rabble rouser of the month :: september 2014

this month's winner...

anthony wunder

photo: adam cairns / columbus dispatch

an ohio state university student goes to a buckeyes football game, runs onto the field, gets body slammed to the turf by an assistant coach. the body slam seemed a little extreme, but basically that's what happens.  a person gets apprehended and escorted off the field to await some sort of disciplinary action.  the disciplinary action in this case was to revoke wunder's scholarship.  seriously?
        anyone can say "break the rules, pay the price."  but you know, so what?  kids do weird things sometimes.  college kids especially get drunk, make mistakes.  i can promise that hundreds of kids at ohio state within this early school year have done something even more careless than running onto the football field without such severe consequences.
        the reason why this is ridiculously severe of a punishment is because it is a football game.  it is only a football game.  i know that buckeye fans live and die for their team.  i know that urban meyer is one of the highest paid college football coaches at $4.6 million and the buckeyes surely spend more than most teams on acquiring talent.  yeah, they probably want to protect that, but still it's only a football game and the fact that they over spend for that prestige needs a lot of criticism. the importance academic institutions place on the athletic programs has gotten way too extreme.
         every student is equal, every program is equal.  an engineering student, like wunder, is as significant as the quarterback for the buckeyes.  that is, he has as much right to access university resources and facilities.  he maybe doesn't have room to be on the field during the game, but still be reasonable with a punishment.  take the guy off the field, give him a fine and threaten him with expulsion.  and while handing out punishments, give assistant coach schlegel a fine for use of excessive force.  i am sure urban meyer could afford to pay his fine if he wants to support his assistant's decision.
        the key thing here is that wunder had a scholarship through the western golf association evans scholars foundation.  ohio state and/or the foundation reserves the right to revoke that scholarship for whatever reason they want.  if they think this hardly newsworthy action is bad enough, so be it.  if i were researching potential schools to attend, it would look bad to me that ohio state cares so much about the football team.  i already graduated from one university that cares too much about football, and though the ducks would rout the buckeyes from the opening kickoff, it's still not an important thing in the grand scheme of life.  priorities need to be set, and ohio state has their priorities a bit too skewed for my money.

runners up:
bryce masters

a teenager in independence, missouri had a run in with the police on september 14.  in neighboring lee's summit at the time, i saw three separate news reports, two on the local abc affiliate and a third on fox news.  the first report said that the officer pulled the car over based on an unrelated warrant for a woman not in the car, but supposedly tied to the license plate, and then tased the boy because he wouldn't get out of the car.  the report was followed by two eyewitness interviews that said the cop was clearly acting out-of-line.  the second report said that the boy was talking back to the cop and merely mentioned the fact that eyewitnesses questioned the excessive force by the cop.  the third, a week after the fact, simply said that the police were saying the car smelled like weed and mentioned nothing about eyewitness reports at all.
       wow! the media can really just make up whatever they want and people seem to buy it.  that story changed each of those three times.  moreover, only the third report seems to be available to read or watch online, although the "struggle" that bryce put up on the fox report is not corroborated by the eyewitness statements.  net neutrality never seemed so important.  i'd like to see an anthology of news reports on this incident just to ascertain what the problem might be.  certainly there is much more to the story, and though more details have come out, mainstream news continues to not ask relevant questions.  bryce ended up in a coma before recovering and has now begun rehab on his brain damage.  bryce is also the son of a kansas city, missouri police officer.  the fbi did their own investigations, which says something by itself.
        even if one were to believe any or all of those reports, the use of force still seems unwarranted. in other words, masters was sitting in his car, unresponsive to officers.  that doesn't sound like a threat.  stun guns are used to combat aggression.  an unresponsive person is not acting aggressively. unless you are a medical professional using an a.e.d., there is no need for high voltage electric shocks.  talking back is also not an aggressive attack, otherwise anyone could be stunned or killed simply for not agreeing with a cop.  a car smelling like weed, unbelievable as it seems being reported several days after the fact, still is no reason to put someone in a coma.  and, the masters' family, which presumably includes his father, asked for a department of justice intervention to deal with the inconsistencies.  i wonder if a black kid with a hooker mother and a father killed dealing drugs would get a department of justice intervention for inconsistencies?  nonetheless, questions were eventually raised.
        a big concern obviously is people watching 30 second clips of news that can not possibly give a complete story, yet basing an assessment off that incomplete information.  the news over the course of a week couldn't even give a complete or consistent story, one newscast certainly didn't.  people still form opinions on small pieces of information, but really need to understand that the story currently airing may not even be 1% correct.
       when does excessive force become necessary?  excessive force should never even be a statement. force should never be excessive.  force should only be relevant to the crime.  if a man is standing in the street with his hands up saying "don't shoot", then shooting him would constitute excessive force because it was not needed.  the same goes for an unresponsive person.  if the kid wouldn't get out of the car, there are numerous options: wait until he does get out, call a tow truck and impound the kid along with the car, etc.  a little imagination, which cops are rarely accused of having, could go a long way.  don't just take out a taser or gun at the first sign of non-compliance.  that's irresponsible policing.

#FloodWallStreet

photo: Jeff Rae / twitter

with a website screaming in bold "Stop Capitalism. End The Climate Crisis" it is clearly apparent that the occupy movement is still living and breathing.  more non-violent direct action protests, sit-ins and marches took place on september 22 and resulted in 100 more arrests, countless people pepper sprayed and the remainder pushed back off of wall street.  meanwhile, countless conservative americans sat in front of their televisions, saw 30 seconds of a biased version of events and said, "what's wrong with these people?"  the answer to that is: these people care, unlike those watching them on television.  it cannot be stressed enough that people who put their livelihoods on the line for causes they believe in are definitive rabble rousers.  the occupy movement is not always cohesive, or well-guided, but the people involved are at least always trying to do the right thing, which is better than trying to do the wrong thing, which is better yet than not trying to be part of problems or solutions.  my question is, what's wrong with a system that prevents people from doing something that is not wrong, nor even illegal, until it happens against rich people?  so people want to protest. they do have that right.  the more they continue to exercise that right, the more i will praise them.

what a field day for the heat

a thousand people standing in the street

singing songs and carrying the signs, oh no

they mostly say "hooray for our side"

- crosby, stills & nash

pyt burger & lesean mccoy
star running back for the philadelphia eagles went to PYT burger, bought a $60 bag of burgers, and left  a 20 cent tip.  it probably shouldn't be news and tips really only matter in right-to-work states, which pennsylvania is not.  however, tipping is a social custom, and when someone in the public eye goes against social customs, then it becomes news.  for example, when a pastor of a church left a tip of 0, chelsea welch won the rabble rouser of the month award for january 2013 for posting the note on reddit.  the bottom line in these instances is that people of all shapes and sizes need to be held accountable for their actions.  because the owner and operator of PYT burger decided to post a copy of the signed check from mccoy, there is some comparison to the chelsea welch incident.  but chelsea went further.  she went against the policy and was fired from her job.  that is, she put her own livelihood on the line for what she believed just.  the pastor was embarrassed. that is, she had to publicly deal with a poor decision she had made.  neither mccoy nor pyt burger were taking a huge chance or making real statements.  mccoy did what he felt was right, pyt burger did what they felt was right.  there was an attempt to make mccoy look bad and his cronies held accountable for poor behavior during their dining experience.  this incident does reflect poorly on him, as will probably happen again in the future.  but in mccoy's position, this is just advertising.  a congregation may care how a pastor carries themselves in public, football fans certainly do not care.  in the end, neither mccoy nor pyt burger deserve anymore attention than they've already received.  mccoy was a jerk, so what.  when i was a waiter, nfl players were jerks to me and left no tip.  i didn't post it online and make them look bad.  their time to shine ended and they are all broke now.  that's justice.

kfc customer refused alcohol based wipe in halal-only branch
some things make no sense, and some things make sense only when understood in a complicated context.  this must be one of those things that only make sense in a complicated context.  what the hell is a "halal only branch"?  obviously it is not something that could exist in a country like the united states, which values equality.  it does exist in the UK apparently.  just because a religion may be opposed to alcohol does not preclude the use of alcohol to such an extreme.  if an amish person is offended by an automobile, they would still take a ride if they were stranded in a snow storm miles from home.  religious causes are trumped by health and safety concerns.  and kfc is done getting attention from ridiculous stunts like this one.


rabble rouser hall of fame:

elizabeth gurly flynn (1890 – 1964)

some people become rabble rousers after years of frustration. some people are born rabble rousers. elizabeth gurly flynn was born a rabble rouser. her father was a socialist, mother a feminist. one of elizabeth’s first speeches was a talk on “what socialism will do for women” at the age of sixteen. she was expelled from high school for radical viewpoints.
        flynn was an activist leader with the IWW. she chained herself to a fencepost in spokane, where she was arrested and jailed, at which time she accused the police of running the jail as a brothel. in turn, image-conscious law enforcement mass censored the copy of the industrial worker newspaper of flynn’s report.
       flynn was run out of the IWW for testifying in court against the interest of bill haywood. she maintained an active labor leader profile as a founding member of the american civil liberties union. she particularly supported the defense of sacco and vanzetti. she was a first-wave feminist, supporter of birth control, women’s suffrage and other rights.
       flynn lived in portland during the late 1920s and 1930s advocating for the west coast longshore strike. later she became a writer for the daily worker newspaper and a national committee and, ultimately, the chairwoman of the communist party usa. this affiliation caused her to be barred from the board of the ACLU. flynn died during a trip to the soviet union on september 5, 1964.
       flynn had a song written for her, the rebel girl, by notorious IWW song writer joe hill. one of the more classic versions was recorded by another rabble rouser hall of famer, hazel dickens.



r.i.p
lonnie lynn (1943-2014)
played two years in the ABA in 1969 and 1970, but is more commonly know as the father of the rapper common.  lynn was a poet in his own right and featured in many of common's tracks, such as this one from 1994...

caldwell jones (1950-2014)
jones played basketball at albany state college in georgia, as did five of his brothers.  in fact, a jones was the starting center for albany state for 18 consecutive seasons.  oliver jones also was the head coach of albany state for 28 seasons.  four of the jones brothers played in the nba for a combined total 37 seasons, but caldwell was perhaps the most noteworthy.  he played 3 seasons in the ABA, the first coached by wilt chamberlain, before becoming a rebounding force for the dominant 76ers in the late 1970s.  he was one of the players traded to houston in the 1982 moses malone deal, which resulted in the 76ers finally winning the championship. caldwell did not win a championship, though he was on the losing side of the 1977 finals to portland.  caldwell played four years with portland as well.  he is currently 32nd on the all-time career blocks list with 2297.  he pulled down 10,685 rebounds (8.2 rpg) and dropped in 10,241 points in his career.

gonsoulin photo from the denver broncos

goose gonsoulin (1938-2014)
goose was chosen by the dallas texans in the first afl draft (precursor to the afc) as a safety out of baylor in 1960.  he was promptly traded to denver, becoming the first denver bronco.  he made the first afl interception and totaled 11 interceptions as a rookie, which is still the broncos single season record.  goose is currently 55th on the career interceptions list with 43.

gonsoulin should not be confused with the legendary baseball player goose goslin (1900-1971). that goose was a subpar left-fielder, but a great hitter who played a 17 year hall-of-fame career.  with walter johnson anchoring the senator’s pitching staff, and goose leading the league with 129 runs batted in (depriving babe ruth of the triple crown), the senators won the 1924 championship.  goslin set the world series record with 6 consecutive hits, broken in 1990 by billy hatcher.  goslin won the 1928 batting title on his final at bat, squeaking past heine manush.  two years later, the senators traded goslin to st. louis for heine manush and alvin crowder.  two years later, goslin went back to the senators, helped them to the 1933 world series, and was promptly traded to detroit, where he helped them to the next two world series.  goslin hit a walk-off single to win the 1935 championship for detroit.  in 1936, goslin hit an inside-the-park-home run after joe dimaggio and myril hoag collided in the outfield, knocking themselves unconscious.  goslin is among the top 50 all-time in doubles, triples and runs batted in categories.

Another letter to Greyhound

Greyhound,

Enclosed, please find my unused ticket. On Friday, September 12 at 12:30am, I was scheduled to leave Pendleton for Portland.  I arrived at the bus stop at 12:20am only to find that the bus stop had been moved. Considering that it was moved to a location out of downtown, more inaccessible for anyone needing to take a bus, ten minutes was not sufficient time to run uphill for 3/4 mile.  The bus passed and my attempts to flag down the driver were in vain.  I was then stuck more than three hours away from the Portland airport with a flight due to leave in six hours.  That is pretty nervewracking position to be sure.  Like Greyhound, most airlines do not give any leeway for changes or refunds, unless one purchases the inaffordable, refundable option.  Luckily, I do not fly those airlines.  More luckily for me, at 2:30 in the morning, I found a person willing to do what I had paid Greyhound to do.  I found someone to drive me the three and a half hours to the airport and I made the flight. Then, they promptly turned around to make the drive back at 6:00am.  I purchased a $200 gift card as some kind of consolation for their effort, though how can that kind of generous act even be repaid?  That was far too huge an expense and stress to deal with simply because the station moved without my being told when I bought the ticket.

Though it's been said numerous times, I just don't know that I can ride this bus anymore.  How irrelevant has Greyhound made themselves in the last 15 years?  In the 1990s, Greyhound ran a pretty reasonable service.  The prices were within a decent budget and it was a relatively comfortable ride to get where I needed to be.  I took Greyhound all over the country 45 day passes twice, which don't exist anymore.  Certainly, the 30 day passes are so out of this world expensive that I wouldn't even begin to consider that.  For the past 7-8 years at least, it has basically been the same price to fly to my destinations as to use Greyhound.  Now is no different.

Eastern Oregon is no man's land, where people are stuck other than Greyhound, the only public transportation restricted to only two times per day going either direction.  As locked in as we are, still there are other options.  Greyhound from La Grande to Portland, booked two months in advance, costs $55 with the basic fare.  Yet, we can take a free shuttle to Pendleton, where we can fly to Portland for $57.  That is, for $2 more, I can get to my destination in half the time much more comfortably.  And let's not even get into how Greyhound tickets are non-refundable unless someone were to purchase the $97.50 refundable fare.  If I am unwilling to spend $55, there is little chance I will spend almost twice that to guarantee my money back.  I drive an old Ford F-150 that gets 13 miles per gallon.  I can still get to Portland and back for the same price Greyhound charges at the advanced fare rate.  Maybe that makes sense to Greyhound, but certainly not to me considering the bus is almost completely full of people paying the same or more.  Greyhound sets prices and terms that they feel are appropriate I am sure.  However, Greyhound is the side receiving the payment, not making it.  Until Greyhound comes up with a more user friendly service, with prices that are reasonable, count me out.  I will fly where I need to go until I am able to move to town more easily accessed by other public transportation.  Too long I have wasted my time thinking Greyhound is a legitimate travel option.

madame stella darby & indian village: another #pendleton #monday

riding the bus, are two cute old ladies headed to the casino to break the bank.  they haven't won a fortune in 70 years and they can't even find the seatbelt, but something tells me today might just be the day.  once buckled in, they can't peer far enough forward to make out the message on the re-route notice.  they are told it's for round up weekend.
"never been to round up. not even in the 40s. i did try to drive thru pendleton several years back and got caught up with people all walking in the streets.  the road wasn't marked off at all.  i had to go backwards up the hill and the other way out of town. i learned then not to go down during round up week."
"what i like to go to is those pow wows up in wallowa.  i love to watch those indians dance."
"then you get right in the middle of it and circle around like they did at devin's wedding."
"those little boys they have out there dancing are so cute. the pow wow and what's that other dance up there called? i love going to that one.  wallowa is great."
       the ladies don't want to go to pendleton, but that's where the casino is.  and that's where the bus goes. so, they ride, watching out the window, from the second row middle seat, because that's where you get the most open view.
       no one wants to go to pendleton.  it's a town of seething lawlessness.  many drunk beer pongers at thousands of trailers around the city can cause a disturbance.  pendleton police uses an obsessive amount of its budget on the week of round up.  so much that one wonders how to get busted doing anything the rest of the year.
      like the rest of eastern oregon, there is a fair amount of free will. one has to try pretty hard to get into trouble, or be a social misfit.  so there are very few social misfits.  freedom, as we are told, is not free.  that came at a cost.  people were murdered and scalped of their free will to guarantee another their own.  read about the nez perce indians someday soon.  read about the colonies of chinese in eastern oregon someday soon.  what other lawlessness than some drunks in the streets do we have to worry about?
      pendleton has gambling and prostitution, or at least historically they did.  and if there's one thing about history, it always repeats itself.  i am gonna go just a step out onto the limb to guess that history repeats itself in pendleton on a annual basis during round up, if not more frequently throughout the year.

a big controversy is the newest statue of the esteemed stella darby.  darby was a madame of the cozy inn throughout the war years.

photo: kid yoshida's phone

     people in pendleton are quite divided on this topic, apparently, with naysayers including renee caubisens, jerry cronin, bill young, virginia storey and even esther richards with editorials in the east oregonian, respectfully. there have been supporters such as andrew picken and the general sentiment up and down main street seems to be favorable to the statue.
     from my own experience, madame darby has long been considered an appropriate choice for rabble rouser hall of famer, so naturally it was a sight to behold, a shocking surprise in fact to stumble upon, the newly installed work of ms. darby in front of the former cozy inn.
     people say she used women for their bodies, to profit.  i don't know who is qualified to make that assessment.  from all i have heard, stella was very generous and protective of her girls, and it seems a lot better to have a safe place to operate from rather than free lancing the streets. by no means should it be possible to categorize the reasons for which women seek prostitution in the first place. it's going to happen anyway.  so shouldn't it be better that stella made sure it happened right?

     there are mothers who refuse to let their kids walk down stella's side of the street now.  as if walking past the cozy inn by itself didn't already promote the same image to avoid.  as if walking down the other side of main street past the new smoke shop will be a favorable lesson.  as if walking down main street can scarcely be avoided at all being at the heart of round up city. the location of sin, a telling thing in its own right.  perhaps maybe at least walking past the statue of george fletcher, the lone black man to win the pendleton round up in 1911 will be a great lesson.  let children see that.  but never assume children can see only the rosy picture you choose.  history and modern life are with us everyday.  these are the pictures of what we are.  we can't run.  we might as well learn and co-exist.  and my personal values certainly do not support exclusion from diversity.  a huge thing lacking in eastern oregon, diversity should be promoted to no end, even if it's a commemoration (not celebration) of a brothel owner.
      no matter one's own viewpoint of the politics surrounding of the new statues in pendleton, it had been told to me, though i have yet to confirm, that the east oregonian said to the effect, if you weren't part of the planning, don't be mad about the decision.  in eastern oregon, voices count way more in a democratic sense than they do in a more populated place.  there are no end to the opportunities to be involved civicly and make a significant and lasting impression on the land in which you occupy.  if someone does something you don't like after you didn't try to say anything to stop them, then your protests count toward your own actions as well.
     peter walters wrote that the controversy takes away from the fact that this is an amazing piece of work by a local artist, who has done many other things for pendleton arts.  randy gundlock has also created the horse head at the arts center and teaches art at the high school. his wife teaches middle school.

       in comparison with the hooligan life of pendleton sculptors, indian village doesn't have as many problems to worry about should we look at history and modern life.
      modern life: indian village does not allow the drunkeness, which is the problem necessitating police reinforcement outside the village. if people want to make round up safer, they could follow a peaceful indian rule to make it a sober city during the week.  of course that would come at a great cost and the rapid decline of an eastern oregon tradition built up for 104 years. also, the cops wouldn't look forward to the overtime budget as another christmas bonus. i guess you get what you pay for.
     modern life: tribal police enforce the laws of their own land.  this must be respected by all denizons and passers by.  the need for seperate police on seperate lands is of benefit to indian communities protecting their own law and to hang on to what autonomy they have left.  certainly, reservations can do better for themselves than if they hired the ferguson police department.  this means that the men in blue creeping down the riverwalk is as close as pendleton's finest get to indian village.
     throughout human history: white civilizations have fought with selfish motives and dirty tricks. the result has been the oft mentioned extermination of entire tribes, races, cultures in the name of manifest destiny, ie the selfish confiscation of a country and its resources by white people.  go watch the happy canyon night show and notice not only the discrimination that existed, but that which is also still evident in the overtones of the production.  the united states is not the only nation to have witnessed encroachment from sea to shining sea.  basically, every white inhabitated nation has seen a similar version of events.  in the overall scenario, natives were easily exploited because they were benevolent, trusting, giving and rich in resources.  indians gave, white people took.
      from the outset, the current and historical situation make indian village feel the more pure and welcoming environment as compared to that wicked white world outside.  problems there may be, but if the framework supports inclusion, hospitality, wisdom and understanding, fewer problems there are likely to be.  plus, indian village residents get to sleep next to many cows and sheep, which will more or less be forced to take part in some activity whereby a white man throws a rope around their neck and slings them to the ground and ties them up to show his might.

    indian village is endlessly entertaining. this year i admired the flags from the teepees. the main thing i could think about was to set up my own teepee to fly the cascadia flag.  certainly, a flown flag says more than most other measures of a person's outward look.  so, i did a little inventory, for what it's worth:
     there were approximately 130-160 teepees, most of which did not have flags flying from them. presumably people's homes are different enough that they don't need a flag to recognize where they are sleeping.  teepees mainly use markers such as the entrance, the materials, designs on fabric, etc, to locate home.  most ideally, homes are marked by...you guessed it - location!  why does a home need to look different from another?  a person knows where they live, right?  especially if they haven't been drinking.

55 bright ties flew from the tops of the teepees, most were pink, but a few were yellow, a few were red.  some of the pink ones appeared to have been red at one time.  several ties presented from individual teepees. (the 55 ties were found on 20-25 teepees.)  the good thing about multiple sticks to hold up the canvas, there are more options for flags to fly.  still, the ties marking location were the majority of the multiple flag teepees.

8 windsocks, similar in description to the ties, however a few were flags; three american windsocks, two canadian.

3 american flags.  there are always a contingent of indians that praise the u.s. government, not that that is what the flag's presence necessarily means.  still, it seems a bit odd.  it makes me wonder how divided the indian populations are now over white men.  certainly, the nez perce tribe was divided in hisotry, and the sides that favored the u.s. government seemed to be the same members benefitting economically from white men's offers.  funny how that would work.  it makes me take less seriously the praising speeches of the great collaboration with the government.
     the presence of the american flag always makes me think of sarcastic europeans who make fun of americans for flying their flag in their own country.  europeans tell me that no one flies their national flag within their own nation, except on official buildings.  the reason is because people already know what country they are in, they don't need to advertise it with a flag.  now if, say, a brit was living in france, it would be acceptible to fly the british flag as a notification of a british national, but in no way would a frenchman need to fly a french flag within the borders of france.  also, europeans are not nearly as patriotic as americans.  considering american history, patriotism makes a lot of sense.  it takes a lot of blind faith by citizens to make a country so freaking huge.  there is no way people out west shouldn't want rebel from washington d.c., but nevermind the will of a brainwashed public. regardless of normal americans, i still cannot understand why an indian would be patriotic to a white man's cause.  but at the grand total of three (one small, one medium, one tiny, withered, faded and dirty) there weren't as many as probably could have been expected.

2 pendleton round up flags.  presumably, the only reason there were not more is because round up flags are relatively hard to come by.

16 sports flags. mostly football.  if that statistic doesn't say there is very little difference between indian culture and white culture in the 21st century, i don't know what does.  the saving grace in this situation is that most were seattle seahakws flags.  there were seven seahakws flags in total; three were the regular modern warhawk logo, two were "12" flags, a third 12th man flag had a number 12 over the stars of a green and blue u.s. flag.  there was also one super bowl champion flag.  the prevelance of seahawks flags wasn't too shocking, though the lack of any seattle mariners flags was a mystery.  sure the seahawks are reigning world champs, but the football season just started. meanwhile, the mariners are in the playoff race still in september.  it doesn't get much better than now for mariners fans.
      among the other sports flags were several regional universities. (this is taking some liberties since college flags don't necessarily imply a sports team affiliation directly, though every person i have ever known to fly a school's flag was also a huge fan of the atheltic programs.)  there were two oregon ducks flags, one rather huge one.  there was a small washington huskies flag and an even smaller washington state cougars flag.  there were also two notre dame flags, which seemed random, but i didn't investigate the village to ask why the flags existed. funnier still was that one of the notre dame flags was of the fighting irish leprechan.  after seeing the few colleges represented, i sort of expected a louisville flag since the schimmel sisters from the umatilla reservation play basketball for the lousiville cardinals (or shoni did play for lousiville and graduated this past year before she was drafted by the atlanta dream of the WNBA, while her sister jude will be a senior at lousiville this season).  speaking of basketball, almost as random as a notre dame flag was the sight of a los angeles lakers flag.  i want to just assume that person has been flying that flag since the days of kareem and magic. not that that would explain a whole lot more, but still.
     my favorite flag to see flying was the atlanta braves.  a team named after indians.  not quite as good as it would have been to see a washington redskins flag, but somehow i bet that anyone wanting to fly that flag in indian village would be strongly discouraged from doing so.  without getting deep into the controversy of sports teams named after indians, the atlanta braves flag is especially fun for me.  i was a huge fan and have many autographs from those days with the stellar pitching staffs led by greg maddux.  and when the braves burst into the playoffs somewhat unannouced in 1991, the tomahawk chop was a very controversial thing, as were the plastic indian replica tomahawks that were handed out at games.  supposedly, that tradition was disrespectful to indian culture.  but the fury died down when it was revealed that the cherokee nation manufactured the tomahawks for the atlanta braves.  wonder if that makes the act less disrepectful?   wonder, for that matter, if the cherokee nation has benefitted from government policy and didn't mind selling out their heritage to corporate interests?

      there is always a good amount of controversy on anything, particularly it should be controversial when indians go camping for a week on land owned by white men. they should be charging the round up rent for putting the stadium in indian village.  few fans at the rodeo will watch the indian races at intermission, the $5 two-ounce beer lines will be longest during the pageants, but fans will crowd in when former world champion bucking horses (read: old, slow, decrepit horses about to go out to pasture) come out of the chutes without staining the clothes of the cowboys riding them.  needless to say, the round up is not my favorite rodeo, but the entertainment of pendleton history surrounding it is one of the best things a person can do in pendleton all year.  the indian village leads the way.  i just hope a few people besides myself stop to notice, and maybe even ask about, the flags flying from the teepees.  start a dialog about something other than how to get into the let 'er buck room.

rabble rouser of the month, august 2014...

runner up...

Ferguson Protestors

making the ferguson people the rabble rousers of the month should be a no-brainer decision. they should get that award and there is no love lost to them because they did not.

because people that only watch mainstream news would never have any idea why ferguson happened, they shouldn't be qualified to talk about what is happening.  the secret that people in st. louis (and most other places in the US) understand well is that cops shoot (black) people (or whoever they don't like) on a regular basis, to varying degrees of acceptability. it goes on all over the country every single day, for decades at least, if not since 1776 or long before that.  people learned how to treat people they didn't like by reading columbus' diary.  a few weeks of tear gas and related shootings, people are sick of hearing about ferguson and want it stop. but when it happens day after day for all time, the people that have to keep dealing with it get sick of it and want it to stop.

believe whatever particular version of the news surrounding the shooting makes sense to you. in the end, that doesn't have hardly anything to do with the situation. listen to the direct words of people living on the streets in ferguson, over some major news agency from a satellite studio that only intervened on the situation reluctantly for their own credibility after others entered ferguson. funny how different stories emerged after the major news went into ferguson nearly a week after the protests started as opposed to what was being reported by citizen journalists on the street at the time.

no matter the circumstances of the  trigger event, what happened since?  1. people decided to protest police brutality.  that is not a rare occurence, such protests happen in cities across america many times per year.  when people get sick of bullshit, they protest.  2. when ferguson protesters assembled, police moved in with force to turn back protests.  3. response of (2) on (1) resulted in numerous violent exchanges.  people were unreasonably assaulted and that pissed them off.  they reacted.  and the police continued to harrass them, albeit a bit less so once the tv cameras showed their gestapo-like mentality and showed the world who was who in ferguson, missouri.  if the police and other "authorities" have no credibility in the aftermath, why should i have any reason to suspect that they were credible in the first place?

cheers to people willing to stand up for their rights and beliefs in the face of certain annihilation. all the black men and women in the streets cannot defeat the same military that blows every other nation off the map.  such people have to be really desperate to try those odds.  they have to have nothing left to lose.  the essence of the rabble rouser award is for people penalized for doing what is right and for people willing to demand justice even amid the repercussions.

and for all the awesomeness ferguson has bestowed upon us, we go a different direction with this month's award.  ferguson will be a rallying cry, but at the same time not the entire focus of attention. for to focus too much on one thing creates injustice unseen otherwise. last month's award was given to eric garner for the exact reason that ferguson should get it this month. almost as if a precursor to the people in ferguson. being a rabble rouser is not to be a prophet, but funny how coincidence works. we keep watching, but we make sure more injustices don't occur.

natomas slimm also made the statement.  he produced the operation ferguson video which can be seen to the right.  slimm also called in to KEOL to discuss the matter, which can be streamed or downloaded here.











now, for the august rabble rouser of the month...


Luke O'Donovan 

luke o'donovan is not news. it was a year and a half ago that he was beaten by five other men that yelled homophobic slurs while observers did nothing to help.  luke was news this past august however, when he was found guilty of using a knife to repel the attack and save himself. a ten-year sentence, with the possibility of discussing the matter in two and half years. in other words, going to prison for a good spell because he was hated and beaten.

gay rights are obviously at a watershed time in 2014 USA, but luke's case is more basic than even that.  if we just forget for a moment that this was a hate crime, something simpler is a huge problem.  if someone is being attacked by an angry mob (for any reason, good or bad) and observers are standing on the sideline not assisting that person who is at an obvious disadvantage, how is that person supposed to survive other than protecting themself?

they say missouri police were attacked and used force to protect themselves.  this is in no uncertain terms, exactly what luke ferguson did.  why should only some people be afforded this basic human right of self-defense?  but for some it is a crime, apparently. if you said, one day in prison, or one dollar in fine for luke, i'd say "fuck!" but ten years??  the (in)justice system can eat a dick!

someone attacks you, you defend yourself.  that is all.

anything else?
for other commentary, please do not ask me to talk about the football season. yes, it has started.  take this, and do not ask questions: for once, the NFL is actually supreme to the NCAA.  one makes no attempt to hide their corruptness and BS.  the other feasts off the bad image of the other.  forget them both.

july 2014 rabble rouser of the month ... and more ...

eric garner, staten island

photo: New York Daily News

east coast, big city cops don’t exactly have the best reputations when it comes to human rights. in the late 1990s particularly, NYPD was on a roll with the broom handle torture of abner louima, the 41-bullet death of unarmed amadou diallo, or the abuses of women in central park while the cops watched.  if you wonder how NYPD could ever top those horrific acts, consider that it may be because they keep trying. 
      eric garner was wanted for selling single, untaxed cigarettes. the guy was 43-years-old, with four kids. his neighbors in staten island refer to him as a big happy teddy bear. and given his reaction at the beginning of the melee, the cops had numerous previous experiences with him.  it seemed, however, that the cops were intimidated by eric becoming upet that they were harrassing him again. so, they strangled him to death on the sidewalk. 
      unless someone is trying to kill the cops, cops don’t need to come with rediculous force.  unless the guy is jack the ripper, they really don’t need to take such a dangerous person off the streets. while it may be wrong to sell cigarettes illegally, it is not a capital crime. and if it were an executable offense, the undercover cops in the video are not the judge, jury, and executioner.  how much worse do problems like gang activity and anti-american sentiment exacerbate over generations when four kids grow up without a dad because he did the horrific crime of selling cigarettes?  those kids should rightly grow up pissed off and want to seek vengeance, in the same way that police actions overseas create “terrorists”.  you can only lead by example and as long as the NYPD puts on the aggressive monster costume, they will only be creating aggressive monsters and opposition to them.
     also, ramsey orta, the man who took the video of the incident, is facing all kinds of trouble as a backlash and should get some credit for his own rabble rousing duty of filming police in action, which in and of itself is illegal for some reason. when will people learn to stop trying to control other people?  humans have proven throughout all history that they do not wish to be controlled. but throughout all history, people also show a propensity to let power go to their heads. people are not allowed to feel irritated or harrassed by that? they also are not allowed to record videos of it happening?  the incident was ruled a homicide after all.  why shouldn't people be able to have evidence to prove that?

runners up

flags of brooklyn.

in brooklyn, some mystery person performed a daredevil feat of pretty legendary proportions. in the middle of the night, they climbed the brooklyn bridge and then climbed various flagpoles to paint the flags to white. this harkens me back a couple months, when a teenager had a runner-up status for getting past four layers of security to climb to the top of the world trade center in the middle of the night.

obviously, there are many conservatives who want to teach a stern lesson to various bad boys for comitting these vandal acts. however, something much greater needs to be considered. if a teenage boy or other unknown miscreant can get past the world-class security to ascend to the tops of some of the most hallowed landmarks of modern christianity, then how safe are we as americans on the whole? even after knowing from years of experience that people were trying to blow up the world trade centers in the first place, it still ultimately happened anyway.

in time, we are fairly defenseless. how competent is the united states at stopping an aggressor? only time will tell, but based on these minor actions of relative hilarity, i would suppose that time is not too far away. the evidence here suggests we have very poor security forces for these new towers of babel. if we can’t protect these pillars of the american psyche, what can we protect? i am going to go just a short step out on a limb to suggest the main thing protecting us from foreign invaders is our military technology. however, our access to that technology is dependent on our ability to pay the corporations that produce the bigger and better weapons of mass destruction. and the united states is not exactly doing well currently in the world’s marketplace.


what happens when the money finally runs out? our government is going to have a hard time keeping these obscene military contracts and the corporations will move on to the next highest bidder. then how much will we be able to defend the nation? these actions by random miscreants just trying to prove something have proved something. when we run out of money, we’re fucked because we can’t even protect ourselves with money.


anon_0x03

deface page of the British National Party (BNP) website

a computer hacker has never won a rabble rouser award, though their actions are pretty audacious, take some knowledge and skill and can certainly be used for a greater good. the kenyan government has often been victim of cyber grafiti. it’s just that very few westerners have even known because by and large westerners don’t know or care what goes on in africa. anon_0x03 hacked into various government websites and banking websites to expose the massive amounts of corruption going on in the country. conservatives still have to villanize the hacker (because they always need a bad guy). but there are three relatively easy ways to stop such a villianous action from occurring. 1. the kenyan government can invest in a modern network that can’t be hacked into so easily. 2. they can do a better job of rumor control or 3. perhaps the most basic and simplest way, they can stop the corruption. they can stop ripping off the country to stuff money into accounts of the richest military leaders.

when you piss off the people with relatively little means to do anything about it, who also have nothing much less to lose, you set yourself up to victimized. when you piss off the majority of the people by stealing all the resources, you set yourself up for a war in which you are heavily outnumbered by desperate people. your chances to succeed in such a scenario are not great. one would think that someone smart enough to have control of a state would have been smart enough to have figured that out long ago. as with the last nominee, quit letting miscreants underscore your vulnerabilty. and don’t make them out to look like the bad guy when they are only defending themselves against your bad actions.


threaten, la grande

from Threaten's facebook page 

i really love to go for the local guys, i love to support rock and rollers, and especially love the feeling of revival in the metal world. all those things combined would have made threaten an automatic winner in most other months. but the story of eric garner was too upetting. the fate of our livelihoods is too concerneing. there were simply too many injustices to keep up with this month of july. but for the person that wants a more light-hearted story, try checking out the union county fair’s talent show and the lack of an appearance by threaten.

the fair didn’t want threaten to perform, so they apparently referenced an alleged obscure state rule that disallows drums. could the band have played without their drummer? perhaps they would have met the rule and been allowed to perform, though my feeling is that another convenient rule would have been found to stop the proceedings. realistically, though, threaten could not play without their drummer.

the first thing to consider is how integral the drummer is to metal. in most genres of music the drummer is a dispensible position. indie rockers strangled darlings have never had a drummer. idaho’s longest running act, hillfolk noir replaced their drummer with a suitcase years ago. most any country band has the drums so low in the mix that the drummer is basically only used for show. in metal, and often in punk, the scenario is completely different. the timing patterns are faster and take a rare breed of specimen. there would have been no metallica without lars ulrich, just like slayer is a joke without dave lombardo. very similarly, threaten’s drummer is the heart of the band. so, no, they can’t go on stage without their drummer.

but the more important thing to consider, why the hell can’t you have a drummer in a talent show? playing drums doesn’t take talent? drums are too loud? tey take too much to set up? if this were winter time, does that mean a little kid couldn’t play “little drummer boy”? whatever the answers, i expect only an evasion of the fact that threaten kicks too much ass and scares the fair committee. if the talent show would’ve given that answer, maybe threaten would have won this month’s award in the same way that sun blood stories won february’s award.

what threaten will win is a blue ribbon. since my oregano won a blue ribbon at the same fair, i am going to pass that award on to threaten for their exclusion from the fair. besides, i have so much oregano that i can’t use, they can come piss on it if they want.


rabble rouser hall of fame


sharpeville massacre (march 21, 1960)

Photo: Peter Magubane 

south africa’s apartheid years rivaled any nation’s discrimination practices. for at least a couple hundred years, internal passports were required for black people to move about the country. white people were the only who were allowed to be employers, white people were the only who were allowed to live in urban areas. discrimination extended to pretty much any non-white person. legislation from the 1920’s and 1940’s furthered the use of pass laws, until the frequent and deadly anti-pass campaigns of the african national congress and pan african congress were openly and actively defiant in the 1950s. on march 21, 1960, 5000-7000 black protesters went to the police station to offer themselves up for arrest without their passes. with only about 20 police on duty, reinforcement officers came, but so did more protestors. some say the crowd turned hostile. the police were armed with rifles and machine guns, the crowd with rocks and fists. the scenario favored the police, as they were able to kill 69 people in total.

huge protests resulted and south africa sustained a pretty damaged reputation in the human rights world. by the next year, south africa departed the commonwealth of nations, as it would be the beginning of a long end of discrimination practices in south africa. the entire pass system was finally repealed in 1986 and apartheid offically ended in 1994. in 1996, president mandela chose sharpeville as the site for signing the constitution of south africa. today, march 21 today is a public holiday in honor of human rights, as well as unesco’s international day to end racial discrimination.











r.i.p :: johnny winter






jimi & johnny at thescene club, 1969





Johnny winter was an abino twin of edgar winters. the two grew up in middle class america with the normal clean country music for white people, until johnny heard the radio that the family maid listened to. with his albino condition, johnny found himself on similar margins of society as black people. he found more to relate to with black culture and black music. he played a crazy fast fiery blues guitar, which transfixed so many people that johnny became the first white person inducted into the blues hall of fame. he got into rolling stone magazine, and then onto stage at woodstock. producing albums for muddy waters, johnny winters was a walking legend at a young age and lived out many of the problems associated with success. crafty as ever at the end, johnny winter has a new album that was scheduled to be relased in early september, “step back”

june rabble rousers

rabble rouser of the month

photo: gracewell healthcare / mirror (left) <br>
universal news & sport (right)

bernard jordan, resident at the pines nursing home in hove, east sussex, requested to leave the home to attend the d-day 70th anniversary ceremonies on june 6. though the home has been reporting to have not denied his request, bernard escaped during a routine walk time with his medals pinned under his jacket.  he got onto a ferry to attend the ceremony in normandy. 
originally it was reported by gracewell healthcare that he had not submitted the request in the proper amount of time, nonetheless administrative procedures need not preclude the living of life.  if people can't be free to do the things most important to them, why should they continue living?  had there been health and safety consequences for bernard, he surely proved risking that was worth being in normandy for maybe the last time. ...even though he wasn't able to join the official trip with his other war buddies, for official reason unclear or not well-supported.  bernard is a lifelong resident, and also a former mayor, of hove.  he turned 90 in june and recieved over 2500 birthday cards.  indeed, it was a celebration with the ladies all month long.  

photos: craig hibbert (left, top right, bottom middle) <br>
david mchugh (bottom right)

i hope to not regret choosing the albuquerque 13 as rabble rousers of the month, but what bernard jordan did was just so spunky and an experience well-deserved.  however, his was a cause supported by free men worldwide.  americans particularly eat up stories like that as approvingly as a salad instead of a hamburger at mcdonald's.  what is never cared about in this country is the plight of poor and disenfranchised people vs. the state.  in the albuquerque case, this involves the additional not cool thing of making police out to be the bad guy. 

on june 2, as many as 24 people, featuring mostly family members of victims, staged a sit-in at the albuquerque mayor's office before being detained and creating a lockdown of city hall.  the sit-in occured a few days after an autopsy report showed that james boyd, a mentally ill homeless man, was shot in the back by police.  nora anaya chained herself to a display case. mary jobe said, "we're tired of the mayor hiding from us," since her fiancee was killed by police.  barbara grothus of fire dog lake, noted there was no need to for protestors to force their way in because the door wasn't even locked.  david correia, an assistant professor at the university of new mexico and community activist, has often lectured against police brutality and compiled much of the injustice over the past few years.  he also has a TEDx talk on the history of albuquerque police violence.  david was arrested, to some controversy, for battery in a pushing incident with a security guard.  at least the families struggling for justice have a competent voice speaking on their behalf.  certainly, no other official people seem to want to hear their greivances, as most difficult stories get pushed under the rug by a disconcerted public.


rabble rouser hall of fame :: new members!

thomas paine (1737-1809)

before education was compulsory, paine was an essex school teacher, corsetmaker, tobaccoist and excise officer. he was twice dismissed from the office of excise, due to his opposition to the monarchy. facing debtor’s prison, he immigrated to colonial america in 1774 and barely survived the voyage, taking six weeks to recover. paine quickly found work as a magazine editor and pamphleteer. in 1776, common sense, an attack on king george III and the monarchy, gave paine the nickname “father of the american revolution.”  the american crisispamphlets fueled the revolutionary war, featuring the infamous quote, “these are the times that try men’s souls.” paine’s ability to appeal to common classes helped spread his messages far and wide, which made clear the need for national independence and aided the recruitment of the continental army.
          legendary though paine may have been, his supporters were few.  loyalists could not support him because he was too democratic to pay tribute to the crown. similarly, revolutionaries could not suport the radical notion that men who did not own property could vote and hold office. to do so would give too much power to ordinary people. but that was just the tip of iceberg. paine was anti-slavery and a world peace advocate. he appealed for the need of social security and pensions for poor and elderly. he supported free markets, utopian ideals and introduced the idea of a guaranteed minimum income. by the time paine espoused deist views in age of reason he had become so controversial as to be completely ostracised. only a few people attended paine’s funeral. his bones were unearthered and taken back to england before they were lost. no one today really knows where the body of thomas paine is.

---

michael hastings (1980-2013)

photo: blue rider press

one can only presume that thomas paine would be a proud supporter of michael hastings.  the journalist and war correspondent in iraq and afghanistan published i lost my love in baghdad: a modern love story after his finacee was killed in a roadside ambush. in 2010, rolling stonepublished hastings’ story runaway general, which resulted in the resignation of stanley mcchrystal, the commander in afghanistan.  hastings also wrote a book about his time with mcchrystal in 2012.  hastings became highly critical of the surveillance state and the american government’s war on journalism.  why democrats love to spy on americans was pulished on buzzfeed less than two weeks before hastings’ suspicious death.  hastings felt he was being investigated by the FBI while he was finishing a story on CIA director john brennan. numerous stories have surfaced relating to hastings’ mental stability, addictions and possible foul play of his car being hacked and remotely controlled in the high speed crash that killed him on june 18, 2013. 

---

mario savio (1942-1996)

photo: tommy mcdonough

berkeley was a mecca for civil and political rights and free speech activists in the 1960’s. savio was a well-educated philosophy major and an eloquent speaker. he was first arrested for protesting black's exclusion from non-menial labor jobs in san francisco hotels.  while in jail, he learned about the freedom summer movement and soon went to mississippi to teach and help black people register to vote. he brought the fight back to berkeley, where student rights groups were gaining prominence. when jack weinberg was removed from a congress of racial equalitydemostration table at a sit-in and placed in a police car, savio stood on top of the police car to motivate the crowd. by december 1964, savio was fed up with disregard from university president clark kerr and gave the infamous operation of the machine speech, which he followed a week later by being dragged off stage interupting a speech by kerr. his fervor kick-started the berkely movement, though savio led a quiet life post-university and ultimately became a professor. savio died in 1996, while supporting students against university fee increases. 

---

sam horrell (1930-2014)

photo: spokesman review

sammy came to oregon with his family in 1938, leaving a texas band of outlaws with a legacy dating back to the 1870s.  sammy grew up near elgin, oregon, in a log shack without electricity until 1953, or a telephone until 1958. his town hosted various social misfits, and was infamously known as a town no one dared to go.  on the flipside, “sammyville” gave poor, unemployed and ex-cons somewhere to go. sammy walked the streets in overalls, with a six-shooter on his side, proclaiming to be sheriff, mayor and hanger.  sammy received only a third grade education, but built a town with centralized water, indoor plumbing, fire truck and snow plows. he shrewdly stored money in cans buried around the property in a sort of slush fund to help with things like the elgin food bank, the elgin historical society and building a church.

      sammyville was the name of a 1999 film, which paints the town as lawless.  the film is currently listed as missing from the elgin public library.   


album of the month :: willie nelson - band of brothers

      willie is not like most musicians in their 80s making a comeback record.  most do it for extra retirement, or a favor.  sometimes, it’s for a chance to get out one more idea or story while there’s still time.  then, there’s willie time.  willie has always kept his own time. he’s always been able to write any song and make it decent. he still can, obviously.  he is more subtle than cash’s later years, but then again willie isn’t exactly re-inventing himself.  and though the album is the first in quite some time, willie isn’t exactly making a comeback and he isn’t exactly in his late career.  he’s been out there consistently these past 10 or 15 years especially. he is still singing like he’s got a lot yet to find, while having an old fart’s look back on life.  at 81, willie still travels more than entertainers at 21.  he is still as relevant, while also being timeless, as entertainers at 21. there is a lot to come. i expect willie to release a record at 101. 
      wives and girlfriends is typical tongue-in-cheek willie, but he really shows off his signature talent in used to her, crazy like me, and songwriters.  but like every album of the month selection (though i still don’t like the award), all the winners are complete top to bottom show stopping tunes.  metacritic gave band of brothers 72, though i feel that score should be 73.  then again, i don’t believe half of what mainstream critics think, so props to allmusic.com. they seem to have gotten this one right.
                    “We’re a band of brothers and sisters and whatever
                              On a mission to break all the rules
                         And I know you love me ’cause I love you too
                                 But you can’t tell me what to do”

rabble rousers for may 2014

rabble rouser hall of fame

dan price (joseph, or)

Photo: John Brecher, NBC News

dan left behind stressful corporate life in the early 1990s and now lives on the grand total of $5000 per year, which is made in various ways, such as maintaining cemetery lawns and selling his visions of the world. “i used to work as a photojournalist with regular crazy hours. the problem is, people have their lives so organized they are slaves. basically, the average person spends a ton of their time working for very little money, just to survive. i spend very little time working for enough money to not just survive, but do what i love – draw and travel.”

after his attempt at commercial society with a high-interest mortgage rate, dan now spends his life in oregon living in a “human scale” hobbit hole in the wallowas that he built for for $75.  it contains a room, a sauna and a garage for his bike.  “i like being able to do what i want to do. i don’t believe in houses or mortgages. who in their right mind would spend their lifetime paying for a building they never get to spend time in because they are always working?” so, dan leases two acres for $100 per year.  his genius book radical simplicity describes it all and his discontinued moonlight chronicles are, ironically, now being sold online for twice what price charged. so, buy directly from dan. p.o. box 109, joseph, or.

check more, starting with: 

galfromdownunder.com, nydailynews.com, path less pedaled

moonlight chronicles.com is chock full of the art he has created, his comic books, films made about him and his unique way of aof life that a lot of people can learn from as a how to for not caving into advertisers demands of the latest greatest junk to wind up cluttering your spare bedroom. 

rabble rousers of the month

sherpa of mount everest (eastern nepal)

the historically nomadic sherpa of eastern nepal are expert mountaineers who have been invaluable guides to the summit of mount everest. inexperienced climbers particularly need help ascending the tallest mountain in the world. according to the sherpa, hikers have placed unreasonable demands of sherpa.  the april 18 avalanche on everest killed fifty people, mostly sherpa who were assisting in an early morning transport of gear.  since that time, the sherpa have been on strike, not aiding climbers.  many hikers have resided at basecamp until ultimately going home without reaching the summit.  two important lessons for westerners to learn…

1. money can’t buy everything.  westerners may be used to buying their way into or out of any situation, but for the sherpa no amount of money is worth compromising health and safety. 

2. mount everest is not a vacation to disneyland.  families don’t just hike to the summit for a picnic.  the major world peaks, like everest, are for serious well experienced climbers.  obviously even a well trained climber would need some assistance, but  for the novice that needs a yellow brick road to the top, maybe the best idea is to be satisfied with a day hike to mount emily.  it’s been 51 years since jim whitaker became the first american to scale mount everest, and 61 years since sir edmund hillary became the first person known to have reached the summit.  both of these famous moutain men also needed sherpa and their skills to survive the treacherous ascent.   while those were fantastic achievements to aspire to, it is not as if every westerner must duplicate the feat.  and certainly not as if it should be as simple as buying a ticket to the top.

Jim Whitaker, with Sherpa guide Nawang Gombu in 1963.

amanda keon (dowagiac, michigan)

dowagiac union h.s. junior dominic gant didn’t have enough funds in his school lunch account (he was about $4 in the red), so his lunch was taken away and thrown into the trash. his mother, amanda, contacted the schooland was told that they follow the policy no matter who the student is or how much the student owes.  the school told her that there has to be some cut off. amanda said there doesn’t have to be sucha  policy at all and proceeded to pay off the outstanding lunch balances for every student at the school. to pay off all 19 students in the red accounts, cost amanda just under $100.  then, as per most draconian measures which come to light, the prinicipal gave a politically correct response, saying that dominic should have been able to ask permission to charge another day and should not have been sent home hungry.  i’d like to hear from the next dowagiac student that gets denied but doesn’t have a mother able to do what amanda did.

album of the month

clarke & the himselfs II (curly cassettes)

another reason why music is meant to be experienced live rather than on recording. of itself, the latest release from clarke howell isn’t the best thing ever recorded, but certainly not bad either. it’s got a little too psychedelic drony feel, but that matches the introspective messages from a soul trying to catch up with the fast world.  the music is almost like if daniel johnston and elliot smith had started a jesus and mary chain cover band. whether or not such a prospect sounds appealing, anyone would be mesmerized by the live version of clarke and the himselfs, like he put on at ranchfest over memorial day.  as one-man bands have continued to propogate at least since urban junior made it a fad four or five years ago, and probably even since ray davies and the rest of human history, clarke, as himself, pulls off a flawless live act.  he plays a kick drum with a snare and a cymbal, while strumming guitar with a drumstick and singing some compelling lyrics. it’s not even some gimmicky type of thing where watching one or two songs is entertaining enough.  every song keeps you hanging around for one more.  his cassettes only have about 7 or 8 songs, when you want to keep hearing more. here’s a side note for commercial viability.  if you’re planning an event with a shoestring budget and having a tough time coming up with anything to interest people, maybe try hiring clarke and the himselfs.  since he’s only one guy, i would bet he costs a little less than a full band.  plus, when people are bored with your under-planned event, they will be blown away by the mystique hiding behind the songs and the showmanship.  people will always remember what a hit your event was.