You Have Nothing...

I'm sitting here again, in my living room, having a beer, thinking and wondering.

I'm thinking about what Barack Obama might say tomorrow. I'm wondering if it will be strong enough, pure enough, true enough to halt the arrows of hate that are about to be let loose in this country.

I'm thinking about the true meaning of patriotism. I'm wondering if to truly be a patriot, one has to be strong enough to condemn one's country for its wrongs while still loving it for its good.

I'm thinking about the meaning of prophecy. I'm wondering what an atheist like myself is doing thinking about prophecy; I can't help but wonder (here we go again) if Obama's words tomorrow might not be some kind of prophecy for this country.

Where do we go from here? What is the future of America? What price, what tolls, what pains are we willing to pay, to endure, for this country of ours?

Me? I dunno. I want so much for this country and for my fellow Americans (I feel like Nixon now!), so much that it hurts me inside. I want us to rise up from the mire of our current political crisis and I want us to show the world the true good heart of America, but I'm desperately afraid. Afraid that we can't do it. Afraid that our own fears will rise up against us. Afraid of fear itself.

What was it FDR said again?

Postcript: It's afternoon now and Obama gave his speech this morning. I've read it but I haven't watched it yet.

Was it a good speech, was it good enough? Yes, I think so. He surprised me several times with the direction he went in, pushing my estimation of his intelligence and sincerity up several levels. Obama looked more closely and directly at the problems and issues of race in America than any elected politician has ever done, I believe. At least in a public speech.

It took courage and it took fortitude for Obama to make this address. Some were predicting that the best thing he could do would be to wait this campaign crisis out and hope it would blow over. But Obama realized that this is not merely a crisis of his campaign - it is a crisis of the nation. And he stepped up to the podium and took charge, offering a new way for us to think and talk about race as Americans. Think about this for one moment. Isn't this the kind of man we want as our President? It's what I want, I know.

The more I read or hear Obama's "words," the more I realize why I'm attracted to his campaign. Obama is a punk. A smart, tough, DIY-punk - honest, caring and smart as hell like all the best punks I've ever met. And ready and willing do what needs to be done to open eyes and minds. He probably doesn't have any New York Dolls or Stooges or VU or Sex Pistols on his I-Pod, but he's got 'em in his heart.

Vote Punk - Vote Obama!

An Opal Has Many Colors

Opal - Live at the I-Beam, San Francisco, CA (12/14/87) Part 1
Opal - Live at the I-Beam, San Francisco, CA (12/14/87) Part 2

One of my first posts was a Clay Allison show, supposedly their first. I promised then a live Opal show. I keep my promises, folks!

Fantasy: I'm walking down the street and I bump into someone by accident. Apologizing, I do a double-take - it's Kendra Smith! What's she doing here in _____!? "Why," says she, "I'm about to play an un-announced concert of all new songs. And though we've never met and I don't even know if you have any musical ability at all, would you like to sit in because my (guitar/bass/sitar/trumpet/any damned instrument at all) player couldn't make it?" Duh. Sure.

Repeat fantasy. Forever.

What? Ho? You Don't Say? My Word!

I'm weary of the "Where's the substance to Obama?" question. Those who ask it claim he has no record, has accomplished nothing. And they'd like people to think this despite the fact that it is patently untrue. Anyone reading this right now can easily check Obama's voting record in the Senate, for instance. Or Clinton's. Or McCain's. It took me literally less than 20 seconds (I timed myself) to find this information.

And another 20 seconds of Googling (as a verb, I'm still not sure if this should be capitalized or lowercase - is it a "proper verb"?) and I found this great, thoughtful piece comparing legislation introduced or sponsored by Obama and Clinton. I'm not surprised at the conclusion the author draws, but you should check it out for yourself.

If you trust Wikipedia, check out Obama's Senate record. You can always compare it to his official site.

The point here is that this information is all widely and freely available, folks. Anyone lame-ass enough to say "Where's the beef?" about Obama (or Clinton or McCain) is simply trying to score propaganda points and should be looked at with a dubious, pitying expression. If you are reading these words, then you can find this info for yourself.

To paraphrase Iggy Pop: "Look out, honey, 'cuz we're using technology!"

Welcome to the future.

Hilliebman? Lieberton? Huh?

It's a long-held belief in our house that Bill Clinton was the best Republican President they never elected. Read all about Senator Hillary Clinton (R-NY) here. Quite funny, really, when it's not scary. Kind of like this picture.

Our Founding Fathers, Third in a Series

Buzzcocks - Live at The Longhorn, Minneapolis, MN (9/10/79) Part 1
Buzzcocks - Live at The Longhorn, Minneapolis, MN (9/10/79) Part 2

I'm not a Democrat. But I am an athiest. And an anarchist. And some kind of whacked out old punk rocker, too, probably. And...what else? Husband, father...teacher.

Okay, I've said it, I'm a teacher. Hide your young from the subversive weirdo under the bridge with a ruler in one hand and Das Kapital in the other!* Or maybe that's a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks? Stoop yer head, get a closer look, but watch the teeth.

What's the point of all this sharing? Why, that punk rock can change the world, of course. If it weren't for the Buzzcocks, I never would have made an important connection with a new student - a girl all pissed and scared and defensive as hell, using her punk rawk persona to try and intimidate the new teacher and keep the world away from her. But noting the Buzzcocks button on her lapel, I just said "You like the Buzzcocks? Me too. I've seen them live - twice." And, lo, the clouds did part! After she picked her jaw up off the floor, I mean.

There is, of course, some (read as "a great deal of") exaggeration and inference in the above. I can't really know how this girl felt, I can only surmise. She may just have been nervous about the first day in a new school, not pissed at all. But the reality is that the world changed slightly for the better for her in all of two seconds when she found an adult who could connect with her. That's probably all she wanted. She turned into one of the best students I've ever had. I don't know where she is now, but I wish her the best and this one is for Angel.

Buzzshit!

*Probably should be The Collected Works of Emma Goldman, but that doesn't have the same zing, does it? Me, I blame Monty Python. If it weren't for Michael Palin's cryptically seductive line "We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune," I'd probably be a Republican. Mothers, never let your children watch public television is the moral here.

That's What She Said!

Note: The image for this post has been changed. In my anger, I had my artistic way with a photo of Geraldine Ferraro, which while funny in a juvenile way left me very uncomfortable. I have substituted a photo of a real hero, John Lewis, civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman for Georgia. I deeply admire Rep. Lewis and am proud to have had the opportunity to meet him, talk with him and shake his hand. Regardless of what Geraldine Ferraro has to say about him

Original Post: I'm a white collar education worker these days though I grew up in rural Wisconsin and live and work in a small Midwestern city ravaged by NAFTA plant-closings and a steady population decline, but not too long ago while an older, graying college student, I worked night-shift stocking groceries. Most of my fellow workers (the white ones mainly but probably even some of the black ones) would have bought Geraldine's race-baiting lines whole. And the one's Bill threw out in South Carolina. And I wouldn't blame them for doing so.

These folks are the working poor, badly served by our educational system, shat upon by our government except when it needs warm bodies for foreign wars, working multiple jobs just to stay even if they are lucky, and anyone who throws them a line on who to blame and hate for their current position in life is going to be listened to.

Everyone tries to manipulate and use these people and they know it. This goes for white and black, American and foreign born. And they are not stupid. They are hurt and angry. They see millionaires on TV crying because the paparazzi won't leave them alone, politicians spending 80,000 dollars on hookers, gasoline prices going up every day and they feel pissed and helpless - not a good combination. I ache for them. I work with their children and I see the hard effects of their lives staring me in the face every day. It's a goddamned hard world if you're not a rich bastard and these people know it.

As for Geraldine and Hillary, well, I think the Clinton campaign has been very systemic but none too subtle about playing the race angle. In fact, I think they veered away from subtlety on purpose, going for the gut reactions that would sway some of their perceived base away from Obama. Goebbels would be very proud of the Clinton campaign. They've learned well.

Note: I am scared to post this. It's really hard to say some of these things and I expect there may be a reaction from some quarters, but I am so very angry and I need to vent or I will explode. You should see what I edited out of this post...

Postcript: I really enjoyed my stocking job. It was hard, back- and knee-breaking work and the hours were rotten for crap pay, but the people were good to be with, even though I was the total odd-ball as usual. I waited two months before I cracked my first joke, but it was so nasty and dirty when it came out that it instantly ended my "initiation" period. The guy I was working with ran yelling through the store to repeat it to everyone else on shift. If you've never worked hard physical work with a bunch of guys, and been the odd one out in the group, you've probably never gone through it but believe me that you gotta prove yourself. We had about a dozen on shift, ten guys and two of the better sex, from 18-72 years of age. Yeah, a 72 year-old man had to get a second job to support his family! It happens, it happens. He was the best worker there, too.

Not So Dumb Waiters

The Psychedelic Furs - Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (10/10/82) Part 1
The Psychedelic Furs - Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (10/10/82) Part 2

Well, how far away from Texas can we go? To wherever the hell it is the 'Furs came from, I guess. Seriously, what planet spawned them? Who told them that every song should have that weird-ass guitar sound and the scary hypno-vocals? How was it possible for them to write such great songs but not be gods?

I dunno, I just dunno. I do know that I loved "President Gas" and they don't play it here in what is otherwise a stunning performance with great sound. You do get a lot of other stuff though. I found myself spinning this about four times in a row yesterday. It's still in my head and that's a good thing. Check out the great 'Furs fansite and, natch, buy shit!

Take That, Steamboat Willie!

Earliest known piece of animation ever created is what they are saying about this. It's so lovely I could cry. The strength and beauty in this 5,000 or so year old drawing is an affirmation of the power of human imagination. I'm just in awe and I hope you are too. This is why I love archaeology. I wish I was digging up some flint knappings or maybe even a burin or two right now. Burins are cool.

In a Fight Between Jesus and Buffy, Who'd Win?

A favorite show in our house is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A teenage girl kicking vampire butt while dealing with the everyday horrors of high school and eternal questions of good versus evil, of sin and salvation - it doesn't get any better. It's like Scooby Doo written by Harlan Ellison.

And a while ago I found this great quote from Buffy's creator, Joss Whedon, on the question: "What do you have against being a Christian?"

Joss Whedon: "I don't actually have anything against anybody, unless their belief precludes everybody else's. I am an atheist and an absurdist and have been for many, many years. I've actually taken a huge amount of flak for that. People who have faith tend to think that people who don't don't have a belief system and they don't care if they make fun of them. It's actually very difficult: Atheists are as a group not really recognized by the American public as people to be taken seriously."

Gomonkeygo: I'm interrupting here because the above struck me as very true. A while ago I met with a young friend who was deeply confused and upset. She was trying to become involved as a volunteer in our community, but found the process frustrating. Why? Because every community group she approached was religious-based or run and didn't care that she wanted to contribute and help - they were only interested in talking about Christianity and religion with her. She was ready to give up.

Well, we talked for a while and I convinced her to give it another try, suggesting a few organizations that I thought would be more interested in help than holiness. She did try again. And she did find something, but the journey was made unnecessarily difficult for her because of her status as a non-believer. She felt ostracized, even discriminated against. I've had the same problem, felt the same way, and I'm sure there are millions like us out there but we are usually too timid to raise our voices for fear of backlash.

Back to Joss Whedon: "This does not mean that I rail against religion; however the meaning of life and the meaning of what we do with our lives is something that is extremely important to me. I have included characters from many different religions, particularly in Firefly, but also in the other shows as well, because I'm interested in the concept. I think faith is an extraordinary thing. I'd like to have some, but I don't and that's just how that works.... There's one other thing I would mention, which is from Angel actually: One of the few times I really got to sort of say exactly what I think about the world was in the second season of Angel, episode 16 ['Epiphany'] when he'd gone all dark, because he does that, and that he was getting better, and he basically decided -- he'd been told: 'The world is meaningless, nothing matters.' And he said: 'Well then, this is my statement: Nothing matters, so [the] only thing that matters is what we do.' Which is what I believe: I believe the only reality is how we treat each other. The morality comes from the absense of any grander scheme, not from the presense of any grander scheme.... So the answer is: 'Nothing, unless you've got something against me.'"

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The Reivers - Live at Liberty Lunch, Austin, TX (3/5/88)

A lot of Texas bands, Austin bands more specifically, used to cruise through the Midwest in the 80s on tour. I've probably forgotten some of the ones I saw, but I remember the True Believers, Glass Eye, Wild Seeds, Doctors Mob and of course, Zeitgeist/The Reivers. I saw the subject of this post twice that I can remember, under each name. (If you don't know the tale, there was a new-age group only remembered now as the band that threatened legal action against the true Zeitgeist, who made them change their name to The Reivers, itself stolen from a Faulkner novel and meaning, literally, "thieves").

Regardless of the name, the music was excellent. Heartfelt, pop-driven guitar-rock (as opposed to guitar-driven pop-rock!) full of chime and chunk and soaring vocal/instrumental leads. Beautiful music, simply beautiful. If you like this one, I've got one or two more to share.

There are some recent album reissues still available, so...buy shit! (And please visit this excellent fan-site for The Reivers, too).