I just read that Glenn Beck is going to feature a children's show on his new "fleecing the rubes" venture. Glenn Beck is known for his whimsical voice characterizations, and should appeal to small children without discriminating tastes. I guess Glenn Beck can be described as a right-wing Uncle Floyd, only without the talent. At least there will be an alternative to the leftist propaganda disseminated by Sesame Street.
I look forward to such skits as "Bert and Ernie Are Filthy Sodomites Who Are Pushing the Gay Agenda Down America's Throat" and "I'm Just a Bill, From A Koch Brothers' Shill". It's time the children learned the truth about America, and not the namby-pamby stuff put out by dope-smoking lefty loons, with their Negro music and factual content:
Here's a good (though depressing) modern take on the old classic:
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out- children can smell bullshit from a mile away, so they'll probably suss out the warped content of this crapfest. Now they'll have one more reason to dread visits to their right-wing grandpa's house.
Special nod of the naked noggin to the good folks at Rumproast, who bring the funneh as well as the righteous anger.
Friday, September 30, 2011
The Truth About Devolution
I'm glad I did two posts on the career and music of Devo- it gave me an excuse to check out a lot of great music, including versions of familiar songs that I hadn't heard before. It also gave me an excuse to avoid writing about the real world for a while, but now that I consider things, the truth of the devolution concept seems to be evident. The creep of the week is definitely NYPD Lieutenant Anthony Bologna of Manhattan Borough South, the white-shirted blackshirt who pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters, and who has a history of abuse of power. Bologna needs to be fired, plain and simple. I don't have any animus towards the police, I know a lot of cops and they are good people, but Bologna is a loose cannon, unworthy of the shield, and he needs to be given the boot and brought up on assault charges. The city doesn't need a knuckle-dragger like him on the streets, abusing power and assaulting individuals exercising their First Amendment rights.
NOTE: Anybody referring to Bologna as a Neanderthal is flirting with a lifetime ban, Neanderthals were awesome.
NOTE: Anybody referring to Bologna as a Neanderthal is flirting with a lifetime ban, Neanderthals were awesome.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The Devo Post, Part Two
Before I continue with my Devo retrospective, I should make a couple of notes. First of all, Devo was never merely a band, it was really a performance art group, which combined music and visuals in a deadpan, satirical critique of modern consumer culture (writing this, I had to shed a tear for a Devo/Poly Styrene collaboration that should have taken place, but never did). I also have to note that Mark Mothersbaugh's and Jerry Casale's brothers were both named Bob, and were credited as Bob 1 and Bob 2 on the third album's cover. Jim Mothersbaugh was also a member of the band's original lineup, but left the band and was replaced by drummer Alan Meyers. Can't be leaving out these members of the band... wouldn't be fair.
With that out of the way, I can move on the Devo's third album, Freedom of Choice, which featured a cover shot of the band wearing their now-iconic ziggurat-shaped headgear. The album is best known for the band's top-forty hit Whip It. Whip It was inspired by Thomas Pynchon's parodies of Horatio Alger/Dale Carnegie self-help slogans, and the lyrics are cracked versions of such "you can do it" exhortations:
When a problem comes along, you must whip it,
Before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.
When something's going wrong you must whip it.
The song was widely misinterpreted as having a sadomasochistic or masturbatory theme, and the band played up the S&M angle in the video (embedding disabled), which received heavy airplay on an obscure cable T.V. channel.
Girl U Want was apparently inspired by The Knack's My Sharona. The video for Girl U Want (check out "General Boy's" cameo) is a send-up of 1950's and 1960's T.V. performances, complete with screaming female fans (Outkast's video for Hey Ya mines similar territory). Here's an alternate "spaghetti western" take on the song, which I had never heard until today:
The title track of the album (embedding disabled), while seemingly a straightforward number, has a pessimistic punchline (a feature also found in the at-first-glance optimistic Beautiful World). For an interesting early take on the song, here's a version I'd never heard before today (writing these posts has been a revelation!):
My personal favorite track on the album is Gates of Steel, co-written by two members of Akron band Chi-Pig, which mines some of the same territory that inspired Jocko Homo:
The beginning was the end,
Of everything now.
The ape regards his tail,
He's stuck on it.
He repeats until he fails,
Half a goon and half a god.
A man's not made of steel.
Half a goon and half a god, what a succinct description of the human condition. Here's a live version of Gates of Steel:
The whole album is terrific, but I figured I'd post the highlights, for brevity's sake.
New Traditionalists was the follow-up to Freedom of Choice- for the album cover, the band traded in its ziggurat hats for plastic pompadours, which I always took to be a sendup of corporate icons Ronald Reagan and Big Boy.
Beautiful World, at first blush, seems uncharacteristically optimistic for a Devo song, but its true meaning becomes clear at the end of the song, and the video (which prominently features our old friend Booji Boy) makes the true intent explicit:
Through Being Cool was featured on the soundtrack of the Canadian cult cartoon classic Heavy Metal in a scene in which a prematurely silver dominatrix/avenging heroine encounters some nasty mutants in a nasty mutant bar (warning: clip contains some graphic cartoon violence towards the end):
The video for Love Without Anger was directed by Church of the Subgenius founder, the Reverend Ivan Stang, and prominently features a picture of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs:
Devo did a cover of Alan Toussaint's Working in a Coal Mine, which was released as a 7" single
My favorite track on the album is Jerkin' Back and Forth, another song which could be misinterpreted as a masturbatory reference, though it's really about a relationship gone wrong (which could lead to self-gratification, I suppose):
The next album, Oh No, It's Devo, is less satirical than their previous albums, and contains such synth-pop exemplars as That's Good:
and Peek-a-Boo:
These songs, while entertaining, lack the subversive punch of earlier material- they seem to be Kraftwerk parodies, not subversive takes on American society.
Around the same time, the band recorded a theme song for the largely forgotten movie Doctor Detroit:
It just hit me- Gerald Casale was involved in video production, and the video for Doctor Detroit is a small "snapshot" of his endeavors in this field. The videos for That's Good and Peek-a-Boo employed the bluescreen technique portrayed in the Doctor Detroit video.
The follow-up album Shout was not a successful release, its most memorable track was a mutated cover of Dzimi Hendriks' experimental Are You Experienced?. The video was directed by Ivan Stang:
I have to confess that Devo fell off my map after Are You Experienced, although they released albums Total Devo (featuring songs Some Things Never Change and Disco Dancer) and Smooth Noodle Maps (featuring Post Post Modern Man and a cover of Morning Dew by Bonnie Dobson.
Smooth Noodle Maps was the last studio album by Devo before they went on a six-year hiatus. The band reformed recently and has been touring, and put out an album in 2010. The band also produced a children's cover band Dev2.0 (of course, the darker elements of Devo's music have been stripped out) in conjunction with (eep!) Disney. My one major beef with the project (besides the Disney connection) is that the band members are too conventionally cute (they should have gotten some cute mutants, cutants, to play in the band). Still, if they warp some 4 to 8 year old minds, it's a worthwhile project:
I'll just finish off my Devo retrospective with a video of a single off the 2010 album:
A video of a recent performance of classic Mr DNA:
And, finally, the first part of a 1995 interview with Gerald V. Casale:
Quite an extensive body of work for a "one hit wonder", no?
With that out of the way, I can move on the Devo's third album, Freedom of Choice, which featured a cover shot of the band wearing their now-iconic ziggurat-shaped headgear. The album is best known for the band's top-forty hit Whip It. Whip It was inspired by Thomas Pynchon's parodies of Horatio Alger/Dale Carnegie self-help slogans, and the lyrics are cracked versions of such "you can do it" exhortations:
When a problem comes along, you must whip it,
Before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.
When something's going wrong you must whip it.
The song was widely misinterpreted as having a sadomasochistic or masturbatory theme, and the band played up the S&M angle in the video (embedding disabled), which received heavy airplay on an obscure cable T.V. channel.
Girl U Want was apparently inspired by The Knack's My Sharona. The video for Girl U Want (check out "General Boy's" cameo) is a send-up of 1950's and 1960's T.V. performances, complete with screaming female fans (Outkast's video for Hey Ya mines similar territory). Here's an alternate "spaghetti western" take on the song, which I had never heard until today:
The title track of the album (embedding disabled), while seemingly a straightforward number, has a pessimistic punchline (a feature also found in the at-first-glance optimistic Beautiful World). For an interesting early take on the song, here's a version I'd never heard before today (writing these posts has been a revelation!):
My personal favorite track on the album is Gates of Steel, co-written by two members of Akron band Chi-Pig, which mines some of the same territory that inspired Jocko Homo:
The beginning was the end,
Of everything now.
The ape regards his tail,
He's stuck on it.
He repeats until he fails,
Half a goon and half a god.
A man's not made of steel.
Half a goon and half a god, what a succinct description of the human condition. Here's a live version of Gates of Steel:
The whole album is terrific, but I figured I'd post the highlights, for brevity's sake.
New Traditionalists was the follow-up to Freedom of Choice- for the album cover, the band traded in its ziggurat hats for plastic pompadours, which I always took to be a sendup of corporate icons Ronald Reagan and Big Boy.
Beautiful World, at first blush, seems uncharacteristically optimistic for a Devo song, but its true meaning becomes clear at the end of the song, and the video (which prominently features our old friend Booji Boy) makes the true intent explicit:
Through Being Cool was featured on the soundtrack of the Canadian cult cartoon classic Heavy Metal in a scene in which a prematurely silver dominatrix/avenging heroine encounters some nasty mutants in a nasty mutant bar (warning: clip contains some graphic cartoon violence towards the end):
The video for Love Without Anger was directed by Church of the Subgenius founder, the Reverend Ivan Stang, and prominently features a picture of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs:
Devo did a cover of Alan Toussaint's Working in a Coal Mine, which was released as a 7" single
My favorite track on the album is Jerkin' Back and Forth, another song which could be misinterpreted as a masturbatory reference, though it's really about a relationship gone wrong (which could lead to self-gratification, I suppose):
The next album, Oh No, It's Devo, is less satirical than their previous albums, and contains such synth-pop exemplars as That's Good:
and Peek-a-Boo:
These songs, while entertaining, lack the subversive punch of earlier material- they seem to be Kraftwerk parodies, not subversive takes on American society.
Around the same time, the band recorded a theme song for the largely forgotten movie Doctor Detroit:
It just hit me- Gerald Casale was involved in video production, and the video for Doctor Detroit is a small "snapshot" of his endeavors in this field. The videos for That's Good and Peek-a-Boo employed the bluescreen technique portrayed in the Doctor Detroit video.
The follow-up album Shout was not a successful release, its most memorable track was a mutated cover of Dzimi Hendriks' experimental Are You Experienced?. The video was directed by Ivan Stang:
I have to confess that Devo fell off my map after Are You Experienced, although they released albums Total Devo (featuring songs Some Things Never Change and Disco Dancer) and Smooth Noodle Maps (featuring Post Post Modern Man and a cover of Morning Dew by Bonnie Dobson.
Smooth Noodle Maps was the last studio album by Devo before they went on a six-year hiatus. The band reformed recently and has been touring, and put out an album in 2010. The band also produced a children's cover band Dev2.0 (of course, the darker elements of Devo's music have been stripped out) in conjunction with (eep!) Disney. My one major beef with the project (besides the Disney connection) is that the band members are too conventionally cute (they should have gotten some cute mutants, cutants, to play in the band). Still, if they warp some 4 to 8 year old minds, it's a worthwhile project:
I'll just finish off my Devo retrospective with a video of a single off the 2010 album:
A video of a recent performance of classic Mr DNA:
And, finally, the first part of a 1995 interview with Gerald V. Casale:
Quite an extensive body of work for a "one hit wonder", no?
Monday, September 26, 2011
The Devo Post, Part One
Alright, spuds, I figured I'd have to write a profile of Devo after embedding the video to Space Junk last week. While I love Whip It! as much as the next person, I am aware of all Devo traditions, and I love to spread the word.
The band Devo was formed on the campus of Kent State University in 1973, in the aftermath of the killing of four students by the Ohio National Guard. "Wonkette" featured a video interview with Devo co-founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V. Casale (their brothers were the other original members of the band), who, after witnessing the shootings, formulated a theory of de-evolution inspired by the barbarity of the massacre and a pseudoscientific book which promulgated the idea the modern humans had descendended from apes which had eaten the brains of other apes. The de-evolution band was also inspired by a creationist tract, Jocko Homo Heavenbound, which provided the basics of the "De-evolutionary Oath":
1. Be like your ancestors or be different. It doesn't matter.
2. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one.
3. Wear gaudy colors or avoid display. It's all the same.
4. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live.
5. We Must Repeat.
Jocko Homo Heavenbound also provided the title for the early single Jocko Homo. The video for the single begins with a brief dialogue between the creepy mascot Booji Boy and his father General Boy (played by Mark Mothersbaugh's father), in which General Boy declares that "every man, woman and mutant on this planet shall know the truth about devolution":
The call-and-response "Are we not men? We are Devo!" was inspired by a scene in the filmIsland of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Another terrific early single is Mongoloid (the A-side to Jocko Homo. While the song title wouldn't be considered politically correct by today's standards, the song is ultimately sympathetic- And he wore a hat, and he had a job, and he brought home the bacon so that noone knew is a humane characterization of the capabilites of persons with developmental issues:
Devo's first album, produced by Brian Eno, was released in 1978. The album, besides featuring versions of Jocko Homo and Mongoloid featured a cover of the Rolling Stones'(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (embedding disabled) which subverts the "rockstar bravado and manliness trip" of the original (The Residents did an even more outre cover of "Satisfaction" a few years earlier). At the time of the album release, the band's "iconography" included yellow commercial jumpsuits emblazoned with the band's name. With their uniform clothing and non-emotional delivery, some idiot writing for Rolling Stone branded the group "fascists". Talk about not getting the joke!
The rest of the album, while fantastic, is more conventional rock and/or roll music. Gut Feeling has a particularly fantastic introduction:
Uncontrollable Urge features a hilariously over-the-top vocal performance from Mark Mothersbaugh
Come Back Jonee subverts the heroic Johnny B. Goode rockstar hagiography:
The whole album is fantastic, a bizarre little send-up of RAWK GOD stylings, and a moribund culture. The second album, Duty Now for the Future, while having an excellent title (which would be a great political slogan), represents a bit of a sophomore slump. The album 's sound is more synthesizer-driven than the first album's sound.
The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise is a send-up of those 1950's "girlfriend meeting with an accident" songs. The video is terrific, but the song doesn't quite measure up (in my estimation) to the standard of the first album:
Corporate Anthem was inspired by the movie Rollerball:
On this album, Devo took Johnny Rivers' Secret Agent Man out to the woodshed:
My personal favorite moment of the album is the portmanteau song Smart Patrol/Mr DNA. Isn't every guy, deep down in his heart of hearts, only a spud boy, looking for that real tomato?
I'm going to break here, I've covered quite a bit of ground, and I haven't even gotten to Whip It! The next post will be shorter, not having the introductory material of this post. I want to end this post by thanking everybody for giving me an excuse to watch a lot of Devo videos- damn, I love these guys!
The band Devo was formed on the campus of Kent State University in 1973, in the aftermath of the killing of four students by the Ohio National Guard. "Wonkette" featured a video interview with Devo co-founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V. Casale (their brothers were the other original members of the band), who, after witnessing the shootings, formulated a theory of de-evolution inspired by the barbarity of the massacre and a pseudoscientific book which promulgated the idea the modern humans had descendended from apes which had eaten the brains of other apes. The de-evolution band was also inspired by a creationist tract, Jocko Homo Heavenbound, which provided the basics of the "De-evolutionary Oath":
1. Be like your ancestors or be different. It doesn't matter.
2. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one.
3. Wear gaudy colors or avoid display. It's all the same.
4. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live.
5. We Must Repeat.
Jocko Homo Heavenbound also provided the title for the early single Jocko Homo. The video for the single begins with a brief dialogue between the creepy mascot Booji Boy and his father General Boy (played by Mark Mothersbaugh's father), in which General Boy declares that "every man, woman and mutant on this planet shall know the truth about devolution":
The call-and-response "Are we not men? We are Devo!" was inspired by a scene in the filmIsland of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Another terrific early single is Mongoloid (the A-side to Jocko Homo. While the song title wouldn't be considered politically correct by today's standards, the song is ultimately sympathetic- And he wore a hat, and he had a job, and he brought home the bacon so that noone knew is a humane characterization of the capabilites of persons with developmental issues:
Devo's first album, produced by Brian Eno, was released in 1978. The album, besides featuring versions of Jocko Homo and Mongoloid featured a cover of the Rolling Stones'(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (embedding disabled) which subverts the "rockstar bravado and manliness trip" of the original (The Residents did an even more outre cover of "Satisfaction" a few years earlier). At the time of the album release, the band's "iconography" included yellow commercial jumpsuits emblazoned with the band's name. With their uniform clothing and non-emotional delivery, some idiot writing for Rolling Stone branded the group "fascists". Talk about not getting the joke!
The rest of the album, while fantastic, is more conventional rock and/or roll music. Gut Feeling has a particularly fantastic introduction:
Uncontrollable Urge features a hilariously over-the-top vocal performance from Mark Mothersbaugh
Come Back Jonee subverts the heroic Johnny B. Goode rockstar hagiography:
The whole album is fantastic, a bizarre little send-up of RAWK GOD stylings, and a moribund culture. The second album, Duty Now for the Future, while having an excellent title (which would be a great political slogan), represents a bit of a sophomore slump. The album 's sound is more synthesizer-driven than the first album's sound.
The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise is a send-up of those 1950's "girlfriend meeting with an accident" songs. The video is terrific, but the song doesn't quite measure up (in my estimation) to the standard of the first album:
Corporate Anthem was inspired by the movie Rollerball:
On this album, Devo took Johnny Rivers' Secret Agent Man out to the woodshed:
My personal favorite moment of the album is the portmanteau song Smart Patrol/Mr DNA. Isn't every guy, deep down in his heart of hearts, only a spud boy, looking for that real tomato?
I'm going to break here, I've covered quite a bit of ground, and I haven't even gotten to Whip It! The next post will be shorter, not having the introductory material of this post. I want to end this post by thanking everybody for giving me an excuse to watch a lot of Devo videos- damn, I love these guys!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A Good Day, But Rough
Today we had one of our major fundraisers at work. After getting a whopping five hours of sleep, I got ready for a ten-and-a-half hour workday. Of course, this meant filling up a cooler with plenty of cold water, because I had to be outside for the duration of the event, and the weather was uncharacteristically muggy for late September (when I have a bad hair day, you know it's humid). I basically do whatever needs to be done, under the rubric of "event logistics"- I lugged stuff around before the event, ran around during the event, and dotted the i's and crossed the t's after the event. I have to confess, my eight-hour speed stick gave up about two hours into the day.
That being said, I had a great time- I spent some time with some co-workers I don't see very often, some vendors I enjoy working with, and a good deal of visitors I see a few times a year, and have come to like immensely. Yeah, I often joke that I'm not happy unless I'm getting my ass kicked, so I was on Cloud Nine all day. Now, I'm just about to lock up, having just entered my hours into the payroll system. I'm covered with a fine patina of salt, even though I drank a gallon of water throughout the day. I need a half-hour power shower when I get home.
It's a good dry-run for October, our major fundraising month, when I'll be working long, strange hours under hectic conditions. At least I won't be sweating like a habanero-chomping horse so late in the fall.
That being said, I had a great time- I spent some time with some co-workers I don't see very often, some vendors I enjoy working with, and a good deal of visitors I see a few times a year, and have come to like immensely. Yeah, I often joke that I'm not happy unless I'm getting my ass kicked, so I was on Cloud Nine all day. Now, I'm just about to lock up, having just entered my hours into the payroll system. I'm covered with a fine patina of salt, even though I drank a gallon of water throughout the day. I need a half-hour power shower when I get home.
It's a good dry-run for October, our major fundraising month, when I'll be working long, strange hours under hectic conditions. At least I won't be sweating like a habanero-chomping horse so late in the fall.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Lecture on the "Old Put'"
Before heading to work today, I headed over to the Grinton I. Will library on Central Avenue in Yonkers to hear a talk on New York Central Railroad’s Putnam Division by author Joe Schiavone, who has written three books on the subject of the "Old Put".
The "Old Put" began operation in 1881, and various stretches of the line were in operation until 1980. The last passenger train on the Putnam Division ran in 1958, with freight trains regularly running until 1962. The highlight of the lecture was a series of films from the 1940s and 50s of trains running on the Putnam Line. Unfortunately, none of these films have made it to Youtube, but there are a couple of videos of Joe giving talks along the course of the railway.
The Putnam Division is now a beautiful bicycle path that stretches from Hastings-on-Hudson to Putnam County. I used to ride my bike from my home in Yonkers to my job in Tarrytown when the weather permitted- the southern portion of the path comprised about half of the eleven mile one-way trip to work. I could not imagine a lovelier commute.
A couple of times a year (haven't done it in a while), I'd fill up the 100 ounce Camelback, throw a couple of bananas and a bag of peanuts in the backpack ride, south to the Bronx border, then spend a day riding a round-trip along the entire length of Westchester County. One of the highlights of this ride was passing by the old Millwood Railroad Station, which (sadly) is scheduled to be demolished. The absolute highlight of the ride, however, was riding on the railroad bridge over the Croton Reservoir.
All told, the lecture was a good immersion into the past of an area I know extremely well. There are vestiges of the tracks near the paved bicycle path, and historic markers along its length, but seeing films of the railroad in the twilight of its glory was enlightening.
The "Old Put" began operation in 1881, and various stretches of the line were in operation until 1980. The last passenger train on the Putnam Division ran in 1958, with freight trains regularly running until 1962. The highlight of the lecture was a series of films from the 1940s and 50s of trains running on the Putnam Line. Unfortunately, none of these films have made it to Youtube, but there are a couple of videos of Joe giving talks along the course of the railway.
The Putnam Division is now a beautiful bicycle path that stretches from Hastings-on-Hudson to Putnam County. I used to ride my bike from my home in Yonkers to my job in Tarrytown when the weather permitted- the southern portion of the path comprised about half of the eleven mile one-way trip to work. I could not imagine a lovelier commute.
A couple of times a year (haven't done it in a while), I'd fill up the 100 ounce Camelback, throw a couple of bananas and a bag of peanuts in the backpack ride, south to the Bronx border, then spend a day riding a round-trip along the entire length of Westchester County. One of the highlights of this ride was passing by the old Millwood Railroad Station, which (sadly) is scheduled to be demolished. The absolute highlight of the ride, however, was riding on the railroad bridge over the Croton Reservoir.
All told, the lecture was a good immersion into the past of an area I know extremely well. There are vestiges of the tracks near the paved bicycle path, and historic markers along its length, but seeing films of the railroad in the twilight of its glory was enlightening.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Relatives For Justice Event
Last night, I went to a event for Relatives for Justice, a nonsectarian Non-Governmental Agency that seeks the truth behind the killings of civilians in the conflict in Northern Ireland. The group is nonpartisan and nonsectarian- they are seeking justice for all the slain, be they Catholic or Protestant, whether the killers were affiliated with the IRA, UDA, UVF, RUC, or others. One major goal of the organization is the determination of the extent of official state involvement in the violence. According to the organization, the government of the UK has thrown up roadblocks in the search for information. A lack of transparency and accountability is something I decry in all governments, especially my own.
The event itself opened with a brief talk by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (some of the attendees assumed I was a member of her police bodyguard detail due to my demeanor), and was followed by a video presentation and a speech by Mark Thompson, the director of the organization. (Relatively) local musician Ted Leo gave a live performance at the event. The final speaker was the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who gave a brief talk in which he emphasized that the search for justice was of paramount importance. He referenced the execution of Troy Davis (which probably wouldn't have been out of place in a hellhole like Long Kesh), and mentioned the need for social and economic justice. He referenced Eastern Kentucky, one of the poorest regions in the U.S., represented by a congressman who pushes for tax breaks for billionaires. After the speeches, I did a little bit of networking.
Being a resident of Yonkers, I approached the organizers about doing an event in the Woodlawn vicinity. My homework after the event is to see if Rory Dolan's or The Rambling House could host a large event- it's a busy month coming up, but I figure putting my ear to the ground and passing along info won't be too arduous, especially if it means stopping in for a couple of pints.
I have my work cut out for me- I have to earn my free Tullamore Dew, and do my part for the fact-finding campaign that has to take place before true justice and reconciliation can take place. I'm going to close out by saying that Ted Leo is a good guy, and post a video for the song he opened his set with, Bleeding Powers:
As an aside, I took the liberty of passing along to Mr Leo something that Truculent and Unreliable wrote about him:
You know those rare people who make you want to be a better person? Ted Leo is one of them, and I’ve always wanted to thank him for that.
T&U, Ted told me that that had to be the single nicest compliment he's ever received. I hope this doesn't embarrass you.
The event itself opened with a brief talk by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (some of the attendees assumed I was a member of her police bodyguard detail due to my demeanor), and was followed by a video presentation and a speech by Mark Thompson, the director of the organization. (Relatively) local musician Ted Leo gave a live performance at the event. The final speaker was the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who gave a brief talk in which he emphasized that the search for justice was of paramount importance. He referenced the execution of Troy Davis (which probably wouldn't have been out of place in a hellhole like Long Kesh), and mentioned the need for social and economic justice. He referenced Eastern Kentucky, one of the poorest regions in the U.S., represented by a congressman who pushes for tax breaks for billionaires. After the speeches, I did a little bit of networking.
Being a resident of Yonkers, I approached the organizers about doing an event in the Woodlawn vicinity. My homework after the event is to see if Rory Dolan's or The Rambling House could host a large event- it's a busy month coming up, but I figure putting my ear to the ground and passing along info won't be too arduous, especially if it means stopping in for a couple of pints.
I have my work cut out for me- I have to earn my free Tullamore Dew, and do my part for the fact-finding campaign that has to take place before true justice and reconciliation can take place. I'm going to close out by saying that Ted Leo is a good guy, and post a video for the song he opened his set with, Bleeding Powers:
As an aside, I took the liberty of passing along to Mr Leo something that Truculent and Unreliable wrote about him:
You know those rare people who make you want to be a better person? Ted Leo is one of them, and I’ve always wanted to thank him for that.
T&U, Ted told me that that had to be the single nicest compliment he's ever received. I hope this doesn't embarrass you.
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