Fiddlin’

Posted on March 30, 2009

I love the fiddle, always have,  and I’ve wanted a fiddler in Beltaine’s Fire from day 1.  unfortunately, we’ve never been able to find a good one that has a solid attitude and can deal with the fact that we don’t get paid reliably because we’re a local independent band.  so i’ve decided to learn myself.   which i guess means my slow but steady transformation into a bonified folk musician is destined to continue.  i don’t know if the world is ready for a rapping fiddler or a fiddling rapper, but that’s never really stopped me before.

anyway.

so far it’s a lot of fun and a *lot* of work.  kind of expensive too, so far I’m in about $300 for the violin itself, new strings, a new bow, and a few other odds and ends,  plus $50 a week for lessons.

my teacher (Michael Mullen – one of my favorite celtic fiddlers on the west coast and someone you may recognize from his guest appearances on my band’s first album) assures me it’ll be at least 5 years, probably closer to 10, of intense study before I should even think about bringing my instrument on stage.  which kind of defeats the reason I wanted to pick it up in the first place.  except that I’m just stubborn enough to think I can probably do it sooner if I’m as obsessive compulsive about this as I am about most other things in my life. we’ll see.  I’ve got a bad history of getting really excited about instruments, playing for a while, then getting bored and moving on to something else, but I think that’s partly because I’ve been so broke for so long I haven’t been able to afford lessons and there’s only so far you can get being self-taught.  now though I’ve got at least a little bit of financial security and can afford lessons so no excuses – I’m going to need to put some serious work in.

anyway, that’s all my news.  hope ya’ll are enjoying the sunshine.  it’s a beautiful day here in oakland and I’m gonna go spend some time outside before it gets dark.

In Defense of Stupid People

Posted on March 27, 2009

I was talking to a friend today and heard myself make a offhand comment about ’stupid people’, something in reference to our society  being typically shortsighted and destructive in its consumption of precious resources and production of waste.   As I said it something struck me – the problem isn’t stupid people and blaming society’s ills on ’stupid people’ is really just a cop out and a way to avoid looking at the real issues.  There are plenty of folks who just plain aren’t that bright who have enough common sense to know you shouldn’t shit where you sleep, a lesson that millions of folks who can boast at least an average IQ score still haven’t learned, as evidenced by their willingness to drive giant cars that polute the air they breathe and purchase products whose production poisons the biosphere we all depend on to survive.  People who lack intelligence aren’t our problem, smart people who refuse to put down their illusions and look at the world the way it really is are the problem.

To clarify, I don’t mean ’stupid’ like people who vote Republican because they want to be safe from terrorism or Democrat because they think doing so will result in significant concession to Labor or environmental stewardship – that sort of deliberate self-deception goes in a category all its own;  I mean folks who just plain aren’t particularly bright because they were born with any of a range of disabilities that interfere with the development of normal cognitive function but don’t make them any less human or in any way diminish their ability to feel pain from the scorn heaped on them by society .   Think about it – why is it ok to discriminate against people with less then average intelligence?  This is a serious question and it deserves serious examination.

Read more

I hate the Radio

Posted on March 24, 2009

So I made a habit a while back of setting my alarm clock to the most vile corporate drivel i could find in order to force myself to get out of bed and turn it off.  Previously i’d had it set to classical music (because there are no radio stations that play independent, conscious hip hop music or folk or trip hip or any interesting electronica or pretty much anything else I’m actually interested in listening too) but as it turned out classical was just too damn peaceful and I kept sleeping right through my alarm.

At first the strategy worked pretty well but this morning it backfired on me, big-time, because i woke up to a Jonas Brothers song.  Something about time travel and how the singer went to the year three thousand and “your great great great granddaughter, is doing fine.”  I swear they must have repeated that same banal chorus 16-20 times, it was practically the entire song.  And now it’s stuck in my head.  Fuck.  double fuck. It’s times like this I can see the attraction of religion because if i believed in a god at least I could derive some small sadistic pleasure by imagining them slowly burning in hell.

It’s not up there with the wholesale rape of the planet and the wanton destruction of everything beautiful, but for the morning at least crappy plastic disneypop is ranking pretty high up there on my list of reasons to hate capitalism and the ruling corporateocracy.

Tristan Anderson Critically wounded by IDF

Posted on March 13, 2009

I just got forwarded a message that a friend of mine has been critically wounded by the Israeli military while protesting for Palestinian rights. Apparently he was shot in the head with a tear gas canister and is currently in the hospital. He’s hardly the first American to be wounded by the IDF – just a few years ago Rachel Corrie was run over by a bulldozer that was destroying Palestinian homes in the West Bank to make room for yet another illegal Israeli Settlement in the tiny strip of land that is all the Palestinian people have left of their country.

Just imagine what the American response would have been if a Palestinian soldier had willfully run down and killed an American citizen or shot an American citizen in the head, and then compare it with the complete indifference from Bush and Obama both in response to these assaults. That right there should tell you everything you need to know about the stranglehold that the Zionist lobby (as opposed to the mythical “Jewish” lobby – plenty of Jewish folks oppose Zionism and most hard-core supporters of Israel in America are fundamentalist Christians) has on American politics.

Here’s the full article on what happened to Tristan.

13th Friday 2009, Ni’lin Village: An American citizen has been critically injured in the village of Ni’lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a tear-gas canister.

Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, is currently being taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister.

“The Israeli soldiers were standing on the hill looking over us firing tear-gas canisters straight into the crowd. Tristan was hit and fell to the ground. He had a large hole in the front of his head and his brain was visible. I tried to stop the bleeding, but he was bleeding heavily from the head, nose and mouth.” Ulrika Jenson (Sweden) – International Solidarity Movement

“Tristan was shot by the new tear-gas canisters that can be shot up to 500m. I ran over as I saw someone had been shot, while the Israeli forces continued to fire tear-gas at us. When an ambulance came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint
just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with the soldiers, the ambulance passed.” Teah Lunqvist (Sweden) – International Solidarity Movement

Contact:
Ulrika Jenson (English and Swedish) – +972 598 521 158
Teah Lunqvist (English and Swedish) – +972 598 531 036
ISM Media Office – 02-297 1824 or +972 598 503 948

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) http://palsolidarity.org/ is a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement committed to ending Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We call for full compliance with all relevant UN resolutions and international law.

For specific media inquires such as interview requests, photo usage, etc. please email the ISM Media Office at media [at] palsolidarity.org

Other sources are now reporting the following related details: Ulrika Jenson, an International Solidarity Movement activist, said troops fired tear gas canisters into the crowd from a hill above.

“Tristan was hit and fell to the ground,” Jenson was quoted as saying in an ISM statement. “He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible.”

Why the protests?
“Ni’lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently the town’s land is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the construction of the Wall.”

“Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29th July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital.”

Tristan’s Reporting:

Tristan’s 2004 Posts From Iraq | Tristan Speaking in 2004 About His Trip to Iraq During First Year of War | Tristan’s 2006 Report Back From Oaxaca

Recent Coverage By Tristan: Berkeley Oaks Tree Sit | 2008 Reclaim The Streets Protest | 2008 Iraq War Protest | 2008 Chevron Protest |Fossil Fools Bike Ride | Anti-War Bike Ride | More Of Tristan’s Indybay Reports Over the Years

Wanderlust

Posted on March 12, 2009

I like to go on a roadtrip or tour every year at least, more often if I can. I find myself permanantly torn between wanting to have a safe familiar place and a community around me and wanting to be out on the road again. I can’t help wondering, why can’t I have both? why do I always have to choose between the two? I guess it all comes down to the fact that I can’t pay rent while on tour – I’m nowhere near big enough to be able to make that kind of money yet and probably never will be. Ditching the apartment and living in an RV or a converted bus might be cool and I’ve floated the idea to my partner more then once, but she’s not particularly intersted in that. Besides, it presents a whole other set of problems – not least of which is the way cops harrass vehicularly housed people. So for now at least the open road remains an almost illegitimate pleasure, something I get to enjoy in brief moments cut off from the grind of my normal life.

Coming back from those moments is strange. this time yesterday I was in San Luis Obispo doing some reading and getting ready for a show, having stayed up most of the night jamming with the band in a hotel room the night before. And here I am, again, sitting on campus staring at a computer screen trying to pass the time between classes and wishing I was somewhere else. anywhere else. give it a day or so and the meloncholy will pass, it’s like the comedown after a high – it leaves me drained and wanting another fix. Another road, another show, another adventure.

Soon.