tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16091567075783490282024-03-05T16:55:24.162-05:00ONALOGMUSIC + POLITICS + ART + FILM = LIFEPVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-81373347478702239632018-05-21T18:48:00.003-04:002018-05-21T18:55:17.389-04:00Job descriptionActivist<br />
Talent buyer<br />
Guitarist / songwriter<br />
Video Engineer<br />
Translator<br />
Anarchist<br />
Trumpet player<br />
Composer<br />
Producer<br />
Curator<br />
Documentary filmmaker<br />
Carpenter<br />
Camera op<br />
Gardener<br />
Bassist<br />
Jokester punster<br />
Singer<br />
Painter<br />
Drummer<br />
Projectionist<br />
Editor<br />
Writer<br />
Teacher<br />
Bandleader<br />
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-84388362503571099892017-09-25T15:04:00.003-04:002017-09-25T15:09:45.518-04:00Allegiance?<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.850000381469727px;">I pledge allegiance to no flag</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But to the united state of </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Humanity<br />And to the real public for which it stands<br />No nations under nature<br />Barely visible<br />We live only if justice is for all</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's amazing to me that anyone could criticize Colin Kaepernik or any other athlete for sitting out the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance. These athletes who are using their positions for social conscience are the closest thing we have to super heroes going today. They are putting their reputation and their paychecks on the line to stand up to a regime that openly mocks and exploits them. How can we criticize African Americans for not taking part in a sing-along about the violent origins of our nation, when those origins created the racist repression that our President chooses to defend today? The national anthem is just one more example in a never-ending list of examples of how American society is in love with violence, and glorifies its violent origin story of revolution, while omitting the part of the story about the genocide of native Americans and enslavement of Africans. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think you would have to be truly crazy to sing along with that hack, irritating song about the "the bombs bursting in air" when those same weapons were quickly trained on your ancestors, forcing them to build our entire nation at gunpoint. As a person of color or a Native American, you would have to be truly schizophrenic to put your hand on your heart and sing along to that tired, cliched bit of propaganda about "the land of the free" when your ancestors were robbed, raped, killed, and double-crossed into near oblivion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fuck the national anthem. Fuck all these stupid flags and all songs that glorify war and killing. Nations are a human construct, flags and borders and passports are all in our minds, and even the best current systems we have were built on oppression and competition and lies. Do we really need to keep singing those stupid songs? If we make a truly honest attempt to right the wrongs of this country, starting with reparations for the ancestors of slaves and Native people, then we should make a new flag and a new song, and then we can all sing along with pride. Until then, taking a knee at a football game is a very gentle, civilized response, in the balance. Ronald the clown should count himself lucky every single day that he and his family don't get Robespierre'd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fact that we teach kids to stand at attention and recite the pledge of allegiance is also truly bizarre if you think about it. This country that prides itself on its fierce independence and tolerance wants its schoolchildren to recite their submission to a piece of colored cloth, and to a "Republic." Why? No thanks. I pledge allegiance to democracy and to nature and humanitarian morality. You can have your flag. Our republic is doing a very bad job these days in the "liberty and justice for all" department.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If all these overpaid athletes can actually bring some attention to the ongoing state of affairs of our hyper-militarized nation, great. The national anthem was the first cry of a nation that was created by war, and then used its power to subjugate others, to steal land and get free labor. The fact that the idiot freelance Hitler in the White House is trying to make America safe for racists again is enough reason not only to sit out the national anthem, but boycott it, cancel it, and start from scratch.</span><br />
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-31250997799442703282017-04-12T09:24:00.001-04:002017-04-12T09:24:51.013-04:00Nice to be away from the bad ol USAI'm writing from Costa Rica, spending a week here with the family.<br />
Beside the fact that the beaches are breathtakingly beautiful, the water is bathtub warm, the food is fresh and delicious, the locals are friendly to a fault, the sun is shining, there are parrots and monkeys and butterflies flitting around outside our windows, the waves are perfect, and everyone you see seems to be taking part in an elaborate photo shoot of "the world's most beautiful, relaxed, and healthy people on earth."<br />
Despite all that, what I love most about being here is that I am away from the sick, sad, dysfunctional country known as the USA. I'm away from the broken police state I live in and it feels so good. I can breathe, my shoulders are relaxing. There are hardly any cops around. The rules are there to keep things going, not to keep poor people from encroaching on the rights of the plantation masters like they are in the USA. The "freedom" we think we have in the US is such a load of donkey shit. We live in a dictatorship headed by a senile, evil clown and his soulless henchmen who are trying to knock down the last remaining supports to our rickety so-called Democracy before the people wake the fuck up and throw them all out or just drag them into the streets and cut their throats. This shit can't last.<br />
In the meantime I'm having a lovely time in Central America, a place not usually known for its thriving democratic orders. But Costa Rica is doing just fine.PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-91711989362974137142017-02-01T16:06:00.003-05:002017-02-01T16:13:03.551-05:00SUPPORT BANDCAMP and the ACLU<a href="https://openkimono.bandcamp.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXugUW4Uz5kn7EwYOFF-2q2XEjcd8chNdW7W0AyKSgGVfICyh9F1jU4lo9F_XnzhllQXF8smXF16bXADiS0CyqOl_2-cOaD3GZDyvs7cxhyrRv4BB6-fIgUpyWppGRIH4ZEN6cAwSqX1v5/s320/openkimono_final2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;">Republicans got their guy in office, and now he is sowing the seeds of bigotry, divisiveness, and ineptitude as promised. Those who stand on the side of patriotism and hope are using the tools available to fight against this administration till it crumbles. We here at pierredegaillande.com will keep fighting the good fight by protesting unconstitutional acts, calling our congresspeople, and donating funds to organizations promoting civil rights, sustainability, and the free press. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;">On Friday, February 3rd, </span><a href="https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/01/31/bandcamp-human-rights">BANDCAMP</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;"> has agreed to give 100% of the proceeds of its music sales to the </span><a href="https://action.aclu.org/secure/donate-to-aclu">ACLU</a>.<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;"> To support this effort, Pierre will make every album of his discography available for $1 or a price of your choice from now till the end of Friday, February 3rd. Please support </span><a href="https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/01/31/bandcamp-human-rights">BANDCAMP</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;"> at this critical time. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);">Click on these three links to download and donate:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://openkimono.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">openkimono.bandcamp </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://openkimono.bandcamp.com/">badreputation.bandcamp</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://openkimono.bandcamp.com/">melomane.bandcamp</a></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.8); color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px;">PEACE. </span>PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-19072991447984665462016-11-17T09:11:00.004-05:002016-11-17T09:40:04.039-05:00America is just a word, but I use it<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">Once again, the concept called America has left me behind. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">On November 8th,
America elected Donald Trump to be the next President. He won by one million fewer popular votes that Hillary Clinton but won the electoral college count. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">As I write this on
November 17th, only a week has passed, and still I find it impossible to
believe these words. It is not a version of reality that anyone I know thought
could play itself out. Even when terrorists flew planes into buildings on
September 11, 2001, somewhere in my rational mind, I could accept the
motivations that led to these actions. As shocked and depressed and saddened as
I was, the world order that created the conditions for the kind of rage that
motivates young men to kill innocent victims and themselves was familiar to me.
The struggle between the imperial West and the oppressed, developing world has often
played itself out in acts of desperation that cause great destruction and
anguish in the most unexpected circumstances in the supposedly secure parts of
the world. I can understand the motivation for terrorism, though I oppose it
wholeheartedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">But this is
something new. Half of the American animal has risen up and bitten the other
half in an attempt to mortally wound the whole body. I don't have a frame of
reference for this kind of blind self-destruction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">For about five
days, I was in numb, terrified shock, alternating with bouts of all-consuming
rage. In the past day or two, that has given way to indifference, and I have
begun to be able to listen to the news radio again, just a little. By
indifference, i mean the attitude that says "OK Americans, you wanted
this, now you can eat your own shit, I give up." This attitude is actually
making it easier to wake up in the morning, though I know it's not productive in the long term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">So I am now
trying to piece together a framework by which to understand how a sizable
portion of a developed, educated country is able to invite a figure with every
trait of a fascist authoritarian into its top position of power. I have heard
all of the explanations and tried to absorb them: The left has abandoned the
working class. The left has preoccupied itself with social movements and
identity politics and a large portion of the population no longer trusts the
American political system. The personality and character of a candidate are not
as important as his or her ability to completely undermine the status quo. The
liberal economic agenda has sent manufacturing overseas. The liberal agenda is
too soft on terrorism and radical Islam abroad. I hear and understand all of
these arguments, yet they do nothing to defeat the utter cognitive shut-down
that occurs when I think of one single human being actually casting a vote for
the person of Trump. I "understand" the reasons but my emotions and
intellect do not register them as real.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">I think this is
the same part of my personality that can't enjoy horror movies. I don't believe
that a person without a flashlight or a weapon would willingly walk into a
cabin in the middle of the woods where a serial killer lives. I don't believe
it and I can't relate to it, so the movie makes no sense and is not
entertaining. In the same way, voting for Trump doesn't line up with my understanding
of what it means to be a human being. Anyone mindful of putting himself and his
loved ones in danger doesn't hear the rhetoric coming out of that guy's mouth
for a year and then willingly vote for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">I have had a few
conversations with conservatives over the past few months, and not a single one
has expressed any fondness for Trump or admitted to voting for him. This is one
of the most confounding aspects of this election. If this was a strategy for
victory, then it was genius: Fool your opponents into thinking that no one
likes the your candidate, openly deride your own candidate, and then when the
other side is lulled into complacency, vote for him in secret in massive
numbers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">The left and
right are so utterly divided that even a desire for dialogue seems to be met
with silence or extreme reticence. I have tried to engage people I am very
close to in discussions of policy, and to understand the sources of their
discontent. More specifically, I have asked many people to send me factual,
reliable sources to document their positions, and I have gotten nothing in
return. There doesn't seem to be much desire for scientific questioning on the
part of the right, or for a consensus on reliable sources of information.
Liberals read the New York Times and the New Yorker and even the Wall Street
Journal and listen to NPR, and these outlets reinforce all of their world
views. The journalists who work at those institutions, as I understand it, are
at risk of losing their highly sought-after jobs if they embellish or distort
the truth. In my mind, this makes it reasonable to believe that what I read or
hear from them is "the truth." I believe that the truth exists, at
least a widely accepted version of perceived reality that forms the basis of
how human beings walk through life. Gravity is an absolute, for instance, and
not many people refute it. Where is the New York Times of the right wing? Can I read it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">This election
has made me question the very idea of reality. It seems to be a concept that
holds little value for a large part of the population. When a candidate goes on
TV day after day, week after week, and with a straight face, says things that
are easily refuted, immediately verifiable as lies, and self-contradicting,
reality ceases to exist on a certain level. Any assertion that is made by a
public figure can be easily fact-checked on an almost instantaneous basis these days. The
lies and fabrications and contradictions coming out of Trump during the
campaign were so constant and so unchecked by his constituency, it eroded all
respect for their credibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">This is the part where
I could go into all of the well-documented ways in which Trump has disrespected women and people of all races and religions, incited violence,
undermined the democratic process, cheated on his taxes, admitted to sexual
assault, and on and on. But we all know what a worthless piece of trash he is,
it’s all on public record. That’s not the point of this. The point of this is
for me to try to figure out what happened. How? Huh?? The people who voted for
him did it despite who he is, not because of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">I have to admit that on my side,
there is a constant echo chamber of opinion reinforcing the self-righteous
assertion that we are correct. There’s not a lot of listening going on. But
there’s a reason for that. The right has been telling liberals that they are
assholes for decades now. The right wing has claimed moral superiority for
decades. The right wing owns patriotism, it owns support of our troops, it owns
the church, it owns the police, the flag, the country. Obama and Clinton (Bill
and Hillary) are liars and commies and un-American, blah blah blah. So why
would I listen to right wingers, when all they want to do is tell me what a
piece of shit I am? I’d rather listen to my smart friends, and journalists and politicians who
are trying to fix the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">Which leads me to the part of this
that makes me the most sad and angry. The reason why none of this makes any
sense is that everyone I know has spent their entire adult lives supporting the
working class, supporting the underdog, supporting the under-represented, the
ones left behind, the people with no voice. I vote for the candidates who want
to raise my taxes, not lower them, so that working people can have a higher
minimum wage. This is personally against my self-interest, but I believe in the
American experiment. I vote for candidates who want to help poor people get
health care. I vote for candidates who want to take the corporate interests out
of politics. I support candidates who want to keep people out of jail for minor
infractions or drug charges. I vote for people who want to pump money into
education and medicine and sustainable energy. I support regulation of the
banks, and a limited military budget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">This brings up a very important
point about the military and big government. The military comprises 16% of
government expenditure. All of the
people who work in the military work for the government, they are all paid from
taxpayer money. Only some of them are soldiers, the rest of them provide
support in some other way. So if you support our troops, you support big
government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">BUT… The working class doesn’t want
me to stand up for it. They don’t want me to speak for them. They don’t relate
to me, and they don’t relate to my candidate. They hate rich people, but they
want to be rich. Culturally, they relate to the middle and lower class, which
they identify with the worker’s struggle, hence the designation “working
class.” They are against those who control industry, who own businesses, who
own real estate. But in a subtle contradiction, they envy and venerate the
rich. They want to be rich. They want to retain their cultural working class
touchstones (music, food, entertainment, religion) but be wealthy. So for them,
Donald Trump is a perfect avatar. He has amassed enormous sums of wealth, yet
has retained a veneer of working class brashness and lack of polish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all a giant con, but it has worked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">The other pieces of the puzzle are the race and gender issues. If you assume that
culture is stronger than economics, then it’s possible that it can be stronger
than race and gender as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump’s racist
comments and his pandering to racist elements of America, and his attacks on women, can seem secondary in
this light. They are a giant nuclear bomb waiting to be detonated, a scary
weapon to use, but apparently the people who voted Trump are not as concerned
with race, and as misogynist as we think. They can shrug off his wacky statements because they share his overall desire to subvert the smug edit. This is apparently a stronger motivator than racism and sexism. This remains to be seen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">So we seems to be in a class
upheaval, not a political one. There is a strong tide that makes membership in
the Trump camp not just attractive but inevitable. To identify with Hillary
would be a betrayal of everything you’ve known as a person for twenty years, so
anything the candidate, who happens to be Trump, can say or do, is irrelevant. It
blinds intelligence and overrides gender loyalty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">The final piece is the idea of
“middle class” versus “ poor.” To the new right, the middle class is not the
poor. To lump them together is to insult them. To the left, they are similarly
categorized, since policies to help them are similar. To be poor is no more or
less shameful than to be middle class in terms of national policy, it is a
matter of degree of need. It carries no value judgment. Poverty is not
necessarily a fault of laziness or lack of drive, but a symptom of systemic failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the right, this is flabby reasoning and it
lets freeloaders off the hook. There are two opposing ideologies at work in the
same brain (this is the era of cognitive dissonance, don’t forget): If you’re
poor and black, it’s because you’re lazy, AND, if you’re poor and white, it’s
because the government has turned its back on you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">This issue of classes overlaps with
race but is not necessarily the same. To lump the poor with the middle class is
politically disastrous. No one wants to be compared with a neighbor who has
achieved less, that is human nature. And if more and more of the poor are white
and more and more blacks are middle class, racial resentment is inevitable.
This does not excuse racism (and certainly does not excuse Trump’s ham-fisted exploitation
of racial friction), but sheds some light on what’s going on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">So here I am, stuck in this place
we call America, raising two beautiful kids. I have love for this place,
considering I’ve spent most of my life here. I’ve also spent all of my politically
active existence with the party that tries to help people, and the other party
has responded with a resounding “F*** you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">For now, I can only respond by
saying “F*** you” right back while I gather my thoughts and try to figure out
the next step. My friends and I were exhausted on November 7<sup>th</sup>,
ready for a chance to stop fighting, and start implementing the policies that
we believe will heal America. These are the policies that Obama spent eight
years fighting for and getting shot down at every turn by a useless,
obstructionist Congress. Obama and the Democrats have been blamed for not
changing the system by the very people who prevent them from changing the
system. So yeah, I say “F*** you” loud and clear, Republicans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: no;">But that is no solution. We need a
new candidate to build a real, strong progressive party. I would vote for Russell
Brand but he’s not eligible. I wonder if Jon Stewart would go for it… Good
luck, America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-17942828936247251222016-03-14T16:33:00.001-04:002016-03-14T16:33:52.241-04:00LIVE FROM CALIFORNIA HILL VOLUME 2, C GIBBS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaxFtcfyobc391LVLFelEzlohNYnolTCW9sXjP5YjTR3cMTt2VnEpf9NyM5W7Fw5AFHH-gOvcQmUCVFR8h8_Y6he6DcMwNcZ6eZcn76bzBr83UvylZC5LDoO4T1hr5sCtHwExGgxPWy1q/s1600/GIBBS+GUN+COMBINED.mov" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaxFtcfyobc391LVLFelEzlohNYnolTCW9sXjP5YjTR3cMTt2VnEpf9NyM5W7Fw5AFHH-gOvcQmUCVFR8h8_Y6he6DcMwNcZ6eZcn76bzBr83UvylZC5LDoO4T1hr5sCtHwExGgxPWy1q/s400/GIBBS+GUN+COMBINED.mov" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Second installment of Live From California Hill, a music series broadcast from a bucolic mountainside studio in an undisclosed location near a large city in the East. More to come on an irregular basis.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">"She's the Gun of Me" by C. Gibbs.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">C. Gibbs - guitar and vocals</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Kenny Savelson - drums</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Frank Heer - bass</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Mike Cohen - guitar</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Camera and editing - Pierre de Gaillande</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Audio assist - Mike Cohen</span><br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-44879907470431214912016-02-14T00:23:00.000-05:002016-02-14T00:25:50.999-05:00Scalia died suddenly tonight. Awesome!!Tonight, as I write this, on the night of February 13, 2016, I have just learned that Antonin Scalia died suddenly. My immediate reaction is one of jubilation. I am so glad that man is dead, eleven months before the end of Obama's term as President and in the middle of this weird campaign for the next President of the United States.<br />
I am going to let my mind wander on this blog and let my thoughts run like a runny shit into the toilet or like a scared salamander into a crack under the basement.<br />
First, let me repeat what I often say: The USA is one of the few countries in the world that doesn't have an actual name. "The United States of America" is a description that is actually false. We are far from united. Our unity is imposed by a federal government but we have completely different viewpoints and goals and values. Most people would agree that there are two or three or six or forty eight different USA's that could live very happily independently of each other. "America" refers to the entire continent and it underscores our arrogance when we erroneously use it to describe our nation.<br />
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I saw Scalia speak at an event at the University Club. It must have been around 2003. It was private lunch for about 100 people. It was right after Dick Cheney had shot his friend in the face when they were out hunting, and Scalia was present at the hunting party. Scalia gave a speech and then did a Q&A. Everyone in the audience lobbed him some partisan conservative softballs, until suddenly there was a question from a journalist from the "liberal elite." Possibly a writer for the New Yorker, I don't remember. He asked Scalia about his association with Cheney and if it constituted a conflict of interest. Scalia did not even answer the question, he just shouted the man down saying "I already answered that, you have no right to ask me that." The journalist kept pressing him but Scalia would not answer him. He just used his position at the mic to shut the guy down. I understand the need to shut hecklers down, and I've done it many times myself. But Scalia was an evil, backwards, shortsighted, fat, pencil-dick, ugly fuckface. I'm so glad he's dead. I will never pretend he was good for America. People who forget how evil Bush, Reagan, Cheney, and the whole crew were just because they get old and make some money should be ashamed of themselves.<br />
I make more money than I ever thought I would. I'm still a lefty pinko liberal bleeding heart socialist. To be anything else is called SELLING OUT. Shame on you for being right wing. I don't care how much money you make. Being right wing means you are either stingy or you believe in the comic book. Shame on you. The only way out is to help each other. Did I mention I'm so glad Scaly Tony is dead? Lots of good people die and it is very sad, but when a bad person is a position of power dies it is a very very good thing. YAY! Short live ugly Tony the fat fuckface!<br />
Now Obama needs to pick a new Supreme Court Justice and try to pass it by the pack of slimy warthogs in Congress before he leaves office. I know Barry can do it, he is one slick dude. This is the nail in the coffin for the OLD WAY. You are dead and dying, you old fat fuckers. Don't let the door hit you...<br />
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-50884244738146154582016-02-02T15:44:00.000-05:002016-03-14T16:34:08.466-04:00LIVE FROM CALIFORNIA HILL, VOLUME 1, JESSIE KILGUSSOn December 16, 2016, my good friend Jessie Kilguss and her fantastic band made the journey up the Taconic to California Hill. They popped the cork off the champagne bottle and christened the ship, so to speak, that is "Live From California Hill." This was the very first installment of what will be an ongoing series of live performances from the studio in the woods.<br />
Jessie is a vey talented singer/songwriter who I had the good fortune to meet while we were both performing at an event called the Bushwhack Book Club, hosted by Susan Hwang. The BBC is an ongoing musical book clubbing which every participant reads a book, writes a song about it, and then meets at a club or bar to perform the songs. It is a great time and a much better way to express one's opinion about a book, good or bad, if you ask me, than just yapping about it.<br />
So here I present Jessie and her band doing "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" which also happens to be a song inspired by a book, or at least it's title. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
Jessie Kilguss - vocals<br />
Mason Ingram - drums<br />
John Kengla - bass<br />
Kirk Schoenherr - guitar<br />
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www.jessiekilguss.com<br />
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-74943321522416970032015-12-01T11:35:00.003-05:002015-12-01T11:35:30.618-05:00To Die For Your Ideas<br />
This week I feel sick and sad and hopeless, and I'm trying to find a light at the end of the tunnel that is humanity. Why do we keep going backwards? Are we just destined to self-destruct? Why does violence continue to exist? Why do morally reprehensible leaders use impressionable young people and religion to terrorize and control innocent populations? Why don't we learn once and for all that war is total bullshit and violence is the cancer of our species? I have no answers.<br />
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We don't seem to learn from our mistakes as a species. Society is being destroyed by a toxic potion made of three elements: 1- Our willingness to accept and glorify violence. 2- Our inability to codify and cherish human morality and meaning outside of outdated expressions of authoritarian religion. 3- Our unwillingness to challenge, destroy, and shut down the military and weapons industries.<br />
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Here are the lyrics to a song by Georges Brassens called "Mourir Pour Des Idees" along with my English translation. The song was released on the album "Fernande" which came out in 1972. It has never been more relevant than it is today. It's so fucking sad and pathetic that this song is still so relevant today, 44 years after it was written. Wake up, humanity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrccCRaC9XHh6DmouXrDJ4PGLzPArx2gdP41K9E4IuyNNaD7q3C3Khv8iFlgfSdO1LJ8GG1GaPHKurArk8ZuXA_40I43k93-HYML5SVtrWLHJTsLBGzsaxl6cl6ReYhcjGtVmm5f5P_55F/s1600/france.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrccCRaC9XHh6DmouXrDJ4PGLzPArx2gdP41K9E4IuyNNaD7q3C3Khv8iFlgfSdO1LJ8GG1GaPHKurArk8ZuXA_40I43k93-HYML5SVtrWLHJTsLBGzsaxl6cl6ReYhcjGtVmm5f5P_55F/s320/france.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To die for your
ideas, an excellent idea</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One time I almost
died for lack of having it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When all the
teeming hordes who had it before me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ran screaming to
my door in a murderous fit<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My muse eventually
caved in to their request</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lamenting her
mistakes, she rallied to their cause<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With
just a whisper of regret giving her pause<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK, make it a
slow, slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seeing as we are
free to linger in this life</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s take our own
sweet time reaching the afterglow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For, if we hurry
up, we might actually die</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For an idea that’s
out of fashion tomorrow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, if there’s
one thing sure to make you feel depressed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is to realize
upon your dying day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That you took the
wrong path, that you made a mistake<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK, make it a
slow, slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fundamentalists who cry the martyr’s cry<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are usually the
ones who linger on this earth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To die for their
ideals, for whatever it’s worth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is their main obsession,
it motivates their life <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In almost every
camp, every holy domain <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These are the ones
who will outlive Methuselem<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which leads me to
conclude their favorite refrain’s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK, make it a
slow, slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ideas which demand
the famous sacrifice<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are endlessly
revived by sects of every stripe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And every new
victim wonders before he dies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To die for an idea
is lovely, but which type?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And since they’re
all about the same in most respects<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The wise man, when
he sees their mighty banners wave<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Will always
hesitate, as he sidesteps the grave<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK, make it a
slow, slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If a few killing
fields, a few communal graves<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Were all it took
to do the trick once and for all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With all the
nights of terror, all the heads that fall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’d think by now
the whole world would be saved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alas, the golden
age is constantly delayed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The gods are
thirsty yet, they’re never satisfied<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So death and death
resumes, and still more people die<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK, make it a
slow, slow death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh all you
firebrands, all you fishers of men<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please be the
first to die, we’ll get out of your way<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But, for the love
of god, let the rest of us live<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Life is the last
luxury left us anyway <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The reaper is a
crafty type and needs no help<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No need to speed
his work by sharpening his blade<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So stop your dance
of death, you’re only giving aid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s die for our
ideas, but make it a slow death</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: -1.25in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 7.25in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">OK, make it a slow, slow death </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-59744667090005546012015-10-09T14:36:00.003-04:002015-10-09T14:36:20.075-04:00Under the GunsThere was another mass shooting of innocent people last week in the USA. This time in Oregon. I've been following the reactions in the news and on Facebook, and I am seeing some promising headway in the manner the topic is being discussed. It seems like common sense is prevailing, even among politicians. The whole conversation is being conducted from a starting point of common sense, not in the vacuum of paranoia and 2nd Amendment ranting that usually prevails.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8vUYtJF22UtPRYc2l57OjEbYKL-t2iMseFvBoDImgmMYm6-656uKS02DNIPKKwGLnoOoatl6LNEnR6kxFMUl9sW9-hqJlJU56ZW0N55jKHFHkscShCPUJ7Od8bc70M4r1FSK5VA_p9JC/s1600/delton_556.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8vUYtJF22UtPRYc2l57OjEbYKL-t2iMseFvBoDImgmMYm6-656uKS02DNIPKKwGLnoOoatl6LNEnR6kxFMUl9sW9-hqJlJU56ZW0N55jKHFHkscShCPUJ7Od8bc70M4r1FSK5VA_p9JC/s320/delton_556.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Here are some ideas around guns that have been flying around my head lately:<br />
<br />
1. The 2nd Amendment was created to protect the militias that were organized for the sole purpose of monitoring and intimidating slaves and keeping them from rebelling and escaping. This article in Truth-Out.org explains it in great detail:<br />
<br />
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery<br />
<br />
This makes perfect sense. The wording of the 2nd Amendment was specifically changed from "Country" to "State" to give the southern states the right to organize, finance, and maintain the militias with which they kept slavery alive. Contrary to popular mythology, the 2nd Amendment was not drafted to enable Americans to arm themselves and fight against oppressive outside regimes like the British who might wish to colonize and oppress them. It was created for the express purpose of allowing states to maintain the inhumane system of slavery in existence, in turn keeping their entire economies afloat with free labor. In my opinion this is enough to shut down the whole 2nd Amendment argument once and for all. If we can make the courthouse in North Carolina take down the confederate flag in a show of solidarity with African Americans and a solid statement of commitment to reverse the tide of slavery and racism, then we can and must repeal the 2nd Amendment.<br />
<br />
2. Almost every single one of the men (they are ALL male) who perpetrate these atrocious acts of mass murder are sexually frustrated single men who feel that they have been left behind by society. They have the exact same psychological profiles as the young middle eastern men who become suicide bombers with the jihadi promise of a phalanx of virgin brides upon martyrdom. The men who shoot up movie theaters and schools and army bases in the US have often left a very visible trail of frustration and disaffection on the various chat rooms they inhabit on the internet. They gravitate to online meeting places where men can vent their rage about their powerlessness in modern society. They usually have a clear pattern of failed attempts at achievement in employment and education. Most of all, they all feel that they've been shut out from the world of sex and love. They are horny, frustrated, and pissed off. They read and write postings in the cesspool of the lowest common denominator of hidden and disconnected thought, the internet. Their views get reflected and magnified and legitimized by others with the same sad trajectory. I am not describing any of this with any judgment, I feel compassion for these guys. Every living adolescent goes through this phase. To go from being a gawky, awkward pre-adolescent to being a sexually aware teenager, with all the desires and emotions that entails, is a nightmare for every living person. I was there once, all I thought about day and night was sex, i fell in love every two weeks, and I felt constantly depressed. Everyone has this phase, and the way we work through it, with the help of parents, friends, school, sports, social groups, churches, community, and any other instrument of support is the story of how we become who we are. So why are so many young men in America getting so stuck in this phase of development? I think there are a few main reasons.<br />
Pornography is as available as air and water. Images of impossible sexual ideal are available to everyone who seeks them out. This reinforces the double idea that sex is always perfected by perfect people, and that you are not ever going to fuck these perfect people so don't even try. Instead of a sexual awakening based on reality and discovery and love, sexual discovery is cut off mid-stride by the impossible ideals of pornography.<br />
<br />
3. The violent imagery and glorification of violence in our media culture is definitely one part of the problem. Everywhere we look, there are advertisements with guns in them for movies, TV shows and video games. The irresponsible and dull-witted people responsible for "content-creation" in our world today resort to the fetishistic image of the gun at every turn. Putting a gun in a movie is like putting a rock song in a scene. It is lazy and trite and shows that the narrative is too weak to keep the viewer's attention. Both are signs of unimaginative filmmaking at best. At worst, using a gun to spice up the action is contributing to the deluge of violent imagery that fuels alienated people's violent fantasies. A person who feels cut off from the world, spends all of his or her time online, and sees watches a parade of unrealistic killings all day long begins to believe that behavior is the norm. Video games train people to be desensitized to killing. Movies treat violence as a cool, sexy selling point. If your grasp on reality is tenuous because of a chemical imbalance or a deep-seated antipathy towards your fellow humans or both, feeding this shit into the mix will make you a killer. Not all the time, but at this point in our fucked up country, it happens about once a week.<br />
<br />
<br />
Hilary Clinton has taken a real stand on the issue. She's ready to fight the NRA and the special interests who oppose sensible gun legislation. For that reason alone I will vote for her. If she or any other politician can take on the other two prongs of the problem, mental health and the violence of our culture, then we may stand a chance of creating a world that our kids can actually live in without fear of being gunned down like sheep.<br />
<br />
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-34219626804757902722015-06-10T15:20:00.001-04:002015-06-10T15:32:34.507-04:00Drowning in your shallow blues<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wrote this song for the Bushwick Book Club, a musical book club where all the participants read a book and write a song about it and perform it in front of a live audience. This was originally inspired by the book Moby Dick, but then it became about the musician Moby, and then about DJ's in general. It was performed live on the Frying Pan, a boat/venue in NYC on May 5 2015.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/cityphoque-1/drowning-in-your-shallow-blues" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Listen here</span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6SD0mKwPTOeG1kJMjC9OCpOdswN1zOBSmbdgypVo9HqsKZOd2Qz5TI2hS5UNjm5ktZurU7srpewbnAMqf07MTLaZPegxVlzuZWh8BoMiOvIQ0a27WsSO5b1oNZTr5U_5bunpaaJC29tN/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6SD0mKwPTOeG1kJMjC9OCpOdswN1zOBSmbdgypVo9HqsKZOd2Qz5TI2hS5UNjm5ktZurU7srpewbnAMqf07MTLaZPegxVlzuZWh8BoMiOvIQ0a27WsSO5b1oNZTr5U_5bunpaaJC29tN/s400/images.jpeg" style="cursor: move;" width="277" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">What’s another name
for Richard <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or another word for
cock<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Can you paint a mental
picture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of a dolphin playing
rock?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you wild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you wild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you tame?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Will you hunt the
deepest ocean? And the village record bins<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Find a needle and go
poke it in a fat and juicy fish<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">If you are a deep
explorer, you must take it all the way<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Don’t just be a
vegetarian, be a vegan and press Play</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you mild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you wild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you lame?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Producer, DJ, collage,
or pastiche<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sailing on semantics by
a rocky beach <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Why do we still feed
on Leviathan juice?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Why do we survive off
what others produce?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m drowning in your
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Can you stop your
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some things just cannot
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">From the port-holes of
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">You can carve a little
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Built a solid reputation as an electro DJ<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Spend your every
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you mild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you wild?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are you tame?</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Why do I care so much?
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Why do I give a fuck?
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-81902686797049933362015-04-28T20:47:00.007-04:002015-04-28T20:47:57.274-04:00Oh DeathLately the issue of death has been poking its head into my conversations with my three year old twins and I'm not sure how to handle it. Last week our nanny's mother died, and I told the children they needed to be extra nice to her and give her a big hug. Then I let it slip that her mother had died. They immediately picked up on that word, and started using it in their games, saying things like "I'm gonna crush this truck and then it will died!" They have no idea what it means and they know it's a strong word. I regret having said that, and I let it pass and they seemed to forget it. i know they are too young to understand it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindhiHCDVc9lBJEXUaFivaQs98sPLZEDtU5hgNpcuDwJDate-x1zDGTR01fRMJ0MnnBglZTNf01hsBB-xaq6cCIqxyWN4SjgnyHsur00QNL8zb758Be6Qbr544iFxlJFgXzBu_zGtsz0qt/s1600/madelineappendix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindhiHCDVc9lBJEXUaFivaQs98sPLZEDtU5hgNpcuDwJDate-x1zDGTR01fRMJ0MnnBglZTNf01hsBB-xaq6cCIqxyWN4SjgnyHsur00QNL8zb758Be6Qbr544iFxlJFgXzBu_zGtsz0qt/s1600/madelineappendix.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
Then a week later, I was reading the kids the story of Madeline, in which the little girl gets her appendix removed, is rushed to the hospital, and makes all the other girls jealous because of her scar. The twins asked me what a scar is, so I showed them a scar on my hand that I got when I was playing around a table where my mother was ironing. I had tripped on the cord and the iron fell on my hand, burning it and leaving a scar. The kids were awestruck and asked me a million questions about the scar, ironing, what my mother was doing, what I was doing, etc. Then out of the blue, Jules asked me "Where is your mommy?" I just said "She's not here" and changed the subject. I put the kids to bed, and I just wanted to cry the whole time, I felt my mother's missing presence so strongly it was an ache in my chest. I wish so badly that she could know these beautiful kids and they could know her. But I just hid my pain and acted upbeat till I could put them to sleep. The kids are not there to comfort me from the pain and loss that I felt as a child and still feel. I'm there to be strong for them and shield them from things like death and sadness for as long as possible. But it's not always easy.<br />
<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-83291475432784391702015-03-22T19:33:00.000-04:002015-03-22T20:18:03.193-04:00The Camembert Trappers<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dybhcxa-S7hSFpUmdTYB9xf4IE5ioOUgs87zPPJFZfpY7ZzpiwkAx575dkMxPEmVK8awqKremTx_PR_LSJntA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwmFuQ25PxJTvm8kFGMUH1d7g8Y9_4pyb0EmxpoPx4CP2DES9iAWsR5gdQ5yJWwk8rOhxQXNJ1HSQahN-ajVA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>I played a show at Hometown BBQ in Red Hook, on February 15, 2015. I decided to put together a set of my favorite songs from my songbook going back to the days of Melomane, Sea Foxx, and The Snow. My brother-in-law Gerald Menke thought it would be cool to play a set of my songs and add an element of twanginess to it, so I called the band The Camembert Trappers because I wanted it to sound French, and country at the same time. Gerald Menke was on pedal steel and guitar, Konrad Meisner on drums, and Jay Foote on bass. Thanks to Roman Elsener for the videos!<br />
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-9456730813444193642015-03-22T12:17:00.000-04:002015-03-22T18:58:34.497-04:00All the World is a Green Jockey Full of Bourbon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzeFs_kvrVBosobtfIfFRDOiGcIfMrZafhlopoovjR_v2SU7s15mTqEIdIlLuEu5tpO48segoFA9mJVoQ_v9g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I played a Tom Waits tribute show organized by Robin Aigner at Freddy's Bar in Park Slope on March 22. I was joined on stage by three amazing musicians, two of which (Gavin and Bob) I had only met moments before. Here's <i>Jockey Full of Bourbon</i>, featuring <b>Gavin Smith</b> on bass clarinet, <b>Bob van Pelt</b> on Bass, and <b>Andrew Sovine</b> on guitar. These guys just crushed it! This was the first Tom Waits song I ever heard, when it was in the opening scene of the Jarmusch film Down by Law. It completely blew my head off then and introduced me to the weird and wonderful world of Tom Waits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the World is Green</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> from the album Blood Money. This time Gavin is on clarinet. This song just breaks my heart into a million pieces. The arrangement, the vocal delivery, the mix of the cryptic, poetic romance, and emotional directness add up to pure songwriting perfection.</span></div>
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-19261967589332793802015-03-18T23:49:00.000-04:002015-03-18T23:49:05.743-04:00Joan DarkI just watched "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc", the original 1928 version by Carl Th. Dreyer, with an astonishing performance by Renee Falconetti. The lead actress is in tears the entire time, in stark close-up, with no make-up on her beautiful, lightly freckeld face. She is on trial for a few different things but cross-dressing seems to be the main one. The Catholic priests who are trying her are pissed that a young girl cut her hair short and put on a man's military uniform. They are also mainly pissed that she helped the faction of French royals who were loyalists to France kick some English ass. (They belong to the faction loyal to the English.) So after a long and bogus trial, she decides to confess to save her life. Then she changes her mind and decides to remain the girlfriend of Jesus and be burned at the stake, knowing that she will join him that night for some sexy reconciliation in heaven. (She is a 19 year old virgin after all.) Jesus is her Justin Bieber, her Nash Grier ( I don't know who that actually is, I just googled "teen idols.") He drives her to commit all these outrageous acts of bravery, patriotism, and rebelliousness. He channels her sweaty, frantic, pent up sexual energy.<br />
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As I have asserted many times before and stand no chance of denying, all acts of violence, patriotism, religious fervor, violent stupidity, and foolhardy self-destructiveness are usually derived from misguided sexual frustration. I love the character of Joan of Arc. Or Joan d'Arc. She was so Goth. She was a very bold and passionate young lady who heard Jesus whispering to her to go talk to the King, join the army, fight the British, preserve the French throne, etc. In my mind she is absolutely no different from the American kids who play video games that make them want to go fight evil Muslims in Iraq or the kids in Syria who watch youtube videos made by Isis exhorting them to go kill the American infidels. It's all just disconnected sexual tension. Any kid who gets really well laid a couple of weeks before he's set to go off to war, and who gets told that he can keep having some of that good loving if he changes his mind and stays home, will stay home. The promises of war are the same as the promises of summer camp or going on tour with a band; you will have some good times with your buddies and you might get laid. The killing part is an unnatural by-product that has to be re-taught.<br />
I say "re-taught" because I believe that we all start out as murderous, self-serving psychopaths. I see this in my three-year old twins. They are in a stage where they are pure selfish ego, they only want what they want, and they will fight anyone who gets in the way of their desires. Especially the boy. (The girl seems more developed and empathic.) I think we all start out that way, then we realize that it is in our best interest to be compassionate, to get along, to curb our animal instincts. I think killing and fighting are very natural for 4 and 5 year olds. but for anyone over 6 or 7, it has to be taught. The only reason there are militaries in any culture is that we continue to successfully teach people how to regress to the point of infants. Is it any wonder that one of the branches of the military is called the "infantry?" Look it up, it's based on the tradition of child soldiers. Killing is completely childish.PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-59450548757010247992015-02-24T15:43:00.000-05:002015-02-24T15:43:32.712-05:00Happiness is NiceI am the luckiest man in the world, my life is brimming with beauty and love and richness, I have all a man could want and then more. I truly do feel blessed beyond compare.<br />
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I also believe that any sane human being who sees the world as it truly is has to acknowledge the darkness. For some reason, I need to write all the shitty stuff down, like mental vomit, so I can move on and enjoy the good. I also need to catalog the sad and horrible truths of this world so I can continue to fight to improve the way this world is moving, in my own little way.</div>
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So here is a catalog of all that is wonderful in my life and all that is horrible in the world. I think any person faced with so much overwhelming advantage and privilege has to want to level the playing field, even the scales, and share the wealth. Any other response can only be called greed, avarice, or insanity.</div>
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Here's what I have going for me:</div>
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Beautiful, amazing children</div>
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A gorgeous and loving wife</div>
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A new dream house in the forest</div>
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A job that pays well and that I enjoy</div>
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Some really nice friends</div>
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An extended family that is involved in my life</div>
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A community of interesting and engaged fellow parents</div>
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A recording studio in Dumbo, filled with all kinds of great instruments</div>
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A pretty cool music career and some great musical collaborators</div>
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A Vespa GTS 300</div>
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A VW Passat wagon</div>
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And on and on and on…</div>
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Here are the shitty parts of life that keep me up at night. The darkness makes the light worth seeing. The darkness gives hue and heft to the light.</div>
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War in Africa</div>
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War in the middle east</div>
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War in Ukraine</div>
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Ongoing slavery all over the world</div>
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Disease</div>
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Famine and starvation</div>
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The mistreatment of children</div>
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The unneeded abuse of animals</div>
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Factory farming</div>
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Crappy drivers</div>
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People who litter</div>
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People who turn on the air conditioner at the same time as the heat (believe me, this happens every day in the event space I work in)</div>
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Guns and hunting</div>
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The NRA</div>
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Republicans</div>
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People who waste food</div>
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-88087429847499004152015-02-24T14:53:00.002-05:002015-02-24T14:53:42.810-05:00War is waged by kidsRight now our world seems to be infected by a critical mass of violent and destructive conflict. All of these conflicts seem to me to boil down to one problem; sexually repressed young people needing to find an outlet for their desire and being easily coerced to act violently. I truly believe that all wars on this beautiful and fucked up planet are caused by this problem. I'm reading a book called "All the Light We Can Not See" about the rise of Hitler and the occupation of France, and it just highlights the same pattern. The rise of a strong, compelling leader who channels the violent tendencies of disaffected youth. Cambodia, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, The USA, it;s all the same. Violence is a natural out spring of the sexually frustrated. Give people other tools of expression: music, art, dance, poetry, literature, and of course, good old sex.<br />
<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-49320402788626186692014-08-31T12:28:00.002-04:002014-08-31T12:41:29.161-04:00Humanity without religion<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This article was in the Times Op Ed section Sunday August 31 and it perfectly explains the struggle of non God believers in our heavily religious modern society. I am posting the whole article and some of the articulate and well thought out discussion following it. It's a relief to me that there are others like me out there seeking a post-religious existence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"ALMOST midway through Sam Harris’s new book, “Waking Up,” he paints a scene that will shock many of his fans, who know him as one of the country’s most prominent and articulate atheists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">He describes a walk in Jesus’ footsteps, and the way he was touched by it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This happened on “an afternoon on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, atop the mount where Jesus is believed to have preached his most famous sermon,” Harris writes. “As I gazed at the surrounding hills, a feeling of peace came over me. It soon grew to a blissful stillness that silenced my thoughts. In an instant, the sense of being a separate self — an ‘I’ or a ‘me’ — vanished.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Had Harris at last found God? And is “Waking Up” a stop-the-presses admission — an epiphany — that he slumbered and lumbered through the darkness for too long?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hardly. Harris is actually up to something more complicated and interesting than that. He’s asking a chicken-or-egg question too seldom broached publicly in America, where religion is such sacred and protected turf, where God is on our currency and at our inaugurals and in our pledge and sometimes written into legislation as a way to exempt the worshipful from dictates that apply to everyone else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The question is this: Which comes first, the faith or the feeling of transcendence? Is </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mightn’t religion be piggybacking on the pre-existing condition of spirituality, a lexicon grafted onto it, a narrative constructed to explain states of consciousness that have nothing to do with any covenant or creed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Reflecting on the high that he felt by the Sea of Galilee, Harris writes: “If I were a Christian, I would undoubtedly have interpreted this experience in Christian terms. I might believe that I had glimpsed the oneness of God or been touched by the Holy Spirit.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that conclusion, in his view, would have been a prejudiced, willed one, because he had felt similar exaltation and rapture “at my desk, or while having my teeth cleaned,” or in other circumstances where he had slowed down, tuned out distractions and focused on the moment at hand. In other words, there are many engines of flight from quotidian worries, many routes of escape from gravity and the flesh. They include prayer, but they also include meditation, exercise, communion with music, immersion in nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.samharris.org/">Harris’s book,</a> which will be published by Simon and Schuster in early September, caught my eye because it’s so entirely of this moment, so keenly in touch with the growing number of Americans who are willing to say that they do not find the succor they crave, or a truth that makes sense to them, in organized religion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">According to a <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/">2012 Pew poll</a> that drew considerable attention, nearly 20 percent of adults in this country fell into that category. Less than a third of those people labeled themselves atheists or agnostics. Seemingly more of them had a belief in some kind of higher power, but that conviction was unmoored, unclassifiable and maybe tenuous. These nomads aren’t looking for a church, but may want some of the virtues — emotional grounding, psychic grace — that are associated and sometimes conflated with one. The subtitle of “Waking Up” can be read as a summons to them: “A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Harris made his name with his acclaimed 2004 best seller, “The End of Faith,” which took a buzz saw to Christianity, Islam and the rest of it. He was strenuously edgy and perhaps gratuitously insulting: While he’s right that it’s dangerous to play down all the cruelty done in the name of religion, it’s also a mistake to give short shrift to the goodness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the man has guts. Just read a <a href="http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/why-dont-i-criticize-israel">blog post</a> that he wrote in late July about the fighting in Israel and Gaza. By traveling down byways of the debate about Israel’s actions that most politicians and pundits avoid, it rightly caused a stir, along with a surge in traffic to his website that temporarily crashed it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">IN books and lectures since “The End of Faith,” Harris has increasingly redirected his energies from indicting organized religion — “I’ve ridden that hobbyhorse,” he told me — to examining the reasons that people are drawn to it and arguing that much of what they seek from it they can get without it. There is the church of Burning Man, he noted. There is the repetition of mantras. There are the catharsis and clarity of unsullied concentration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You can have spiritual experience and understand the most thrilling changes in human consciousness in a context that’s secular and universal and not freighted with dogma,” he said when we spoke on the telephone last week. It was a kind of discussion that I wish I heard more of, and that people should be able to have with less fear of being looked upon as heathens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I’m not casting a vote for godlessness at large or in my own spiritual life, which is muddled with unanswered and unanswerable questions. I’m advocating unfettered discussion, ample room for doubt and a respect for science commensurate with the fealty to any supposedly divine word. We hear the highest-ranking politicians mention God at every turn and with little or no fear of negative repercussion. When’s the last time you heard one of them wrestle publicly with agnosticism?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">During my conversation with Harris, he observed that President Obama had recently ended his public remarks about the beheading of James Foley by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which wraps itself in religion, with a religious invocation: “May God bless and keep Jim’s memory, and may God bless the United States of America.” That struck Harris as odd and yet predictable, because in America, he said, God is the default vocabulary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“There’s truly no secular or rational alternative for talking about questions of meaning and existential hopes and fears,” he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There should be. There’s a hunger for it, suggested by the fact that after Harris recently published the first chapter of “Waking Up” online as a way of announcing the entire volume’s imminent release, readers placed enough preorders for the book that it shot up briefly to No. 22 on Amazon’s list of best sellers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some of those buyers, as well as many other Americans, are looking for a different kind of scripture, for prophets purged of doctrine, for guides across the vast landscape between faithlessness and piety, for recognition of this fecund terrain. In a country with freedom of worship, they deserve it.</span></div>
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-3424021102670132832014-08-27T15:33:00.002-04:002014-08-27T15:40:32.189-04:00The Kids this weekAugust 2014:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Xh4F3cbKMT4t6bge-2pNZXSPv4rpb53PjddUK_VSr_1U9Kxh_zb1TLWz5zZ7rAaSNX4dBaWC-w2_9IrVwBmcqKMwsigHeoY4d2rseZmgE_5BTfkiXqT6t1a3-muUd6-dloos0estscgR/s1600/IMG_4666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Xh4F3cbKMT4t6bge-2pNZXSPv4rpb53PjddUK_VSr_1U9Kxh_zb1TLWz5zZ7rAaSNX4dBaWC-w2_9IrVwBmcqKMwsigHeoY4d2rseZmgE_5BTfkiXqT6t1a3-muUd6-dloos0estscgR/s1600/IMG_4666.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">We tried to get Vivienne to stop saying Jesus, teaching her to say "Jeez Louise" instead, but she started saying "Jesus Louise!"<br />Groovy buttom = groovy button<br />No budgies = no veggies<br />Viv - "I'm so owie!" and "</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Something's ouching me!"</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> = I have a booboo.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Shobbel = shovel<br />I'm peeping = I'm going peepee<br />Bandy = bandaid</span><br />
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June / July 2014:<br />
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Grammatical switch - "My's" means mine<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGkdCq4CZLCcbF8afIgQzD5hSELx_oJ_R_H0q3MY8wUQdN6ljzIe_Wl7FIbT6hSWyitOGCLWcTmEWT0iDG0U5Nc3DvjuCiLnKJUyizIcLtxOOnDP09hLy87dlOsCLZ9pVN3eZOYz77BNW/s1600/IMG_4123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGkdCq4CZLCcbF8afIgQzD5hSELx_oJ_R_H0q3MY8wUQdN6ljzIe_Wl7FIbT6hSWyitOGCLWcTmEWT0iDG0U5Nc3DvjuCiLnKJUyizIcLtxOOnDP09hLy87dlOsCLZ9pVN3eZOYz77BNW/s1600/IMG_4123.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Counting to 5<br />
Jules saying "we want"<br />
Saying "help me"<br />
Grammatical switch - "Daddy want drive car. Daddy want go outside" (Means I want Daddy to drive.)<br />
Vivienne discovers colors (purple and blue)<br />
Vivienne knows the letter A<br />
Jules understands the number zero (confuses it with letter O)<br />
Jules extremely willful and destructive<br />
Jules : Fuck, shit, Jesus<br />
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Playing with Legos, I say "I have an idea!" The kids pick up on this and say,"I have an idea too, it's right here!" As they pick up a piece. Then they look in the box for more and say, "I'm looking for an idea, I'm gonna put it on the car!" They find a piece and say"I got an idea right here!"<br />
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<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-51597965572345182462014-08-06T23:05:00.002-04:002014-08-06T23:05:15.482-04:00Language!!Both kids are learning many many more words at an alarming rate. They seem to have mastered the English language and are working on French. They also have started playing with a made up language that is somewhere between their own twin language and a parody of French. They have very sophisticated comic timing and seem to always be making fun of us while also showering us with innocent love and adoration. We are getting the slightest inklings of what it will be like when they are only adversarial towards us. We are terrified of this but hopefully it won't be as bad as it seems. They are very sweet kids. But aren't they all?<br />
They are saying things like"No Vivienne, you don't like Marmite, it's too salty. It's yucky for you!"<br />
And Vivienne replies, "No Jules, it's not picky for me." Then Jules hits her in the head and says"I need a time out!"<br />
Constant madcap drama. Tears and laughter and forgiveness and happiness at a break-neck speed. People without kids see the constant drama and always ask"what just happened? What's wrong??" with aloof of alarm and concern. And the answer is always "nothing, it will be OK in teen seconds." These kids are mercurial. Their moods change very rapidly. They are mostly happy. Or over-tired and weepy.<br />
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-53439244068776711552014-07-26T21:00:00.004-04:002014-07-26T21:02:22.502-04:00What the twins are saying"There's three dollars on my poop."<br />
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Dad to Vivienne as she's trying to use the potty: "Do you need privacy?"</div>
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Jules hears this, goes and sits on his potty and says: "I need a private seat."</div>
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-45676475904041635742014-06-19T13:04:00.000-04:002014-06-19T13:11:41.301-04:00Thoughts on popular musicI was a cameraman at the Governor's Ball, a three day music festival on Randall's Island in New York. My job was to shoot the long lens camera at the main stage for the large screens. With a crew of four cameras, we provided the live experience for most of the audience of 80,000 people sprawling back for miles from the stage. It was a great time and it gave me a chance to see some fantastic bands, and also to ponder the state of popular music in our current era.<br />
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It was a blast to take part in the performance of some of my favorite live acts like Outkast, Janelle Monae, Broken Bells, The Strokes, The Kills, Spoon, and Jack White.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Strokes don't suck</td></tr>
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I had never seen The Strokes live before and I was amazed. They've come a long way since I first heard about them sometime in the early 2000's. At that time, my band Melomane was recording an album in a studio in the East Village called Transporter Raum, run by our eccentric friend Gordon Raphael. We were all set to record the last week of overdubs, when we were told that we had to postpone the session. Gordon had gotten involved with some young kids who he said were going places, and they had to come in for a week to finish some demos. The band was the Strokes, and we were pissed off that they usurped our session. I went into the studio to pick up some mixes one day, and I met two or three of them, nice young kids sitting quietly listening to their tracks. I didn't think much of it. My bass player Daria was familiar with the Strokes, they were the bratty young punks who came into the Mars Bar where she worked, and acted like priviledged poser assholes. Their session dragged on, one week became two and then a month, and when it was finally time for us to get back into the studio, Gordon called us with bad news; the studio was shut down. The Strokes had descended into booze-soaked stupidity one night and fished some fluorescent light tubes out of the dumpster outside the studio. They had smashed all the tubes and trashed the studio. The landlord wasn't amused and shut the studio down, so our session was cancelled. Needless to say, I had no love for the Strokes and didn't share in everyone's enthusiasm for "the demo" which became their first album. However, when I finally got around to listening to it a few years later, after the band seemed to be on everyone's list of God's gift to mankind, I realized that it was… really really good. It was great. I loved it and still do. Those overpriviledged posers wrote gorgeous songs and crafted some truly inspired guitar rock.<br />
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Seeing them live, and being a part of their show, was a revelation. They are artisans of guitar rock, using two guitars and a bass much like a piano's left and right hands. Truly original and astounding. And now that they are older, less pretty, and less destructive, they are really focusing on the business of making great music on stage, and it was a total joy to watch. The crowd went absolutely batshit. It was a blast.</div>
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I also got to see some new bands that I didn't know about that ran the gamut from brilliant to unbearably shitty. One of my favorites was Frank Turner, a punk troubadour from England who sounds like the most brash and raucous parts of Billy Bragg, with less political edge but all the humor and a totally rocking band.<br />
Another surprise was The Head and the Heart. My old friend Dave Burton, who was tour manager for my band Morning Glories back in the 90's, contacted me and said he'd be at the festival with this folk band from Portland. They had a beautiful, laid back, 70's era folk rock vibe, like the Eagles with better voices and cooler songs. Great stuff.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack White killing it</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silent disco is a very good start to the DJ problem</td></tr>
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Then there were some bands that confused, depressed, and irritated me. I would lump these bands into the category of "horrible 80's retro." The worst offender was a band called Bleachers. They dressed like backup singers for Wham and sounded like Phil Collins singing over karaoke tracks of Gloria Estefan. Horrible fake string synths, whiny and overwrought vocals, and contrived arrangements filled with Broadway style bravado. I soon realized that there is a conscious effort among a bunch of twenty-somethings to channel precisely the worst elements of 80's mainstream. High pitched guitars, effete, asymmetrical outfits, terrible synth sounds, drum machines, jangly guitars, and inane, inoffensive lyrics. Any of those elements alone could be interesting, fun, or ironic, but when a whole subset of very popular bands is ripping off the entire oeuvre of A-HA or Cindy Lauper, something is horribly wrong. In all fairness, I was a big fan of some big mainstream bands in the 80's, like Duran Duran or Wham, but they all disappeared or evolved as music grew in depth and studios decided to re-embrace the mid and low end. The 80's happened and they were pretty crappy and they ended. The signature sound of the 80's was cavernously reverby drums, high pitched, whiny guitars, brooding, english-y, fey vocals, and fake horns and strings. But even during this period, other bands were holding on to powerful, imaginative, guitar-driven rock. The Minutemen, Fugazi, the Pixies, REM, the B-52s, and many many others were all alive and well in the 80s and so much better than the dreck that is being copied now. My question is WHY? Some of the worst offenders at the festival were Lucius, Haerts, Papa, Hunter Hunted, and Meg Myers.</div>
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And then the other category is what I call "mama's boys product placement rock." At the top of this list is Vampire Weekend. They are a living commercial for ______. I left this blank because they are so squeaky clean and irritatingly pleasant, they are just waiting to be used for the dullest, most sanitized marketing campaign imaginable. Rock and roll is a pulpit to question, think, ask, and agitate. These guys look like they would much rather be stock traders but unfortunately they are making too much money as rock musicians to quit and follow their passion, which is kissing ass. </div>
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Foster the People gets special mention for doing the mathematically impossible by fitting 100% into both categories and being by far the most irritating band to ever exist.</div>
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The last category is what I would call "DJ / karaoke / performance art." To me this is not really music and doesn't deserve much mention. These groups are usually comprised of a singer or two with one or two rudimentary instruments singing and yelling over laptop beats. Some people call this EDM. It is apparently very popular but it is not for me. Examples of this are Washed Out, Sleigh Bells, and others. Can't remember, don't care. When I go see a great movie, I don't immediately rush to the projection booth to congratulate the projectionist on the quality of projection and ask where he is "playing" again. That is the equivalent to me of paying to see a DJ "play" music. DJs are technicians who facilitate the reproduction of music that has been composed, performed, and recorded somewhere else. </div>
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I will continue to seek out new artists making honest, thoughtful music with real songs. Lately I've been loving Courtney Barnett, Ages and Ages, Hooray for the Riffraff, Drenge, and Elbow to name a few. Rock lives!</div>
PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-65311274878340834752014-06-01T23:58:00.002-04:002014-06-01T23:58:27.235-04:00What the kids are saying nowPony no!<br />
baby panda eats leaves<br />
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Vivienne is really concerned with what Jules is doing. She wants to make sure he is taken care of. Whatever she has, she shares with him. It's so sweet it breaks mu heart.<br />
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Jules is extremely verbal. he has learned how to speak English the past two weeks and he makes complete sentences using complex verb noun agreements. "I wanna jump on the bed." "daddy, I want some water please." Daddy, can I have some more please. Where did mommy go? baby panda wanna eat flowers.<br />
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Some interesting linguistic observations: the word "my" substituted for "me" so they say "thats my's" instead of that's mine.<br />
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A lot of singing. Vivienne wants to hear the alphabet song "en franciais." And she can sing along with it.<br />
They love some french songs like "La maman des poissons." and Fait dodo.<br />
They know lots of words in french:<br />
Pantalon, chemise, poisson, c'est froid, chaussures. chausettes, doudou, dodo, tete, nez, pieds, bouche, école, de l'eau, oiseau, le chat.<br />
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I should be teaching them more French and I feel bad about it. I guess it's making me realize that I'm losing touch with my french side and it's also so hard to talk to them in french all the time. I love French and it's so important to keep it up. But, they need some kind of context in which to speak it. Chelsea and I don't speak french at home so it doesn't make much sense to speak to the kids. But hey will be much better off if they learn it. I was SO lucky to have the upbringing I did.<br />
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PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-6480699899311492852014-03-13T13:35:00.003-04:002014-03-13T13:35:55.447-04:00Robert Gates on UkraineI am sitting twenty feet away from Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense under Bush and Obama. He is speaking at the Plaza Hotel at a conference hosted by Blackstone, describing Putin as a product of the Soviet Union. He says Putin wants influence on all the former Soviet states but doesn't want a return to the USSR. Gates says that Putin has a deal with the oligarchs. "You got everything you have by stealing it. You can keep what you have as long as you don't cross me politically. " For the reason, sanctions on the oligarchs is pointless in terms of reaching Putin.<br />
<br />PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1609156707578349028.post-20113448352504470282014-03-07T23:29:00.002-05:002014-03-07T23:29:29.523-05:00War is StupidViolence is stupid. You have to decide if you are for violence or against it. You can't just "support our troops" because everyone says it's the right thing to do. If you think it would be a bad idea to kill someone, then you have to live by that premise. I take offense at the lazy, passive notion that it is OK to support killing in your name, as long as it is done by people you don't know, in countries you will never visit. Killing is disgusting. Armies are there to kill. War is about killing. If you don't want to kill people, then don't support war. I hate war, I hate killing, I hate guns, I hate violence. I don't support any of those things. Our troops are in place because we live in a country that buys into the notion that the only way to stop war is to wage endless war. Bullshit. The only way to stop war is to stop fighting. Fuck war. I know I sound like a throwback from the 60's, like a stupid unwashed idealistic hippie. I don't care. I know deep down in my heart that killing is fucked up. Very few people have the misfortune of living through the act of killing. Very few people see death face to face. it is disgusting and sad. I have seen death face to face when I had to watch my mother die. Death sucks. Why are we so obsessed with death and killing in America? Are we really defending ourselves against attackers of our way of life? Wouldn't it be much more effective to set the example of being the country that hates war, hates death, hates killing? America freaks me out. The whole western world freaks me out. i need to live in Tibet or Antarctica or somewhere far away from all the little boys with their weapons and egos and pencil fights. Fuck war.PVdGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14361748642114684445noreply@blogger.com0