Several Cuban musicians were nominated for Grammies (Grammys?) Most of them couldn’t attend the ceremony because the USA denied them visas.

US authorities have refused to let five Cuban Grammy Awards nominees travel to Sunday’s ceremony in Los Angeles.

Musicians up for best tropical Latin album award – including veteran star Ibrahim Ferrer – have not got visas.

Ferrer, 77, told press in the capital Havana: “I am not a terrorist. I couldn’t be one. I am a musician.”

A US diplomat in Havana said the US administration could suspend the entry of people deemed to be “detrimental to the interest of the United States”.

…

Ferrer is the best-known of the nominees after appearing in 1999’s Buena Vista Social Club film. He recently won BBC Radio 3’s world music award for best artist from the Americas.

The other artists to be refused visas are Guillermo Rubalcaba, Amadito Valdes, Barbarito Torres and the group Septeto Nacional Ignacio Pineiro.

But pianist Chucho Valdes, nominated for best Latin jazz album, has been granted a visa.

Land of the Free?

Mim Udovith interviews John Waters for the NY Times.

UDOVITCH Do you think it’s harder to be transgressive now than it used to be?

WATERS I’ve never tried to be. Transgressive — does that mean you change how people look at things? That would be the greatest flattery anyone could say to me. But I’m just setting out to do what I always do. First, I do it for myself. And then, maybe when you go to the movies after looking at my pictures, you can make your own movies in your mind. You can watch something and say well, that image could go here. You don’t have to like the movie. You can look at the lamps.

…

UDOVITCH Do you feel you have any mentors?

WATERS Tennessee Williams made me realize that everything they told me in school was a lie and I didn’t have to pay attention to it. Warhol certainly influenced me when he so wisely put homosexuality and drugs together, finally, where they belonged. Little Richard, because I wanted to be the white him in the hippie world. That’s why I have this mustache. And Jean Genet, of course. I don’t even remember that I named Divine after the character in “Our Lady of the Flowers,” but I’m sure I did. They made me have the nerve to do what I wanted to do, so that I didn’t care that I didn’t fit in, that nobody else really liked what I liked when I was growing up.

We went to the John Waters opening at the New Museum Saturday night. See the Holland Cotter NY Times review here.

It’s the last show before it closes and work begins on the new building on the Bowery. I saw him a few times, but I didn’t talk with him. I’ll go back to watch the early films they’re showing. I did see Gary Indiana, Andres Serrano, and many other artists and writers, including a few people from his films, plus many more who looked like they belonged in one. I heard Patty Hearst was there but I didn’t see her.

It was a more interesting, and younger, crowd, than other New Museum events I have attended. I loved that the second floor was left empty for the big crowd to just have drinks and hang out. Every opening should have such a luxury of space.

This reminds me of an amusing John Waters story. In the early 1990s James and I saw Romper Stomper at Film Forum. It’s a pretty disturbing movie about racist skinheads in Australia, with plenty of violence. If it hadn’t had Russell Crowe in it, I doubt I would have gone to see it. During a lot of the worst violence, I could hear the person sitting right behind me giggling. When the lights came up I turned around to see who this idiot/madman might be. I wasn’t annoyed anymore, in fact I was quite pleased, when that person turned out to be John Waters.

One other item: his new art book is amusing.

If this isn’t police state behavior, I don’t know what is. Lifted from Kos, go there for more info. The FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force is asserting a right to compel peace activists (including the Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines) to appear before a secret grand jury without a lawyer.

Yesterday, February 3, Detective Jeff Warford of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office-FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force came to Catholic Peace Ministry’s office here in Des Moines with a subpoena for me to testify before a Federal Grand Jury next Tuesday, February 10. Mr. Warford also served papers on Elton Davis at the Catholic Worker House and Patti McKee, who was coordinator of Iowa Peace Network until last month. The Grand Jury process is shrouded in secrecy. We do not know who or what the object of this investigation may be, beyond “possible violations of federal criminal law in the Southern District of Iowa.”

The proceeding will be behind closed doors. We may not have an attorney present. We have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing the answer questions that might incriminate us. The government, then, can offer us immunity from prosecution, in which case we will obliged to answer under threat of contempt of court and could be imprisoned for the length of the Grand Jury session, 18 months, should we continue to refuse to answer. This immunity would be limited to our own testimony and anything any of us say could be used against the others.

Whatever is going on, this is definitely an escalation on the part of the government’s war on dissent and clamp down on civil liberties. The fact that anything that we three and the peacemaking communities we represent could possibly attract the notice of a “Terrorism Task Force” is reprehensible. Please spread the word, express concerns you have with Federal and Polk County authorities. Keep us in mind and prayer.

Brian Terrell
Executive Director
Catholic Peace Ministry

Salon has a goood article by Eric Boehlert on where the evidence stands on Bush’s “disappearance” from the Texas National Guard. Click on the day pass, and watch an ad, to see the whole thing, It’s worth it.

Tyler Green points out an interesting fact:

Matthew Barney’s The Cremaster Cycle wasn’t the Krensian success that the Guggenheim (and a compliant press corps) had claimed. Here’s why: Cremaster drew 3,151 visitors a day to the GuggEnron. Meanwhile, the show immediately after Cremaster drew 3,314 visitors a da, outdrawing Cremaster by over 100 people a day. What outdrew Cremaster? A permanent collection hanging.

I have made some minor edits to my Mexico City posts, to add names of places and artists that I hadn’t taken the time to figure out while we were there.

James has added captions to the photo gallery for the trip.

In the taxi on our way home from the airport on Wednesday night, James turned to me and said, “I guess we’re not on the ”http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14563">no-fly</a> list!"

I apologize for not being more interesting or analytical in my posts. I think I did a better job when we were in Germany. Several things were going on: We were both sick with cold/sinus things in Mexico City, and the 8,000 feet elevation and smog didn’t help. The other was the exhaustion caused by sensory overload. There is so much to see, hear, smell, and taste in a place like Mexico City. That’s a good thing, but it meant I felt too worn out to write well after returning to the hotel each night.

As an antidote to the “liberal media” like the New York Times that just refer to the panel’s co-chair, David Niewert has compiled some useful information.

Some highlights:

— Overturning the Iran-Contra conviction of Oliver North on specious grounds.

— Blocking the Clinton legal team’s attempts to track down the leaks emanating from Starr’s office and blocking any attempts at discovery in the matter.

— Accusing Clinton of “declaring war on the United States” by trying to shield Secret Service agents from being forced to testify against Clinton.

Lovely:

An American Airlines pilot flying passengers to New York asked Christians on board to identify themselves and suggested the non-Christians discuss the faith with them.

Flight 34 was headed from Los Angeles to John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday afternoon. During the pilot’s routine announcements, he asked Christians on board to raise their hands. He then suggested the other passengers use the flight time to talk to the identified Christians about their faith. And, lastly, told them he would be available at the end of the flight to talk about his announcement.

Airline officials are investigating the incident, and they say the company has guidelines about appropriate behavior. The pilot whose name has not been released had just returned to work from a week-long mission trip to Costa Rica.

We’ve been to a few openings since we returned from Mexico City. Recommendations:

East of the Sun and West of the Moon, curated by Amie Scally at White Columns (no images up yet). We were there for the opening, which is not the best way to judge a show, but my favorite pieces in the show were the paintings by Clare Rojas. I found a web page with images of her work to give you an idea here. The other highlight at White Columns is the White Room show by William Crow. We finally met this charming young artist in person, after having gotten in touch with him when we bough some of his work at the Cynthia Broan $99 show.

The other show we attended last night was David Hilliard at Yancey Richardson. His multi-image works are technically brilliant and somehow haunting, as if they have narrative content that we can’t quite guess.

The night before (Thursday) we went to the opening for Robert Beck at CRG Gallery. It’s a pretty conceptual show, so you will want to read the press release, and maybe talk with Glenn McMillan, which is what I always do when I go. Even without the conceptual content, the pieces in the show are beautifully constructed objects.

On our last day we explored more of the downtown area. We went to the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), on the Zócalo, to see the great murals of Diego Rivera, the rooms where Benito Juarez lived, and the parliament room (I think that’s the right name). There are some images of the Rivera murals here. Oops, I just realized I never talked about the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts). It is filled with great murals by Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco. It has halls for performances, like Lincoln Center, but it is amazing to see that the murals are all very left wing, with images of Marx, and attacks on capitalists. I think Lincoln Center could use a few of those.

We also saw the Cathedral (including women selling “relics”, bits of a saint’s skulll from a table set up inside, and the Templo Mayor. In the same area, and definitely worth a visit, is the Plaza Santo Domingo, surrounded by very old buildings. It is also the location of an arcade with “scribes”, all equipped with typewriters to help people compose letters, or fill out official forms. I was surprised to see they were all (except one) using electric ones now. The last time I had read an article on the area, they talked about old manual ones.

We had a great lunch at Casa de las Sirenas, Guatemala 61, just behind the Cathedral. It is in 17th century building. James has some photos of it.