rabble rouser of the month ~ january

beginning in 2012 comes a rabble rouser of the month award feature. for january there are two people i deemed worthy. so, i turn to you for help in voting for which one should take home the award.

choice a...
terra schaller (portland, oregon)
kid yoshida does not support abortion. kid yoshida would never advocate someone have an abortion. he does, however, suggest taking care of yourself, such as not sleeping around and getting an unwanted pregnancy. he also supports a wide variety of healthy options to be available for personal care when bad things happen. he supports abortion as a last resort only if numerous other alternatives are not possible. but he will not tell you how to live your life. when it comes to the 39th anniversary of rvw and that whole mess of a debate, kid yoshida is totally pro-choice. pro-choice debaters speak clearly and make sense. pro-life debaters speak in abstraction and symbolism regarding loving a child, even though pro-choice people have never shown a lack of love for anyone. often pro-lifers present with hysterical emotion, while never actually countering arguments made by the pro-choice side. and really, when the scene turns violent, which side do the perpetrators almost always stand on? kid yoshida supports safety, justice, freedom and thoughtfulness. and though terra schaller is not the first, and maybe not the face of a movement, she is sensible person that kid yoshida supports. good on ya!

choice b...
kid pan alley (washington, va.)
kids protest! apparently there was an uproar caused when kid pan alley taught some third graders to sing “part of the 99” because it uses “occupy speak”. on my last show, i played the woodbrook elementary kids in virginia singing that song and made the comment that if religion can not be taught in schools because christianity does not fairly represent all views, then marketing, business, government, history, etc shouldn’t be taught if they can’t represent all views. popular music, by its very nature, is protest oriented. for example, the first song i played on mlk weekend was a war protest song written by irving berlin in 1914. and children’s choirs have been used by johnny cash, pink floyd, james brown and many many more in politically charged output. so what’s so bad about third graders singing an occupy song? i think it’s a good opportunity to let them learn about something which is relevant in the modern world. certainly better than teaching them that columbus “discovered” america. kid yoshida supports kid pan alley.

who should be the rabble rouser of the month, or should it be a joint award???
or if there is another person that you feel earned the award this month please let me know who should get it...and why.

the day the internet blacked out!

the threat is real! naturally you could expect that kid yoshida is against pipa (protect ip act) and sopa (stop online piracy act). i discussed the craigslist posting in the last hour of the rabble rouser show on saturday night and then this week the english wikipedia, reddit and others have blacked out in protest. i applaud the efforts of the most used websites, though i wish it could go further. one day without wikipedia doesn't really hurt. they should black out wikipedia until the proposed bills die. however, one day will probably spur enough letters to politicians. i urge everyone to write to local senators and congressman. below was what popped into my mind when i clicked off an email to greg walden and others...

Dear Mr. Walden,
Being a constituent of yours in La Grande, I am happy to say that I voted for you even if you are the only Republican party member I have voted for in years. I do not in any way, shape, or form support the idea of the corporate control of information. The FCC has already given too much of the airwaves to corporate giants since the 1990s. From my small community radio show, I try to give one option to keep people open to the things we are already not allowed to hear on mainstream radio. I don't want this to grow worse and spread to the web. It can accomplish nothing more than continuing to dumb down the American public. I hope that you will stand along with Mr. Wyden in opposing such rediculous legislation such as PIPA and SOPA which is so ever harmful to the American public. Thanks for your consideration.

in happier news, kid yoshida has upped the ante and added a midweek show time during the lunch hour on wednesdays 11-1 ~ weather on the pass permitting ~ an extra dose of new music and cool classics to help get through the middle of the school and work week. meanwhile, saturday's program for the rabble rouser show continues to gather steam. expect to hear such goodnesses as the following...

laura gibson
laura gibson's soon to be released cd entitled la grande is nothing short of amazing. it has been streaming on npr's first listen for a couple of weeks and was recently named album of the month for january in rolling stone germany. soon, the video for the title track should be out. it was filmed at the spooky hot lake in early december. on la grande, she plays about eight or ten different instruments and collaborates with some big time scenesters including peeps from calexico and the decemberists. but all the instrumentation is dwarfed by the most amazing voice you are likely to hear all year. so, yeah, you can check it out on npr or city slang, but no need. tune into the rabble rouser at 6pm on saturday and hear the entire cd hitch free!

jimmy castor
known as the everything man, jimmy castor was a master of all types of music from doo-wop to funk to latin soul and played everything from sax to bongos. castor grew up in spanish harlem and was close friends with frankie lymon. in fact, castor had a comparable voice to lyman such that he often filled in with the teenagers when lyman couldn’t make gigs. presumably, as lymon deteriorated in drug addiction in his early 20s, this opened the door wide for castor to own the stage. then he got all mixed up with the puerto rican movement that took hold in 50s and 60s nyc and recorded some great funk like the famous hey leroy, your mama’s calling you. he then started a band called the castor bunch, who owned early 70s soul with songs like cave man and bertha butt boogie. early hip hop and dance scenes started to sample from his works liberally, such as his song it’s just begun being used in the movie flashdance. in more recent years, his work has been sampled by guys like kanye (we don't care), ice cube (friday) and mos def (history). there is a pretty nice compilation that can serve as an introduction to castor called the everything man . unfortunately, time and public taste changes in music were not kind to castor and he struggled to get much work beyond the 1980s. a true legend,(71, or 64 depending on the source) cantor passed away on monday, january 16.

in addition to a healthy dose of jimmy cantor's funky latin soul expect to hear:
- a tribute to the soul of puerto rican song; a woman who pushed gender and racial barriers all the way to a senate seat
- kids singing protest songs?
- flashback to 1987 in music
- more wonderful new and local music

tune it in. all the time.
while the government still lets you.
it's kid friendly. keol, la grande.

flashdance clip featuring it's just begun