Caterwauled

Shaken From My Slumber By Olberman

2010-07-22T14:08:00.002-04:00

It's been months since I've posted anything here, but I'm awake again.

My nap was interrupted by the intentional destruction of a life, a reputation and a career by a right wing blogger named Breitbart, and unintentionally by everyone else who should have known better.

Keith is in best form when he scolds everyone from Breitbart, to Obama. And he's right, we all need to do our best to stand up to those who would destroy others for their own profit.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Billy Bragg vs the bankers

2010-01-27T12:13:00.002-05:00

Over in Britain, the general public is as outraged as we are here about bailed-out bankers receiving huge bonuses. RSB (Royal Bank of Scotland) is now owned, in large part, by the government and the taxpayers. Billy Bragg has begun a campaign to stop the payment of bonuses, and he's declared he'll withhold his taxes to prove his point. I think it's called talking with the poet about taxes.

Kate McGarrigle, RIP

2010-01-19T12:05:00.003-05:00

Kate McGarrigle, the influential and popular folks singer who sang for years with her sister Anna as the McGarrigle Sisters has died after a long battle with clear-cell carcinoma. McGarrigle was formerly married to Loudon Wainwright III and is the mother of singers Rufus and Martha Wainwright.

All you single deputies

2010-01-13T08:29:00.001-05:00

Jeff Bridges, America's most under-appreciated actor, gets his due

2010-01-13T07:42:00.000-05:00

There ain't half been some clever bastards

2010-01-12T16:28:00.002-05:00

An Ian Dury biopic. Now only if it can get theatrical release in the US.

It's a wonderful idea

2009-12-31T17:59:00.002-05:00

What a magnificent mash-up. George Bailey meets Arianna Huffington. Bernie Sanders vs. Mr. Potter. Capra unmasks Wall Street.

Move your money.

Caterwaul Favorite Albums 2009

2009-12-30T08:55:00.004-05:00

This is the entire list, all 27 of them, with some video augmentation.

Caterwaul Albums 2009

Albums of the Year

Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows (Six Shooter)

Loudon Wainwright III and Dick Connette- High Wide and Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story Sounds)

Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (Anti)

Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk (New West)

Gourds – Haymaker (Yep Roc)

Levon Helm – Electric Dirt (Vanguard)

Todd Snider – The Excitement Plan (Yep Roc)

Wilco – Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)

Elvis Costello – Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (Hear)

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti)

Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)

Vic Chestnutt – Skitter on Takeoff (Vapor)

Tim Easton – Porcupine (New West)

The Sweetback Sisters – Chicken Ain’t Chicken (Signature Sounds)

Putnam Smith – Goldrush (Itchy Sabot)

Lyle Lovett – Natural Forces (Lost Highway)

Red Stick Ramblers – My Suitcase is Always Packed (Sugar Hill)

Kendal Carson – Allright Dynamite (Train Wreck)

Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock (Team Love)

David Greely - Sud du Sud (davidgreely.com)

Dave Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend (Acony)

Chuck Prophet – Let Freedom Ring (Yep Roc)

Caroline Herring – Golden Apples of the Sun (Signature Sounds)

Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day (Partisan)

Linzay Young and Joel Savoy (Valcour)

Vince Bell – One Man’s Music (vincebell.com)
Amy Speace - The Killer in Me (Wildflower)

Creepy Joe™ Lieberman: the first to exploit fear

2009-12-27T17:14:00.002-05:00

Hot off of his outrageous, mercurial performance as the enemy of universal health care, our junior, and I do mean junior, ructious Senator has found new hope in an attempted act of terrorism.

On Sunday, while the White House tried mightily to prevent panic, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman stoked the fires of fear, and beat the drums of war suggesting that we establish a new front in Yemen. Yeah, man.

Lieberman spared no time moving from the limelight as "health spoiler" to the bellicose beast of bombing preemptively. All right, (creepy) Joe, let's make yemenade out of Yemen!

Never was a bigger chickenhawk ever hatched.

And as the head of the Homeland Security committee, might it be presumptuous to suggest that Lieberman had failed in his duties because a Nigerian with an explosive dildo almost brought a jetliner down. If it wasn't for a brave lad from the land of licentiousness, Amsterdam, one would say that the Senate Homeland Security committee might have had some blood on its hands.

But that's okay with Lieberman. A little blood bath, just like too little health care, is a good thing for his benefactors.

Vic Chestnutt, RIP

2009-12-26T09:53:00.003-05:00

A heroic story of a man overcoming incredible odds to create an amazing body of music, inside a broken body, ended Christmas Day when Vic Chestnutt committed suicide. His songs are strange, beautiful and haunting. Anyone who ever saw him perform live understands the eerie magnificence of his songs.

It's unfortunate that our vaunted health care system was failing him in a time of great need. A page to help his family pay for medical bills has been set up for donations.

The bells are ringing out with Bragg

2009-12-23T15:10:00.003-05:00

Interesting, though not equal to the original. And who are Florence and the Machine?

Though the great man does it justice.

And there's a certain stadium appeal to the Coldplay cover.

Chainsmokinig while the stereo plays Noel

2009-12-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, noble statesman "Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya."

2009-12-06T20:09:00.002-05:00

President Barack Obama went to the US Senate Sunday to address the Democratic caucus on the topic of passing a health care bill, and the disastrous results of failing to do so.

When he was done with his 30 minute speech, which neither mentioned the public option, nor restrictions on abortions, our own Senator Creepy Joe™ Lieberman apparently could not contain his glee.

He trotted over to Harry Reid and gloated, dancing, pointing his finger (okay that's my version), and chanting in a schoolyard singsong: "He didn't mention the public option; he didn't mention the public option, and you stink too."

Reid asked Lieberman if he had seen where the horse bit him.

Must be

2009-12-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

Christmas at Dylan's house.

Thanksgiving Loudon's way

2009-11-25T07:08:00.002-05:00

Creepy Joe™ pulls one from the Bush playbook

2009-11-21T09:27:00.007-05:00

A total embarrassment to the majority of Connecticut residents who favor a universal healthcare plan, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman has become a focus for vituperative remarks, and the butt of jokes on national television.

But none of that seems to affect his curdled narcissism.

Still, in a flash of inspiration that he borrowed from George Bush and his homeland security chiefs, Lieberman has raised the specter of terrorism as a distraction.

If the world is hailing our junior senator from Connecticut as the biggest egotistical turncoat since Benedict Arnold for opposing the public option, Lieberman thinks he has a way to divert attention, and make his far-right supporters hail him as a patriot by discovering a new "terrorist threat" in the tragedy at Fort Hood. He's wielding the committee chairmanship from which he should have been toppled, as the bully pulpit for his self-serving nonsense.

Maybe Creepy Joe™ ought to acknowledge his own role as terrorist. How much time will he be spending scrubbing the blood from his hands for his active support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? How many bodies of innocent children need to be placed on the doorstep of his swanky Stamford digs before he stops his anti-Muslim yowling? And how many sick mother's, daughters, sons and husbands can look to the Senator from Connecticut and see the thick, brutish impediment that stands between them and decent health care?

No shit from Shinolas

2009-11-17T14:39:00.004-05:00

I've been meaning to make it down to Tapas on Ann St. in Hartford for months to catch the Monday night stand with the Shinolas, an erstwhile band consisting of great session players.

Local guitar slinger, producer, film scorer and friend, Jim Chapdelaine, and also-local percussion, multi-instrumentalist, producer and friend Lorne Entress recruited bassist Paul Kochanski and talented pedal steel player Ed Iarusso to form the Shinolas.

Every Monday they gather in the Asylum Street window of the modest eatery and turn it into the kind of joint you only find in Nashville or Austin. Great players having a great time singing and playing originals and covers, mostly of the rootsy rock, rockin' country or pumped-up traditional variety.

Last night they were joined onstage by acclaimed Boston singer-songwriter Mark Erelli, who enjoyed a sabbatical from being the "folksinger" so that he could trade leads on rockers with Chapdelaine, and so he could share band versions of some of his great tunes including "Compass and Companion," and his tragic take on the Hartford circus fire he calls "Hartfordtown." In between the band moved easily between Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Warren Zevon. During two extended jams, it was difficult to tell who was having more fun - the band or the audience.

This regular gig has turned an off night for the Hartford eatery into a a busy night that has become an important staple of their week's income. On Monday the restaurant was fully booked out, with standing room only for latecomers.

The Shinolas have made it a practice to invite friends onto their stage. Besides Erelli, they've hosted Al Anderson, John Pousette-Dart and Daisy Mayhem fiddler Rani Arbo. Chapdelaine hinted of a few surprise guests to come.

While the wind whistled through the rest of Hartford's empty streets Monday, the joyful noise was warm and welcome inside Tapas.

The Bogmen are back

2009-11-15T12:37:00.003-05:00

I know they've been reuniting once a year for benefits, but rooting around in the Bogosphere on a rainy Saturday, I discovered that the that one of the greatest unappreciated bands ever, the Bogmen, has gone back into the studio to cut tracks for an EP to be released next year. If you've never seen them live, you've never experienced one of the most electrifying performances of genius rock ever to hit the stage.

"I haven't seen you since the big burn...."

One of the new ones.

Walking the Walk With Merrick

2009-11-14T14:32:00.003-05:00

It intrigued me: a decorated war veteran who support the military, but who is willing to walk across Connecticut with t-shirted companions demanding an end to the Afghan war. Merrick Alpert is a Democrat running against Chris Dodd for a spot on the Democratic ticket in the 2010 Senate race. I told Merrick he was tilting at windmills, and he told me that somebody had to do it. He's a bundle of contradictions. He admires Martin Luther King and the intelligence community. He's believes in the principles of the Democratic party but not in the "career politicians" who have bent the party to their will. He voted for Barack Obama, cried at his inauguration but is willing to say he's dead wrong about Afghanistan and Iraq. He's a realist, and a capitalist who has built two successful companies, but he's ready to follow the impossible dream of toppling a tottering incumbent. He's intriguing, so I decided to lend a hand and produced this:

Thanks to Bruce Zimmerman for the custom score, and to Glenn Orkin, Paul Nelson, Crystal Place and Todd Sanderson for production assistance.

The Pain in Maine Falls Mainly on the Gay'uns

2009-11-04T14:27:00.001-05:00

Marriage to someone of the same gender? You can't get they-uh, from he-uh.

I got a nasty email message after playing this one on the radio this morning.

Sun and moon and stars

2009-10-28T07:35:00.000-04:00

Creepy Joe™ creeps again

2009-10-27T16:27:00.004-04:00

Simultaneously shameless and shameful, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, who thumbed his nose at Connecticut Democrats, and all Democrats, including candidate Barack Obama, and who was saved from ignominy by President Barack Obama, has taken the thumb from his nose and jammed it in our collective eyes.

Lieberman has stated that he will join with Republicans in filibustering against the public option.

Which health insurance company's water is he carrying now?

I know your material

2009-10-22T15:21:00.002-04:00

Comedian Richard Lewis (Curb Your Enthusiasm) was a guest on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night and delivered a priceless, and hilariously scathing, anecdote about his only encounter with our Senator, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman. Be patient while viewing as Olbermann spends some time skewering Michele Bachman before he gets to Lewis.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The trouble with radio

2009-10-15T16:51:00.002-04:00

Is that there's precious little of what counts - individuality, creativity, insight, personality.

Yesterday when I was raising money at WWUH, I thought about how great the radio I grew up with was, and how sad that it doesn't exist anymore.

Thanks to everyone who called and helped me surpass my goal for the show. Here's a song I know you'll understand.

H/T (for many reasons) to Susan Forbes Hansen.

Allons a Lafayette

2009-10-12T11:11:00.001-04:00

I'm just back from being out of town for a few days doing some film production in Mobile, Alabama and Natchez, Mississippi. I found Mobile less charming than expected, and on the contrary, despite the ghosts of slavery which loom over Natchez, it's a beautiful little town on a broad stretch of the Mississippi River crammed full of interesting architecture, most of which are stately antebellum structures.

I took the opportunity for a side trip of a couple of days to a place that inexplicably feels like a second home to me, Louisiana.

Never fully jettisoning its status as a French territory (and Spanish before that), it's the only place in the world where the Napoleonic code is still the basis for law. It's also one of the most exotic places in the United States.

It's a bundle of contradictions. Deeply embedded racism, and some of the deepest racial harmony I've ever witnessed. Flag-waving patriotism living elbow-to-elbow with a proud French culture which fairly spits the word "americaine" as the curse which rained down highways and McDonalds and nearly ravaged a culture where neighborliness and home cooked food are almost a religion. Broad fertile prairies bump up against dank foreboding swamplands. Nature perseveres with a vengeance on wide acres where oil derricks pump endlessly into the night.

New Orleans is a part of this, but that's another story altogether.

I wanted to visit several of my friends who live in the Acadian - Cajun- and Creole corridor that runs from Henderson Swamp to Eunice and beyond.

I stay in Breaux Bridge, an old farming town bisected by the Bayou Teche. There are half a dozen lovely bed and breakfast accommodations in a town which is now a magnet for artists, musicians and antique merchants.

On my first night in, I stopped at Nunu's in Arnaudville where fiddler David Greely assembled a congress of fellow fiddlers, many of them young, who played ancient music filtered through young fingers. Nunu's is a cafe/concert hall/arts space/educational facility which attempts to present a few concerts each month featuring the traditional music of the area, rooted undeniably in the predominant French culture of the Acadians (from Britanny and other parts of France, via Nova Scotia), and the Creoles who are influenced by African, Caribbean and Spanish roots.

After a restful night, despite a wicked head cold, at the lovely Isabelle Inn, I headed to New Iberia to walk the streets made famous by detective novelist James Lee Burke and his rogue detective Dave Robichaux. New Iberia was abuzz with preparation for a gumbo cook-off which would feature music, local food, and of course, a gumbo-cooking contest. I didn't make it back to sample the gumbo, but I had my share at other stops on the trip.

A quick stop in Lafayette to hear a bit of music by zydeco artist Corey Ledet, and young Cajun band Feufollet to kick off the weekend Festivale Acadien in Lafayette, then it was back to Breaux Bridge for lunch with Susan and Carl, both of who are from Louisiana, but who have called Connecticut home, and now have adopted Breaux Bridge. We ate at Cafe des Amis (I had catfish and machoux). They introduced me to the owner of the Cafe, Dickie Breaux, who among other things, spent his life in Louisiana politics and kept me fascinated with tales of institutionalized corruption, and the difficulties of being a very liberal Democrat in a deeply conservative Southern state.

That evening I made my way to the Blue Moon Saloon and guesthouse where Cedric Watson and his band Bijou Creole were to play. I sat next to Ken Doucet who complete my day with more tales of Louisiana politics, the role of the Mafia in the state, and sordid tales of cousins, and uncles and women. By his telling, his uncle contributed to the death of Huey Long after he was shot in the state Capitol building in Baton Rouge. Ken's uncle was a trusted general practitioner to Long, and Long insisted that he perform surgery to remove the bullets from his gut. The uncle was not a practiced surgeon, and, well, the Huey Long shooting is now called an assassination.

Cedric Watson filled the dance floor with a sweaty, enthusiastic crowd, and though I swore to leave in time to hear Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys play a rare gig at La Poussiere in Breaux Bridge, I couldn't tear myself away, and spent the rest of the evening at the Blue Moon.

The next morning I rose early to get a good spot for the Zydeco breakfast at Cafe des Amis. When I got to the cafe on Bridge Street at 7:20, there was already a line of thirty ahead of me. When the doors opened, I found a place at the bar and ordered a coffee, while many in the tiny restaurant pulled on strong Bloody Mary's as they downed cheese grits and boudin balls. The crowd filtered in as Corey Ledet and his band arrived and set up, and by 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning the dance floor was filled with bobbing bodies swinging to Ledet's throbbing Zydeco beat. As I left, the line to get in ran halfway down the block.

I made an early retreat to visit Marc Savoy's Music Store in Eunice, northwest of Lafayette, where a regular Saturday morning jam session draws wizened veterans grasping delicate fiddles in muscular paws, mixed with up-and-comers hoping to steal a lick from the oldtimers. I stopped on the way to pick up a typical Saturday morning visiting treat on the prairie - hot boudin and crackers - at Ray's Boudin and Cracklins shop in Opelousas. I bought a small bag of cracklins for the short drive to Eunice. Cracklins are knows as a perfect food. Pig fat cooked to a hardy crispness in, pig fat, and then seasoned with salt and a variety of peppers. Boudin is pork and rice sausage which is cooked twice. The mix is cooked before being stuffed in sausage casings, then cooked again in broth or in oil.

As Marc Savoy said as he pulled took a bite of the spicy sausage, "Yum."

I caught up with Marc and Ann Savoy, and then headed back down to Lafayette for the already-underway Festivale Acadien. One of the most popular regional music festivals, Festival Acadien is completely free, and features music of the local French culture, very reasonably-priced delicacies from a variety of the local restaurants, and crafts from around the region.

A night of rain left Girard Park, located adjacent to the University of Louisiana, a soup of mud puddles and slick bogs. The locals wore colorful rubber boots that did not impair dancing a wit. And on whatever of the four stages featured music, there was dancing. In fact, at one point I walked past four different acts, on four different stages and the dance floor (the muddy patch in front of the stage) was filled at each one.

I scouted the food booths before deciding what to try. It was a difficult decision considering the choices, jambalya, gumbo, etouffe (spelled, frequently "A-2-fay"), fricasse, pistollettes, boudin, po boys, tasso, catfish in many incarnations, crab, crawfish, shrimp, red beans & rice, and a variety of mouth-watering pastries, bread puddings and cobblers.

Throughout the day I had some jambalaya, boudin, catfish, etouffe and some crawfish enchiladas. My eyes longed for more, but alas.

As for the music, it would be difficult to say what I enjoyed most - Jesse Lege (who lives part time in Connecticut and makes his living as a carpenter here) transformed at home by an all-star band with members of several local combo providing him the kind of backup he could never find in the Nutmeg State, Balfa Toujours (who recently peformed in Middletown) calling the amazing Horace Trahan in to substitute on accordion for the absent Dirk Powell, the Pine Leaf Boys roaring across the stage as the light faded from the sky, or Feufollet bringing the legendary Zachary Richard onstage to sing the classic "J'ete Au Bal."

As the last notes filtered through the branches of the live oaks in Girard Park, I had to decide whether to spend another evening at the Blue Moon Saloon with the Pine Leaf Boys, or make the prudent escape to my B&B for a very early morning trip to the airport. I chose the prudent Yankee route.

Had I know my flight was going to be canceled, and that I would sit for four hours in the Lafayette Airport, I might have made the decision to swallow a few more Abitas and sway a few more hours with my Acadian friends.

The respite in the airport allowed me to write this, and to reflect on a culture which many thought would disappear in Louisiana. But despite attempts to drive the French Culture out, the resulting counter-attack to preserve it, has created a culture that is as diverse as it is united, and as spectacular as it is homespun.

Any culture that can weave eating, playing music, taking a sip, telling stories and hanging out with neighbors, is likely to survive as long as we love doing all those things.

Eight miles high

2009-10-06T13:11:00.002-04:00

Certainly not the first to do it, but the idea of using wifi on an airflight is impressive. Right now we're somewhere over Jersey, and it's a bit turbulent. But, here's what's out my window.

Amy Farris, RIP

2009-09-30T22:00:00.004-04:00

Any of us who saw Dave Alvin touring this summer with his Guilty Women tour were likely as impressed by the band as we were by Dave.

Sad news today, then, that fiddler, songwriter and wonderful musician Amy Farris has died. I met her in Los Angeles at a gig with I See Hawks In LA, and she was as charming and nice as she was musically talented.

Here's what her family posted on FB:

AMY FARRIS (violin, viola and harmony vocals for Dave Alvin & The Guilty
Women) passed away Saturday, Sept 26th after battling a long illness. A native
of Austin, Texas, Amy started playing violin at age ten. She is a vet of the
Austin music scene, playing with artists such as Ray Price, Alejandro
Escovedo, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Amy moved to
Los Angeles when Dave offered to produce her first solo CD Anyway, released
by Yep Roc in 2004. Along with Dave Alvin and Kelly Willis, Miss Farris has
also performed and/or recorded with Brian Wilson, John Doe, Exene Cervenka,
Stan Ridgway, Greg Dulli, Peter Case, and many others.

In leui of flowers, the family encourages you to send a donation in her
honor to Hungry For Music, Inc, a nonprofit effort to provide free musical
instruments to underprivileged children with a hunger to play.

www.hungryformusic.org

Or send checks to:
Hungry for Music
6 Grant Ave. Suite 3
Takoma Park, MD 20912

Tweaking the laws for the sake of the bottom line

2009-09-24T16:13:00.005-04:00

I found this essay by Russell Mokhiber via Susan Campbell's website at about the same time I finished reading Nick Reding's amazing book Methland, which describes how the crank epidemic has ravaged the country.

Mokhiber asks why a non-profit organization like ACORN is being punished for the wrongdoing of a few bad employees, and why major corporations with legions of rogue employees are left unharmed.

Interestingly, filmaker James O'Keefe who made the now infamous ACORN pimp/whore videos, has apparently lied about his "investigation."

Reding posits that America's meth epidemic was abetted by huge agricultural companies which bought small meatpacking and agricultural firms, cut wages drastically, and knowingly employed illegal aliens, and large pharmaceutical companies which fought the DEA to salvage the production of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, the main component of meth.

In both cases the power of corporate money, and the need to make a profit, twisted the laws for its own, bottom line, purposes.

The golden rule, rules. He who has the gold makes the rules.

Good thing she's not a country singer

2009-09-23T10:51:00.004-04:00

Sarah Palin went to a Hong Kong and bashed the president. When the Dixie Chicks did this to W, they got death threats and were blacklisted from radio stations and concert venues. The wingnut bloviators went ballistic (How dare she criticize the commander-in-chief at at time of war?) Don't hold your breath waiting for the right-wing commenters to slam their very own centerfold.

Here's one for Hartford

2009-09-22T11:56:00.000-04:00

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Some damned good reasons to call the teabaggers, "racist."

2009-09-21T16:00:00.004-04:00

It shouldn't be a charge one cascades as a facile rejoinder to every wrong the lunkheaded rightwingers unleash.

But there's plenty of evidence, specific evidence, that racism is at the heart of a good many of the attacks on Barack Obama.

So when conservative shoutcasters, like our local watt-sucker, Jim Vicevich, express outrage at being called "racist," one merely has to point out how. Last week Vicevich was in the middle of a rant, during which he saw himself and his listeners ("my little mobsters" he calls them) as victims of a false charge of bigotry. In the same sentence he decried the charge, and implicated himself.

"Is it racist to challenge the policies of the 'young president," he screamed into the mic.

The "young president," is it? Once again, Jim Bob, you may as well call Obama, "boy."

He's black, and he's president. And he's a grown man. And for some people that just doesn't add up, does it, Jim?

Jim Vicevich: one angry teabagger

2009-09-15T12:03:00.004-04:00

The Hartford Courant today printed an editorial about several incidents which indicate a loss of civility in the public discourse. Say the editors:

The health care issue has seen incivility raised to a tactic — premeditated rudeness — in town hall meetings across the country, driven by hate radio and vituperate bloggers.

Local crackpot broadcaster, WTIC-AM's Jim Vicevich took that sentence personally, excoriating editors for not including a list of uncivil incidents during the Bush administration.

I, for one, am glad that Vicevich self-identifed with "hate radio," because the first step in recovery is recognizing that you have a problem.

Now Jim, if we could only convince you to admit that your undergrad degree in economics does not put you on par with Paul Krugman. Your 15 watt notion of the free-market is nothing more than a rehashing of the cribbed talking points of think-tanks, bloggers, pundits and lobbyists for the corporate giants who need nincompoops like you to do their bidding.

Teabaggers: great patriots, defenders of the Constitution, and brilliant spelers

2009-09-14T15:15:00.005-04:00

Hey Vicevich. We'll stop calling you a teabagger when you stop calling it, "the Democrat Party" and stop calling him "the young president." (By the way, do you take one lump, or two?)

A march on Washington as pure, and white, as the driven snow.

The irrepressible Max Blumenthal with another object lesson.

Creep's "wrongness" unmasked

2009-09-11T11:28:00.002-04:00

Thank you Keith Olbermann.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Creep

2009-09-11T11:11:00.003-04:00

Your first impression about South Carolina Joe Wilson was correct. He's an opportunistic creep. His outburst during Obama's speech now seems more planned and premeditated than ever. Get this.

"Sorry" was easy, but it ain't good enough

2009-09-10T13:26:00.006-04:00

The boors are winning.

At the town hall meetings mob rule has prevented meaningful discussion and debate on health care.

And now, South Carolina's representative Joe Wilson decided to shout down President Barack Obama with a angry, "You lie."

So much for Southern gentility.

Where was Wilson when George Bush was standing in the same place and actually lying. Oh, that's right, George Bush isn't black.

Wilson has apologized to the President. And the President has wisely, graciously, if unsatisfyingly, accepted Wilson's apology, and wants to move on.

I feel as incomplete as Inigo Montoya (from the Princess Bride). As incomplete as when Obama allowed Creepy Joe™ Lieberman back into the fold.

The problem is not Wilson's accusation. If we were to ask ever elected official in the room last night to stand and clap if they had ever offered a political lie to the public, we would have witnessed a standing ovation. Politicians lie. All politicians lie. (In fact, we all lie, Joe.)

And, for me, it's not about the loss of protocol. I, for one, would have been happy if one spineless Democrat had occasionally stood up to George Bush or Dick Cheney.

No, Wilson could have shouted, "you're ugly" or "you're a socialist" or "you were born in Kenya," and they all would have had the same effect. Guys like Wilson seem to think it's okay to shout at President Barack Obama because he's considered an impostor. To them, he's a black man in a white man's office. And a lot of folks don't give him the respect that they've given other men, in the same office, who deserved far less respect.

What Wilson did was send a signal to the racists, and the gun nuts, and the whack jobs, and the crack pots, and the birthers, and the deathers, that the man sitting in the President's chair is doing so illegitimately.

What Wilson did is give these creeps one more reason to believe that Barack Obama is somehow not their president.

"He must be a liar," they repeat. "Joe Wilson said so, and he's a Congressman."

Right here in Connecticut this morning, WTIC wingnut radio host Jim Vicevich, who hilariously called himself "the voice of moderation" today, played the Wilson accusation 6 or 7 times in the short time I was listening. And then he argued himself that the president was not being truthful, but was using "weasel words." And then he entertained at least three callers who called Barack Obama a liar, and each time he amplified the accusation by "proving" that the President was not being completely upfront about the proposed health care bill (Vicevich claims he has had some really "smart people" with "advanced degrees" who read and really understand the bill - a former Assistant U.S. Attorney General, Vicevich's sister, and the RadioVice blogmaster Steve McGough, who happens to work for health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare).

ASIDE: Just for the record, Vicevich hung up on two people who disagreed with him and, then, only after they were safely off the phone, he spent two or three minutes berating them. Bully=coward. The "voice of moderation" indeed.

The echo is deafening, and the crackpots are soaking it up. Listen to them repeat the chants "liar, socialist, nazi, racist (yes, can you believe? "racist")." Vicevich is leading the chorus of malcontents, and goes so far as to continue to remind them of their constitutional right to bear arms. I think any broadcaster with an ounce of sense and responsibility has to understand that lighting a match while standing in a puddle of gasoline, is not a good or gracious or democratic idea.

BTW, Jim, lay off the "young president" bit unless you really want to commit to the racist intent of calling him "boy."

Tonight, Jim Vicevich is the "guest of honor" at a fundraiser for Republican candidates for mayor and common council in my hometown of Middletown CT. I can only say, that any of those candidates who attend the fundraiser have lost my respect, and likely my vote.

As for Wilson, "sorry" is just not good enough.

And perhaps the only satisfaction is knowing that his Democratic opponent for the seat raised more than $300,000 for his campaign in the hours after Wilson's outburst.

In our classrooms, any president but this one

2009-09-08T15:59:00.002-04:00

Thank you Michael Wolff for confirming my suspicions.

Reports of my traffic gridlock have been greatly exaggerated

2009-09-08T15:18:00.006-04:00

For weeks I've been hearing the ads. Rudy Giuliano bragging (what else is new?) about his "friends" like Colin Powell and Laura Bush and Joe Montana coming to Hartford to electrify, for $19.95 you during this terrible recession.

My years of watching late-night infomercials nudged my bullshit detector to the "on" position.

Well, it turns out that the only way these folks are coming to Hartford is "via Satellite." So, you are one of the great unwashed who has shelled out $19.95 to be in the same room with the motivators only to find you'll be watching them on a big TV screen.

But don't worry, because you'll also be able to enjoy the traffic gridlock that the promoters are predicting.

But my bullshit detectors are humming again, and I think that every editor in Hartford has switched theirs off, preferring to believe the press release that gridlock could actually happen in our lovely little Insurance City.

I think it's hype. Just the promoters trying to get a little more attention for their claim that the event has sold out.

I smell sell-out, all right. It's just of a different brand.

By the way, just who is Tamara Lowe?

Could it be nicer: the view from the stage

2009-09-06T08:45:00.006-04:00

The lovely late-summer weather drove a huge crowd to the gates of the Rhythm and Roots Festival on Friday and Saturday. It seems as if today promises more of the same.

I've been emceeing, as I have all of the twelve years the festival has been held here, and the music is as good as it's ever been.

Highlights: The Lee Brothers and the Travellin' McCoury's doing a gospel jam to end Friday night's festivities. Member of the Frank family jamming in the workshop tent. Cedric Watson and Bijou Creole on the main stage, and Keith Frank insisting with his irresistible music that the crowd dance and sweat.

Godverdomme, Bill O'Reilly, u klootzak, eikel, flikker op nl u paardenlul

2009-09-04T09:57:00.006-04:00

The Dutch are not happy with Bill O'Reilly. Neither are we.

Morans abound

2009-09-03T10:24:00.008-04:00

I don't know which has made me laugh more in the past two days, Jonathan Ligon's Facebook collection of Morons With Signs (Facebook membership required) or the discovery (thanks to Pete Lehndorff), of Awkward Family Photos.

Saved by the music

2009-09-02T16:29:00.005-04:00

When I rolled out of bed at 4 AM this morning in preparation for the radio show I had some dark thoughts. Am I too old to be doing this? Couldn't I use the extra few hours of sleep? Was I really excited about getting back to spinning the music?

These thoughts haunted me the entire ride to the radio station, and I thought, really thought, maybe it's the time to retire.

When I arrived, after two weeks of vacation, there were at least 80 new CDs waiting to be logged in. I was able to manage doing the data base log-in for forty of them, which means printing 40 labels, and affixing all of them, plus at least two other stickers, to the CDs and cases. That's well over 120 stickers.

Out of necessity, some of this busy work leaked over into the beginning of the show, so I decided to spin new music until I got the job done.

It took me 40 minutes, and in that time, my dark mood was blown clear out of the studio by the quality of music by groups and musicians I had never heard before - Elliott Brood, Cara Dillon, Madison Violet, Allen Thompson and The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank.

I was smiling, and filled with the hope that only new music can generate.

I won't be retiring soon. I want to spin more of these songs.

Voodoo Today Here Now 5

2009-08-31T16:36:00.006-04:00

Four years ago this week I was sitting at a cottage in Narragansett, Rhode Island, where I was emceeing at the Rhythm and Roots Festival, and I was on the phone trying to figure out how to get a video crew into Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana after Katrina had ripped apart the Gulf coast. I was on assignment for a local insurance company which wanted to document their handling of claims during the crisis.

I managed to get an advanced team into Mississippi a few days after Katrina. A week later I was in New Orleans the day it was first opened to insurance adjusters, contractors and some business owners.

We landed in Alabama, and drove to Louisiana. The towering commercial signs advertising fast food and gasoline were all absent their messages, and treetops along the highway were shorn. We gassed up in Mandeville, unsure that we'd find fuel in New Orleans, and filled the back seat with water, candy bars, jerky and peanut butter.

That first trip over the Lake Pontchartrain causeway was eerie, and the damage to the city was apparent immediately. I had contracted with a crew from the city to take me around. The camera operator had already spent days with network producers scouring New Orleans when it was still flooded. With his NBC credentials, he got me into Lakeview and the Ninth Ward to see the extent of the hurricane damage.

That night, we stayed in a chain hotel on St. Peters with TV crews, security personnel, National Guard members and Fats Domino. We grilled hot dogs on the sidewalk, because the hotel restaurant was not open for business, and traded the frankfurters for National Guard MRE's (ready-to-eat meals).

I love New Orleans, but was only able to walk after the sun rose, and before it set. The city was closed otherwise, and since I worked all day, these morning and evening walks allowed me to see a major American city empty, and on the skids.

A major memory, beyond the damage, were the refrigerators, duct-taped shut, lining the sidewalks and stinking to high heavens. Many marked with a mysterious graffiti message "Voodoo Today Here Now 5." I don't know if anyone has ever figured that one out.

While New Orleans has made significant strides back, it's still not, and may never be, the city it was. A lot of the anniversary reports dwell on the work still remaining to be done.

But native New Orleanians have not given up on the city, and after four years, that's the best one can say about this one-of-a-kind, exotic non-american, American city.

More helpful hints for fighting fascism

2009-08-29T20:30:00.003-04:00

It's been a puzzle to me how the major AM radio station in the state has given itself over completely to right-wing blather (and the Red Sox and UCONN Huskies) when it neither reflects the feelings or attitudes of a majority of the population, nor any relation to the truth.

Yet, WTIC-AM becomes more strident with every passing day, and from it's morning drive-time jock, a right-winger who declares himself a libertarian, to the show which follows, in which a shallow, vacuous, feeble-minded host parrots the day's wingnut talking points for his tiny, but dedicated audience, to the national feeds of hate-mongering bloviators, the station panders to the fears of the uninformed to define a focused audience for advertisers. Some would say it all comes down to money. But is there something more?

Is the corporate-owned radio giant a megaphone for conservative corporate talking points aimed at perpetuating a free-market, small-government myth. One has to begin to think so, otherwise this boil on the bum of broadcasting wouldn't make sense in a state which is largely liberal and Democratic.

And because WTIC neither owns the airwaves over which it broadcasts, nor is any longer peforming a service to the public, it's up to us to begin to ask why it should retain its license.

This is something we can do locally to fight a surge in fascist thought that's flooding America. Sara Robinson has written thoughtfully on the topic, and now she has more to say.

Back to our local conservative radio station which has failed in its mission to serve the public. It calls itself "new talk" radio, but "news" is a gathering of fact, and fact no longer is the basis for the "talk" on the station. Time to listen carefully, take notes, and report to the FCC anytime you feel the station is promoting hate, racism, homophobia and particularly incitement to treason.

First the good news

2009-08-28T07:39:00.006-04:00

Colin McEnroe will be back on the air, Monday at WNPR, otherwise known as Connecticut Public Radio, and his sidekick will be Chion Wolf, whose inbetweenies, have held weekends at WNPR together for these past many months.

According to all reports, McEnroe's show will be a pastiche of cultural, topical and philosophical issues, all of which he is capable of handling with his hyperdrive wit, and his almost unbelievable grasp of the issues.

We're all hoping for the best as McEnroe settles into an otherwise staid (with the exception of the weekend's Car Talk and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me) format with his fully-automatic fire humor.

The other bit of good news is that the announcement declares that McEnroe won't be taking calls from the usual cast of shut-ins, a real drag on his former AM show, and that he apparently won't be talking sports, an event which unfortunately coincided with my drive home, and led me to tune to All Things Considered.

The bad news is that McEnroe plans to eschew politics, which is where he is always the most brilliant, and on point. Sure, he is no longer in the thrall of an evil AM giant which broadcasts nothing but right-wing blather, which left him to be the white knight who leaned left on his charging steed, but he is still broadcasting in a state where that AM station is a peculiar power, which needs the balance of good-sense talk from somewhere.

Let's hope the months ahead lead to the abandonment of silly debate sequences about the likes of the Archie-Veronica wedding, for the adoption of sequences on the foibles and failures of politics.

How to boil blood while on vacation

2009-08-27T07:37:00.002-04:00

Read the New York Times and find out that one of your Senatorial representatives, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, has decided to come out against health care reform.

Lieberman says reform will have to wait until the recession ends.

His critics are already refuting his flimsy argument.

I wonder if Barack Obama, also on vacation, read the NY Times yesterday, and had a similar blood boiling reaction after reading about the Senator whose fat he pulled out of the fire.

How to skin an eel

2009-08-21T10:11:00.004-04:00

It's difficult to believe that our week at Shobac is nearly over.

The rugged beauty of this spit of land which pokes out into the Atlantic is breathtaking, particularly the way in which the view changes with the tide, and the angle of the sun, and the shift of the wind which will envelope us with a fog bank one moment, and sweep it over the drumlin hills the next.

This morning, the owner of Shobac, Brian MacKay-Lyons, sat with his wife in a circle of Adirondack chairs talking to Myles, the local lumber operator who is clearing a field so that it can be planted with grass for the cows which graze the hillside. MacKay-Lyons is an internationally-acclaimed architect, but you wouldn't know it by his friendly humility. He sat with Myles, a native of the area who is part Micmac Indian, sipping coffee and grape juice. And for this meeting, MacKay-Lyons was dressed in green bathrobe and baseball cap. We talked about the beauty of the land, and he laughed at my description of the hills as "mountains." I told him that in Connecticut, these were considered to be mountains. He told me about his childhood days when, on the way to school, he put out a fishing line attached to a stake so that he'd have fish for supper after school.

Myles told us about fishing for eels when the tide pushed the eels upstream where they swam below the gravel in the stream bed, trapped by reeds Myles would push into the bed. He and his friends wore gloves when eel fishing, "because they are so slimy, you can't get a hold of them."

I told him that's why they didn't seem so appetizing for that very reason.

"I love them," he confessed. "To skin them, we'd stick a nail on a wall, hook the head of the eel, and make a slice around his neck, then just pull the skin down, like a snake."

While it didn't make the thought of eating eel any more appetizing, the image will remain indelible.

And you thought Americans loved their cars

2009-08-21T07:01:00.004-04:00

We took the last remaining cable ferry across the LeHave River, had lunch at the funky LeHave bakery, and then headed for the unspoiled beauty of Crescent Beach in Dublin, but then...

Funny, I coulda sworn you were Bobby Zimmerman

2009-08-16T10:46:00.004-04:00

In a case of mistaken identity, Bob Dylan finally owns up to who he is.

Posting intermittent, vacation imminent

2009-08-16T06:44:00.003-04:00

I'm sitting in the sitting area of one of the amazing amazing, spare, beautiful and functional cottages architect Bryan MacKay-Lyons has built on the site of an ancient village, and working farm in Upper Kingsburgh, Nova Scotia, awed by the spectacular view of the LeHave estuary, and the Atlantic, dotted with islands.

MacKay-Lyons greeted us upon arrival, and pointed to the nearest salt pond for a welcoming dip, and then told us about the features of the property - a newly restored "round" barn (actually octagonal) rescued from destruction and shipped here for reconstruction, wilderness pathways, a stocked trout pond, and a variety of ocean-front beaches.

I'm closing the laptop to enjoy the view.

Fighting fascism one a-hole at a time

2009-08-13T14:57:00.005-04:00

Those of you who fell into despair after reading Sara Robinson's essay on fascism, as I did, can take heart that the same author has responded to the many people who responded to her original essay with some commonsense advice about fighting the fascist threat.

Interestingly, one of her ideas is to think nationally but act locally.

It's been on my mind that the people of central Connecticut need to confront the owners and managers of WTIC-AM about the irresponsible broadcasting that's been going on there. By listening carefully, and cataloguing incitment, racism, threats, we may be able to back the bully down.

A little of what Mike Seeger helped us discover

2009-08-12T17:32:00.001-04:00

Sharks rising to the chum spread on the airwaves

2009-08-11T16:41:00.002-04:00

It's impossible for me to feel anything but contempt for the people in this video. I have not the power to excuse or forgive their stupidity, their boorishness or their misplaced piety. The video speaks for itself.

And the cotton is high

2009-08-10T10:46:00.000-04:00

Summertime finally arrived in CT today, as the thermometers hit 90 degrees for the first time.

Freedom of speech, goon squads and fascism

2009-08-09T07:40:00.004-04:00

I've been troubled this week by the denouncements by liberal commentators and the Democratic party of the troublemakers who have shown up at town meetings to disrupt the work of politicians pushing a national health plan.

The First Amendment guarantees free speech, and so it bothers me when any progressive makes the argument that free speech is okay for me when I want to denounce George Bush, but it's not okay for my fellow American who wants to denounce Barack Obama and the Democrats.

The First Amendment does not legislate decorum or politeness. It consecrates free speech, and sometimes free speech has to be shouted. And sometimes it's shouted by people we don't like, and don't agree with.

That means we might not always like what we hear, whether its an obscene word, a homophobic slur, a blasphemy or a racist remark. The First Amendment doesn't guarantee that we won't hear from assholes. We will hear free speech from assholes, and we must tolerate the speech.

But we don't have to stand by idly and tolerate the ideas. That's what free speech is about too. Standing up against racists, homophobes, idealogues, hatemongers, anti-intellectuals, demagogues and bullies of any stripe. They shout. We shout louder.

(A slight digression. One of the first Supreme Court cases newly-sworn-in Judge Sotomayor will hear is a free speech case. In this case, Citizens United vs. FEC, was a narrow argument, that has broadened and will be argued before the SCOTUS as an argument to allow corporations to provide unfettered donations to political candidates as an act of free speech. Here's what one conservative commentator argues, in, ahem, Capitalist Magazine, where they seem to conflate free speech with free market. The DNC has filed a briefing against corporate interests - and union interests, interestingly enough, and Sotomayor, an elections reform proponent, is expected to side with the FEC. But treating a corporation as an "individual" with the rights of the individual, and assigning free speech rights to campaign dollars is far more ridiculous than defending a lap dance as free speech. And I can assure you that there are thousands of conservative Republicans who would fight for lap dances - though probably not publicly.)

The Democrats, and the Obama administration have to own up to a bit of this mess. The health care plan they offer is so watered-down by compromises to corporate interests, and so complex, that it is nearly impossible to sell to anyone as a good thing. And Democratic legislators are doing a horrible job of selling the weak-kneed plan. The strategy is to pass something-anything as a national health plan as a first step to get something on the books and to demonstrate Obama's effectiveness. I say, President Obama, step backwards and remember your campaign of hope and progress and give us a brave and effective plan, and not this mess.

So, Obama and the Democrats gifted something to the conservative commentators to latch onto. A thousand-page plan with give-backs to pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, hospitals and established health-care providers, while stripping it of a public option, and a universal payer. And hanging on it a scary, and probably inevitable, price tag.

Now, a good, simple, universal plan could be sold on its advantages. This Rube Goldberg bill has to be sold, really sold, as if it were a Hummer with spinning rims, gold-plated bumpers and a hybrid gasoline-gin engine.

And so we have the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs and locally the Jim Vicevich's denouncing the plan and urging the blockheads who listen to them to attend meetings and scream. These teabaggers, most of whom don't have an independent thought in their heads, follow the scripts of guys trying to make ratings, and lobbyists who are working against the plan. Ladle on top of that Republican political leaders who are searching for support and a new base, and you get meetings where ineffectual Democratic leaders are drowned out by the shrill talking points of talk-radio and C Street zealots coming out of the mouths of conspiracy theorists, flat-earthers, birthers and racists.

And we can dismiss them all as "wing-nuts," but I'm afraid my suspicion that something darker is happening has just been confirmed by Sara Robinon's insightful analysis of Robert Paxton's essay, The Five Stages of Fascism. Both Paxton's original essay, and Robinson's update are essential reading.

Robinson's thesis is this: we are at the point where a disenfranchised conservative movement is grasping at the last straws of racism, purity and patriotism, to engage a core base, who in their fear is willing to rise up to destroy what they see as threats to their country, their religion, their morality and their way of life. Intellectually, of course, these screaming idiots are easy to dismiss, but what's impossible to dismiss is the fact that a movement is afoot, and its being abetted by the demagoguery of ratings-hungry broadcasters, desperate politicians, and corporations willing to do anything to preserve their bottom line. And it is, Paxton's third stage of the rise of the tide of fascism, a tide he sees as nearly impossible to turn back.

So, it's time to stand up and call out the birthers and the racists, and the liars and the homophobes and the sanctimonious and the charlatans and the broadcasters and politicians who would destroy democracy to consolidate money and power. It's no time to be timid.

Tears of Rage

2009-08-09T07:39:00.000-04:00

Rare footage of The Band at Woodstock.

Mike Seeger, RIP

2009-08-08T06:57:00.000-04:00

When Ramblin' Jack Elliot sent dedicated a song to an ailing Mike Seeger at the recent Newport Folk Festival, it was the first that I heard that he was sick. Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger's half-brother, was profoundly influential in the preservation of folk music, particularly in saving the traditional music of the South from obscurity. He was a well-loved performer and co-founder of the New Lost City Ramblers. I met Seeger once, at a tribute concert I co-produced to honor the late Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa, who himself was close to death at the time. Seeger came to Eunice Louisiana to honor Balfa, and to assist his friend, and fellow member of the New Lost City Ramblers, Tracy Schwarz, in a final tribute to a great musician. Seeger died Friday, at age 75, of cancer.

Mumblers

2009-08-06T12:57:00.000-04:00

Billy Lee Riley, RIP

2009-08-04T21:00:00.002-04:00

The most underrated Sun Records artist died Sunday. I heard it on the CBC.

Iron and Wine: huh?

2009-08-03T10:58:00.006-04:00

I was anticipating the performance of Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) perhaps more than any other at Saturday's Folk Festival 50 (Newport Folk Festival). The glowing reviews, the profile in the New York Times Magazine, the adulation of his followers.

So immediately after Mavis Staples and her marvelous band had the entire audience at the Harbor Tent standing and grooving to I'll Take You There, Lucy and I grabbed a few seats from some sweating advocates of old-fashioned soul. And it was lucky we did. Because the Iron and Wine fans descended on the tent, and empty seats disappeared quickly. We looked around to see the tent filled with mostly young people, and the crowd outside the tent appeared impenetrable (we would find out so, soon).

Sam Beam came out to a thunderous ovation, and after complaining about having to follow Mavis Staples (a legitimate gripe), he set into a sedate cover of Such Great Heights, which was made famous and made Iron and Wine famous, when it was used on the soundtrack for the much-overpraised indy film Garden State. It has since been co-opted for TV and movie theater commercials. The gathered young people sang along, quietly and reverently, and Lucy whispered "I feel like I'm in the middle of a cult."

Another thunderous ovation followed. I raised an eyebrow to Lucy, and she winced back. I was completely underwhelmed by the performance (though I will admit, the playback on NPR sounds, somehow less grating). Beam is a slightly pudgy, hirsute, average looking soul, with absolutely no charisma, that I could detect. He sings with a rather mundane, sometimes whispered, occasionally falsettoed bleat. And his lyrics are charmless and banal and way too precious. All the more mysterious that the gathered crowd hung on every word, cheered his rather souless guitar work, and cheered lustily when he made his way through one of his meandering songs.

Lucy and I gave up after three songs. I wondered, as I struggled to wend my way through the huge crowd (there must have been 3000 young, wide-eyed people crammed around the Harborside Stage), with all the talent I had witnessed at the festival, how it was that this particular mediocre talent had cultivated and captivated this fervent and worshipful mass. Beam has been compared to Nick Drake, Paul Simon and Elliott Smith, all particularly unfair comparisons, unless those comparisons mention how his talent pales in comparison. I wondered further if it is proof that bland, unchallenging music, propped up by commercial marketing, will always find its way to success when the real talent of say, a Nick Drake or Elliot Smith, goes unrecognized until the musician is long in the grave.

Good on Sam Beam. He's figured a way to make a living on music. Good for the adoring masses, they've found someone on whom to project their search for individuality. Good on me, I got out while the getting was good.

One note on the young crowd at the festival. The most frequent reaction to a good song played by any of the favored acts was not for they young fans to stand and cheer, but to pick up their phones and text or twitter a friend. I saw it happen fifty times, if I saw it once.

And to forestall the comments which are sure to question my judgment. Yes, I'm old. But I've been to hundreds of concerts. I've seen Dylan, and Paul Simon, and Elliot Smith. I saw, and loved the Avett Brothers six years ago. I've witnessed Jimi, and the Kinks, Townes van Zandt and Andrew Bird, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash. I have a sense of what's good, and what's not, and I'm afraid I don't get Iron and Wine at all.

Gillian Welch at Newport

2009-08-02T15:21:00.001-04:00

My favorite set from the festival, made available by NPR (in fact you can hear most of the festival performances at this site). Be sure to listen all the way to her version of the Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit (though the reverb on the recorded version does not do justice to the massive reverb we experienced at Fort Adams).

Brilliant booking at Newport

2009-08-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

Saturday at Newport was a wonderful day. The most wonderful thing for me was the number of young people at the festival.

Whoever was responsible should be lauded for creating a lineup that appealed to a very broad demographic.

With veterans like Ramblin Jack Elliott, Mavis Staples and Pete Seeger (not to mention festival hosts Bob Jones and Jim Rooney), holding down the legacy spots, and Billy Bragg and Gillian Welch representing my generation, the lineup was filled with young, talented musicians pushing out the boundaries of "folk" music.

There were 9200 in attendance, and that doesn't surprise me, because it was one of the nicest days of the summer, and one of the best festival line-ups I've seen in years. The side tents, which usually feature a number of empty seats, were brimming with people, who spilled into the aisles, and out the back and sides for performances by Brett Dennen, Langhorne Slim, the Low Anthem and Blood and Wine (more on that in a future post).

On the main stage The Avett Brothers portrayed a punk attitude embracing a traditional heart, the Fleet Foxes flew the freak flag and the Decemberists' Colin Melloy demonstrated that at the heart of his theatrical pop songs lay a tribute to folk traditions.

Founder and re-founder

2009-07-31T10:44:00.004-04:00

So he can't call it the Newport Folk Festival, but a rose by any other name... George Wein started the Newport Folk Festival 50 years ago, and when new owners couldn't turn it into the Bonnaroo of the Northeast, he reclaimed it just in time to celebrate a half century of amazing music.

He, and longtime musical cohort, Pete Seeger, spoke to Vanity Fair.

Folk Festival 50 in Newport, takes place this weekend. Here's the lineup.

Newport 1963

2009-07-30T10:55:00.000-04:00

Four years after its founding.

'Dam you Bill O'Reilly

2009-07-29T13:31:00.002-04:00

Talk about your "wonderfully naive" ideas. O'Reilly and his panel of fake experts don't seem to have a clue, as usual.

Godverdomme, you moederneuker.

Why Jim Vicevich is a racist

2009-07-28T15:15:00.006-04:00

Now that I can get instant traffic reports on my iPhone, I much prefer John Dankosky's Where We Live in the morning to wading throught the pitiful, non-tempered "libertarian" (read: conservative lunatic fringe) musings of hatemonger Jim Vicevich, and his herd of birther and flat-earther caller/listeners on WTIC-AM while waiting for a traffic report.

Vicevich, who makes a great, florid show of outrage if anyone accuses him of racism, demonstrated Tuesday that he is, in fact, a racist.

On a late morning drive, I listened in long enough to hear Vicevich condemn Barack Obama for chastizing the Cambridge Police Department's Sargeant James Crowley as "acting stupidly" for arresting Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates for disorderly conduct when the cops tried to arrest Gates for breaking into his own house.

Sounds pretty damned stupid to me (and racist - a good essay on the topic here). What's stupider is that Obama apologized. Stupider still is Vicevich's implication that Obama himself is somehow racist for calling stupid, "stupid".

Meanwhile, acting the peacemaker, Obama has invited Gates and Crowley to the White House to hash out the problem over a few beers.

One of Vicevich's callers, a self-proclaimed "Irishman" was appalled that Obama would offer beers to a cop of obvious Irish descent, claiming that such an invitation was insulting and somehow anti-Celtic. Vicevich hooted, and agreed heartily with the caller.

The caller went on to say that if the invitation went the other way, Obama should be offered "fried chicken and watermelon."

Oh. Doesn't take a genius to sniff a bigot at work.

Vicevich just laughed. No scold. No disclaimer. No rebuke. No condemnation. No indication that the caller had just crossed a line into old-fashioned, xenophobic, tiny-minded racism.Vicevich just laughed.

Which, in my book, makes Vicevich a racist. A radio host who encourages outright bigotry is, undeniably, himself, a bigot.

But that's no surprise from a man who regularly calls Barack Obama "the young president." Someone should remind Jim that constantly and consistently reminding his listeners that the president is "youthful" and "inexperienced" is tantamount to calling him "boy." And, Vicevich probably doesn't have to be reminded that calling a person of color "boy" has been a time-honored method of diminishing the worth of a person because of their race. If Vicevich doesn't intend the insult, he should refrain from using the "young president" tag, but my guess is that, in this case, he means what he says.

Resolution - The Torture Song

2009-07-28T15:06:00.002-04:00

David Ippolito, who has made a singing career out of relatively impromptu weekend concerts in New York City's Central Park has written a great song of accusation on the topic of torture. Susan Forbes Hansen placed it in my hands last Wednesday, and I've been playing it in my car ever since.

Sandy Paton, RIP

2009-07-27T12:43:00.003-04:00

Sandy Paton, a well-regarded traditional folk musician, and founder of Folk Legacy Records of Sharon CT, died yesterday after years of suffering with emphysema.

I didn't know Sandy well, though I met him several times. I knew his music, and the music he played and produced with his family, and of course I knew the many classic traditional and contemporary recordings he produced with Gordon Bok, Bill Staines, Cindy Kallet and the trad folk supergroup, Bok, Muir and Trickett.

I came to know Sandy's music, and Sandy's label through Bill Domler who recruited me as a folk DJ at WWUH. Bill loved the Patons, and their music, and was so inspired by their album of singalong traditional folk, The Golden Ring, that he started a coffeehouse, The Sounding Board, which still runs strongly, three decades later. The Patons played the Sounding Board annually.

The music Sandy and Caroline played and recorded was real, honest-to-god folk and traditional music. Music that had been passed down through generations, hand to hand, until all the burrs had been worn off. Sandy played and preserved the music with a nerdy passion, that we promoters and seekers of edgy, electrified and singer-songwriter type folk music would sometimes scoff at. I confess to a bit of scoffing myself, but I've grown (or grown up) to believe and understand, that without "nerds" like Sandy, we wouldn't have the rich reserve of folk songs and tunes that each successive generation seeks out to learn, love and perform.

Sandy's Folk Legacy label, like folk music itself, has survived the fashionable ups and downs of pop music and sustained an evergreen catalogue of folk songs. What Sandy, and Caroline, have done, and have left us, is important, though not necessarily sexy enough to command headlines.

Sandy left this old world a better place than he found it, and not much higher praise could be given to anyone who has finished trodding its dusty paths.

Interity? What integrity?

2009-07-26T07:35:00.004-04:00

As Chris Dodd complains about having his integrity assaulted, and he campaigns under the banner of the Senator who turns his back on lobbyists, the truth is that he's courting the same lobbyists, succcessfully, for his campaign war chest. Then he's spending the money on commercials to say the opposite. And what's most sickening, is the "press is out to get Chris" line he's peddling through his colleagues and his spouse. The press may be out to get Chris, but the press is only interested because he's a Senator who apparently can't walk the talk, like too many in that august body.

How much wasted, how much lost?

2009-07-26T07:31:00.003-04:00

In reading this story about the triumph of law enforcement over marijuana smugglers, two questions occur to me. How much money was spent on breaking this ring which was smuggling a drug used by a huge, non-addicted, swath of the population? And how much was lost in not being able to tax a billion dollars in pot sales?

Levi Stubbs' Tears Again

2009-07-24T07:29:00.000-04:00

Spent the day in Detroit on Friday.

The Low Anthem

2009-07-23T07:13:00.001-04:00

Summer harvest

2009-07-22T10:42:00.006-04:00

An interesting postcard from Kevin Lynch in the Netherlands. In this country we drive through summertime fields of ripening corn, tomatoes, squash and beans. This is a field of prime Netherlands' hemp. A taxable crop which law enforcement does not have to worry about.

Take a load off fanny

2009-07-21T04:41:00.000-04:00

And from Groton Long Point

2009-07-20T18:23:00.001-04:00

Barefoot Truth.

Barefoot Truth and Naia Kete

2009-07-19T18:16:00.000-04:00

Listen up. How can we sing King Alpha song in a strange land?

From the sublime to the sublime

2009-07-18T17:54:00.000-04:00

Today was a day of discovery and validation. There are new and young musicians who are pushing the boundaries, and great veterans who are only getting better.

Jim Olsen has got to be complimented for his booking prowess. Naia Kete, who grew up in a family of French language reggae singers, the Black Rebels, tore the tent down with her amazing voice and beautiful songs. I couldn't get close enough to the stage to get a photo.

Also, in the small tent, the Sweetback Sisters from Brooklyn, who were the only band to play Friday and Saturday, won over many new fans with their version of bluegrass, old-time and old country, and an indication that their revival of Roger Miller's My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died, could be a hit again.

On Friday night, one had to ping-pong back and forth from the main stage, where singer-songwriters joined with a hot house band, to the dance tent where the rain meant a crowded, sweaty dance floor, to hear all the good music, and appreciate the high level of musicianship on the Signature Sounds label.

For my money, the main stage highlight was Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women. His wonderful band of veteran women musicians went from roots to rock. And Dave driving the band through two false finished with Abilene, where Cindy Cashdollar (pedal steel) sparred with Amy Farris (fiddle), to a draw, was out of this world.

The festival was a sell-out for the first time in it's 23 year history, and one begins to wonder if this two-day delight has outgrown its venue.

Sacred Shakers

2009-07-17T07:47:00.000-04:00

2009-07-16T07:44:00.001-04:00

I can't stand the way he sings but I love to hear him talk

2009-07-15T22:43:00.000-04:00

Come back Woody Guthrie

2009-07-14T09:14:00.002-04:00

Ninety-seven years since America's first singer-songwriter was born in Okemah, OK.

Doing their imitation of conservative Republicans

2009-07-13T20:45:00.001-04:00

Spineless creatures washing up on the beach. San Diego, or DC?

The champeen fundraiser

2009-07-12T22:19:00.004-04:00

Somehow, I'm not sure this is exactly the point Chris Dodd wants to focus on right now.

In an email blast, new CT Dem communications director, Colleen Flanagan castigates Dodd's Republican opponent Rob Simmons for his "lackluster" fundraising. The sneering tone of the email makes it kind of a schoolyard taunt. It's completely unappealing, and I have no use for Rob Simmons:

Rob Simmons, the darling of the state and national Republicans, and clear choice for his party to take on Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, posted his fundraising numbers today, raking in a pitiful $750,000 in 90 days. Combined with his lackluster first quarter total of zero, Simmons has averaged a pathetic $375,000 per quarter, ensuring a bloody Republican primary before anyone is even chosen to run against Dodd.

“Is Rob Simmons running for Congress again or is he serious about running for the U.S. Senate?” questioned Colleen Flanagan, Connecticut Democratic Party Communications Director. “With an embarrassing total for the second quarter, combined with his pitiful average of $375,000 per quarter since he got into this race, it’s a valid question, and one that Connecticut and National Republicans are surely asking themselves, as well. While he was billed as the frontrunner by national and state Republicans to take on Chris Dodd, this is a huge blow to the guy who had already picked out the color of the drapes and chosen his office on Capitol Hill.”

Of course, it's completely naive to think that fundraising is not an essential, maybe the essential component of successful politicking these days, but considering the sticky spot Dodd is in with the voting public, does the new Connecticut Democratic Communications Director really want us thinking that Dodd is spending a lot of time courting lobbyists and influencers who might have some effect on his votes in say, the new health care bill. This from NPR, July 8:

It was a hectic day for Dodd, who is chairing the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee while the official chairman, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), is being treated for cancer.

When the committee took its lunch break, Dodd dashed off to meet with President Obama about another huge project he is spearheading in the Senate — fixing the nation's financial industry.

But squeezed in between the committee meeting and the White House, Dodd made one other stop: He popped in at a fundraiser — for him.

The fundraiser was a $1,500-a-plate luncheon, hosted by two lobbyists, with proceeds going to support Dodd's re-election campaign.

The lobbyists hosting the fundraising event work for U.S. Oncology, a major provider of cancer drugs and services. Their business is all wrapped up in the health care proposals.

According to Dodd's campaign manager, there were other donors in attendance — not just those with a stake in health care policy. But this scenario is a snapshot of something that happens all the time on Capitol Hill.

A member of Congress will routinely spend part of the day legislating — and part of the day raising money. And that money often comes from the industries that will gain or lose from that legislation.

The efficient, successful, fundraiser at work. Not the picture I would guess Dodd needs painted of himself when he's trying to dig himself out of a hole lined with accusations about his connections to people of larger influence than you or I.

Humboldt

2009-07-11T23:05:00.000-04:00

With the wolf at the door, the Fox is only concerned with the foxes

2009-07-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a friend at the Hartford Courant for pointing this out.

Why they began calling it the boob tube long ago

2009-07-09T14:57:00.007-04:00

I'm guessing it's intentional. Some smart, pissed-off layout artist knew that the best spot for a full-page Fox 61 ad promoting the beauty and bosom of a Fox 61 "news reporter" was on the page following the story in which Shelly Sindland's complaints against the station were aired.

The lucious, pouting lips, the red form-fitting dress, and the perky, though modest, mammaries of undoubtably-brilliant reporter, Erica Arias, is printed on the backside of a news sheet in which a story about discarded-cutie Sindland, is given the gutter, and placement below the important "cheetah import" story.

Sinland has accused the management of Fox 61 of age and sex discrimination, and if the recent set of newspaper ads is evidence, she likely has a case.

It seems that Fox 61 has given up on promoting the frumpy news writers of the Courant as new TV stars, and has settled on the age-old ploy of selling beauty and breasts as they parade their young and handsome hi-def fodder in large, full-color newspaper ads that look like Hollywood ads for the latest light summertime comedy.

These insulting news pin-ups are only the latest insult to anyone with half a brain. The newly designed front page, from which real stories have been banished for mini-headlines, teasers and news-ish crudités, is yet another laughable attempt by the new management to recruit young readers. Instead they are driving the core readers, guys like me, away. When was the last time you caught someone under 30 with a newpaper in their fist and they weren't chasing a housefly?

BTW, if the Courant were not owned by the Trib, and joined at the hip with Fox 61, do you think the Shelley Sindland story would have been buried in the business section? Exactly. It's the kind of front-page gossip story that sells papers, except if the paper in question is run by the manager, Richard Graziano, who is the focus of the complaints.

Also, BTW, I'd have tuned in if I'd have known is was "Big Boob Friday." Personally, I think every newscast on WTIC-TV Fox 61 is anchored by big boobs.

A broken neck in the 'friendly skies"

2009-07-08T11:31:00.001-04:00

H/T to Kevin Lynch

Cat Mother

2009-07-08T11:21:00.004-04:00

Since I yakked so much about it on the radio today, here's the link for MP3 downloads of Albion Doo-Wah, and if you can stand it, a slide-show, below of a Cat Mother reunion and benefit held earlier this year.

Darling Be Home Soon

2009-07-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

On Ed Sullivan with a real-live string and horn section, no less.

At home with Ms. McKeown

2009-07-06T15:36:00.002-04:00

My cousin Erin is raising money to pay for her new album by holding concerts at her own abode, and allowing us to join in via the web.

The deal is called Cabin Fever, and it's not too late to buy tickets, and catch the barn-raising spirit.

And you won't be left without a seat.

For every silver lining, there's a dark cloud

2009-07-05T23:15:00.004-04:00

If the two days of New England sunshine have got you feeling a bit, optimistic, here's a little black cloud from Nouriel Roubini to get you back in the spirit of our soggy spring. Try to dismiss Roubini's negative view of the economy, but realize he's been one of the very few who has been right about virtually everything so far.

Dipshitedness proven

2009-07-03T17:51:00.000-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Krugman blues

2009-07-03T14:34:00.002-04:00

The always-topical Loudon Wainwright III.

Indoor fireworks

2009-07-02T17:04:00.001-04:00

He plays the devil's advocate so well, perhaps he's typecast

2009-07-01T15:04:00.004-04:00

Video from Paul Bass and the New Haven Independent

As far as I'm concerned, once you've run over the skunk, no amount of air freshener is going to get rid of the stink.

And so is the case with Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, who shilled for the Republicans when he guessed, and guessed wrong, that he might find a power base in an alliance with his idealogical similar colleagues. After he and his bellicose, conservative allies were rundown in an election by voters fed-up with deceit and cronyism, his limp corpse was dusted off by Barack Obama and presented to Democratic legislators, wearing clothespins on their noses, as an opportunity.

The skunk in question made no apologies for his stink, but set about pretending he was one of the gang again.

Until things like this demonstrate that the proof is available, in black and white, that a skunk's stripes are as indelible as a leopard's spots. As for the skunk's obligation to help those who held their noses and welcomed him back, it seems that the skunk is thinking like a Republican again.

Zen and the art of motorcycle stories

2009-06-30T12:43:00.000-04:00

Hello I Must Be Going

2009-06-29T12:01:00.005-04:00

The Hartford Courant arrived on my doorstep this morning (though they have called and threatened that it won't be much longer if I don't pay my bill), and the vertical has become horizontal once again.

With the logotype at the top of the page once again, there won't be mistaking the front page for a section header anymore.

But the blue highlights and subheads are horrible (as if a single color was somehow going to hike The Hartford Courant's circulation). And, if it is possible, there seems to be fewer words than ever on the front page.

It's nice to see Roger Catlin's byline on the front page, but really, is a major headline and photo about a TV show filmed in the state really the most important news of the day?

Finally, that ridiculous, and insincere "thank-you" for participating in the selection of a new look for the paper is galling. Do the editors and publishers really expect us to believe that they made a decision about how the paper was going to look only after a week's reflection in which they actually considered what readers thought about the shift?

In my mind, it's more important for the editors to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of the truth at whatever depth it might be found (and find a design which reflects that), and not print some bogus "thank-you" which only reflects a public relations effort to make readers feel like they are somehow involved.

Nothing like fried pig

2009-06-28T08:26:00.000-04:00

H/T Jane McMillan

The future looks shallow

2009-06-27T06:58:00.002-04:00

What we can expect more of, god help us. From here in Maine, I don't recognize my home state.

But Joe Jackson is still alive

2009-06-26T14:20:00.000-04:00