In an effort to assuage my own cynicism, I bring you this message of Hope.

This song has become one of my favorite “not strictly a Christmas song” Holiday tunes.

It’s the title track on Steve Earle’s fantastic Jerusalem CD. Do your self (and me) a favor, click the link, buy the cd.

Of Terrorism and the Culture of Fear

Thanks to the combined efforts of “the terrorists”, the news media, and the Bush administration, it appears that we are becoming a nation of trembling Chicken Littles frightened by our own shadows.

I just came across this AP news story by way of Boing Boing, which I will use to illustrate my point.

Basically, here’s what happened:

A Connecticut teacher thought she was alone in the school building. Two teenagers and a custodian, also thinking they were alone in the building began singing “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses over the PA system. Upon hearing the lyric

You know where you are?
You’re in the jungle baby
You’re gonna die

the teacher loses her mind, and fearing for her life, barricades herself in a room then notifies the authorities. Six troopers and three police dogs show up and the kids are handcuffed until the “investigation” reveals that there was no threat or danger.

Now honestly, I can undestand how that would startle, even frighten a person, but come on! Surely most rational people would immediately recognize it for exactly what it was; kids goofing off.

Similarly, apparently all it takes is a “suspicious package” or an errant piece of pipe to fling an entire community into mass-hysteria. Recently our local news reported that a man had found what he thought might be a pipe-bomb in his garage. As you can imagine, the response was immediate and overwhelming. With the help of all manner and sorts of high tech equipment, the bomb squad determined that the “device” didn’t contain any explosives. But even after this discovery, they (the reporters and law enforcement) continued to refer to it as a “pipe bomb”.

Uh, excuse me, but isn’t it the addition of explosives that makes it a “pipe bomb”? Without something that goes “boom”, it seems to me that all you really have is a pipe.

The sad thing is, as society becomes further indoctrinated into the culture of fear, this type of incident will become more commonplace and, I’m afraid, eventually accepted.

Fun at the Grocery Store

So, I was grocery shopping bright and early this morning when a display of pies caught my eye. Marionberry pies.

“I don’t even know what Marionberries are”, I muttered to myself.

I burst into laughter as my mind immediately conjured the grainy FBI surveillance video of disgraced, then inexplicably re-elected Washington D.C. mayor, Marion Barry smoking crack with his mistress in a hotel room.

Yep, it’s quite a life; 5AM, shopping at Kroger, laughing at pies.
Have I mentioned that I’m easily amused?

To Protect and to Serve?

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the events during the May Day Demonstrations in LA.
Everything I’ve seen points to LAPD shutting down what appeared to be a purely peaceful protest (in full riot gear, firing rubber bullets into the crowd). The amazing thing to me is that they (LAPD) didn’t manage to escalate the situation into a full-blown riot, Lord knows they tried. Oh sure, the party line is: “They’re there to prevent a riot.” That sounds good on the surface, but it sure seems to me that at least as many riots are instigated by the police as by those later labeled “rioters”.
Brad, over at the Brad Blog shot some good video, check it out.

Jesus! What sort of police state are we living in? How far do “they” have to push before We the People decide we’ve had enough and start pushing back?

Here’s another well written report of the events, from la.indymedia.org You’ll find plenty more about the events on their front page, as well.

Update 5/4: More from Boing Boing here.

One More Nightwatchman Video

Here he is playing “House Gone Up In Flames” on Jimmy Kimmel Live (4/25).

I’ll try to make this the last one for awhile, but I’m not promising anything.

Countdown to The Nightwatchman’s “One Man Revolution”

If you’ve been here before, and you’ve been paying attention, you know that I’m really excited about the pending album release by The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello’s alter-ego).
That release date (April 24) is almost upon us! Run! Go pre-order it from Amazon now! (I have.) The Nightwatchman will be performing on Jimmy Kimmell Live on April 25, so be sure to set your TiVos for that.

In the mean time, enjoy this trio of Nightwatchman videos:

This last one is more a slide-show set to music, but still very much worth your while.

Kurt Vonnegut on The Daily Show

In my previous post I mentioned Kurt Vonnegut’s appearance on The Daily Show. Comedy Central has it available on their website. Click here to find it.
Trust me, it’s well worth your time.

And here is the list he speaks of, “Liberal Crap I Never Want to Hear Again”, a brilliant morsel of Vonnegut-style satire.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., photo dated April 8, 1992.
Doug Elbinger, Elbinger Studios.
Another of the great ones has left us. Kurt Vonnegut has been a favorite (and hero) of mine since I first saw (but didn’t really understand) the movie “Slaughterhouse-Five” on late-night television as a kid. I’ve been reading and enjoying his books for over 25 years. I had resigned myself to the fact that there would be no “new” Vonnegut books back when he retired ~10 years ago. However, seeing him recently on The Daily Show (promoting a new book!) rekindled my hopes that there might yet be one more great Vonnegut masterpiece. Sadly that hope too is now gone.
The list of Mr. Vonnegut’s titles is a long one, here in no particular order (and by no means complete):

A Man without a Country (His latest, and one would presume, last)
Breakfast of Champions
Slaughterhouse-five
Cat’s Cradle
Deadeye Dick
Welcome to the Monkey House
Mother Night
Galapagos
God Bless You, Dr. Kervorkian
Fates Worse Than Death
Slapstick: Or Lonesome No More!
Player Piano
Jailbird
Bluebeard
Bagombo Snuff Box
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Hocus Focus
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
Vonnegut Omnibus
Sun, Moon, Star
Timequake
The Sirens of Titan
Canary in a Cat House
This last one isn’t a Vonnegut book, per se, but a book about Mr. Vonnegut.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Crusade Or, How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism

I’ve read all but a couple of these. I suppose I need to fill in those blanks. Of course, several old favorites I don’t mind re-reading, time and again. Do us both a favor, click one of the links and buy the book from Amazon, thereby helping to feed my book/CD/DVD addiction while fueling your own.

Fare thee well, Mr. Vonnegut, fare thee well.

The Nightwatchman, part 2

The article I referenced before mentioned a few of the songs to be on the upcoming CD, but they didn’t mention “Home of the Brave”, which is a particular favorite of mine. I dare say that I was far from the only person at ‘The Vogue‘ in Indianapolis who had goose-bumps throughout his performance, but this song in particular really spoke to me.

Home of the Brave
Tom Morello

Fred Hampton went to heaven
On a mattress soaked in blood
At twenty-one his every word
Set fire to the neighborhood
On the bed he held her tightly
His bullet riddled wife
One hundred deadly bullets
In theory took his life

This house is haunted
With righteous souls
I saw them standing blindfolded
Against a brick wall in a row
Don’t ask me for nothing
I already gave
In the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Bobby Hutton went to heaven
Without his shirt on
He was scared and he was fearless
His eyes open on that morn
At seventeen his courage
Made those who saw think twice
One hundred deadly bullets
In theory took his life

This house is haunted
With righteous souls
I saw them standing blindfolded
Against a brick wall in a row
Don’t ask me for nothing
I already gave
In the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Huey Newton went to heaven
On a street corner in the rain
The general, the poet
The hero washed away
But his will shook the heavens
And put the ghetto’s soul on ice
One hundred deadly bullets
In theory took his life

This house is haunted
With righteous souls
I saw them standing blindfolded
Against a brick wall in a row
Don’t ask me for nothing
I already gave
In the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Here he is, via YouTube, performing it live.

I’d buy the album for this song alone, I hope it’s included. Even if it isn’t, the songs that were mentioned; “Union Song”, “Let Freedom Ring” and “Maximum Firepower” are well worth the price of admission.

Postscript:
Sadly, it looks like “Home of the Brave” won’t be on the album. Here’s the track listing from his website:

1. California’s Dark
2. One Man Revolution
3. Let Freedom Ring
4. The Road I Must Travel
5. The Garden of Gethsemane
6. House Gone Up In Flames
7. Flesh Shapes The Day
8. Battle Hymns
9. Maximum Firepower
10. Union Song
11. No One Left
12. The Dark Clouds
13. Until The End

Not a bad song in the bunch, I can’t wait for April 24th!

The Nightwatchman

I first became aware of Tom Morello’s persona, The Nightwatchman, when I saw him perform as part of the “Tell Us The Truth” tour in 2003 (along with Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Lester Chambers (of Chambers Brothers fame), Mike Mills (of REM), and Boots Riley (of the Coup)).

Anyway, that concert was amazing and I’ve been watching and hoping for him to release a ‘Nightwatchman’ CD since. So, I was most pleased to see this news story which says, in part:

As the lead guitarist of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, Tom Morello played loud arena rock — and loved it. Once back home, going through his record collection, he realized there was more to music than volume.

“In more recent years, I’ve discovered that music doesn’t need to be loud to be heavy,” Morello says by phone from his California home. “Some of the darkest and heaviest albums I have are Bruce Springsteen’s `Nebraska,’ Bob Dylan’s `The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Johnny Cash.

“I found some inspiration in that.”

The newly inspired Morello created a new persona: The Nightwatchman, a solo acoustic singer-songwriter in the tradition of those Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. “I’ve found my voice,” he says with a laugh, “as a black Woody Guthrie.”

Morello, under the nom de tune The Nighwatchman, is releasing his first solo album, “One Man Revolution,” on April 24. The album is Morello, his acoustic guitar and his harmonica; for the first time, Morello will handle the vocals, too.

I don’t often get terribly worked-up about new music releases, but I am really excited about this one; I’ll be buying it just as soon as it comes out.

If you like good acoustic music with a (left-leaning) political conscience, check it out.

Brilliant News Headline of the Day

Cheney Apparently Breaks Key Hunting Rule
By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer

Ya think? Gee, I didn’t realize… apparently there’s some sort of rule against shooting your hunting companions in the face… who knew?

In all fairness, you can’t possibly expect anyone to remember all of the complicated and esoteric rules of hunting. And besides, details like have a valid license and don’t shoot people are really more like suggestions or guidelines than actual rules, aren’t they?

Supreme Court, Part II

So, now that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination, you know what that means. That’s right, it’s time to get accustomed to referring to me as “Supreme Court Justice Greg Evans”. If our paths cross in person you may refer to me simply as “Your Honor”. Oh, and please, refrain from making eye contact.