Many years ago at the EMP Pop Conference I heard a scholar and avant-garde musician named Ned Sublette deliver perhaps the greatest impromptu speaking performance I’ve ever experienced in that setting, or possibly anywhere at all! He was then about to publish his landmark study of the Cuban influence on global music, and he was both breathing fire and quietly seducing a rapt audience with his penetrating insights and seemingly effortless eloquence. I’ve never seen Robert Christgau so utterly impressed with ANYONE!
His talk is actually archived here!
http://kexp.org/learn/popcon_sublette.asp
Here’s a little more background—
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Sublette
Anyhow, two years ago at UCLA, Cory and I got to meet Mr. Sublette and were both added to the recipient list for his informal e-mail “newsletter” (“Nedslist”), which he produces once or twice a week. Some of these e-missives are designed to spotlight his frequent appearances, whether onstage or in print, and some his books, travels, and cds.
More often though, he spotlights all manner of provocative content by others. He was living in New Orleans just prior to Hurricane Katrina, and that experience led to a groundbreaking book, a subsequent memoir, and numerous fascinating posts of the sort that appears below re: the semi-secret history of the KKK on NoDak!
I’m a great admirer, you might say, and I thought you would appreciate this Sublette-approved article. Please forward same to any fellow (ex-) North Dakotans whom you think would find it to be of interest.
I should also mention that Ned Sublette was an integral part of composer Glenn Branca’s “guitar army” ensembles during the early Eighties, right alongside a young Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, pre-Sonic Youth! In fact, that’s how his name first caught my notice, around 1985.
And he also wrote “Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other”, the famous/notorious 1982 country song that Willie Nelson eventually covered, post-BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN!
Last March at New York University, one of the 11th Pop Conference’s special events involved Ned Sublette fronting a small group that performed excerpts from a Spanish-language interpretation of NYC avant titan Robert Ashley’s multi-part 1983 “opera”, PERFECT LIVES (aka VIDAS PERFECTAS). They later performed VP its entirety while I was on the Amtrak en route to D.C. that same night. So close….
Clearly, this is a man with a truly dazzling array of talents!
Tom
From: nedslist
On Behalf Of Ned Sublette
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 9:32 AM
Subject: [Nedslist] 03/02/13: Fargo Forum: Patrick Springer: The history of the Klan in the Red River Valley of North Dakota
Among other things, this curious story demonstrates the reach of d.w. griffith’s foundational movie spectacle the birth of a nation, which inspired a new growth of the previously moribund KKK all across the country — including in north dakota, where there were almost no black people and never had been.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/391937/