Note from A & R

There's no way in the world any sane person would buy or want to listen or put anything behind this record
April 25, 1966 memo from Columbia Records A & R department rejecting the Velvet Underground's demo

+++++++++++++++++++

Street Manifesto

a Digger handbill from 1967

Paulson's Folly

I made this video last fall but just rediscovered it today. I made the video for a song I wrote about the economic apocalypse. It's a protest song. Still feels relevant, so I posted it.

happiness is a warm beach

happy
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

life's a beach

The Power of an Audience

Lots of hype this weekend about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. You know the line: three days of peace and music, the highwater mark of 60's counterculture, etc, etc. It was all distilled into nostalgia a long time ago and is now a boomer cliche. That said, I've always been fascinated with the event, the idea of thousands of people coming together in a field in the country, taking hallucinogens, dancing to loud music, and losing themselves in the moment. The raves of the nineties had this too. Every culture has some form of it. There's a primal need for it.

The second Woodstock concert, in 1999, went down in a spree of violence, looting, and rape. Old timers shook their heads, disappointed by the nihilistic attitude of the younger generation. But you could bring your cooler full of food and beer to Woodstock in 1969. If you brought your cooler to Woodstock 1999, it was confiscated at the gate so they could sell you $12 slices of pizza and $4 bottles of water.

The difference between 1999 (or 2009) and 1969 is the role given to the audience. In 1969 it was still possible to think of the performers, organizers, and audience as one. Everyone participating together to make it happen. By 1999, the role of the audience had evolved from participant to consumer. A participant gives their own energy to the collective experience. A consumer simply consumes. Locked together in a corporate CAFO, the alienated audience of 1999 chose nihilism. Is there any other choice?

With live music, there is an emotional loop that runs from the musicians to the audience back to the musicians. Neither the musicians nor the audience are in control. Each depends on the other. This strong connection is also very tenuous. When the audience is relegated to the role of passive consumer, the musician is relegated to the role of vendor, and the concert becomes a transaction.

It's hard to lose yourself in a moment that's sponsored by Visa.

Majick Rainbow Station Video Soundtrack

Jay and Ryanne used a Majick Rainbow Station recording in this video. The track fades in at :27 and later at 2:10

Exploding Plastic Inevitable

Crossoads

Cream, 1968

I'm Thinking of You, Matt

painting by Matthew Reid

Reggae in a Babylon

From a 1978 documentary of the London reggae scene.

Magic Against Death

painting by Hackmuth

A Stereogab creation

poundcake with blueberries
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

This tasted as good as it looks.

Drums on Georgia Ave

steel drums
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

video shot by @stereogab

Happy Birthday

How I Remember Him
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

I miss you

Parade Day

Marching
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

Forget the Mall, the REAL Folklife Festival is on Georgia Ave. today.

Blood On The Tracks

Went down to water the garden and found police tape, camera crews and the people who show up to look at a wreck. We tied up the tomatoes and lamented the drowned cucumbers. And we lamented the suffering of the people who were there the night before.

Mr. Williams came by and we talked about how Metro has to keep 30-year old cars in service while the Metro General Manager is making $326,000 a year (plus a $60,000 annual living allowance) and how that's DC for you.



And then we watered the peppers and picked a little mint and headed home, thinking about what we could plant in memory of what happened at the bottom of the garden.

Sign of the Three Eyed Men

Play That SG, Sister!

All Things Must Pass

Astronomy Domine live 1967

Congratulations Carl Hedman

Artomatic June 6 at 9pm 2nd floor stage

YES! ROCK AND ROLL CAN SAVE US! YES! we have come to testify: YES, WE BELIEVE IN ROCK AND ROLL! we've come to TAKE ROCK BACK from the IVY LEAGUE SLUMMERS and the BROOKLYN VEGAN TRUST FUND KIDS! we're TAKING IT BACK from FOX TELEVISION, AT&T, WALMART, LIVE NATION, GOLDMAN SACHS, and CHINA! we're TAKING IT BACK so we can GIVE IT TO YOU! because WE KNOW YOU ROCK! and SO DO WE! COME TO ARTOMATIC ON SATURDAY JUNE 6TH ON THE SECOND FLOOR AT 9PM obetrol

Billy Name and The Mole People

It wouldn't have been The Factory without Billy Name. Billy Name was the pragmatist. He did the silk screens. He put the foil up on the walls. He painted the bathroom silver (he lived in the bathroom for over a year).

The cover of the Velvet's second album (White Light / White Heat) is a photo that Billy took of a tattoo on a biker's arm. The cover looks black, but it's actually a really low exposure photo (this was Lou's idea)

Next Saturday night we're gonna Give the Kids What They Want. And they want the Green Fuzz. They like it Chopped and Dropped. You know, You Have This Strange Effect On Me... And I Like It. And that's because the Kingdom of Heaven is Within You. I mean, I'm not from Brooklyn, I'm not from Queens. Know what I mean?

Memorial Day

On the Road

Jack Kerouac On the Road
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

STICK ENEMIES IN FRONT OF DAYTIME T.V.

HEREWITH annual May missive message from I, Mark E. Smith
on this day of celebration/reformation:

ANOTHER year has passed - rapidly for some, too slowly for I,
one-legged yet again.
And yet, things re: The Fall improve, our new label, although young, are coping just about with 'The Fall".
Yea, in a Castleford studio built on gravel the group cracked down some odd things.
The main concern to avoid the much-ripped off already 'Imperial'.
Our next record will be something that scum like that choke on.
We will not be playing 'I.O.W.' 'FEST' either but will play the Mojo sick-trio.

STICK ENEMIES IN FRONT OF DAYTIME T.V.
AVOID GERMAN-BERT'S MOCK ART EXHIBITION IN L.S.W.

I love you all but i cannot embrace you all/
-As of last year,
your dearest pal-

MARK E. SMITH
for 'The Fall'
2009

As I type this in the swirling gales of consequence I wish you, my pals, all the very best.
MAY THEIR INSIDIOUS RAPPINGS DISINTEGRATE INTO THE FOREGROUND

Zakary Thaks "Sock It To Me Baby"

Dream

Last night I dreamed my laptop was soaked in water. I tipped it and water drained out. I thought "I have to let this dry out before I use it".

This morning a friend sent this photo to me. No text, just the photo.

Moby Grape

The Sad Saga of Moby Grape

San Francisco

My first day in SF. Morning walk to City Lights Books. A pilgrimage. Bought Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, William Carlos Williams Paterson. Then $4 dim sum at a place where the menu was all Chinese. Ridiculous hills, low rumble of the cable car cables, ocean smell, Tenderloin panhandlers in the California sunshine. Why weren't you satisfied with this, Jack Kerouac?

Happy Birthday Charles Mingus

Oh Yeah

Two Videos I Created for http://www.galileosstudio.org/

I'll Drown My Book by Dan Corrigan from Barrett Jones on Vimeo.


Biotic Connections by Kevin P. Smith from Barrett Jones on Vimeo.

Wish You Were Here

Dear Dad-
It's raining today, just like it was a year ago when you died. Last night I parked on the same street I parked on a year ago, that night when I got the phone call from Brendan and stood on the steps of a rowhouse in the rain. I passed that house last night and it gave me the chills.

I've learned a lot since that night. I've learned that when you say goodbye to someone, it might be the last time you ever see them. I've learned that much of life is sound and fury, signifying nothing. And that death don't have no mercy in this land.

I have plenty to be grateful for but I wish you were here.

Wendell Jones
July 21, 1937-April 3, 2008

Happy Birthday, Stereogab

SSPPPRRIIIINNGGGG!!!!
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

Today's your day!

Spring Fever

The White House gets a garden!

Experimental Frequencies, our new poetry-sound mashup

Surfer Heaven

On the west coast of Costa Rica there’s a spot with consistently great waves, in a bay with a sweeping golden sand beach lined with jungle. It’s a three hour drive over dirt roads or a one hour plane ride from San Jose. It was there I met two young surfer drop-outs named Patrick and Peter. We hit it off right away. Their friendly vibe was infectious. They were outgoing stoner nomads who lived to surf. They'd been winging it in Costa Rica for the past year. Twenty year olds, they were living like it's 1972, but with better surf boards. Morning and evening they were out on the water, taking turns rocketing up and down the waves. They were by far the two most talented surfers on the local scene.

I hung out with them for a week. They lived with a few other surfers in a squalid cabana within walking distance of the beach. Their only possessions were surf trunks, t-shirts, boards, iPods, a bong, and flip-flops. They were definitely traveling light. In the morning when the birds and monkeys awakened and started screeching we’d head down to the beach to catch waves until the wind changed and the surf flattened out. Then we'd go back to camp, eat a big meal of rice and beans, and crash in hammocks for a few hours before heading back out in the early evening when the waves picked up again. "Pura Vida" is a phrase you see everywhere in Costa Rica. These guys were living it. One day slipped into the next following the same routine: wake up and surf, take a siesta, then go back out and surf some more.

In the evenings they'd sit around cutting out stencils and spray-painting them on old t-shirts and truckers caps. It was a collaborative effort, although Patrick came up with most of the designs; Cubist faces, random phrases, and tribal patterns spray-painted silver or black onto odd corners of the shirt. Without the distractions of television, Internet, or a nearby city they devoted most of their non-surfing time to their art.

Down in Costa Rica the surf scene is going strong. Local Tican rastas party with Mexican jewelry artists, American drop-outs, and European backpackers. They exist apart from the square tourists staying in the resorts that are popping up all along the once-pristine coastline. Hideaways on stilts with tie-dyed banners and surf boards leaning against the walls are scattered throughout the jungle near the shore. Every night surfers of both sexes, all heavily tanned and toned from hours of surfing, congregate at one of the few open air bars that sit along the dirt roads. Reggae plays over the sound system as they drink Imperial beer in the tropical heat and compare experiences from the day's surfing.

Surfing requires strength, especially today’s style which emphasizes carved turns and flips. Peter recalled how he got started: “I stood up on a boogie board when I was 7" he said, "My uncle taught me to surf. We just paddled out and he said 'Go for it'". He grew up surfing the river jettys off Newport Beach. Since then he'd surfed Hawaii and up and down the coast of Central America.

Patrick (a.k.a. “Pato”) hailed from Irvine, California. He and Peter went to high school together there, before they both were expelled two months before graduation for dealing. Patrick seemed to know everyone on the beach and in the nearby town. Driving a borrowed pickup truck into town to buy food, with long, white-blonde hair flopping over his eyes and a dolphin tattoo adorning one skinny hip, he'd call out greetings to kids playing on the road, families on bicycles, giggling local girls, workers lounging in the shade; everyone knew Pato and everyone liked him.

Along with surfing and partying, Patrick and Peter were making t-shirt art too. Patrick:"When I was in high school I would wear clothing by Billabong and Volcom religiously. Then one day I said "Why not do it yourself?" Ever since I have only worn a handful of shirts that I did not print myself".

Years ago I knew a kid named Michael who surfed the breaks off Palos Verdes. He lived in a Volkswagen Microbus that he kept parked near the beach. He spent most of his time at a coffee shop in Redondo Beach. That's where you called if you wanted to reach him. He sit playing chess for hours, stopping only to wander out to his van, grab his board and catch some waves when they were good. He was part of a long lineage of California surf bums. Guys who roll up and down the highways of the West Coast in old vans and pickups, chasing the waves. The commercialization of surfing hasn't eliminated them. You won't find them among the crowds who swarm the breaks on weekends. They're nowhere nearby. They're surfing a secret spot up the coast, one where you have to hike in. Or they're out in Hawaii, or down in Mexico, camping for weeks on end.

Patrick and Peter stayed down in Costa Rica another year before returning to America. They landed back in Irvine, harassed by the local cops until they found a secluded house off a dirt road in a rural part of Orange County. Here they set up a communal house with a group of like-minded friends. These days they spend their time growing vegetables in their garden and building coops for a flock of chickens that give them fresh eggs every morning. They've built a half-pipe for skateboarding and jumps for the dirt bikes they ride on the local trails. They’ve also started making shirts in earnest, hooking up with a guy who let them use a silk screen plant where they print shirts at night to sell at local surf shops and events during the day. They've named this operation Illus Clothing, Inc.

In an email to me, Patrick described the way it works: "Peter or myself or a friend comes up with a picture or logo or image then we tweak it out a little bit. Once we've agreed on a certain graphic we take it into the shop. The silk screen shop is open for business until about 5 or 6 in the afternoon so we usually go into work around 8 or 9 o'clock at night so we don't bother anyone. We make the artwork, buy the shirts, transport the shirts, paint the shirts using a silk screen press and then put them in Pete's van or in my truck and take 'em to the streets"

So far, they sell their shirts through their MySpace page and in a shop in Santa Barbara. They've had luck selling shirts at motocross races so they're trying more of them. Motocross is another adrenaline-junkie pursuit that requires strength and endurance. In the mountains northeast of LA, up around Big Bear Lake, there are miles of trails to ride and plenty of partying once the sun goes down.

Says Patrick: "I lived in a town where all my friends were given cars when they were 16. I used to work to make money to spend money but I didn't have a gut love for what I was doing. Now we're in a United States stuck in a stalemate of war and economic downturn. We are looking to make life better for everyone. It just seems there is way more than enough wealth in this country for everyone to have a decent life"

The Purple Knif Show, DJ'd by Lux Interior

"The Purple Knif Show is a highly sought-after, classic Hollywood radio show from July 1984 hosted by Lux Interior of The Cramps"

Lux Interior, R.I.P.

John Martyn R.I.P.

January 20, 2009

Mental Health

"Tom", a 1972 film sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. If this is an anti-drug film, it definitely fails.

Ron Asheton

MIKE WATT, STOOGES BASSIST, 2003-2009

"I owe him so much. Number one, just for the opportunity to actually be a Stooge. And then just for forming the Stooges, which meant so much
to so many. Getting to play with him, looking across and seeing the guitar man from the Stooges playing with me was mind-blowing! It was a dream come true — and he used to tell me that a lot [laughs]. Because I was always foaming and so happy to be playing with him.

I'd gotten very sick — tubes in my arms; the first time I couldn't
play bass. When I finally got well, I was freaked out because my
fingers had atrophied. So I started playing along to the Stooges'
albums to get my fingers and my rhythm and my music back in shape.
Because there's not a lot of chord changes involved. So, ironically, I
was putting together some Stooges [tribute] bands in L.A. and New York just to play during that time. I could barely stand but I needed to
get back on the horse. Right after that, J. [Mascis] released his solo
album and asked me to go on tour. After Ron joined us, the first part
of the show was J.'s tunes and the second part was all Stooges stuff.
[Sonic Youth's] Thurston [Moore] was curator of the All Tomorrow's
Parties festival in L.A. and said, "Why don't you get Scott [Asheton]
to play drums and do a Stooges tribute?" So that was the first time I
got to watch the brothers play together and it was incredible. Ron was
a team player. He was a great guitarist but he was concerned with how
the band sounded as a whole. He was a great listener and very generous as a musician; he wanted to play along with you. It really takes a giving person to play like that.

We ended up doing some gigs in Europe and I think that's probably when Iggy heard about the brothers playing together again. Not long after that, Ronnie told me that Iggy had called and wanted them to do some songs with him. Then, in 2003, they got the offer to do Coachella. I'd played with Iggy one time before, at the [British] Short List Awards in L.A., so I'd played with all three of them. It sounds conceited to say I had anything to do with them getting back together because I have so much respect for those cats. But I think part of it had to do with guys like me and J. and Thurston and all the punk kids who grew up loving the Stooges finally coming of age and having bands and it was just sort of like it was meant to happen.

I was on another tour but flew in to play Coachella and got sick on
the plane on the way there. So there I am, sitting in a room with all
three of them. Wow! It was really intense seeing the incredible
communication they immediately had with each other. Ig had huge
respect for the Asheton brothers, especially their playing. But I was
so sick for that gig, with a fever. Playing at rehearsals with what
felt like a pool stick up my ass. People were hugging me, trying to
get me to stop shaking. [Red Hot Chili Pepper] Flea knew a nurse who
gave me a shot of vitamin B right before I went onstage and that
stopped me from shaking. But when I was finally onstage with them, I
felt every five seconds like I was going to get lost because I was
tripping from the fact that I was actually playing with them and
trying to stay focused! But that one gig was so intense that it kicked
that sickness right out of me. And then being on tour with them for
the next five-and-a-half years ... well, talk about being able to go
to the well and just taking buckets from it. What an education!

When we were working on the tracks for The Weirdness, I'd stay with
him in Ann Arbor. And he always made sure I had my own little pad in
his house, all the comforts, my own chair. And he'd sit there and just
rap to me for hours. He was a very, very interesting man. Just a
beautiful, beautiful guy [voice cracks]. He called once just to thank
me for getting him out there again. But I thought it was justice to
see him get the recognition and be out there playing. Before the
reunion, the Stooges had only done one overseas gig — the Raw Power show in London. So Ronnie got to take that music all over the world.

He'd say, "Sometimes, I feel like an old blues guy sitting on my porch
and now all these kids want to learn my sound and hear my stories." I
remember he only had one request for me and that was to not wear
flannel [shirts] onstage. [Laughs] "You guys stole that from John
Fogerty anyway." I said, "What about Levis and Converse?" He said,
"That's strong!" [Laughs] But whenever those guys told me anything, I
listened. Because they had perspective. These were the guys who made Stooges music so I don't question anything they have to say.

When we were finally putting the album together and I was staying with
Ronnie, the pressure was really on me and I was pretty stressed. It
was a pressure cooker because I knew I had to play my very best for
these guys. The very last day that we were working on the album,
Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth came to Detroit. So I went to the gig and
got together with those guys, my friends ... and ended up drinking
about a half gallon of whiskey. I got back to Ronnie's, and I puked a
little in the driveway — well, actually, I puked a lot! [Laughs] It
was all over my jeans and flannel. So I go up to my little pad and
Ronnie comes in. He gets me out of my clothes, puts me in the tub and
washes me off, then gets me in bed, makes sure I'm all right and won't
choke on my own vomit or anything like that. He totally took care of
me. Another time, he helped me come up with a bass solo. Because
people forget that Ronnie was a righteous bass player himself. He was
just a giving cat. Time after time after time, he shared so much with
me. I'm going to miss him so much. [Voice cracks] Sorry I'm not more
together but this is just really, really hard."
http://metrotimes.com/music/story.asp?id=13608

Soularfone

"Pharoah (Sanders) had this song called 'Pisces Moon,' which he was playing every night as a theme in New York and he asked me if I could put some lyrics to it. I came up with 'The Creator Has A Masterplan.' A classic was born...."

"I'd been trying to reach this cat for ages with no luck. I was at home and thought 'I'm gonna make this cat pick up the phone'--mentally. I began my yoga exercises and got to the head stand. With one intake of breath, I planned to walk to the phone upside down, dial his number, and make him answer with this mental projection.

"As I crossed the threshhold of the bedroom, I transcended. I was one place and my body was another. I dropped to the floor, right on my face and my teeth went into my bottom lip. There was blood everywhere....

"So I couldn't do my own show with Pharoah. I had eight stitches in my mouth. I couldn't do anything. Pharoah came by to see me [and he said] you can't pull out."

"I couldn't smile. I could hardly open my mouth...but I went along anyhow. I got up on the stage and when it came time for me to scat, this sound just came out. It shocked me. I didn't know where it was coming from.

"I realised it was me and I realised that the ancestors had arrived. Pharoah, standing beside me on stage just raised his eyebrows at me. The ancestors had given me what we call throat articulation and they said to me 'You will sing like this with your mouth CLOSED.' And that was the first time it presented itself to me, in a church. My God! Thank you....It surprises me, it does everything of its own volition. I call it Soularfone. The pygmies call it Umbo Weti....This voice is not me, my voice is ancient. This person you see before you is controlled by ego but my voice is egoless." Leon Thomas

CAN

"We didn't know what to call the record and we didn't have any cover ideas until just by chance, in the window of a Turkish food shop, we saw this can, made by a Turkish company called Can who put Okra in a tin. There were about 20 of them, arranged in a display. We saw it, and thought 'this is a funny idea', and made a photograph of it, and called the record Ege Bamyasi, which is Turkish for okra. We wrote to the Turkish company to tell them we have been called Can for a couple of years, and told them that we made this cover, and might send it to them, and we would love to do a promotional thing, like sending cans to journalists. We got a letter back from their lawyers saying 'you are not allowed to call yourselves Can, and if you continue to do so, we will sue you'. I'm not such a big fan of okra anyway, it isn't really my vegetable." Irmin Schmidt

The Cut Ups "Jusserand"

The Cut Ups are a Washington, D.C. duo who employ simple, sparse song structures with an emphasis on mood and lyric. Their understated approach serves their songs well. From the opening notes, their second album "Jusserand" sounds richer and fuller than their first ("Hearts, Kings, Lies"). The band has progressed artistically, with more care paid to the elements of the songs. They've brought in other musicians to enhance their sound as well. Throughout the record the guitar chords are bright and crisp, the simple, unobtrusive drumming propels the songs forward, the light touches of keyboard and synthesizer effects are never overwhelming. The recordings have a live feel. "New Years Eve", the rocker of the album, clatters like a Slanted & Enchanted era Pavement song. "California Questions", another standout track, is reminiscent of The Feelies. Perhaps a few more rockers would have rounded out this record. And the lyrics deserve to be printed on the insert. But these are minor points. http://www.thecutups.blogspot.com

Psychedelic Superstars

COME SEE OBETROL IN NOVEMBER

Interstate Overdrive

Gone But Not Forgotten

Grand Canyon
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

Happy Birthday Dad

A Life Ends

A week ago today I got a phone call that I'll remember forever. It was my brother calling to tell me our father had died. I stood on the street in the rain and tried to comprehend the news.

Here's the obituary we wrote for the local paper:

Wendell Harvey Jones, 70, of Ridgefield, husband of Barbara (Johnson) Jones died on Thursday evening, April 3, 2008 at his home.

Mr. Jones was born in LeSeuer, MN on July 21, 1937. He was the son of Harvey and Clara (Haas) Jones.

While attending the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he met his wife, Barbara. They were married in January of 1960. After graduating from the University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1960, he served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1960 to 1963. In 1964, he obtained a Bachelor of Foreign Trade from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

In 1966 Mr. Jones joined the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. From 1967 through 1968 he served as Vice Counsel and Second Secretary at the American Embassy in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. After returning to the United States, Mr. Jones pursued a career in international finance in New York City, working as a banker until 2000. He later became a substitute teacher in the Ridgefield and Danbury School systems and was briefly director of the Ridgefield Discovery Center.

Mr. Jones was an avid outdoorsman, hiking many of the peaks of New England in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter. He instilled this love of nature in his children, who accompanied him on many family camping expeditions, from California to Maine.

As a lifelong music fan, Mr. Jones was particularly fond of country and western and rock and roll. His favorite artists included Johnny Cash, Neil Young and the Rolling Stones. He was known to often have his nose in at least three books at once, preferring historical tomes over fiction. On the weekends, he liked to cook, often following recipes clipped from the New York Times.

An area resident since 1976, he had been a resident of Ridgefield for the past twenty-two years, coming from Redding. He was a member of the First Congregational Church of Ridgefield.

In addition to his wife Barbara of 48 years, he is survived by two sons; Barrett Wendell Jones and his wife Gabriela Schneider of Washington, DC and Brendan Ronald Jones and his wife Susannah of New York, NY, a brother, Ronald A. Jones and his wife Kay of Lake Jackson, TX as well as nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will take place at noon on April 9 at the First Congregational Church of Ridgefield.

The family will receive friends following the service in Lund Hall of the First Congregational Church.

Internment will take place in Mapleshade Cemetery, Ridgefield at the direction of the family.

In lieu of flowers, his family asks that any contributions be made to the Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston, MA 02108 (617-523-0655; http://www.outdoors.org).

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library

I needed a book for a project and since I just needed a few pages, I decided to go to my public library. I checked online and found a copy available at the central library: Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. I took the Metro to Gallery Place, crossed the street and entered the building. inside the door I put my bag through the x-ray machine and stepped through the metal detector, which I set off. the officer made me spread my arms out while he wanded me for guns, knives or whatever.

the central library of D.C. is not a pretty place. it may have been once, but now it's dark, grimy, and stale. after a few wrong turns I found the section I needed (Sociology). the doors were locked with a note explaining the section was closed until further notice due to maintenance. I went back downstairs and asked a librarian if a staff member could retrieve the book for me. the answer was no.


it's been forty years since James Earl Ray did what many feared and some hoped for. by 68, King had turned to economic justice for all people, black and white. he was in the midst of organizing the Poor People's Campaign, which he envisioned as the "second phase" of the civil rights movement.

the poverty rate in America has not changed since 1968. today 36.5 million Americans live in poverty (link). in the District of Columbia, 19% of the city's population live in poverty.

walking down G Street I thought about how the condition of the library reflects the condition of King's ideas of economic justice. both have suffered from years of neglect.
the leaders who gather to pay tribute to King on the anniversary of his death have done nothing to lower the poverty rate in America. when we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. we should remember his unfulfilled dream of economic justice for all Americans.

They Say It's Your Birthday

Don Cherry

help me out im just learning to sing
Originally uploaded by stereogab

my appreciation for early seventies jazz just grows and grows as time goes on. the Miles Davis stuff from those days is heavy and powerful: Live/Evil, On the Corner, A Tribute to Jack Johnson- any one of these records can peel the paint off walls.

Don Cherry was also doing some interesting stuff in the seventies. Orient is a live recording from Paris in 1971. it isn't as heavy as Miles but it is just as powerful, and more approachable. the pieces range from chaotic breakdowns to deep grooves to audience sing-alongs.

in 1971 he staged a series of jam sessions inside a geodesic dome on the grounds of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. this became the album Organic Music Society, also released in 1971.

Stratocaster

my new guitar
Originally uploaded by Iburiedpaul

my church is everywhere

happy easter

Video Of A Protest This Morning

Stop Bitching and Create Something Interesting

If you live in D.C. you've probably encountered someone like this woman standing on a downtown sidewalk.

these people are from Zendik Farm, a commune in West Virginia.

their slogan is "Stop Bitching Start a Revolution". this command doesn't appear to have worked so far. maybe because starting a revolution requires more than putting on a t-shirt.

I'm not bothered by hippie artist commune dwellers selling t-shirts on the street. we need more weird people selling art in our public spaces (instead of FBI t-shirts and hot links). what pisses me off about the Zendik people is their lack of imagination. they've been selling the same black t-shirt with white slogan ever since I came to D.C. ten years ago.

if you drop out of society to create art then create something interesting.

SXSW Tuesday

the music people are starting to arrive...overheard two agency guys on cell phones going over the "talking points" for some celebrity: "We'll run a voice over where she talks about how important Walmart is in her life as we show pictures of a family in a backyard"

new word learned yesterday: administrivia

fact learned today: the tune of the American national anthem is based on an old English drinking song

Glenn Otis Brown of YouTube did a really good presentation on soundtrack licensing issues for film.

ok, ya'll... I've reached the end of the last day and I'm going offline to recuperate after living like a twentysomething these past 4 days. I encourage anyone reading this to check out this conference next year. the mix of people is fantastic and Austin is a helluva party town.

SXSW Monday

at this morning's panel on "beyond the blogosphere" I got to thinking about the money thing again. is advertising the only way to generate revenue? maybe some of these big entertainment conglomerates who are getting content from the blogosphere should pay the bloggers for what they take...wouldn't that be nice?

the Taco Shack on 4th street has been key to surviving this conference

more guys in dockers and bellies are checking in at the hotel...

the afternoon's keynote by Frank Warren (postsecret) was a real tearjerker. at the Q&A a guy proposed to his girlfriend and a woman cried for her dying sister...new age secular revivalism.

last night made more recordings of jam sessions...this will eventually be edited and released on CD-R under the name Client 9

SXSW Sunday

last night on my way home from the opening party I passed a line of 7 cars each with the drivers side windows smashed...demon alcohol at work I guess. SXSW interactive conference attendees wouldn't do this, would they?

ok, here's my excuse: the hotel left a flyer in my room saying they were changing the clocks on sat when they cleaned my room, but they didn't. so I missed all the morning sessions but had a great breakfast of huevos rancheros at the counter of a bustling diner, so all's well that ends well.

today's keynote went off the rails with Sarah Lacy (Business Week) interviewing Mark Zuckerberg...as the audience becomes increasingly hostile she says "this is the problem with web 2.0"... MZ uses the word "communicate" over a dozen times...I don't buy his line; no one becomes a millionaire who's not in it for the money.

12 steps content panel: if I knew who these women were I'd probably be thrilled but not knowing who they are it didn't mean much to me.

meant to go to geek bowling but got caught up in a tide that brought me to emos which turned out to be fun...one newcastle brown too many, though...

SXSW Saturday

this morning's panel on videoblogging was really inspirational. bre pettis especially.

kinda so-so panel (The Suxorz) on the worst social networking ads of 2007.... didn't really flow...too bad, it was a great idea.

sat's keynote address: Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson- the dilemma of "pink collar" workers (librarians were cited as one example) who have advanced education but are not challenged by their jobs so they put their energies into online gaming, fan works (organization of transformative works)....the authorities (government, corporations, educators) assume the populace is dumb. this view needs to change 180 degrees, working instead off the premise that people are smart. they might be annoying but they are not dumb.

right after that was Bryan Caplan talking about how people are dumb....go figure.

last of sat was the Onion News Network folks talking about how they do their show....got to see a piece they'd rejected as too controversial (because of the hardcore porn clips...) yet, though.

SXSW so far

Sitting on the floor of the Austin convention center, here are my first impressions:

• my hotel lobby was full of guys in crewcuts and dockers. luckily they turned out not to be SXSW conference attendees
  
• the young are taking over, or at least the young-looking
• the "Silver Dillo" runs to Whole Foods for free!
• Whole Foods Austin beats Whole Foods Silver Spring by a mile
• these people are friendly and enthusiastic, I want to give each of them my business card
• grackles make me cackle
  

Battledecks II panel: a speaker makes up a presentation on-the-fly to a random assortment of weird slides.

The Naked Cowboy's Work Ethic

I read somewhere how each morning The Naked Cowboy reads a set of inspirational snippets before heading out to play in public in his underwear. The texts are bits from classic self-help books by Anthony Robbins, Dale Carnegie etc.

D.C.'s Bad Brains (the best punk band this town ever produced) based their work ethic on a single book: Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", a work that emphasizes the importance of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA).

I guess my inspirational text is a novel called "I Served The King of England", originally written in Czech by a wild writer named Bohumil Hrabal. That's the book I've re-read most often. It's a hero story about good fortune happening by chance amidst the random tragedies of life.

But an absurdist Czech novel doesn't seem like a good template to work off of right now. I need something more constructive...

Then again, maybe not.

Meditations on the Lunar Eclipse

As Stereogab and I stood outside watching the lunar eclipse, I thought about how much things have changed.

In other ages, an eclipse was a terrifying event.

American Indians believed that a lunar eclipse spawned a negative essence that spread over the world. If a particle of this essence landed on a cooking pot, sickness would result. So they turned all their pots over to avoid contamination and threw out their water supplies, believing they'd been tainted with this negative essence.

While we stood outside watching the moon disappear, our neighbors sat inside watching television. Cars drove by, the Metro came and went, life went on just like any other Wednesday night.

I suppose I should be glad that Science has triumphed over Superstition. But is science the reason people don't get up from the couch to watch a lunar eclipse? I read recently that 1 in 5 American adults believe the sun revolves around the earth. So maybe science isn't the reason. Maybe people have become so disconnected that they don't notice (or don't care about) the patterns of nature.

That is really terrifying.

The Next Terrastock