top 15 records of 2015

i barely even wanted to make the list this year, so it took a while to get around to posting it.
this is the version without all the ridiculous notes. enjoy every single one of these.

1. sun blood stories - twilight midnight morning (obsolete media objects)
2. toy zoo - toy zoo (heart in a box records)
3. crosss - lo (telephone explosion records)
4. marshall poole - totems (defendu records)
5. cherubs - 2 ynfynyty (brutal panda records)
6. thee oh sees - mutilator, defeated at last (castle face records)
7. viet cong - viet cong (jagjaguwar)
8. ex's with benefits - bad hotel (stone boat records)
9. and and and - the failure (party damage records)
10. courtney barnett - sometimes i sit and think, sometimes i just sit (milk!/mom + pop music)
11. we are hex - bleach brigade (hexhaus/war crime records)
12. built to spill - untethered moon (warner bros)
13. catskills - catskills (la grande music)
14. round eye - round eye (ripping records)
15. legendary shack shakers - southern surreal (alternative tentacles)

other really irresistable ones...
red hands black feet - we must fall forever if we survive (self-released)
strange wilds - subjective concepts (sub pop)
protomartyr - the agent intellect (hardly art)
hillfolk noir - pop songs for elk (self-released)
echo sparks - ghost town girl (self-released)
a place to bury strangers - transfixiation (dead oceans)
high on fire - luminiferous (e1 music)
lord dying - poisoned altars (relapse records)
pop group - citizen zombie (freaks r us)
mutoid man - bleeder (sargeant house)
the great depression - in a starry state (princess records)
neu human - how to stop time (self-released)
jason rubenstein - new metal from old boxes (tonecluster music)
deathwish - out for blood (beer city)
lightning bolt - fantasy empire (thrill jockey)
ancient psychic - dream, punk (self-released)
yonatan gat - director (joyful noise recordings)
max pain & the groovies - electro cosmic (psych lake city records)
zulus - zulus II (aagoo)
brett netson & snakes - scavenger cult e.p. (self-released)
old death whisper - go down fightin' e.p. (self-released)
in the whale - full nelson e.p.
ex-cult - cigarette machine e.p. (lollipop/castle face)
marshall poole - grade aa rock n roll (self-released)
drinks - hermits on holiday (birth records/heavenly recordings)
screaming females - rose mountain (don giovanni records)
raven & the writing desk - some get started e.p. (self-released)
metz - metz II (sub pop)
damaged bug - cold hot plumbs (castle face)
moon duo - shadow of the sun (sacred bones)
red martian - ghost into the fog (bughlt records)
yesterday's saints - generation of vipers (draconum records)
echo bombs - king of uncool (rubber brother records)

email to a position on craig's list

I am interested in a position like the one you are advertising, but I feel like I may be beating a dead horse looking for jobs on Craig's list. I work a job that I can't stand now and would love to go back to care giving. However, yours like most other caregiver jobs on Craig's list, are too low paying compared to the expectations.  For $9 per hour, it is too much to expect someone to have a reliable car with insurance. I can't even afford to keep my car running now and I'm making $13 per hour. The only advantage is that my job doesn't require a car, so I can let it sit until I save up enough money.  For $9, a person could barely pay rent and buy food. They couldn't possibly be in a good enough position to reliably take care of others.  It's sad to me that I have so much experience doing that job and desperately want to again, but the conditions make it impossible. The last care giver job I had paid me $12.75 with benefits and the use of company cars. That is a more realistic proposition. I am sorry, but I expect people will continue posting jobs for desperate people on Craig's list. That is all.

radio boise show #7

one long weekend out of town & it feels like about a month since the last show.
:: new music from crosss, like a rocket, band of skulls...
:: trax from albums that turn 25 this week, like deicide, biohazard, danzig, sonic youth, teenage fanclub, manic street preachers...

from the portland experience, i was introduced to reed college. reed still carries the ethos of a 1920s college education. the t-shirt in the bookstore featured the seal of the college with the three characteristics of "atheism" "communism" and "free love".  something about that by itself suggests something deep and insightful, not all about churning out cogs in the wheel, preparing a student for a workforce. instead, it is an embodiment of ideals encouraging people to think for the themselves.  which accomplishes two great things, makes people smarter, makes workers more useful. i know americans don't wanna agree with things like that, but just think for a minute about why it's better to work for, say, apple than mcdonald's.

also at reed, i was reminded of a great person that is the newest member of the rabble rouser hall of fame.

Ben Linder

Ben Linder mural at Reed College

a portland native, graduate of adams high school in 1977, ben graduated from university of washington with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1983.  shortly thereafter, ben moved to nicaragua to assist in works projects of building dams to provide fresh water and electricity to poor villages. the 1980s was a decade long war in which the u.s. government funded and trained the contras to overthrow the government and oust the sandanistas.  by every measure, the contras were brutal terrorists bent on destroying every element of society from churches to crops to especially electricity. they planted landmines on civilian roadways and basically engaged in any action that would intimidate the masses to not support the government. in was in the hostile environment of el cua that ben linder was working on a hydro-electric plant. in April 1987, Ben and two associates were killed at point blank range by Contra militiamen, specifically targeting ben because he was an american and what his mission was. as pointed to on liberation theology website,

The assassination of Benjamin Linder was part of a deliberate contra policy to murder civilians working in education, health and development programs. 

the dam was completed in 1994 with the help of ben's friends and family members. it now provides electricity and drinking water to thousands of people in the cua-bocay region. the memory of ben linder lives on well into the twenty first century. in 1999, joan kruckewitt published a book called The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandanista Nicaragua.

Mark Angeles graduated on may 18 from reed college with a degree in chemistry and environmental studies. he was also a founder of the reed bicycle co-op, which provided bicycles to students in need. ten days after graduation, mark was killed in a traffic collision with a tow truck in southesat portland. during the recent reed class reunion, and on the day of pridefest, a memorial ride was held across campus and then to pridefest downtown. a lot of heavy speeches were given, all of which support the outstanding student as a beacon of hope in the world. one great quote i took away from it was one of his close friends relaying an experience they had shared together, capped by mark's words, "i'm so glad i did this. it was so good for my soul!"

Ornette Coleman
from the music's over, a tribute to the saxophonist:

Ornette Coleman was one of the true greats of jazz.  As a saxophonist, he pioneered what would become to be called “free jazz.” In fact, he is often credited with actually inventing it, or at least putting a name to it, after naming his 1960 album,  Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. Born in Forth Worth, TX., Coleman spent much of his early career traveling around the United States performing along regional jazz circuits.  Along the way he began to incorporate country blues and R&B into his sound.  In his slower pieces, his high timbre can come across as crying, which appealed to fans of the blues as well.  In 1959, while living in New York, Coleman released The Shape of [Jazz] To Come, and a year later, Free Jazz.  Both releases broke him through in a big way and laid the foundation for the avant-garde movement of the 1960s and beyond.   In later years Coleman dabbled in rock, even performing with the Grateful Dead on occasion.  In 2007, he became the first musician to win a Pulitzer Prize – for his album, Sound Grammar.  He continued to perform and record up until the time of his death.  Ornette Coleman was 85 when he died of cardiac arrest on June 11, 2015.

oregonlive re-printed this review of his 2006 album Sound Grammar following his passing.
a couple links to some of ornette's notorious works
Shape of Jazz To Come (1958)
Free Jazz (1960)
Change of the Century (1960)
This is Our Music (1961)
Science Fiction (1971)
Body Meta (1976)
Dancing In Your Head (1977)

stay tuned next week for insight into the world of doula's...

radio boise show #6

this week is the 50th anniversary of a few notable albums in the classic rock canon...
the Beatles US release of Beatles VI
the debut album from Them, known then as Angry Young Them
and one of the most heralded rabble rouser classics the Yardbirds debut album For Your Love

the debut album by my own fav band of the invasion led by the esteemed Jeff Beck on guitar and Keith Relf on vocals. Eric Clapton gets a lot of credit for being in the band, though he only played lead guitar on three songs and left the band months before the album was released.
nonetheless, the quintessential garage band of the 60s.








as well, a couple of 25th anniversary specials, from this week in 1990, if i have enough time to throw in:
Dio's Lock Up the Wolves, featuring perhaps the best Dio song ever "Wild One"

r.i.p
from the music's over:

Allan Fryer is perhaps best remembered as the lead singer of popular ’80s Australian heavy metal band, Heaven. Following the death of Bon Scott in 1980, Fryer auditioned to replace him in AC/DC. It was believed he secured the role until a surprise announcement (at least to him) that Brian Johnson had in fact been given the job. Fryer went on to form Heaven whose sound was definitely cut from the same cloth as AC/DC, at least on the early records. They eventually grew into a more NWOBHM sound. Heaven found some success in the US, enough to tour with Dio and Motley Crue in 1982. Throughout their run, the band released four albums and also toured with Judas Priest, KISS, and Iron Maiden. On June 4, 2015, Allan Fryer died following a long struggle with cancer. He was 60.

to the left, enjoy a track from Heaven's debut album Bent (1982), or Twilight For Mischief as it was known in Australia.  a song about all the classics and the best kind of school there is!  "Rock School"

:: :: :: :: ::
and another one from the music's over:

Nick Marsh is best remembered as the co-founder and lead singer of ’80s goth/alternative rock band, Flesh For Lulu. Formed in London in 1982, the band quickly signed to Polydor who unceremoniously dropped them after lackluster sales of the self-titled debut. After a couple more miss-starts, the band signed with Beggars Banquet who was able to place their new single, “I Go Crazy,” into the popular John Hughes film, Some Kind Of Wonderful; the result, decent rotation on American college radio and their first tour of the United States. The momentum continued with Capitol Records soon releasing Long Live The New Flesh, which included “I Go Crazy,” as well as their second college (and MTV) hit, “Postcards From Paradise.” In 1989, they scored their biggest hit single with “Time And Space,” after which Capitol dropped them for reasons unknown. The band soon split up. During the mid ’90s, Marsh resurfaced fronting a new band called Gigantic, which failed to repeat the success of Flesh For Lulu, so they disbanded a couple of years later. In 2013, Marsh reformed Flesh For Lulu who toured clubs to the cheers of longtime fans. On June 5, 2015, Nick Marsh, 53, died of an aggressive form of throat cancer.

Marsh did get to live long enough to witness Ringo Starr stealing the name Postcards From Paradise for his own new album. tonight, i am gonna play a track off the self-titled Flesh For Lulu album (1984), the second, and last, on polydor. you can hear from this track that it's unreal they were dropped from the label due to commercial failure, i would guess that the label didn't promote them well enough. so enjoy this track "Subterraneans"







and last, but not least, Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers has passed away in California at the age of  88. the singer with a conscience, provided a lot of great protest material. here's a track from a 1963 UAW records compilation of union fight songs, Ronnie Gilbert singing of the wobbly songster (and rabble rouser hall of famer) Joe Hill, who was killed by the state of Utah after being framed for murder in 1914 in Salt Lake City.

radioboise #4 show highlights

to start with, a poem from Edith Moore...

White people and their identity
crisis
Society's requirement for
license
So hard you cant even get your own food without a crisis
And now everybody
fights it
bow your head and make good with
Isis
The goddess that is, Fuck terrorists
Put some holes in a box and save
feral kits
Buy used clothes and make them fit
to save your soul from the bull
shit
I'll spit
To the day that we fit
all the freaky people like a
puzzle
cuz not a single one of you is better than
the other
If you think you are you got another thing
comin'
Give it up or give some Lovin'
Hon.

here's to the day we fit all the freaky people together like a puzzle!

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another spectacular ranchfest has come and gone.  especially notable was finally getting to see two bands that i had been itching to see for a long time.

marshall poole... they've been my fav local band since i met them at treefort and picked up their "grade aa rock and roll" cd.  two months later, here i finally see them play.  and man!  these kids, i can can call them that...i'm just a kid in quotation marks. these three kids are, barely, if even, old enough to enter the venues they play. accordingly, they are students taking to heart all the lessons the music industry has to teach. but they are not sloppy rookies either. they're down right dirty blues rockers with soul that buddy guy might be proud of.  out of everyone that played ranch, marshall poole was the band most talked about, during and after the festival. here's to seeing legends of the local scene grow up right before our eyes!

hallowed oak... i would like to remind and/or make aware the fact that on my top 14 albums of 2014, hallowed oak was #1. the band had relocated from fort collins to boise last summer, so with my being in eastern oregon (at the time), i kind of assumed i was being biased. that was until i realized that not one of the 20+ lists from radio boise or record exchange had hallowed oak anywhere on their lists. (never mind what that might suggest about my qualifications and just listen for yourself.)
one of the most exhilarating feelings is to stumble through a field of  sagebrush and slip up a muddy hill with the anticipation of seeing something live that moved you so much thru headphones and then walking into a barn, straight up to the front of the stage while the intro to the first song plays. and you just stay floating there the entire time. that's the magic of music. hallowed oak made magic.

another thing to remember about the ranch is how amazing something so inauspicious can be. i'd like to share (to the right) a piece my buddy dave in ste. genevieve, missouri, sent in from the ste gen herald letters to the editor.

all i can say about this is...
exactly! if you're not part of the planning, you can't complain about the results. in boise, we kind of have a red carpet as far as events constantly going on, but that all takes a lot of hard work by people that really want nice things. once you get out of town, it becomes easy for people to complain that there's nothing to do. but, i'll tell you what. if a little unheard of festival in a desolate sagebrush prairie in camas county can be the coolest thing to do all year no matter where i go, that's testament to the fact that the only good things that happen are the things you make happen. if you're bored or if things aren't going next way you think they should, then by all means get involved and change things.
get ranchy!

=========================================================

r.i.p ~ lynn "twinkle" ripley (july 16, 1948 - may 21, 2015)

the UK teen pop star of the mid 1960s had a quick rise to fame with six singles on decca records. she wrote her first single "terry" at the age of 14. the song about a boy who died in a motorcycle crash was a popular theme of the day and similar to the shangri-las' "leader of the pack" which was released a few months after twinkle's song.  "terry" was banned by the BBC and the tv show ready steady go for being in poor taste.  that attention helped "terry" shoot up the charts, sending twinkle on tour with the rolling stones and making her an overnight sensation. but as quickly as fame came, it was gone and she retired from the music biz at the age of 18 in 1966. the unnerving nature of performing live, touring with dirty rock and rollers and especially pressure by record execs took the thrill out of the craft.  music producers pressured her to record songs that were written for her, instead of by her, to attempt to achieve the commercial success of "terry."  twinkle had said, “after golden lights [her self-penned second single], nothing i have ever done has been to my liking.”
twinkle made a few well received comebacks over the years, but mostly kept out of the public eye. she passed away on may 21 after a five year battle with cancer.

=========================================================

indie rock band surfer blood has a new album out, 1000 palms, on joyful noise records. they also, unfortunately have a band member, guitarist thomas fekete who has quit the band due to a rare cancer that has been spreading. the band has taken on many fund raising projects, such as a benefit concert at bowery ballroom and started a gofundme site to help with expenses. they also have been accepting cash donations at concerts on tour. while passing thru illinois last weekend, this happened in a whole foods parking lot...

Dear Fans,

We deeply regret having to inform you this, but our van was broken into today in Schaumburg, Il just outside of Chicago. Not only did we lose thousands of dollars in personal items and show settlements, but we also lost all cash donations we collected for Thomas over the last 8 shows at our merch table. This last detail is perhaps the most heartbreaking of all in that so much positivity and amazing generosity could be ruined by one bad person(s).

Most of our large musical gear was not stolen and the shows will still go on as planned.

There are a few one-of-a kind guitar pedals to please keep an eye out for-- not for their specific value, but for the fact that these are unique and recognizable items. If they are found at a pawn shop or private seller, everything else including the more serious items are likely there or somewhere nearby.

Thank you for all of your support. You help us all stay positive in the midst of something so discouraging.

                                                                  Much love,
                                                                  SB

luckily the show can go on and only about $700 of the funds for fekete were taken. but man, junkies and thieves sure are worthless. to steal from a person's livelihood, not to mention their ability to continue living, is the lowest of the low. that money and those effects get the thief nowhere. in the best case scenario, a person can only make their life more unstable by setting the earths energy against themselves. no one can possibly be desperate enough to resort to this kind of theft. yet, it happens. i'm not sure whether to feel worse for the band or the thief. godspeed be with surfer blood and thomas fekete.

=========================================================

rabble rouser of the month will be a person from oregon. and for the first time in a while, there will be a vote. recall last week, the story of makaila ragan, a tillamook high school student who responded to homophobic protesters with her own sign and ended up garnering the support of the entire town. the power of the protest is one of the most wonderful things of the ridiculous times we often live in.

well, this week, we have a more sarcastic form of protest from pendleton. recreational marijuana will become legal in a matter of days in oregon, but not all communities must treat legalization equally. pendleton city council has imposed a code for fines if a neighbor complains about the smell coming from a smoker's property. well, peter walters, a very conscious and concerned citizen, sent a letter to the editor of the east oregonian to request that they now place a ban on the far more noxious smell of farts. huffington post picked up the story, and then peter let off some steam on lars larson. thanks to peter for calling ridiculous laws into question. here's hoping it makes brainless city leaders come to their senses.

=========================================================

i'll leave you with some contemplative thoughts.
from l'envoi, oscar wilde's 1882 introduction to rennell rodd's rose leaf & apple leaf ... "one's real life is often the life that one does not lead." or, in a similar vein, as yoko ono tweeted on tuesday, "is reality always more real than what we create?"

#3 show highlights

now that i've started to get my feet wet at radioboise, the third installment of the rabble rouser show should be as much a treat to listen to as it was a treat to put together. hope you'll enjoy. the archive will  be available by monday on the internet archive site or the mixcloud site for a short time.

r.i.p. Ian Curtis (may 18, 1980)
singer of the legendary underground new wave both industrial band joy division, i'd like to think frankebryan, host of monday night's return of the disco witch hunt for turning me on to the fact that this week was the the 35 anniversary of curtis' passing. it seems like every year i learn this and then it slips under the rug again, but alas 5/18/1980 is famous for more than just the mt. st. helens eruption, its also the date that ian curtis committed suicide and the goth world in particular has not been the same.  often imitated, never duplicated, joy division was a one of a kind acted still revered 35 years later.

r.i.p. BB King :')

the blues king left us last thursday.  i don't want to undercut the legend, though i'm not so quick to refer to him as the greatest. think: robert johnson, willie dixon, howlin' wolf, bo diddley, muddy waters, mississippi john hurt, etc etc etc.  there have been so many greats, it's nearly impossible to pinpoint a best one. if cornered in a dark alley, i'd probably defer support to willie dixon as the king of the blues. but the man before us today, the venerable bb king illustrates well one of my frequent claims. the period from 1966/67 to 1972/3 was the ultimate golden era of music. almost everything recorded during that period was the best music ever made. and since 1972/73, the music world has rested on those laurels. bb king truly exemplifies this fact as well...

king had made a name for himself since the 1950s, but it was in 1968 he first crossed over into the mainstream. this was partly due to the burgeoning psych rock movement that was paying homage/stealing from the great 50s blues artists, but king certainly cashed in on this exposure to another crowd. it also seemed to have correlated with his rise in the r&b world as well.  the r&b charts were newly established about 5 years previously, which is a different story in its own right, but bb's 14th album "blues on top of the blues" (rel. 1968) featuring classics "heartbreaker" and "paying the cost to be the boss" went to #46 on the r&b charts, marking his first appearance on a music chart. later in dec 1968, he released "lucille" named for his distinct brand of gibson es-355 guitar that seem to produce the prototypical blues sounds on their own. thru the extra exposure king received by playing live with eric clapton and then being the opening act on the rolling stones 1969 u.s. tour, king's popularity rose dramatically for his 1969 album "completely well," raising the ante on his career with his most legendary tracks "thrill is gone" and "confessing the blues." trying to up the ante, his producer brought in an all star cast for his 1970 album "indianola mississippi seeds" about his hometown. bb always considered it to be his finest work and, indeed, the album reached #26 on the pop charts, #8 on the r&b charts, and #7 on the jazz charts.  after a couple well received live albums, king came back with "l.a. midnight" in 1972 featuring taj mahal that was a focused blues/jazz album that is perhaps my favorite of all. by 1973, when the rest of the music industry committed suicide, king hit the superstar circuit and basically toured on the strength of his late 60s/early 70s output for most the rest of his career.

i do certainly that when buddy guy passes on, the world looks back on him with as much admiration and gives him as much retrospective attention as they gave bb king this past week. buddy says bb was the best, but bb probably said buddy was the best. not to get carried away mourning the dead, buddy is a legend still with us. he is also still touring and will be around the pnw this summer. not coming  to boise, to my knowledge, he will come relatively close.

spokane, july 7 at the martin woldson theatre. and in billings july 31 at the magic city blues fest.


maiden voyage by herbie hancock

a jazz staple turned 50 years old this week. most every jazz aficionado touts it in the top 10 albums of the 1960s as do many listeners of other genres. the atmospheric concept album of sea faring, was a quintet of five of the greatest jazz musicians of their time: hancock on keys, freddie hubbard on trumpet, george coleman on tenor sax, ron carter on bass and tony williams on drums.







rabble rouser of the month nominations:
#sHELLno #PaddleInSeattle

photo: reuters / via common dreams

hundreds of people took to the waters of elliot bay over the weekend to stage peaceful protests vs shell oil, who has been granted conditional approval to drill in the arctic this summer.  one of shells's oil rigs for the expedition arrived in port recently, while the other waits for clearance in everett. the port commission recommended the vessel stay out while the port challenged a ruling to keep them out. the seattle mayor has lobbied hard to not allow shell to moor in the port.

alli harvey says, "science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the arctic - the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground." a day of peaceful disobedience on monday attempted to block shell's presence in terminal 5 at port of Seattle, a major point of contention between the city and environmentalists all year long.  activists have pointed to shell's failed attempts in 2012, which aborted their 2013 drilling, as evidence shell couldn't respond to a spill. shell has "unleashed a very robust opposition movement," said eric de place.

the stranger followed some of the action with a collection of tweets, including  "TV is up there. we're down here. follow alternative media." renny reep of seattle's raging grannies was quoted, " we're building a movement. and this is how it starts."

jennifer pawluck
the montreal instagrammer has been given 100 hours of community service and 18 months probation for posting a picture she took of a piece of graffiti that features a policeman with a bullet in the head. one has to wonder if they get probation for posting a pic, what would be the punishment for actually getting caught making the graffiti?

makaila ragan
a tillamook high school student started a somewhat unintended wave of support by joining an anti-gay protest with her own pro-gay support at the main intersection in tillamook.

other interesting facts:
on this date in 1924: bobby franks murdered by leopold and loeb in what the pair intended to be the "perfect crime" that turned out to be less perfect in leopold's pompous attitude about the facts of the case.
on this date, two major crossings of the atlantic. in 1927, charles lindberg completes his solo flight and in 1932 amelia earhardt completed her solo flight.
fats waller was born 111 years old today.
mr. t is 65 years old today.

february rabble rouser(s) of the month: carol burris & the opt-out dissenters

no child left behind mandate of 2001 paved the way for upping the ante in standardized testing on the common core subjects over the last couple of years.  the “common core” are a set of high-stakes principles by which all students are evaluated in basic education subjects, like math and science. with the new PARCC tests to begin in 43 states in march, some very heated debate has sprung up.
proponents say that each state having their own standards has created disparities and a common core can unify the standards.  theoretically, a strong standardized system would keep elementary thru high school students up to speed nationwide. frustrated parents, students, teachers and other opponents such as the harvard graduate school of education insist that the exam process has been corrupted and that public education has become distorted.  in the case of evaluations, one size does not fit all, and there becomes a loss of creativity and individualization. students are not universally prepared and, in fact, 65% to 70% are likely to fail.  the PARCC, in addition to to other standard tests such as ACT, SAT, AP and others, are sapping students and depriving teachers of days to actually teach.  high-stakes education have also been correlated with high drop out rates.

a standardized system is criticized for being run by bureaucrats (“fed ed”) rather than local educators.  “the further we remove these decisions from the students, teachers and families, the people closest to the school, the more we see our schools failing and we’re not getting the results we want,” cheryl boise of pennsylvanians restoring education was quoted in penn live in 2013. the gripe has been that the raised standards cannot be met without adequate resources, which sets certain schools up for failure and puts schools at risk of closure and teachers out of work, only to be replaced by for-profit charter schools.

tens of thousands of students from new york, colorado, pennsylvania, ohio, oregon, and others started the dissent back last year, but with testing set to begin soon, “opting out” has become a major trend this month. vindy.com has listed many examples of protest, such as an ohio middle school teacher calling out the “bullies” for warning of consequences for students sitting out exams. for better or worse, standardization has created a federally-funded system. the federal government has proposed repercussions in loss of federal stimulus for states that do not adopt the changes. in fact, the state of washington was stripped of it's NCLB waiver last april.  opponents say taking funding away creates a disparity similar to what the testing is purported to avoid.

there is not even consensus from state to state whether it is legal for parents or students to opt out. the repercussions for not participating are widely varied with some states having no policies and some cutting off funding.

websites such as fairtest.org and unitedoptout.com has risen to encourage an end to government mandated education reform as more and more parents across the country are pushing for opting out. carol burris, new york's 2013 high school principal of the year, wrote an eloquent op-ed for the washington post on february 19, in which she broke down the various factors for why testing is killing education and then stated, “i am a rule follower by nature. i have never gotten a speeding ticket. i patiently wait my turn in lines. i am the product of 12 years of catholic schools — raised in a blue-collar home where authority was not to be questioned. i was the little girl who always colored in the lines. but there comes a time when rules must be broken — when adults, after exhausting all remedies, must be willing to break ranks and not comply. that time is now. the promise of a public school system, however imperfectly realized, is at risk of being destroyed. the future of our children is hanging from testing’s high stakes. the time to opt out is now.

apparently, the government is listening and trying to react to the protests.  the governor of florida has acknowledged that schools are saturated in tests.  perhaps most notably, secretary of education arne duncan has asked congress to rewrite no child left behind to limit standardized testing.

students in sante fe, new mexico protest at the
public education department on feb 24.
(eddie moore/albuquerque journal)

billboard on the street in long island, ny on feb 13. (from: thepjsta.org)