from 11 to 18.

Ouch, I can hear some of you wincing. Cool, I can hear others enthusing. Yeah, a bit of both, I concede. On the one hand, it leaves me completely wiped out, rapping for hours on end, repeating the same stories. On the other hand, every new audience brings new appreciation, and I get $1000 a day when I'm gigging. The only thing more tawdry than name-dropping is talking about how much money you're making, ugh. Whatever. Independently mounting a full production at the Edinburgh Fringe is an expensive endeavor, and this is how I'm financing it. Speaking of which, Dizraeli and I finished writing the script for the Rebel Cell the other day and have done a few test runs, smoothing out the kinks. We're also pressing ahead with the album version of the show, and we'll have advance copies ready in time for the Fringe, barring any unforeseen disasters. We recently completed the first track, The Fallout, during which we break up like the Fugees in true dramatic fashion. The preview is now on myspace if you want to give it a listen.

Last week I was in Stoke-on-Trent, (which the locals call Choke-on-Stench), an industrial town not far from here that couldn't be more different (Lowdham's demographic is more than 70% millionaires, according the cab driver).

I spent three days performing at Staffordshire schools and teaching workshops to kids who definitely don't see outsiders much, lovely as they were. Some of them came up with very clever raps. Most bemusing was the fact that they mistook me for a celeb and had me signing dozens of autographs, which they seemed to think might be worth money someday. But I can't imagine even Eminem's autograph is worth anything on a scrap of paper (autographed large glossy photos go for about $5 on Ebay). If it were otherwise, he could just stay home scribbling his name all day instead of making records. Of course, no one is a celebrity until/unless people mistake him/her for one!

Hold me back. In two days I depart for the notorious Glastonbury Festival, headlined by Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, and Leonard Cohen. I'm performing on three different stages over the course of the weekend; a mixed bag including both hip-hop gigs with Mud Sun Image from pleasancepages.co.uk :

and solo spoken-word gigs. I've heard the Glastonbury legends for years and I'm finally going to see for myself, and under the exact circumstances, which I had most hoped for.

After just over three weeks in England the cuts and scrapes on my limbs from a month of tree planting have finally healed and I've completed my seasonal metamorphosis from a beast of burden into a purveyor of linguistic animal magic.

If you're curious about what our new Edinburgh show is going to be like, take a moment to read some press on The Rebel Cellat Rebel Cell Press:

During the current run and lead up to the Fringe, (...under a month left to go...) is that time when the publicity drive kicks into gear, so any press contacts or suggestions for getting the word out are always appreciated.

Wish me luck at the mother of all music festivals!

baba

Any Middle and high Schools interested in booking Baba Brinkman for a performance/ assembly, please contact Baba through his website.

MudSun Mine The Gap - CD Review By Shane Christensen

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Fans of Baba Brinkman will be pleased to discover his new five song EP that includes U.K. rapper Dizraeli, as well as a typically impressive offering from up and coming Vancouver star Aaron Nazrul, who is proving to be a musical jack of all trades.

The collaborative effort goes by the name of MudSun, and this latest production continues to mix intelligence with humour and sarcasm, and also includes relevant political and/or social commentary at the same time.

My musical sensibilities are all over the place, but hard rock and alternative would undeniably be considered my favourite genre. But in saying that, I’m not one of those rockers who loathes or belittles rap. In fact, I tip my hat to some of the rock bands in the past who have included snippets of this musical genre in their productions, because it shows an appreciation for other artists and their craft. And make no mistake my fellow rocker friends, rap can be a craft as far as I’m concerned, as long as it’s done in a manner that is not offensive to any particular group, specifically women.

And because I find this type of mutual respect collaboration interesting and even cool, it is the fusionary rock/rap song Fried Rice that is my favourite offering on this disc. I have the upmost respect for Aaron Nazrul’s musical abilities, and he only reinforces these feelings with this hard rocking/rapping gem that literally throbs through your speakers and subwoofer. Without a doubt, this is the gem on the disc and it’s one of those songs that makes you want to go out and buy the album without even hearing any of the other songs.

But in this case, you won’t be disappointed with the rest of the offerings that include the title track Mine The Gap, which is a perfect example of the before-mentioned art of mixing humour and sarcasm with social commentary, as it muses poetically about the state of the British publics' attitudes towards contemporary Islam and the threat of homegrown terrorism.

How It Is , Tongue N Groove, and Louder are the other songs on a disc filled with a sincere energy and enthusiasm that is obvious to the listener.

So if you’d like to sample a bit of MudSun for yourself, you can see what I’m talking about by checking out their myspace site at the following link, where all five songs from this impressive EP are featured.

Visit Mudsun