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    Rare Birds

    Here come the drums: Occupy Wall Street's soundtrack of choice is pure protesttradition

    Chris Becker
    Oct 9, 2011 | 6:00 pm
    • Performance by Danza Azteca Teokalli de Houston
      Photo by Chris Becker
    • A drummer marching in Occupy Wall Street the day of the infamous pepper spraying
      Photo by Peter Harris
    • That same drummer at Occupy Wall Street getting kicked by NYPD officers.
      Photo by Giles Clarke

    A friend of mine in New York City who lives relatively close to where the Occupy Wall Street protest is taking place tells me that in the camp there is “lots of drumming, but no other music."

    Regarding the constant and, from what I’ve heard online, not-too-shabby drumming, one of the protestors, a musician named Gio Andollo, said, 'For some reason, that’s been what has been getting a lot of media attention [...] I think it’s because it’s an easy way for them to discredit what we are doing."

    Andollo was referring to a recent Daily Show segment that compared the protest to Tennessee's Bonnaroo music festival. "But if it wasn’t drumming, it would be something else. They’d still be calling us hippies and trying to discredit us in any way that they can."

    The drum and its drummer is an iconic image loaded with meaning. In Western culture, we love the drum. But we also fear it. Throughout our country’s history, drumming has been banned over and over again in an effort to control enslaved and oppressed people as well as smart alecky and relatively privileged students from schools like Columbia University (an institution with a long history of student protests).

    The Burru drummers of Jamaica, the panmen of Trinidad and musicians who dared to play ‘drums of African origin’ in 1900 Havana were all treated by the then-governing powers as criminals. Describing New Orleans circa 1700, author and musician Ned Sublette writes in his book The World That Made New Orleans, "There is no question that Africans gathered to drum and dance, in assemblies that were feared by whites, who were always wary of an uprising.”

    Slapping or striking the stretched skin of a drum can indeed produce an experience that goes beyond groovy rhythm with a sweet tone. Drumming, no matter how our current media wants to spin it utilizing stereotypes and terms like hippies and hipsters, inspires spiritual awakening and revolt. Consider for a moment that the site of the Occupy Wall Street protest is where an estimated 15,000 enslaved and free Africans were buried during the 17th and 18th centuries. For the moment, as my friend reported, we only hear the drumming. Did this drumming awaken these ancestral spirits? Or did they, before the drumming began, somehow compel these protestors to camp out in a park located in New York City’s financial district?

    Here are three examples of the drum and its role in societal and political upheaval:

    Drums of War

    This past week I asked some friends who play drums to offer me their thoughts about their instrument and its role in the culture of protest. Everyone pointed out that the drum has always been used in times of battle and war. The volume of the instrument, on its own or multiplied in an ensemble, is terrifyingly effective in communicating by way of rhythms and their tempos information, directions and commands.

    The now-defunct ensemble Different Drums of Ireland considered the history of their country’s percussion instruments, especially the lambeg, a huge bass drum associated with Protestantism, and the bodhran, a handheld frame drum identified with Catholicism, and combined them in performance. The resulting music, besides being incredibly fun to listen to, is a statement of purpose, a key to enlightenment. It’s a simple idea, combining drums from different tribes and cultures, and one you can really run with when considering any combination of instruments and the history those instruments carry with them.

    Different Drums of Ireland in performance:

    Drums of Pleasure

    Hearing fife and drum music of the Mississippi hills for the first time can be a shock, especially if you have no context for the music’s militaristic texture. This is music born out of the fife-and-drum corps that marched into the battles of the eighteenth century (think the famous spirit of 76’ image of three marching musicians) but harkening back much, much further in time to pre-Christian celebrations of the body, pleasure and the earth. Dangerous stuff. This music today sounds both ancient and funky, and it is played out of doors as a celebration.

    Here’s a brief staged performance for film by two drummers and a fife player:

    Drums of Protest

    “Here come the drums!” That’s the shout you hear from Public Enemy’s Chuck D after a brief montage of documentary-like voices, including one artificial pitch shifted down to an ominous drawl, speaking of slave ships and the horrors of the middle passage. From there, Chuck D and hype man Flavor Flav, who adds layers of deep comedy to the proceedings, deliver “Can’t Truss It,” one of the most intense raps ever put to tape, with lyrics that take the listener back and forth through time and encapsulate the experience and legacy of the slave trade.

    The literal “drums” Chuck D speaks of (I say “literal” because every line in this rap is loaded with poetic subtext) come from the groundbreaking production crew The Bomb Squad and the turntable technique of Public Enemy’s DJ, Terminator X. The precursors to the track's production date back to mid 1970s, when New York City artists DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaata (to name just a few) took the mechanics of Jamaican sound system and, with two separate turntables and a mixer, created a entirely new way to drum. Regarding those early days of what we now know as hip-hop, Sublette writes, “Turntable manipulation was a new art form, while rapping was old as the hills.”

    Here is an incredible live performance of “Rebel Without A Pause” that features Terminator X turntables throughout:

    No doubt drumming will continue to be heard at the barricades, night and day, as the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to gain momentum.

    Special thanks to Ned Sublette, Robert Hardin, Gregg Pinera, and Spike the Percussionist for their input.

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    Movie Review

    Heartfelt movie The Life of Chuck adapts optimistic Stephen King story

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 13, 2025 | 5:30 pm
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck
    Photo courtesy of NEON
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck.

    Just like actors, once a filmmaker becomes known for a certain genre, it can be difficult to escape that pigeonholing. Writer/director Mike Flanagan has worked for 20 years in both film and television, and literally every project he’s done has been related to horror. He’s finally breaking out with The Life of Chuck, which is ironically based on a short story of the same name by Stephen King.



    Told in three chapters in reverse order, the film is almost impossible to describe without giving away its magic. The first section centers on Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a teacher grappling, like everyone around him, with what seems to be the world falling apart. He’s comforted to a degree by reuniting with his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), but is also baffled by multiple ads touting the retirement of Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) after “39 great years.”

    The second section consists of little more than a slightly younger Chuck happening upon Taylor (The Pocket Queen), a drummer busking on a street corner, giving Chuck and a younger woman, Janice (Annalise Basso), the inspiration to start dancing. The final section goes back to the childhood of Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), where he’s raised by his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara), discovers dance as an outlet, and wonders about various small mysteries.

    Flanagan finds a way to deliver a lot of story with relatively little effort. Using a wry narrator (Nick Offerman), a limited number of locations, and a series of great small performances, he creates an intriguing premise with few straightforward answers. The structure of the film is designed to confuse the viewer until just the right moment, and the revelation forces you to reexamine everything that came before.

    The biggest accomplishment by Flanagan is making what are essentially three short films and having each of them resonate equally. The film contains elements of science fiction, although the first section may hit a bit too close to home for some of those watching. All three sections, though, have a heartwarming bent to them that sells their central idea without becoming overly saccharine.

    To do so, each of the characters have to connect in a short amount of time. The casting of the film is crucial, and not only does that department succeed with the main roles, but a series of small roles are filled expertly as well. Carl Lumbly as a funeral home owner, David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillen as parents of students, Matthew Lillard as Marty’s neighbor, Q’orianka Kilcher as Chuck’s wife, and Jacob Tremblay as a teenage Chuck are just a few of the recognizable actors that do yeoman’s work in their brief time on screen.

    Hiddleston is only prominently featured in the second chapter, but his performance there and in small glimpses throughout makes a big impression. Ejiofor is given the star turn in the first chapter and he absolutely kills, both in moments by himself and in scenes with Gillan, with whom he has great chemistry. Hamill, making a rare non-voiceover appearance outside of the Star Wars universe, and Sara, in her first notable role in 11 years, are also very memorable in the final chapter.

    The Life of Chuck is a film that’s filled with emotion, but the full impact of the story is not felt until the final moments. It has a mysterious journey that is initially frustrating, but the performances keep the film going until it gets to its satisfying payoff.

    ---

    The Life of Chuck is now playing in theaters.

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