april 4, when i will be in the presence of my favorite band wilco, is still 2 months away, but i’m already prepping with a steady diet of tweedy, stirratt, kotche, cline, sansone, jorgensen & jay bennett (in spirit, r.i.p.) goodness. and in doing so, i was inspired by one of my favorite wilco songs for this week’s music monday. songs about monday. also, the fact that the superbowl was last night (though honestly, the 2 hockey games i watched before it – the caps-v-penguins game first, which was the nbc game of the week & the best game i’ve seen this season, and then my boston bruins breaking their losing streak by shutting out the evil habs en montreal – were far superior) and today is monday doesn’t help. i mean, monday is monday, it’s never a good time – unless it’s a paid holiday. but, with the help of strong coffee and the following songs, perhaps we’ll all make it through the day. to start out, here’s the aforementioned wilco with “monday”, from my favorite album of theirs, being there. gotta love jeff tweedy’s gram parsons inspired get-up.
in celebration, here is rev. gene robinson, bishop of the episcopal diocese of new hampshire, speaking on why religion matters in the quest for gay civil rights. this man is a wonderful example of true christian faith and makes me proud to be episcopalian.
i saw crazy heart on saturday after months of anticipation. it lived up to both the critical hype and the build-up in my brain. being a bit of a “dudeist” and loving authentic country music, this was a no brainer. but, it’s more then the dude meets waylon jennings, it’s an amazing story and incredible film. in short, go see it asap! that being said, what else could i do for this week’s music monday then a crazy heart inspired edition. in october i did a hillbilly noir music monday that featured many of my favorites, such as the carter family, bob wills, merle travis, flatt & scruggs, patsy cline and joe maphis. so this will be more focused on the “outlaws”, which would be more true to crazy heart, anyways. no better place to start then with my all-time favorite musician, johnny cash. here’s a song written by kris kristofferson (that would help give KK his break), “sunday morning coming down”.
president obama will deliver his re-scheduled state of the union address (don’t want to go up against the final season premier of LOST!), following his first year as president. now is the time to reflect upon this past year, and ask ourselves what it is we’ve experienced, and seen from our new president. as a progressive independent who campaigned for the nader/gonzalez ticket in ‘08, my criticisms of the obama/biden ticket were many from the start, both due to knowing full well that the “hope” and “change” talk was the typical campaign rhetoric and that the promises would be broken, but also due to things that obama had said & supported outright that any progressive would be opposed to – escalation of afghanistan, continuation of iraq, support of the patriot act, backing the bailouts & opposition to single payer healthcare. we knew where he stood on these issues from the start. yet, a little glimmer of hope still resided within me that maybe – just maybe – i’d be proven wrong, that change would actually take place. i remember popping the champagne as my roommate and i watched bush leave – finally. i remember feeling pride that the 30% of the u.s. population that is not “white” can finally feel like they, too, could be president, and that for the first time in our nation’s history that racial barrier had been broken. and, it may be cliche, but i still am proud of that one fact. but, skin color is only that. it’s not enough of a (or even a good) reason to support someone. and throughout this past year time & again this administration has failed on its promises and has proven to be just another corporate controlled centrist servant of big business. we’ve seen this year bring the most civilian casualties in afghanistan. we’ve seen the patriot act expanded. we’ve seen the economy continue to plummet due to pandering to the rich. we’ve seen escalation instead of de-escalation in iraq. we’ve seen a new war front in yemen. we’ve seen support of israel’s many human rights violations. and we’ve seen caving in to neo-cons in regard to the environment at copenhagen and in d.c. with health care. right wing people talk of socialism and make outlandish accusations in regard to “obamacare”, without realizing that the insurance industry will still be running the show, that it is not universal, single payer healthcare by any means. i could go down the list of disappointments and outright slaps in the face given to the american people – particularly those who actually supported the obama campaign, many of whom still blindly support his administration (and to those i ask, how in the world are you able to do that? my feeling is that either the blindfold is on and the entrenchment of partisan nonsense is so deep nothing could sway them, or perhaps they don’t know just how severe it is). but, instead i will recommend reading the following 2 articles – the year of frustrated hopes from the socialist worker (real, actual socialists!) and george w. obama from the village voice (there are also several links on the left, including howard zinn’s take). and finally, a video from the real news network reporting on this first year of obama’s presidency.
this music monday falls on MLK day. i personally would prefer a civil rights day, so that all those who preceded, fought with, and followed MLK would get recognized, as it was – and is – a movement, not a single man. however, if one person is going to be recognized, who better? personally, from issues regarding faith, economics, class, nonviolence and many other areas, there are few i agree with more. i highly recommend this one speech, which really touches upon all the aforementioned areas, and shows that this wasn’t just a guy who gave the “i have a dream” speech and that was it. MLK was a straight up revolutionary, no doubt about it. but, with music monday i want to focus on the movement. to start out, the soundtrack of POWER TO THE PEOPLE (well, maybe aside from lennon’s “power to the people” – great song, cool vid). here’s the godfather of rap, gil-scott heron with “the revolution will not be televised”.
what has occured in the aftermath of a devastating 7.0 earthquake in port-au-prince, haiti is indescribable. so many have said so much, yet there really are no words to describe such tragedy. i found out today that a friend and co-worker from port-au-prince has lost her aunt & uncle, and she has yet to make contact with her mother. words can’t begin to describe my sadness over this. now, i realize in light of the magnitude of such an event and the devastation it has brought, a socio-policitical rant might not be timely. however, i believe that there are very concrete historical and socio-political factors that have made this catastrophe all the worse. you have to understand that 99% of the death toll is attributable to poverty. and yes, the u.s. is heavily involved in how this came to be. surprised? well, read the following and then make up your mind. (more…)
i criticize the united states constantly, but typically that is simply criticism of our government and those who truly pull the strings (i.e., follow the money). now there are a veritable plethera of things that you can be critical of the american people in regards to (i.e., obesity, laziness – i got those!, insularity, ignorance, buying into the friggin’ republicrat charade, materialism, watching american idol & listening to toby keith, nickleback and lady gaga, etc.), but it might be surprising to many americans to actually find out that the people of this nation are much less racist then our self-appointed “more civilized” and “superior” friends in europe. now, don’t take this as an attack on european people en masse. if i was told that i could move to ireland right now and have a job and be good to go, i’d be on the damn plane. and, i think the social democracy practiced by most of western europe is far superior to our 2 party corporate capitalist war machine. that being said, there is currently something that we can find some pride in, and remind self-righteous anti-american euro trash of when they get uppity. and that is racism. now, i’m not stupid. i know racism is alive & well in the u.s. and a half-black president doesn’t change that. but, it does show real progress, considering how bad things truly were – and, yes, continue to be in many regards (ask a native american…if you can find one). however, this nation is full of “closet racists”, who lack the stones to just come out and say “i hate darkies & jews!” like the estimated half a million white nationalists in the u.s. but, there’ll be more about that in the video below. right now i want to give some figures in regard to the most intolerant populaces in the western world. and a 1, and a 2…
in regard to the issue of race, when surveyed if they’d not want their neighbors to be of a different race, the worst 3 nations were italy (16%), greece (14%) and belgium (13%).
in regard to the issue of not wanting their neighbors to be muslim, the worst 3 nations were greece (21%), belgium (20%) and norway (19%).
in regard to the issue of not wanting their neighbors to be jewish, the worst 3 nations were spain (22%), greece (18%) and italy (13%).
and in regard to the issue of not wanting their neighbors to be immigrants, the worst 3 nations were northern ireland (19% – never thought i’d actually be glad to say there’s a northern ireland!), italy (17%) and belgium (16%).
now, conversely, we americans didn’t top any lists as most tolerant. the ones that did are were sweden (least racist), canada (least islamophobic), the netherlands (least anti-semetic) and portugal (least anti-immigrant, which is based on i assume the fact half of them moved to a 30 mile radius of where i live!). i have to say, i’m very surprised that england was not in the top 3 of any of those, or france. both nations have very bad track records of violence against non-white immigrants & muslims. what the english & french don’t realize is this is the price of empire, when you go throughout the world colonizing, and create a 3rd world, then “free” them while running off with all the money and resources and funding warlords so you can continue to exploit the land, the people in those nations might want to come get some sanctuary. but, the high numbers have made 1 out of 5 english people state that they are sympathetic to the ideology of the openly racist british national party, and the ‘07 french presidential election saw the openly racist front national receive 10% of the vote. TEN PERCENT! damn, on the one hand you have to give it up to having a real democracy where you don’t have to choose between tweedle dee & tweedle dum like we have to, but could you imagine if the american nazi party got that much of the popular vote?!?! so yes, we can feel a little pride in this area i think. then again, we’ve had much longer to get adjusted to multi-culturalism. so with that, and the thoughts expressed in the following video, in mind here’s a report from al-jazeera.
so i am not sure who’s dropping the hotness en masse in two-thousand & ten (i’m not saying 20-10 b/c i keep hearing arse hats say it & therefore it is guilty of lameness by association), but i have heard of a few bands & artists i am into who i should expect good things from. and so this music monday will be dedicated to what is to come in 2010. to start things off, radiohead is going to melt our faces as per usual (unless it’s another hail to the thief). not sure of the release date, but here’s a favorite from back in ‘97 live on jools, “paranoid android”.
so last week for music monday i did my top 10 albums of ‘09, as is mandatory for people like me. it’s usually difficult to come up with a list of 10 and not feel like i’ve left out at least a few that i really like. truth be told, this past year i didn’t listen to a lot of new albums from beginning to end, and those i did pretty much filled out last week’s list. but, there were some others, and some that i heard pieces from & enjoyed. so, from that, i give you – in no particular order – 2009’s best of the rest.
starting off, ben gibbard’s death cab for cutie released the ep the open door and were featured on the surprisingly good new moon soundtrack (here’s “meet me on the equinox“). jay farrar’s amazing band son volt released american central dust (here’s “cocaine & ashes“). but, these two geniuses also got together to create one fast move or i’m gone: kerouac’s big sur. i’m not a kerouac fan, but i love these 2. here’s “these roads don’t move”.
this bloog has basically become a platform for music videos on mondays and if i get around to it a post about a socio-political issue sometime during the week. so, my personal life hasn’t really been a topic. however, today i had the amazing privilege of being able to attend the NHL winter classic to see my beloved boston bruins in my beloved fenway park. it was AMAZING. what a way to start 2010. and, i think i’m going to try and get back into blooging mode. we’ll see.
1. david bazancurse your branches what a shock! my favorite artist on the planet gets the nod with album of the year. in all seriousness, though, this is an amazing musical foray into bazan’s personal journey these past few years. this has been called his “breaking up with God” record, but i see it more as an amazingly gifted songwriter being honest with himself, and asking questions that he has been needing to for his own sanity. he’s been primarily a storyteller from the first pedro the lion ep, and therefore this might be his most personal offering yet. a must have. here’s “when we fell” live from someone’s house in NH. where was i?!?!
music monday. it’s yule. and christmas is 4 days away (well, almost 3 now). no need for the jibba jabba, you know what’s up. let’s get it started with the greatest christmas song of our time. john & yoko with “happy xmas (war is over)” – side note: david bazan put out a 7″ of this, it’s amazing!
ben bernanke has been named person of the year by time magazine. i would say that this is the 2nd most insulting, though having no real impact, event of 2009, the first being our president having been honored with the nobel peace prize. you might ask why, or, who is ben bernanke? in order to understand the former let’s look at the latter. bernanke is the chairman of the federal reserve, layman’s terms – the big bankers’ piggy bank. our current economic crisis cannot be pinned to or blamed on one single man, but the mere thought that this criminal – and brazenly so, be even conjured up in the imagination of anyone as person of the year is beyond my scope of comprehension. but, it shows that all the “conspiritorial” talk of people like myself, that our government and therefore those who support it – i.e. mainstream media, of which time magazine is way up at the top of the ladder in being, are completely controlled by corporate interest – those interests being centered in the fed and stealing and controlling it completely – are in no way conspiritorial. this is reality. there is no “liberal bias” in our media, only the bias of continuing to allow corporate controlled criminals to lord over us. an outlet may slant toward the democratic party (cnn, msnbc) or the republican party (fox), but they work for the same people! this should be crystal clear, but sadly we as a nation are either too caught up in the squabbles they create to keep our eyes off the big picture and to be able to see what is really going on or just plain apathetic and ignorant. WAKE UP. PAY ATTENTION. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. ARE YOU OUTRAGED? sign this petition & listen to bernie…
every time i prepare for my treks to and fro maine, i pick out a bunch of musical options (still getting that whole ipod thing down – i have to hold the receiver for it to work, and this last time the battery was dead). invariably, i reach a point where i look at what i picked and think “i don’t want to listen to any of this”. then, on my most recent trip back, i saw the three neon green faces of the members of a tribe called quest staring at me on their mind-blowing classic disc from 1991 the low end theory and thought “it’s been a while”. it’s amazing something so crazy good came out 18 years ago, and in my opinion is far superior to the vast majority of what has come out of that genre since and certainly to what passes for hip hop today, the conscious mc’s out there aside. 1991 – i was freakin’ 12! and when i heard this along with public enemy’s apocalypse 91: the enemy strikes black i was sold. hip hop was for me. so, i figured i’d do a music monday up native tongue style. the native tongues were a hip hop collective in the golden age of hip hop that included the aforementioned ATCQ, along with de la soul, the jungle brothers (who went to high school with ATCQ), leaders of the new school, monie love, queen latifah and black sheep. and, perhaps the 3 best known conscious mc’s of today came through with the native tongues: mos def, talib kweli and common (and have kept the spirit alive with current collectives the soulquarians and okayplayers). so let’s get it started. i’ve featured “scenario” on several music mondays i think. it’s just so good! but, let’s go back sooner, to the tribe’s debut people’s instinctive travels and the paths of rhythm with “can i kick it?”.
main point: conservative anglicans/episcopalians should become roman catholic and progressive roman catholics should become anglican/episcopalian. (continue reading below pic)…
backstory: now, there are many people i know and many i hear talk who unfortunately have this very inaccurate stereotype that all christians are right wing nutjobs. i realize why this is. the religious right has long used the sincere faith of average americans to fulfill their political agenda. and, fundamentalism has a long history in this nation with the legacy of puritanism. add to this the fact that those who are casting damnation tend to be very loud in doing so, and you’ve got the perfect storm for some good ol’ fashioned stereotype making. with media sensationalism it’s not hard to understand why a jackass like fred phelps can be seen as the voice of many, when he is actually only the voice of one small church in kansas that is primarily made up of his relatives, and they are not recognized by any baptist association in america or elsewhere. it’s not interesting news to put “do-gooders” on tv. no one wants to watch people feed the hungry, clothe the naked (should they want to be clothed), house the homeless or visit the prisoner in the name of christ. they want fanatics hootin’ & hollerin’ and dancing around on stage like absolute clowns. (more…)
the NHL picks continue (a good 2 months + into the season, whateva! i do what i want!). now we tackle the western conference. i’ve had my own personal favorite in the west since i was a kid, the chicago blackhawks – who happen to have the longest streak sans a cup, i’m probably partly to blame – and i said they’d come out of the west before the season started so i’m sticking with it. these picks are all ones i had pre-season, and i figure i should stand by ‘em regardless of the standings now…plus, there’s still months of hockey left. so here’s the picks (and again, asterisks denote playoff team, and to meet my 10 vids per music monday i’ll include 2 personal faves of mine).
central
chicago*
detroit*
columbus*
nashville
st. louis
pacific
san jose*
anaheim*
los angeles
dallas
phoenix
to start off, let’s go with the team i both root for in this conference (and against all non-boston teams) and have picked to come out on top, chicago. this team is very young (jonathan toews is 21, patrick cane is 20 and brent seabrook is 24), but also have both the experienced players on board and a competitive season in their rear-view to help them be able to get it done. this is exemplified best in marian hossa, the journeyman who has spent the last few season trying to get himself on a cup team. also, there’s duncan keith on D, who alongside seabrook might be part of the best blue line tandem in the league. and, of course you’ve got 2 vets in goal with cristobal huet and antti niemi. they’ll be switching back & forth and this could be one of the concerns the team will have. now, with chi-town, there’s a veritable plethora of artists i could pick to represent. i was gonna go with ”chicago” by crosby, stills, nash & young b/c i just absolutely love that song, but would that really represent? nah. so here is the greatest mc to ever come out of the midwest, my man common with “resurrection” (gotta go back a ways to get a vid that universal hasn’t disabled!).
What’s in a number? 45,000 people die every year in this nation without access to healthcare.
What is a number? Poverty among seniors has dropped more than 60 percent since the adoption of Medicare.
What’s in a number? Millions of Americans file for personal bankruptcy – one every 12 seconds – because medical crisis hit them too hard. And of those bankrupt folks, two-thirds had health insurance.
this week senator bernie sanders has introduced amendment #2837 in opposition to the current senate healthcare bill (comparison here) continuing thestruggle to reform the broken, profit-driven system & to keep fighting for this to be a nation that no longer leaves the weak, the sick and the poor behind in the delivery of its most basic human rights. i urge you to call the capitol switchboard @ 866-220-0044 and ask your senators to support senator sanders amendment #2837.
40,000 soldiers will cost $40 billion a year. with unemployment rising, record foreclosures, and the economy stagnate; can the u.s. really afford to escalate the war in afghanistan?
music monday is taking a backseat this week to something much more important. it’s national white house call-in day: monday, 11/23/09. call president obama, your senators & member of congress to STOP THE ESCALATION & END THE WAR in afghanistan!!! if you don’t want to call but would like to still add your voice, you can write your elected officials in congress urging them to oppose escalation by supporting HR 3699, introduced by rep. lee, and to support withdrawal from afghanistan by supporting HR 2404, introduced by rep. mcgovern. call 202-456-1111 for obama & (202)224-3121 for your senators & reps.
also, check out & get involved with the following peace groups.
so, that last music monday was dedicated to the greatest of games, hockey. now, i didn’t do a pre-season predictions HOCKEY TALK! bloog, and we’re a good 6 weeks in now, so i feel like this is kind of cheating, but whateva! i do what i want! and i figured that since it’s music monday today, i’d do my picks for the eastern conference playoffs, with 2 honorable mentions (this equals 10) and do a song for each city or state that the team represents. if you don’t care about hockey, stick around, b/c you might still like the songs! now, first off, i’ll break down the 3 divisions: atlantic, northeast & southeast. (* = playoffs)
atlantic
pittsburgh penguins *
philadelphia flyers *
new jersey devils *
new york islanders
new york rangers
northeast
boston bruins *
buffalo sabres *
ottawa senators *
toronto maple leafs
montreal canadiens
southeast
washington capitals *
carolina hurricanes *
tampa bay lightning
atlanta thrashers
florida panthers
now, onto the team i (obviously) predict to come out on top, the boston bruins. i realize i am a complete homer. no apologies. also, my hatred of the new york rangers & montreal canadiens has caused me to place them in the basement of both their divisions which is highly unlikely. oh well, a boy can dream. boston has been severely hampered by injuries and illness early on, but are still hanging on in the northeast, right behind buffalo. this team lost a key component in phil kessel, but with the best blueliner in the game with zdeno chara, last season’s top coach in claude (CLODE!) julian, the fight club king milan lucic & last season’s vezina netminder tim thomas (though he has shown some signs of being a one-trick pony, luckily back-up tukka rask is NASTY!), the B’s at full strength are a force, no doubt about it. add to the mix one of the league’s top scorers with marc savard, a young force in david krejci, and the return of marco sturm, i don’t think it’s too much of a homer move to say the black & gold will come out of the east on top for the 2nd straight season – so long as they get that friggin’ power play going!!! now, there are many, many songs about boston, and i’ve featured a helluva lotta them on here. this was prolly on the last bloog. oh well, mike mccolgan – frontman, and original frontman of the dropkick murphys – is who i want to be like. so friggin’ cool. this IS boston. the street dogs with “savin hill”.
this past saturday a friend texted me and said “we are screwed”. i thought he was referring to the bruins. but, he was referring to the healthcare bill being passed. now, this particular friend was saying this as a conservative. i agree with him, however, as a progressive. in case you’re wondering exactly what this healthcare bill entails, please allow me to break it down for you.
in the words of healthcare-NOW!, “the House bill is a gift to the insurance industry at the further expense of the people of this nation”.
