{"id":29488,"date":"2013-07-25T16:49:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=29488"},"modified":"2020-05-20T14:02:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T21:02:46","slug":"artnotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=29488","title":{"rendered":"Arts and popular culture notes (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Photo by Jonathan Hobin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the stories by artists, composers and filmmakers in this section<\/a> of the jonestown report<\/em>, we learned of these other developments within the past year:<\/p>\n

\u2022 A BBC 4 radio dramatization of some of the correspondence taken from Rebecca Moore\u2019s book, The Jonestown Letters<\/em>, which aired in January 2010, was nominated a year later for a Sony, the highest award in British radio broadcasting.<\/p>\n

A fuller description of the program appears as the second item in last year\u2019s Arts and Popular Culture Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Jonestown in Literature <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 Brian Kevin\u2019s essay \u201cSongs Primarily in the Key of Life,\u201d on the Peoples Temple record album He\u2019s Able<\/em>, was selected as one of the year\u2019s Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2011<\/em>, published in early October.\u00a0The piece was originally published last summer in Colorado Review <\/em>. Brian\u2019s reflections on his work with the material is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Jonestown in Film <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 The Untitled Marshall Kilduff Project<\/em> \u2013 an independent film project by Jeff Keilholtz formerly entitled American Prophet<\/em> \u2013 continues its search for a buyer. One major talent and production agency and several high profile independent executive producers have expressed interest in the project, although finalizing all financial needs to get the film off of the ground are not yet solidified.<\/p>\n

As Keilholtz wrote<\/a> in an earlier edition of the jonestown report<\/em>, he decided he didn\u2019t want his film to try to tackle the entirety of the Peoples Temple story. \u201cMy ambition, I decided, was to find an alternative perspective, a voice of truth contrary to typical design. I quickly determined my subject to be the reporter who brought Peoples Temple to light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 One slang phrase used in the business world \u2013 which has not quite reached the familiarity or spillover into other aspects of life as has \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d<\/a> \u2013 is \u201cthe Jonestown defense,\u201d defined as \u201charming one\u2019s own company or even committing corporate suicide in order to avoid being taken over by a hostile predator.\u201d It is also the name of an independent film<\/a> released early this year. Reviews of the film appear here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, as noted in an article<\/a> in last year\u2019s edition of the jonestown report<\/em>, the word \u201cJonestown\u201d has acquired several new meanings in American slang. One of the sources for slang, Urban Dictionary<\/a>, has added a new definition for (lower case) \u201cjonestown\u201d within the last year: \u201cThe mythical place people say they are when they are in need of a fix.\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Jonestown in Art <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 Jonathan Hobin<\/a>, a Canadian photographer whose most recent work considers the effect of media upon children, has included an image entitled “White Nights”<\/a> of a child standing in for Jim Jones overseeing the deaths of his followers \u2013 in this case, the child\u2019s toys \u2013 in his exhibition In The Playroom <\/em>at the Dale Smith Gallery in Ottawa. An interview with Hobin on CNN appears here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jim Jones was transformed into Reverend Sammy Smith \u2013 better known as The Rev \u2013 the leader of the Church of the Saved, in the Marvel Comic The Punisher<\/em>, according to the Comic Book Religion<\/a> website. First appearing in November 1987, the villain appeared in eight editions of the comic. A total of nine leaders and members of the Church of the Saved<\/a> appeared in the series altogether.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Jonestown in Music <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A number of musical artists and groups have incorporated the icons \u2013 and even the very name \u2013 of Jonestown into their own images in recent months. Among recent discoveries:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jem Warren, a New York-based singer-songwriter, has a new album Lifeblood to My Soul<\/em>, one track of which \u2013 \u201cJim Jones\u201d \u2013 beat out 1600 other submissions to win the \u201cConfession Song Competition\u201d for a new Hulu.com web series called The Confession<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarren wrote the song Jim Jones while watching the PBS American Experience documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple<\/em>,\u201d according to an interview on (the now-defunct) Fanity website. \u201cSo powerfully moved by what he was watching, Warren felt inspired to write about it. \u2018I came up with the guitar rip for the song while watching the documentary. I tend to have the TV on in the background while writing music. The song is really about the dangers of blind faith; of going into something without asking the right questions.\u2019\u201d The song on Apple Music appears here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jonestown is the name of a self-described \u201cHardcore Punk troubador\u201d band. Its music video \u201cPaper Pills\u201d<\/a> debuted in July 2011. A second video, \u201cOutlaw Vagabond\u201d<\/a> was uploaded on YouTube in June. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Jonestown is also the name of an electronic music artist whose song \u201cSweet Thang\u201d is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u2022 The Peoples Temple \u2013 a self-described Rock \/ R&B \/ Soul \/ Sixties \/ Surf \/ Garage \/ Punk band from Lansing, Michigan \u2013 has released its Sons of Stone<\/em> album, which Metrotimes<\/em>, a Detroit-based music publication, describes as \u201cendearing and charming\u2026 [that] has been getting some hefty attention worldwide.\u201d The review of the album in The L.A. Times<\/a> praised the effort, but noted that \u201ca band named after Jim Jones\u2019 suicidal 1970s cult can\u2019t help but possess a cynical side.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2022 D-Sisive, a rapper who released the album Jonestown<\/em> in 2009, returned this year with a follow-up effort, Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye<\/em>. Reviews of the album appear here<\/a> and here<\/a>. As was the case with the first album<\/a>, the music from the second is available for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A collection of experimental music by a group named The Peoples Temple Youth Group has several music videos, including \u201cPictures of Peoples Taking Pictures,\u201d \u201cpre-post modern\u201d and \u201cThe Slavery of Love.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"\u2022 An artist known as Broadcast Bandolier has released a short nine-track album of electronic instrumental music entitled The People\u2019s Temple Agricultural Project<\/a> which is available online free of charge. Song titles are taken from the death tape, including \u201cWe\u2019re Ready to Go,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Too Late for Russia,\u201d \u201cShoot the Pilot,\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Die in Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hardcore Costa Rican group Billy the Kid released its album Jonestown<\/a> at the end of 2010. In addition to Jim Jones, the listings include tracks named after such well known mass murderers and serial killers as Timothy McVeigh, Ed Gein, the Unabomber, Ted Bundy, and the \u201cDavidians,\u201d but according to the band, the Jonestown tragedy had a special meaning for them in coming up with the concept for the work.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Electronic artist Supreme Selecta sampled the Jonestown death tape in his original mix of \u201cCamp Jonestown.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to the stories by artists, composers and filmmakers in this section of the jonestown report, we learned of these other developments within the past year: \u2022 A BBC 4 radio dramatization of some of the correspondence taken from Rebecca Moore\u2019s book, The Jonestown Letters, which aired in January 2010, was nominated a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":29487,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29488","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29488"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98867,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29488\/revisions\/98867"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}