tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40653686370332096522024-03-05T19:48:44.689-08:00It's All ConnectedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-20909443505743581242018-01-14T12:30:00.000-08:002018-01-14T12:30:55.858-08:00Instructions for Drummers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The following are the instructions I provided to my two fellow drummers at the recent Boat Burning event "Music for 100 Guitars" at the 9:30 Club.<br />
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Jim and Erin: </div>
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Here are some notes to help us prepare for Sunday. </div>
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MOST IMPORTANT: Please listen several times to the set provided by Andras from our mini-rehearsal #1 so that you can hear what the drums are doing. </div>
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A few principles: </div>
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1. Keep your eyes on the conductor and me at all times for cues. Don't zone out. </div>
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2. Main goal is to provide the rhythmic backbone to each piece. </div>
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3. Emphasis on steady tempo and dynamics.</div>
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4. Less is more in terms of embellishment, etc. We're "accompanists" to the guitars. </div>
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5. Listen. Listen. Listen. </div>
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6. Have fun. </div>
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Notes on the compositions. </div>
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1. <b>Telephone</b>: Guitars start it off with 8 bars of the "reset" then drums come in bigly. Watch Andras for the count-off to each subsequent reset. Hard stop at the end on the "and." </div>
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2. <b>Detuning</b>: Drums provide the rhythm while guitars detune to all E. The rhythm for this is best described as similar to the one used by Phil Collins on Peter Gabriel's tune "Intruder" from the Melt album. That was before Collins became a pop clown. He was a damn good drummer. Ah well. Watch Andras for the cue to end this piece. </div>
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3. <b>Road is Full of Diamonds</b>: Guitars start it off with 8 bars then drums come in subtly with 16th notes on the hats for 8 bars followed by a rhythm that can best be described as a "Dont You Forget About Me" Simple Minds thing. Watch Andras for the "breakdown" (bridge) when drums stop for 8 bars. Drums then come back in with 8th notes on toms for 8 bars building mightily to big fat finish. Watch Andras for the finish. Ringing finish. </div>
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4. <b>Ascension</b>: Guitars start it off with 14 bars then drums come in mimicking the rhythm established by the guitar using hats/ride, snare, and kick. about 2/3 or so through the tune when the guitars start squealing I'd like us all to abandon hats/ride in favor of floor tom. It's a nice contrast and simple. Ringing finish with with just guitars squealing. No drum punctuation at the end. Watch Andras for the finish. </div>
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5. <b>Iron Baggage</b>: Drums kick it off with 4 bars of what I call a "Honky Tonk Woman on Speed" four on the floor rhythm which is the primary rhythm of the tune. Guitars then come in with something like 16 bars of the first phrase, 8 bars of the second phrase, and 8 bars of the third phrase, followed by the first bridge for 16 bars. Then the whole thing repeats two more times. Retard on the toms at the end to signal completion of the tune. No drum punctuation at the end. Let the guitars ring on their own. Watch Robin for the cues. </div>
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6. <b>Fits and Starts</b>: Drums kick it off with four bars of pretty much straight four on the floor. Then guitars for an 8 bar phrase repeated twice, followed by an 8 bar phrase that is repeated 8 times, followed by a final 8 bar phrase that is repeated twice. On the the last phrase abandon hats/ride and switch to floor tom or auxiliary percussion like a cowbell etc. and last 8 bars we're hitting everything in quarter notes to signal the end of the tune. Drums do a hard stop. Guitars will ring a little. Keep an eye on Robin. </div>
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7. <b>Wrench</b>: Same guitar riff throughout. Drums bring it up and down and back up. Guitars start off with 8 bars of the riff (different than recording) then drums come in fairly quietly but urgently with four on the floor, kick hitting on 8th notes with hats to give it the urgency. Simply build it dynamically keep your eyes on me as we build the crescendo and syncopate toward the top of it. Then we bring it all down to the original quiet urgency for several bars, again building to a crescendo. Keep an eye on me and Norm for the cue to finish. </div>
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8. <b>Lafayette Ridge</b>: Guitars and drums come in together with a repeated 3 bar march in four on the snare consisting of 3 flams-flam/triplet-3 flams-flam/triplet-2 flams-roll. Guitars and drums do the same rhythm. This is repeated 8 times. Then bring in kick on quarter notes while continuing the snare march pattern. This is repeated 8 times. Then bring in a light ride/crash on the 1 of each repeated phrase. This is repeated maybe 4 times followed by ride/snare/kick all basically continuing the march patter with some embellishment and fucking around....all of this is a slow building crescendo ...think about a hike up a mountain...more and more intense. This is followed by several bars of the same phrase but with guitar accents repeated several times at the beginning of each repeated phrase. Use crash cymbals on the guitar accents. I do something funky on my toms that I will show you or you can stick with the march or do something else that makes sense. This goes on for several bars. The guitars then do a different version of the same phrase using faux 32nd notes that sounds like a triplet. During this section drums should switch to half-time doing a sort of John Bonham "When the Levee Breaks" beat. This repeats several times. Guitars then switch to a quarter note "pulse" of the phrase which drums mimic on the snare for a few measures before switching to an intense eighth-note based rhythm while guitars are still pulsing in E finally going down in a blaze of disco fury. Hard stop. Watch Norm for cues. </div>
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9. <b>Hail, Storm</b>: Guitars and drums begin together in a syncopated style for 8 bars in four. Drums then switch to a sort of deliberate and slow "slave ship" thing. Right hand should use "clangy" auxiliary percussion like a cowbell, trashy clangy cymbal, frying pan, whatever clangs and cuts through all the fucking guitars, while left hand should be hitting rack tom on 2 and 4 for several measures. Then switch to a straightforward 8th note based rhythm on ride or whatever for pretty much the remainder of the tune returning occasionally to the "clang" for effect. At the end we all return to the drum/guitar syncopated thing for 4 bars. Hard stop. Watch Geordie for the cue. </div>
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10. <b>Harmonic Synthesis</b>: Drums start this off in four. Right hand on floor tom doing 8th notes, left hand on the snare with snares off on 2 and using rack tom and floor tom on the "and" of three and on four. This goes for 8 bars then guitars come in slowly with whole notes in E. Drums providing fillls every 8 bars to signal a new guitar phrase. This is the basic rhythm for the tune. When the guitars do 16th notes we switch to the ride or hats or whatever. When the the guitars switch back to whole notes we switch back to the basic rhythm (floor tom, etc.). This repeated pattern occurs every 8 measures or so. Got to keep a close eye on Andras throughout as he's signaling the guitars and those are cues for us too. Toward the end of the tune the guitars will switch to harmonics to mimic a clock or upside down music box/finger piano. We should drop back and lightly embellish with flourishes on bells of cymbals. No drums or very light here. Andras will signal us to bring down the percussion so that guitar harmonics are really featured. Gradually we'll bring things back up trading off small fills or whatever. All of this leads to a massive, loud finale that will go on for a minute or so. Lots of cymbals, triplets, etc by the drummers. Think of the final salvo of fireworks on the fourth of July. Fuck it up. You get the picture. </div>
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That's it. </div>
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See ya on Sunday!</div>
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And an example of the outcome...</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-19530665680289482922016-12-23T15:28:00.002-08:002016-12-23T15:41:01.727-08:00Boat Burning with a touch of Tone "Harmonic Synthesis" @ Rock n Roll Hotel 12.8.2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
....and our 2016, which was interesting and productive, ended where it began but not really. After all, the earth had turned 365 times, had been shaken many times both physically and figuratively, and had, of a sudden, become much darker. And by this last remark I'm not referring merely to the then-approaching (and just-passed) solstice. <br />
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It is in these dark times that we most need the light created by the art of noise and the noise of art. Make some fucking noise. Make some fucking art.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-66389201316413735692016-12-23T15:09:00.001-08:002016-12-23T15:09:09.819-08:00Boat Burning's "Duet" @ Rock n Roll Hotel 12.7.15<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Basically, our 2016 started with this gig at the end of 2015 with Cleveland's great Rocket from the Tombs.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-33326311089507391722016-02-21T18:28:00.001-08:002016-02-21T18:28:33.034-08:00"Trenches" from Boat Burning @ DC9 - January 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a nice video shot by Davis White from Boat Burning's January 2016 gig at <a href="http://dcnine.com/" target="_blank">DC9</a>. The basic structure of the composition, "Trenches," was imagined by Geordie Grindle with contributions along the way from each of the group's members. A really nice collaboration, best listened to at high volume with quality headphones or stereo speakers.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-71313542267218481662015-07-05T12:51:00.000-07:002015-07-05T12:51:36.357-07:00My big, fat Greek referendum!: A tribute with Profs. Sherman & Yanni at the Acropolis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today, the Greeks participate in an important and historic referendum, the consequences of which will help decide whether Greece remains part of "Europe" (as in the single currency...not the continent).<br />
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Lest we forget that Greek society and culture are really, really old and really, really resilient (not to mention that we have a lot to thank the Greeks for....like, say, <i>Western Civilization</i>) I post this educational video shot and narrated by Yours Truly almost exactly five years ago. The video features "Professor Sherman" and "Professor Yanni" who are really just Sam Sherman and his buddy Kilian Copp both of whom were, at the time, learned students of Greek mythology...<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-86126631783431559262015-07-04T08:46:00.000-07:002015-07-04T08:46:48.171-07:00Wave that flag. Wave it wide and high!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-29714228887470904062015-03-08T14:27:00.000-07:002015-03-08T14:27:08.878-07:00Progress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On the 50th anniversary of the march for voting rights at Selma, Alabama, President Obama offered these inspiring remarks...<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-27604704641090929562015-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:002015-01-19T20:55:19.270-08:00Pride (Part 4): Everybody needs to dream. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. offered this foreword in the printed program for the Berlin Jazz Festival:<br />
<br /><i>“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.<br /><br />Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.<br /><br />This is triumphant music.<br /><br />Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.<br /><br />It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.<br /><br />Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.<br /><br />And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.<br /><br />In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.”</i><br /><br /><div>
And here are Dr. King's words, delivered by musicians from SFJazz: <br /><div>
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Finally, here's the drummer Max Roach's interpretation of (or duet with) "I Have a Dream":<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-74390864350325139062014-07-04T09:53:00.001-07:002014-07-04T09:53:48.308-07:003 for the 4th<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week has been an interesting one in the evolution of liberty and devolution of community in the United States.<br />
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The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, with its holding in <i>Burwell v. Hobby Lobby</i>, continued its years-in-the-making development of corporatist libertarian legal theory and doctrine. Without a healthy counterbalance from the representatives of the People -- which is our situation today because of the institutional dysfunction of Congress and the National Security State perpetuated by the Executive Branch -- corporatist hyperindividualism becomes the norm, eviscerates the social contract and fabric, and adds further fuel to the rise of covert authoritarianism. <br />
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So on this day, as we genuflect at the alter of "freedom," I offer three perspectives on liberty and community, offered at three distinct points in U.S. history, from some fairly unusual suspects ....<br />
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First, Lou Gehrig in 1939...<br />
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Second, Bobby Womack in 1971...<br />
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Finally, Maya Angelou in 1993...<br />
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Study these words and teach them to your children...<br />
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<b>"Farewell" by Lou Gehrig (1939)</b><br />
<br />
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I
got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this
earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never
received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. <br />
<br />
"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the
highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?
Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob
Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To
have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins?
Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader,
that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today,
Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky. <br />
<br />
"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat,
and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody
down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you
with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful
mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own
daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who
work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body -
it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength
and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I
know. <br />
<br />
"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."<br />
<br />
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<b>"Communication" by Bobby Womack (1971)</b><br />
<br />
<div class="copy-paste-block">
I've got somethin' I wanna talk about to you<br />
Just another communication<br />
It could help the situation<br />
It's not the generation<br />
That keep gettin' on this nation<br />
<br />
What I say, what I say<br />
What I say, what I say<br />
<br />
We've made this world what it is today<br />
For the way we live and what we do and say<br />
The pitiable show in the eye of need<br />
You close my eyes every time I don't see<br />
<br />
What I'm sayin', what I'm sayin'<br />
Well, look at here<br />
<br />
Disgusting one another<br />
But still callin' me your brother<br />
<br />
And listen to me now<br />
Now if you believe in what I am sayin'<br />
I'll be back, take a slam<br />
<br />
Like I say, like I say, like I say<br />
Say, like I say, like I say<br />
<br />
All we need is just a little communication<br />
That could make this world a better nation<br />
Just like the preachers congregation<br />
They're all in to his conversation<br />
<br />
What I say, what I say<br />
<br />
Oh, Lord, good God<br />
Don't put down your brother<br />
On the way he dress<br />
I am gettin' tired<br />
And sick of your mess<br />
<br />
Ooh, and if you believe<br />
Oh Lord, I know you believe in what I am sayin'<br />
And I want every man to take a stand<br />
<br />
All you gotta to is help me<br />
Help, help, help me<br />
Why don't you help me?<br />
Help me, help me, help me sing this song<br />
<br />
Just a little communication<br />
Just a little communication<br />
If you see your brother fallin' down<br />
Give him a chance to make him come around<br />
<br />
Got to, got to<br />
You've got to, I've got to<br />
I've got to, you've got to, you've got to<br />
Everybody, come on now<br />
<br />
Know it's gonna take me back to ...<br />
Do it again<br />
<br />
Need just a little communication<br />
You can help this situation<br />
It's got the, it's got the new generation<br />
Just keep on tellin' down this nation<br />
<br />
Communicate, it's a family affair<br />
Communicate, it's a family affair<br />
Communicate, baby<br />
<br />
I know you hear me talkin' to you<br />
I know you hear me talkin' to you<span><br /></span></div>
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<span><br /></span></div>
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<span><b> </b></span></div>
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<span><b><span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"On the Pulse of Morning" by Maya Angelou (1993)</span></span></b></span></b></span></div>
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<span><b><span><b> </b></span></b></span></div>
<div class="copy-paste-block" style="text-align: center;">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="display: block; text-align: center;">A Rock, A River, A Tree<br />
Hosts to species long since departed,<br />
Mark the mastodon.<br />
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens<br />
Of their sojourn here<br />
On our planet floor,<br />
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom<br />
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.<br />
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,<br />
Come, you may stand upon my<br />
Back and face your distant destiny,<br />
But seek no haven in my shadow.<br />
I will give you no hiding place down here.<br />
You, created only a little lower than<br />
The angels, have crouched too long in<br />
The bruising darkness,<br />
Have lain too long<br />
Face down in ignorance.<br />
Your mouths spelling words<br />
Armed for slaughter.<br />
The rock cries out today, you may stand on me,<br />
But do not hide your face.<br />
Across the wall of the world,<br />
A river sings a beautiful song,<br />
Come rest here by my side.<br />
Each of you a bordered country,<br />
Delicate and strangely made proud,<br />
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.<br />
Your armed struggles for profit<br />
Have left collars of waste upon<br />
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.<br />
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,<br />
If you will study war no more.<br />
Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs<br />
The Creator gave to me when I<br />
And the tree and stone were one.<br />
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow<br />
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.<br />
The river sings and sings on.<br />
There is a true yearning to respond to<br />
The singing river and the wise rock.<br />
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,<br />
The African and Native American, the Sioux,<br />
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,<br />
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,<br />
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,<br />
The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.<br />
They hear. They all hear<br />
The speaking of the tree.<br />
Today, the first and last of every tree<br />
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the river.<br />
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the river.<br />
Each of you, descendant of some passed on<br />
Traveller, has been paid for.<br />
You, who gave me my first name,<br />
You Pawnee, Apache and Seneca,<br />
You Cherokee Nation, who rested with me,<br />
Then forced on bloody feet,<br />
Left me to the employment of other seekers--<br />
Desperate for gain, starving for gold.<br />
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot...<br />
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru,<br />
Bought, sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare<br />
Praying for a dream.<br />
Here, root yourselves beside me.<br />
I am the tree planted by the river,<br />
Which will not be moved.<br />
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree<br />
I am yours--your passages have been paid.<br />
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need<br />
For this bright morning dawning for you.<br />
History, despite its wrenching pain,<br />
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,<br />
Need not be lived again.<br />
Lift up your eyes upon<br />
The day breaking for you.<br />
Give birth again<br />
To the dream.<br />
Women, children, men,<br />
Take it into the palms of your hands.<br />
Mold it into the shape of your most<br />
Private need. Sculpt it into<br />
The image of your most public self.<br />
Lift up your hearts.<br />
Each new hour holds new chances<br />
For new beginnings.<br />
Do not be wedded forever<br />
To fear, yoked eternally<br />
To brutishness.<br />
The horizon leans forward,<br />
Offering you space to place new steps of change.<br />
Here, on the pulse of this fine day<br />
You may have the courage<br />
To look up and out upon me,<br />
The rock, the river, the tree, your country.<br />
No less to Midas than the mendicant.<br />
No less to you now than the mastodon then.<br />
Here on the pulse of this new day<br />
You may have the grace to look up and out<br />
And into your sister's eyes,<br />
Into your brother's face, your country<br />
And say simply<br />
Very simply<br />
With hope<br />
Good morning.</span></span></span><b><span><b><span style="color: #000044; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span> </b></span> </b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-36630998666721350742014-04-16T18:19:00.000-07:002014-04-16T18:48:03.019-07:00Listen Up and Stop Gun Violence! Jon Batiste and Duke Ellington School of the Arts Students "Fight4The33"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
To everything there is a season. This is the season in which celebrate rebirth. Yet, in the United States, 33 people every day are murdered by individuals wielding guns. <br />
<br />
Proponents of lax gun laws talk about how they want to preserve "liberty." But the 33 daily U.S. victims of gun violence have no liberty because they're dead. Congress has failed them. State legislatures have failed them. Local governments have failed them. The courts (especially the U.S. Supreme Court) have failed them... and us.<br />
<br />
So, because the adults seem to keep failing, perhaps it's time to see if the kids can succeed. <br />
<br />
Recently, students at Washington DC's Duke Ellington School of the Arts teamed up with New Orleans jazz musician Jon Batiste and Generation Progress to produce a video aimed at stopping gun violence. Here it is.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/atyBTAcjTnI" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
Want to get more involved? Go to <a href="http://fight4the33.org/">http://fight4the33.org</a><br />
<br />
Check out Jon Batiste and Stay Human at <a href="http://jonbatiste.com/">http://jonbatiste.com</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
FEAR NO ART!</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-4403196847765689412014-01-22T19:53:00.000-08:002014-01-22T19:53:14.687-08:00A Little African Noël for Your Post-Holidays Pity Party... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had the great pleasure in mid December to play a gig with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington. They performed a wonderful African version of Noel as part of their "Sparkle, Jingle, Joy" annual holiday concert at DC's Lisner Auditorium. I accompanied the chorus on djembe, along with fellow percussionists Doug Maiwurm (djembe), Robby Dean (gourd shaker), and my dear friend Michael Gottlieb (cowbell). I'm grateful to Michael, a member of chorus, for getting me involved. <br />
<br />
This was my first time playing with such a large singing group and it was pretty intimidating....but fun! It was such a thrill to be onstage at Lisner, where I've seen so many outstanding musical performances (Suzanne Vega, The Waterboys, Warren Zevon, and Poi Dog Pondering come immediately to mind). I felt a little like a member of "the club." <br />
<br />
So, sparkle, jingle....enjoy!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0Dln9fXnvXQ" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-9640201038390501862014-01-20T09:21:00.000-08:002014-01-20T09:21:07.250-08:00The American Holocaust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently, Jennifer and I accompanied our daughter on a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC as part of her Jewish education. After the visit, Jen asked: "Could it happen here?" She meant the question for our daughter, I think. But I just blurted out "It already has.... with slavery." And then, more recently, I had occasion to see the film "12 Years a Slave." So, I'd like to explore this idea.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
If the film did anything for me (and it did many things), it reinforced my opinion that slavery in the United States was the American Holocaust. Just as Germany struggles with its Nazi past 70 years on, the United States continues to struggle with its slaver past 150 years on. Of course, it's not really true that it's been 150 years. Indeed, what if I posit that it has only been about 50 years since we Americans finally, ended slavery with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? That's not very long ago, and I have concluded that, in fact, 1964 is the year that marks the end of the American Holocaust. <br />
<br />
If we think about it this way, it can help our current understanding of contemporary American racism and how socially all-consuming and evil it remains. Slavery dehumanized millions of Africans and, therefore, it "superhumanized" EuroAmericans in an evil way. Not just the EuroAmericans who lived in the United States during the period of slavery, but all of us who've come since too. I suppose this "superhumanization" is what is referred to as "white privelege." Like Bruce Hornsby sings in his tune about American racism and white privilege, "The Way it Is":<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Well they passed a law in '64<br />
To give those who ain't got a little more<br />
But it only goes so far<br />
Because the law don't change another's mind<br />
When all it sees at the hiring time<br />
Is the line on the color bar</i></div>
<br />
It's worth mentioning that the dominant culture in our society hates -- because we fear -- poor people. But there is a special, dark place in this society's soul for poor, African American people. In other words, the dominant culture -- the EuroAmerican culture -- hates African American people and it hates poor people. But what it <i>really</i> hates (and fears) is poor African American people. And it <i>loves </i>to feel superior; to feel "chosen" or "superhuman." <br />
<br />
And while we might want to try to make our chosen, superhuman selves feel better by protesting "but we've elected an African American president!" I say to that: "Look at the man's suffering! He cannot even be president to African American people in the way they need him to be because he's too frightened of the accusation from EuroAmericans that, by doing so, he's not being everyone else's president!" President Obama has freely admitted this. It's worth thinking about the reasoning that underpins that accusation and the impact that it has had on President Obama's psyche (and everyone else's too). It certainly tells us something about these United States. <br />
<br />
Many of the Jews who survived the European Holocaust have received reparations because contemporary Germany, France, and much of Europe have acknowledged (somewhat grudgingly) that amends needed to be made materially. I agree, while acknowledging (and I'm sure most people would as well) that no amount of money, ever, can restore what was taken from the victims. So, with that understanding, I want to ask: Where are the reparations for the families of American slaves? As Henry Louis Gates has amply illustrated through his work in tracing the ancestry of contemporary African Americans (see <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/">http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/</a>), we can use the property records kept during the period of slavery to determine who was "owned" by whom and, roughly, what in compensation the slavers owe the victims and their issue. If the descendants of the slaver families can be found, they will need to contribute something to that compensation, but the point would be neither to bankrupt them or, in any way, to take vengeance on them. Rather, it would be to have them acknowledge the truth: that they benefited financially from their families' "ownership" and exploitation of human beings. The EuroAmerican public can make up the difference because, as a whole, we have benefited from slavery. <br />
<br />
Reparations are not the most we can do; they are the least. There are other actions that could be taken in addition to paying cash money to the descendants of American slaves. One of the strongest predictors -- indeed the <i>strongest </i>predictor -- of social mobility in the United States is having parents who are college educated. So, why not provide free undergraduate education and graduate or professional education to all African American high school graduates who otherwise qualify for admission for, say, the next 25 years? I'm sorry, but racial preferences given during the college admissions process are not enough. Is all of this "reverse discrimination"? Of course it is, but unlike all human beings, all discrimination is not equal. There's bad discrimination (the kind meant to exclude), and there is good discrimination (the kind intended to include). You might ask: By including some aren't we excluding others? My answer: Yes. But neither EuroAmericans nor any American minority other than African Americans were slaves here. So my advice to EuroAmericans and others is simply to think about how they've benefited from slavery -- even indirectly -- and what they ought to pay for those benefits beyond mere racial preferences. Today's preferences are, as Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter has written, "racial justice on the cheap." Real racial justice is expensive and it's past time to pay up. <br />
<br />
Think about the back breaking African American labor that went into building such wonderful universities as the University of Virginia (founded by the slaver Thomas Jefferson), the University of South Carolina, and, most likely, just about every other institution of higher learning located south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Seems to me that those places, especially, should eliminate tuition, room, and board for African American students from the states in which they're located. But I don't think it should only be southern universities. It should be all public universities and any private college or university that, in some way, benefited from the American Holocaust that ended in 1964. <br />
<br />
The American Holocaust reduced human beings to chattel (a legal term derived from "cattle"); to property. It took their names and identities from them and gave them the names of their slavers. It tore their families apart. It featured systematic, daily brutality -- torture, rape, murder -- against a People who were brought to the United States for the sole purpose of making EuroAmericans wealthy. And African American people today, every day and no matter what their social station, live with its legacy. I suppose we all do, but no one who is not African American can ever claim to know exactly what that is like. Even those of us who are members of other American minority groups who have experienced discrimination and racism (and their are many of us) really cannot claim to know the unique pain experienced by African American people as a result of their ancestors' unique and awful victimization.<br />
<br />
So, I ask this day, the one on which we celebrate the birth of the American prophet Martin Luther King, Jr., what are we going to do? </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-70439616546088552312013-12-07T15:23:00.000-08:002013-12-07T15:23:34.751-08:00Amandla!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
In 1995 Jennifer and I traveled South Africa for three weeks to check out this "new" nation under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. Suffice it to say, it was a remarkable experience. <br />
<br />
Americans hadn't yet begun to travel much to the new South Africa, so we encountered many people who had never met Americans. Our itinerary took us from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown to Johannesburg to Durban and to a bush camp on the edge of Kruger National Park. We traveled with our Lonely Planet guidebook and Nadine Gordimer novels, by car, bus, and on foot and saw we it all: The Cape of Good Hope, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet; the beauty of Stellenbosch and the grinding poverty and shebeens of Crossroads Township; the police station in Port Elizabeth where Steven Biko was tortured and murdered; Umtatu (Mandela's birthplace); the Indian community of Durban where Ghandi practiced law; and the bush... lions, bush babies, hippos, jumbos (elephants), baboons, rhinos...all up close and personal (at times a little too damn close and a little too damn personal...). <br />
<br />
So, I guess I feel like we knew Mandela a little if only because we were able to obtain some understanding of his country, of his people, of that Xhosa click. Before Thursday, I'd never cried upon hearing of a world leader's death. But when I heard the news on December 5, of Madiba's passing, I wept. <br />
<br />
On her second album, "Crossroads," Tracy Chapman included a wonderful tune about Mandela that is one of my all time favorites. So here's a live version of it, followed by the lyrics:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TjBYRq8M1Iw" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="font-size: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They throwed him in jail <br />
And they kept him there <br />
Hoping soon he'd die <br />
That his body and spirit would waste away <br />
And soon after that his mind <br />
<br />
But every day is born a fool <br />
One who thinks that he can rule <br />
One who says tomorrow's mine <br />
One who wakes one day to find <br />
The prison doors open the shackles broken <br />
And chaos in the street <br />
<br />
Everybody sing we're free free free free <br />
Everybody sing we're free free free free <br />
Everybody sing we're free free free free <br />
<br />
They throwed him in jail <br />
And they kept him there <br />
Hoping his memory'd die <br />
That the people forget how he once led <br />
And fought for justice in their lives <br />
<br />
But every day is born a man <br />
Who hates what he can't understand <br />
Who thinks the answer is to kill <br />
Who thinks his actions are god's will <br />
<br />
And he thinks he's free free free free <br />
Yes he thinks he's free free free free <br />
He thinks he's free free free free <br />
<br />
Soon must come the day <br />
When the righteous have their way <br />
Unjustly tried are free <br />
And people live in peace I say <br />
Give the man release <br />
Go on and set your conscience free <br />
Right the wrongs you made <br />
Even a fool can have his day <br />
<br />
Let us all be free free free free <br />
Let us all be free free free free <br />
Let us all be free free free free <br />
<br />
Free our bodies free our minds <br />
Free our hearts <br />
Freedom for everyone <br />
And freedom now <br />
<br />
Freedom now <br />
Freedom now <br />
Freedom now <br />
<br />
Let us all be free free free free <br />
Let us all be free free free free <br />
Let us all be free free free free </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-size: 14px;">
<br />
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-75364546249186975122013-11-03T17:41:00.000-08:002013-11-03T17:41:24.175-08:00Transformer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well, well. The Economist got it right <i>this time</i>. The E's obits are almost always interesting, and this week, I am happy to report (about a very unhappy death) that the newspaper beautifully told of Lou Reed's passing. They even managed to quote a verse from one of my favorite Lou tunes: "Romeo and Juliet."<br />
<br />
Below is the obit, in it's entirety, but first I want to add my two cents.<br />
<br />
I fell in love with Lou Reed in my early 20s, which would put us in the early 1980s. My college buddy Beamer introduced us by spinning the Velvet Underground's <i>Loaded</i> (1970) one evening. I heard "Sweet Jane" and I was in love. At least that's how I remember it. Maybe it was <i>Rock 'n Roll Animal</i> that Beamer played for me. My recollections of college days have grown opaque. <br />
<br />
Then, a couple of years later, my wonderful law school classmate Rona Morrow (herself, like Lou, a musician and recovering heroin addict; and, like Lou, now deceased) gave me a tape of Lou's then-new CD <i>New York</i> and that was IT for me. You know what I mean when I say "IT" right? I mean that album -- every tune -- hit me like a ton of bricks. You know how that happens, right? When you hear a tune or an album and you're at a crossroads in your life and the tune or album just tells you what decision to make, or that the decision you've already made was the right one. The latter was my situation. It's sort of what I think angels really are. Angels are messengers. It's how they operate.<br />
<br />
The raw power of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Dirty Boulevard," both on <i>New York</i>, reminded me that I was about to become a lawyer so that I could work for the people Lou described in those songs and work against people like those he described in "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim." <br />
<br />
If I told Lou Reed that he was one of my angels I'm sure he'd slug me. I'll have to find out in a few years when we finally have a chance to meet. I hope it will be at the Pearly Gates Bar and Grill and that he will be jamming. <br />
<br />
Google <i>New York</i> and, if nothing else, read the tunes' lyrics. Lou articulates important values and tells great stories with a biting wit. Then, turn up the volume.... all the way up... and blast "Dirty Boulevard" or "Busload of Faith." <br />
<br />
Here's "Dirty Boulevard" (note the audio edits...love that 1989 broadcast TV! Like I said... read the lyrics):<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BJIOl8i9Kdg" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
And now, the obit:<br />
<br />
<hgroup class="typog-content-header main-content-header">
<h2 class="fly-title">
Lou Reed</h2>
<h3 class="headline">
A walk on the wild side</h3>
<h1 class="rubric">
Lou Reed, songwriter and musician, died on October 27th, aged 71</h1>
</hgroup>
<aside class="floatleft light-grey">
<time class="date-created">
Nov 2nd 2013 </time>
</aside>
<div class="main-content">
<div class="content-image-full">
<img alt="" height="335" src="http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20131102_OBP001_2.jpg" title="" width="595" />
</div>
HE HAD to get there, wherever it was. Wade through seas of blood if
necessary, like Macbeth. Or, in his case, wade through New York streets
filled with rain-soaked mattresses, prostitutes, transvestites,
exploding Uzis and men selling heroin at $26 a time. You had to push
past the rage to get to the light, fight past the flames to get to the
open door. And if you found a bit of magic in that “wonderful fire”,
then some loss would even things out.<br />
<br />
The world of Lou Reed was one of continuous contradictions, a good
thing cancelled by a bad thing, and vice versa. His music heavily
influenced the rock and punk bands that followed him, so much so that he
was said to have revolutionised the scene; but he and the Velvet
Underground, the band he formed and led from 1965 to 1970, never sold
that many records. He stayed subversive, a dark force, a cult. Parents
did not approve of him, if they even knew. His songs became the
soundtrack of lives as raddled by drugs and sex as his was; but also,
when smuggled by Vaclav Havel into Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia, the
underground anthems of liberty.<br />
<aside class="main-content-container"><br /></aside>
He sang of drug overdoses in lurid detail, “blood [shooting] up the
dropper’s neck”. He mused dreamily on fellatio and random black girls,
“doo de-doo de-doo”. When Havel wanted to take him as a guest to Bill
Clinton’s White House at the height of the Monica Lewinski scandal,
aides paled at the prospect. But he also produced in “Perfect Day”, his
most popular song, an apparent hymn to sweet, simple, times:<br />
<blockquote>
Just a perfect day<br />Drink sangria in the park<br />And then later, when it gets dark<br />We go home<br />
</blockquote>
Lines so innocent could not mean what they said; and, sure enough, the kicker came:<br />
<blockquote>
You made me forget myself<br />I thought I was someone else<br />Someone good<br />
</blockquote>
The last line, many times repeated, was: “You’re going to reap/just
what you sow”. Everything had its opposite, just as the euphoria of the
spike in the vein, when he felt “like Jesus’s son”, was followed by the
low. His style was often to mismatch melody and words, or sing flat, or
comment as if he was on the sidelines, rather than in the song. Critics
struggled to grasp what he was up to, but he couldn’t have cared about
their “receptions, deceptions, hellos, goodbyes, huzzahs, hurrahs”. He
wrote for himself, and if it was ugly to others, “you think what you’re
making is beautiful”.<br />
<br />
At his best, as on the “Transformer” album, his songs could be lyrical,
as well as witty and sharp; at his worst, he was just dissonant and
tedious. The first song that got him into trouble, “The Black Angel’s
Death Song”, which the Velvet Underground performed once too often
(having been told not to) at the Café Bizarre in Greenwich Village in
1965, was a long toneless lyric over screeching electric viola.
(Happily, though, it caught Andy Warhol’s attention, and hanging out at
Warhol’s Factory made the band famous.) His album “Metal Machine Music”
(1975), forced out of him (it was said) by a recording contract, was
four sides of feedback from an electric guitar. He said he knew no one
who had listened to the whole thing.<br />
<br />
The man could be just as perplexing, and played it up. Was he really a
badass city boy? In fact he came from the New York suburbs, and for two
years—between leaving the Velvet Underground in 1970 and making his
first solo albums, helped by David Bowie, in 1972—he worked as a typist
in his father’s accountancy firm. Did he really take so many drugs? No,
he didn’t take them at all (he blurrily told a circle of reporters at
Sydney airport in 1974), but he thought everyone else should, because
they were “better than Monopoly”. Was he homosexual? He had a very
public transvestite love affair once; in the mid-1970s he adopted
leather jackets and short blonde curls; later he wore nail varnish and
mascara. But there were heterosexual marriages too, paired with romantic
songs.</div>
<div class="main-content">
</div>
<div class="main-content">
<div class="xhead">
<span style="color: red;"><b>The twisted stars</b></span></div>
<div class="xhead">
<br /></div>
He was clever, and a poet; that was a fact he wanted everyone to know.<br />
<blockquote>
Caught between the twisted stars<br />The plotted lines the faulty map<br />That brought Columbus to New York<br />Betwixt between the East and West<br />
</blockquote>
At Syracuse University (briefly subdued by electric-shock treatment
ordered by his parents) he had studied English; after that he went to
Pickwick Records to write hit songs to order, which he found he couldn’t
do. He approached his lyrics like a novelist, he said, or as Tennessee
Williams might have done. Shakespearean echoes were everywhere (though
“You can’t be Shakespeare and you can’t be Joyce/So what is left
instead/You’re stuck with yourself,” he had concluded).<br />
<br />
Tantalised by literary greatness, but labelled as a rock musician, he
was crushingly rude to those who tried to analyse him. He preferred to
leave them in confusion. Perhaps, as his songs said, he wanted to
“nullify” life; or perhaps, contrariwise, he was high on it. The world
he sang of was very often vicious, decadent and dirty. But, he said
later, “My heart was pure and my soul was pure too,” as he passed
through the fire to wherever he was going.<br />
</div>
_________________________<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">Addendum...</span></span><br />
<br />
One last thing. On the flip side of the tape Rona gave me in 1989 was an album from a new band called Cowboy Junkies. It contained a cover of Lou's "Sweet Jane." They <i>killed </i>it: <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BHRFZFmEq9o" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-65295620054946526812013-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:002013-11-03T16:26:54.673-08:00Oh, Maggie, Maggie what did we do? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Margaret Thatcher's death last week has brought on a considerable wave of reflection from different quarters. <br />
<br />
This week's cover of the <i>The Economist </i>proclaims Maggie a "Freedom Fighter," which -- for those of us who've actually done some freedom fighting and worked for and with freedom fighters -- just feels downright offensive. Perhaps Maggie did some good things for the UK, but freedom fighting wasn't one of them.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The Economist print cover" height="400" src="http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/print-cover-thumbnail-superhero/print-covers/20130413_cna400_2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="The Economist print cover" width="304" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Really? Let's ask Mr. Mandela. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
An alternative, critical perspective is in order; one taken from the time during which Maggie served as PM. In 1983, Pink Floyd released its album, <i>The Final Cut: Requiem for a Post War Dream</i>. It is a scathing commentary on Thatcherism, and the title of this post is taken from the the last line of the album's first cut, "The Post War Dream" (pun certainly not intended!).<br />
<br />
<i>The Final Cut</i> was accompanied by a wonderful 19 minute video EP, presented here.<br />
<br />
One of the tunes on the album, but not featured in the EP, is "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert." Here are the lyrics:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Oi...Get your filthy hands off my desert!" <br />
"What 'e say?"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> </b><b>Brezhnev took Afghanistan. <br />
Begin took Beirut. <br />
Galtieri took the Union Jack. <br />
And Maggie, over lunch one day, <br />
Took a cruiser with all hands. <br />
Apparently, to make him give it back</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b> </b> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Short and to the point. You get the idea.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WKKOsVS3VQ4" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-14356181436613861672013-04-10T20:14:00.000-07:002013-04-10T20:14:05.698-07:00A New Politics for Israel and the Jewish People? New Member of Knesset Ruth Calderon Thinks So<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Check out this wonderful speech from Yesh Atid's Ruth Calderon. <br />
<br />
It's not about Israelis versus Palestinians or Jews versus the World. It's about "family" matters. Courageous, learned, and moving. Full of love, hope, and compassion. <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/S8nNpTf7tNo" width="420"></iframe><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-9722568952223276242013-03-21T08:07:00.003-07:002013-03-21T08:15:03.941-07:00"I'm Pissed Off" A Haiku for a Fender Bender by Hanna Weissberger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm pissed off. <br />
They blame me.<br />
Alas, there are more important things in life.<br />
During the day I’ll forget about it. <br /><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-80360910083807578952013-02-01T15:20:00.002-08:002013-02-01T15:20:55.072-08:00A Monologue from "Albert's Bridge" by Tom Stoppard, Featuring Sam Sherman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recorded at Bloombars DC on January 25, 2013.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RF3OeJm0ULI" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-28773059353926819892012-11-09T12:01:00.001-08:002012-11-09T12:01:34.322-08:00On Leadership: Good Character, Self-Awareness, and Authenticity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week, Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States.<br />
<br />
During the President's first term, the recent campaign, and the days since his re-election many people have commented about his leadership skills. Some comments have been praiseworthy while others have been critical. <br />
<br />
To me the qualities central to leadership are good character (and the values underlying it), self-awareness, and their companion, authenticity. <br />
<br />
The morning after his re-election, President Obama visited his Chicago field office to thank the young adults on the staff for their hard work over the course of a grueling campaign. His remarks were brief, contemporaneous, unpolished.... and moving. Why? Because they were from his heart and soul. They grew out of his good character (and the values underlying it), his self-awareness, and his authenticity. <br />
<br />
In this sense, I believe that President Obama is unique among leaders of similar station. Those of us who aspire to leadership and those of us who study it can learn much from him...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pBK2rfZt32g" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-68492712362539132512012-09-11T20:31:00.001-07:002012-09-11T20:34:11.404-07:00A Quiet Dark Memory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today is September 11<br />
I woke up<br />
And didn't think about it<br />
I took a walk at lunchtime<br />
It was a beautiful<br />
East coast<br />
Late summer day<br />
Sunny<br />
No humidity<br />
75 degrees Farenheit<br />
I looked up<br />
The sky<br />
Perfect blue<br />
Not a cloud<br />
Then<br />
My mind<br />
Grew dark<br />
For<br />
At that moment<br />
I remembered<br />
It was a beautiful<br />
East coast<br />
Late summer day<br />
Sunny<br />
No humidity<br />
75 degrees Farenheit<br />
I looked up <br />
The sky<br />
Perfect blue<br />
Not a cloud<br />
Eleven years ago <br />
September 11<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-21643335037230705892011-09-11T16:25:00.000-07:002011-09-11T16:44:23.901-07:00Rhymin' Simon Asks an Important Question<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpg9QlguC6XWUdQco415yJp6mn2CbCAYmb9Y3W0uAd07byoP4VgPjJuxFxrwo4RlXfpPDlaEFFMY_bcP0gsDW8_6CuDC_qYAK3Ztrq21o-kjjRZX88-bPbPh0LZtojstTG_qlBPa22ppb/s1600/Surprise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpg9QlguC6XWUdQco415yJp6mn2CbCAYmb9Y3W0uAd07byoP4VgPjJuxFxrwo4RlXfpPDlaEFFMY_bcP0gsDW8_6CuDC_qYAK3Ztrq21o-kjjRZX88-bPbPh0LZtojstTG_qlBPa22ppb/s640/Surprise.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>In 2006 Paul Simon released his album, Surprise. The album was co-produced by Paul and Brian Eno. <br />
<br />
For purposes of reflecting upon the meaning of the attack on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001, I think this tune/lyric from that album is helpful.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>How Can You Live in the Northeast?</b><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">We heard the fireworks<br />
Rushed out to watch the sky<br />
Happy-go-lucky, Fourth of July<br />
<br />
How can you live in the Northeast?</div><div style="text-align: center;">How can you live in the South?<br />
How can you build on the banks of a river<br />
when the floodwater pours<br />
from the mouth?<br />
How can you be a Christian?<br />
How can you be a Jew?<br />
How can you be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu?<br />
How can you?</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kwgHwoimNWY" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
Weak as the winter sun, we enter life on earth<br />
Names and religion come just after date of birth<br />
Then everybody gets a tongue to speak<br />
And everyone hears an inner voice<br />
A day at the end of the week<br />
To wonder and rejoice<br />
If the answer is infinite light, why do we sleep in the dark?<br />
<br />
How can you live in Northeast?<br />
How can you live the South?<br />
How can you build on the banks of a river<br />
when the floodwater pours<br />
from the mouth?<br />
How can you tattoo your body?<br />
Why do you cover your head?<br />
How can you eat from a rice bowl?<br />
The holy man only breaks bread<br />
<br />
We watched the fireworks ‘til they were fireflies<br />
Follow a path of stars<br />
Over the endless skies<br />
<br />
How can you live in the Northeast?<br />
How can you live in the South?<br />
How can you build on the banks of a river<br />
when the floodwater pours<br />
from the mouth?<br />
<br />
I’ve been given all I wanted<br />
Only three generations off the boat<br />
I have harvested and I have planted<br />
I am wearing my father’s old coat<br />
<br />
© 2006 Words by Paul Simon, Music by Paul Simon and Brian Eno</div><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-1907763532308929372011-07-23T09:09:00.000-07:002011-07-23T09:09:06.420-07:00The Sorrow and "The Pity Card"? Discuss!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Don't feel guilty when you laugh. Just talk about it and share.... <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B7G2xoj3pUA" width="425"></iframe> <br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-3506584553095328122011-01-29T13:47:00.000-08:002011-01-29T13:47:21.940-08:00Peace, Love, Ukelele, and Bohemian Rhapsody...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Virtuosic, innovative, and moving. Freddie Mercury would have loved Jake's work.... You will too.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-74489965730839081322011-01-17T17:57:00.000-08:002011-01-17T17:57:32.739-08:00Pride, Part 3Today, Jennifer, the kids, and I attended a small gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. <br />
<br />
The gathering was initiated by a friend of ours, Paul Zeitz, who runs an organization called the Global Peace Action Network (GPAN), an outgrowth of his <a href="http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/">Global AIDS Alliance</a>. GPAN's goal is to catalyze the bold and transformative realization of universal human rights by halting HIV/AIDS, ensuring children's well-being, and achieving women's equality--to achieve a global community at peace.<br />
<br />
Paul used the occasion to announce the creation of a <a href="http://www.justicemovementnow.net/">Justice Movement</a>, the goal of which will be to create a broad grassroots coalition dedicated to further implementing Dr. King's "justice" vision. I have, below, reproduced Paul's remarks delivered today, where Dr. King stood. <br />
<br />
We were proud to be there.<br />
<br />
_________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
<h1>Let Freedom Ring, Now!-Now!!</h1><div class="meta"> <span class="timestamp">Posted on <time datetime="2011-01-17T12:44">January 17, 2011</time> </span> <em>as prepared for delivery by Dr. Paul S. Zeitz</em><br />
<em>March for Jobs & Justice: MLK Day, 17 January 2011<br />
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.</em><br />
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As we gather today at this sacred American landmark, I feel awed by all of you who have joined this March for Jobs and Justice. Today, we marched in honor of two of the greatest Americans in whose legacy we stand – Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. Building on the foundation of those who came before us, I am inviting you to commit today to build a 21st century “Era of Justice,” where liberty and justice for all becomes a way of life for all.<br />
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Last week’s tragic explosion of violence in Arizona, shocked my soul and mobilized my sense that our country is ailing, when six everyday Americans, including a 9 year-old child were needlessly killed, and more than a dozen others were seriously wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. We send all of our prayers of healing and strength to all those affected and we pray for the full recovery of all those wounded. <br />
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These events remind us that the American dream is extremely fragile and affirm my belief that we are at the cusp of an historic crossroads. As so many Americans are caught in a cycle of hopelessness and cynicism, our political process is now broken and government is failing to solve ever-worsening domestic and global challenges. I believe we can rapidly overcome joblessness, indebtedness, deteriorating health, address global challenges and repair our polarized and paralyzed government. <br />
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Today, I stand here before you to declare that I am committed to relentlessly working together with all of you and all Americans who choose this opportunity to create a new “Justice Movement” that will assert bold “American” ideas for transforming our country and our World.<br />
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I am so proud to stand today with the other “everyday” Americans who spoke at this rally, as we genuinely represent diverse countries-of-origin, skin tones, genders, and political ideas. <br />
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Our diversity today, also includes political party affiliations, as today we have Republicans (R), Independents (I), and Democrats (D). I call this the “R”-“I”-“D” political party spectrum, or “RID”, because I am standing for the possibility of getting “RID” of the vitriolic, divisive, and destructive dialogue being practiced by some people in those communities. When are we going to end political hate speech that dominates our media and election system? When? <br />
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The American Revolutionary War was won not by a single individual but by a diversity of patriots, among them President James Madison, our fourth President, who was principal author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Madison told us that “Justice is the end-[goal] of government [and] the end-[goal] of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until … obtained, or until liberty [is] lost in the pursuit.”<br />
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His words are meaningful to me, because for the past 25 years, I have served as a physician and an advocate for global peace and justice. While serving in Zambia, a small country in southern Africa, for 6 years in the 1990s, I learned a slogan that helped me take urgent action to save each and every life possible. The Zambian slogan is a twist on the American saying “All talk, no action.” Zambians dismiss empty talk as more of the same “jaw-jaw.” Instead, they seek urgent action “Now, Now!” Say it with me: “Now! Now!” <br />
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Let me tell you what justice means to me. Justice means that the rich do not get richer on the backs of the poor and middle class. It means that when the gap today between the richest and poorest Americans has reached a record level – double the previous high in 1968, when MLK was assassinated – we do not deliberately lard more and more tax cuts to wealthiest and most privileged Americans.<br />
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Justice means that when tens of millions of Americans struggle to survive economically, living paycheck to paycheck because they are jobless or underemployed; with millions of hardworking Americans falling into homelessness and bankruptcy; where our seniors are left without a means to live with dignity; we must confront the corporations in America that now sit on more than $1.5 trillion in cash reserves. <br />
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Justice means that when our men and women in uniform, veterans and their families, who sacrifice their lives and a normal family life for our freedom, see their paychecks frozen, while at the same time Wall Street traders grumble about the size of six-figure bonuses and Fortune 500 companies report soaring profits, we must remedy these injustices with urgency.<br />
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And so I ask you: When will we achieve economic justice & create jobs for all? When?<br />
(response, “now, now.”)<br />
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Justice means that when the Supreme Court hands down a decision like the recent Citizens United ruling, which enshrines secret and unlimited corporate funding of political campaigns, we must consider taking collective and urgent action to enact electoral reform to promote the just financing of elections, perhaps even through a Constitutional Convention, if that is what’s needed.<br />
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Justice means that our government should be running “by the people and for the people” – including equal representation of women at all political levels. For example, in the recent 2010 election, only 11 percent of eligible voters who were 18-29 years of age voted; voters were 78 percent white and only 22 percent minority, yet minorities account for 44 percent of the population. While women represent 52% of the population, they represent only 17 % of the Senate. <br />
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When so many Americans are so resigned that they don’t vote, those that do vote may be electing politicians who don’t represent the actual values and beliefs of the majority of Americans. Let me repeat this key point…<br />
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When are we going to return our government to a government by-the-people and for-the-people? When? <br />
(response: now! Now!)<br />
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We were warned about the power of corporate greed by President Eisenhower as he left office, when he said that we must, “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military-industrial complex.” Today, I would extend that to the pharmaceutical, agricultural, energy, insurance, and Wall Street financial services industries. However, the most insidious—is the “addictive behavior” industry that floods the marketplace and incentivizes addiction to junk food, violent entertainment, and tobacco. All of these corporate-industrial complexes are ensnarling the American people, our families, and our government in an intractable quagmire where the government is run “by-the-corporations; for-the-corporations”— or in other words, we are living under a Corporate Economic Order, or CEO. Under this system, life-threatening domestic and global challenges are left unaddressed and allowed to worsen year by year. <br />
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Now, let me be clear. It is my strongly held view that the vast majority of Americans who work for corporations are actually great, patriotic Americans who also stand for justice, just like you and I. These patriots have unleashed “American ideas” through breakthrough entrepreneurial ingenuity and innovation. In my mind, American ingenuity should be relentlessly deployed to serve justice for all, rather than line the pockets of a few greedy CEOs, so that they can buy larger and more homes, cars, & toys. <br />
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And so I ask you: When will we demand an end to the Corporate Economic Order (CEO) that is destroying the American Dream? When? <br />
(response: “now, now.”)<br />
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Justice means that we have to face the reality that America’s health care system remains broken, however, our response cannot be to spend the next two years reversing the progress made over the past two years, rather we must join together now to transform the system into a “justice-based health system” that holds itself accountable for measurable improvements in the health outcomes of all Americans. <br />
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So I ask you, When do we want a “Justice-based Health System in America? When? <br />
(response: now! Now!) <br />
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On a urgent—potentially lifesaving--global matter, the United States, recently broke it’s commitment to fulfill its fair-share contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, choosing instead to short-change it by $2 billion – leaving millions of people around the world to die from AIDS, and millions of children unnecessarily orphaned. All of the historic progress made over the past decade could now be lost. <br />
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When will we choose to create an HIV-free generation, with zero new infections, zero AIDS deaths, zero discrimination and zero person-to-person sexual violence? When? <br />
(response: “now, Now.”)<br />
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The Global Fund is contributing significantly to winning the battle against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, and is proving itself to be the World’s most effective performance-based international organization ever created in human history, helping slash new HIV infections by 17% and saving at least to 6 million lives over the past 8 years, in 140 countries around the World—results that weren’t seen as possible, even a few short years ago.<br />
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Therefore, I am proposing that stakeholders adopt the Global Fund’s performance-based approach, and urgently adapt it to other complex global challenges, as part of establishing a new, high-performing organization. I am proposing that the Global Fund join forces with others, such as the proposed Global Fund for Education, the Clean Water-for-All Fund, the Global Climate Fund, to form the “Global Peace Organization or (GPO).” My idea is that GPO would be complementary to the ongoing role of the United Nations, yet, it would be designed to rapidly accelerate urgent action on the most pressing global challenges.<br />
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When do we want the USA to play our fair share role to stabilize Earth’s climate; control disease, poverty and suffering around the World? When? <br />
(response: now! Now!)<br />
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These “justice ideals” are not new. Economic justice, electoral justice and health justice, have long been part of the American idea. Please, remember, however that Lincoln told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Today’s America, is divided against itself, as we are tragically polarized on issues of economic security, national security, health care, political hate speech, as well as, on the environment, education, immigration, gun control and the most basic personal decisions. This cannot stand!<br />
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In the 1960s, Dr. King gave us his prognosis: “The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion is all around.” As a doctor, I see an even worse situation today. I believe America is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on a breathing machine, and the prognosis is grave. The potential survival of our democracy and our way of life is at risk, and I invite you to take urgent action, now! now! <br />
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Dr. King, told us that, “Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” As I look out upon all of you today, I see the stars of justice in your eyes. I see all of you as heroes for justice. I see your courage and your commitment to reclaiming the American Idea, the American Dream, and the possibility of a 21st century American transformation where serving justice for all, here at home and around the World, becomes a way of life.<br />
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Because of the inspiration you are bringing to the creation of the Justice Movement, I’m feeling ready to propose that the Liberty Bell, which stands near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, be adopted as the symbol of our Justice Movement. The Liberty Bell gained iconic stature as it rang during the formation of our country. It regained importance again when abolitionists, demanding an end to slavery, adopted it as their symbol. The Bell’s quotation "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," from Leviticus, seems particularly apt for the intentions of the Justice Movement that we are launching today. The time has come for us to join together, and as Dr. King roared that August day from this same sacred place: “Let Freedom Ring!” “Let Freedom Ring!” Let Freedom Ring!”<br />
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At this urgent moment in our nation’s history, I ask you to make a choice for that committed life: Devote yourselves unrelentingly for justice. No matter your background or political views, please consider joining together to create the new Justice Movement. Later this week, on Thursday, January 20th—which happens to be the 50th Jubilee anniversary of JFK’s inauguration, and the 30th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration—the initiating leaders of the Justice Movement will be convening our first meeting at George Washington University. Stay tuned for more “Justice Movement” action very, very soon!!<br />
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As King told us, we cannot walk alone. The destiny of all Americans is inextricably bound together. My greatest hope is that the Justice Movement will be a way for all of us to stand for justice and for all of us together to “Build the Dream!” <br />
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Thank you for being here today, please join with David Newman and let’s sing again for the possibility of love, peace, and freedom for us all! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065368637033209652.post-5729577752986643022011-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:002011-01-11T19:42:16.628-08:00TheRoad@ChiefIkesJan2011<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d9j-9bl0clM?fs=1" frameborder="0" height="295" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0