I have lots of positive feelings about the Occupy movement going on right now. It simply needs to engage people and get them out there. Once there, without the craziness of signs depicting Obama as Hitler or gun toteing members, I've found that information can be shared and opinions formed. Has the right seen that the gatherings are NON PARTISAN? We are all in this mess together. Anyhow, here's my testimony to the 99:

Believe in change
Believe in righting wrongs
Believe in helping the poor
against the powerfully strong

Believe in hope
Believe that children need help
Believe that god doesn't choose sides against those who help themselves

Believe in love
Believe we're all in this together
Believe that towns are built
by people, who help each other

Believe in you
Believe in me
Believe that now's the time to act to save this country

Stay strong and stand up for what you believe or it will be taken from you

Cause when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag, carrying the bible and preaching how good this or that is for you as it reaches in your pockets for everything you've got. When they think you're not looking they'll be right there rewriting laws, disenfranchising voters, fighting undeclared wars, lining up children to fight them, turning their enforcers on us and using their pulpit to confuse the issues. It's time to HOLD THOSE PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE.

Been a while since I posted anything. Been sitting back and watching the BS fly. So this self created mess in congress about the debt ceiling is the current hot topic. I don't see how anyone cannot see that the whole thing comes down to some lame control and overreach by the Tea Partiers and Grover Nordquist again holding reason and their house and congress representatives hostage pulling the right into the abyss. The right just gets looneyer everyday. But here we are.

This particular post I found blogged by "river", a self professed conservative sums up the rhetoric well.
"Sorry, I am a somewhat conservative person, but facts are facts . . . the conservatives and the oligarchs in our banking system with whom they are aligned absolutely destroyed our economy. The Democrats are definitely not without fault, but it seems that the vast majority of conservative minded folks are just bat-shit crazy anymore. Listening to them, Obama caused all of this mess that we are in yet I am pretty sure the request for 700 billion dollars for the banks came under Bush. I am pretty sure that Bush was also in charge when the housing bubble blew. And I am pretty sure bush was in charge when we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, and enacted Medicare Part D. Yet it is all Obama’s fault?"

Conservatives need to own up to the fact that a good deal of the problems that we are now experience are the result of conservatives getting their way . . . if a majority of them don’t own up to that fact, if they can’t own up to this simple fact, then this country is absolutely doomed. People will be saying that the USA was a failed social experiment, not just the USSR."

To add to that, it's painfully obvious that every move the right takes is to make Obama appear as a failure. This isn't just the party of "no" but also of "we don't care" how far this has to go to get control back. The effort here is to take down the country, pin it on Obama and dems and sweep back into power. Once in, as clearly laid out in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, Arizona and others, the plan isn't to deal with the economy by putting people to work, but rather to break the middle class even more and impose conservative social reform while rewarding their wealthy base with tax cuts and corporate benefits. I hate being so remedial about this, but as current polling shows - the real vital issues get skewed by the rhetoric and until people understand the issue by hearing it over and over again, they just walk away with the talking points not understanding what's really going on understanding just how and how deeply we're getting screwed. If I can be one voice in the sea, I'll have to try.

One other thought. I had wanted to post this previously but didn't get around to it. It becomes truer everyday though and with the Mrdoch hearings and investigations going on, I still think it appropriate:  Faux news is reapping the world they've sown. With the out and out misinformation and dumbing down of their news reporting and dosage of far right opinion, they've created this non sensical world view and army of loud mouthed crazies that have hopped on the bus and are driving it into a ditch. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic, the way it's taking with it what was once great about America. I don't know what they have up their sleeve next, but it appears that the lunatic wizard behind the curtain is a bumbling fool who's barely capable of comprehending simple questions asked of him in his turn at the mic in the UK hearings. There's your great leader Right World, an old man in a bubble desparately in need of medication and a diaper.

So I'm back from Austin and maybe a little bit of me is still there. What a blast! South-by-Southwest is THE premiere music event for artists/bands to kick-off the spring, roll out new releases/songs and with it there are parties galore! I did my fair share of them! Ate, drank, schmoozed, and was generally merry as these photos linked below will attest to! I made some new friends as well as saw some old ones.

As far as highlights go, there were many. In no particular order:

• Hanging with really talented people:  the guys from the John Popper band - Aaron Beavers, Jono Manson, Steve Lindsay; Yelawolf (the next Eminem); Matt and Roger from the Features (the next big something and one hell of a fun band - hooks aplenty!; Shilah Morrow, Lil' Deb and Polly Parsons - all part of the Sin City Social Club (pretty much THE club); Mike Mills / REM, Harley Husbands - guitar master, Aaron LaFlure / Lost Bayou Ramblers - punked up Cajun; Mary Sack - manager who illuminates; Brian Wright, Sally Jaye, Cindy Wasserman - if you don't know them you should; Deadman; Scott McPherson - professional drummer and owner of Portlands Revival Drum Shop (those of you who know me know I'm a drummer first); the guys from Wagons (can't wait to catch their show next week); Andy Friedman - songwriter and Russian; Sarah and Johnny - songwriting husband and wife team extrodinaire; Patrick Keeler - drummer extrodinare; and a little bit of Brad Rice - guitar extrodinaire.

• The HatBox on 6th. If you've got the melon I've got, you appreciate a good hat store. I found one.

• The Bug parties - feel like home.

• Great food to be had at many local eateries

• Great music from many sources. Among them:  Sherman, Deadman, Sarah and Johnny, Old 97s, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones, John Popper and the Duskray Troubadors, Yelawolf, Wagons, the Hobart Bros, Susan Cowsill, The Baseball Project, Bobby Long (I love that song, "Who've You Been Loving?"), Band of Heathens, Alejandro Escovedo, Jesse Mallin, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Brian Wright.

• Doing Damngivers PR (almost forgot that one). I was able to pass out stickers, business cards and got packages to some key people at mags, blogs, labels etc. So good work done by me evangelizing the band. It was wonderful to hear feedback by some people there who've heard the material. Every time something happens, I'm plenty grateful - so my cup runeth over this trip.

That's about all I saw but not all I did. Somehow, I also managed to do it all nearly for free! The SXSW gods must've been smiling on me.

Big HUGE props go out to my brother Eddie for facilitating many opportunities and then moving out of the way while I stuck my foot in my mouth... ha ha, that may only have happened once or twice ; 0

We'll see you again next year SXSW - hopefully as a performer. God willing (as my grandma used to always say).

Pictures here:  s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/1thunderbird/Gerry%20at%20SXSW/

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 The world as I grew up in has changed so much that I can barely recognize it.

All of those who care about America, or at least the middle class and the poor, our children and future have to stand up. This Saturday there's a simple way to do this.

Join me:

Subject: Emergency Call to Action for a 50-State Wisconsin solidarity mobilization this Saturday at noon

Hi,

In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under
fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks
to corporations and the very rich and then cutting funding for education,
police, emergency response and vital human services. The right to organize
is on the chopping block. The American Dream is slipping out of reach for
more and more Americans, and we have to fight back.

Can you add your endorsement to the call for emergency rallies in front of
every statehouse this Saturday at 12 Noon to stand in solidarity with the
people of Wisconsin? We must demand an end to the attacks on workers'
rights and public services across the country. Demand investment, to
create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to
work. And demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.

You can add your name and endorse the call for emergency rallies by
following this link:

http://pol.moveon.org/callforaction/?r_by=26218-17449695-JpxBdjx&rc=mailto

Thanks!

For many music fans, Don Kirshner was the straightfaced host of his own "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" -- so matter-of-fact that his introductions were famously, and lovingly, lampooned on "Saturday Night Live." But Kirshner was much more than that, a songwriter, manager, publisher and music executive whose successes earned him nicknames such as "The Man With the Golden Ear" and "Starmaker Supreme."

Kirshner, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, died Monday (Jan. 17) from heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla., at the age of 76, leaving a legacy of music that includes the likes of Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, the Monkees, the Archies.

My brother and I spent many nights up watching "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" and it was, along with the Midnight Special, our earliest forays into rock music. "In Concert," Kirshner insisted that the acts play live rather than lip-synching their performances. The show launched on Sept. 27, 1973, with the Rolling Stones' first American TV appearance in more than four years. Its 230 episodes, which ran through 1981, featuring a wide array of artists such as Kiss, ABBA, Sly & the Family Stone, Peter Frampton, the Ramones, the Eagles, Rush, Kansas and many others.

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Kirshner. Rest in Rock!

A year ago I had written a song reflecting my feelings about a random shooting that happened a few blocks from our house. There was a 16 year old who shot another 16 year old at the high school football stadium as students, family & friends exited a homecoming game. The girl was a promising honor student with a great story to tell of her parents leaving the killing fields of Cambodia to find a new life in America where their family prospered and their daughter could become college bound. My new bandmates and I had just been rehearsing the song a few weeks ago. Every time I do the song, it takes me right back to that moment and reminds me of that old saying, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Flash forward to this weekend. Well over a year ago when the healthcare debate began to give right wing wing-nuts fodder to channel their hate into public vitriolic hate speech that made the evening news night after night, I told my wife Carol to pay attention to the ratcheted up non-sense and that I thought the President's life was in danger. I still believe that. But I guaranteed that someone would fall in the bullshit of all this hate and racist ferver. The shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and the tragic deaths of the innocent bystanders shot in Arizona sent my blood boiling. While it is people using guns that kill people, those who incite hate speech are no less to blame. Those who blame the government for what ails them need to participate in discourse and not resort to violence.

The problem with conservatism I find, is that conservatives are threatened and fearful of anything that doesn't resemble their shallow, controlled, small minded view of the world. Thus you want to conserve the state of being to which you are familiar with. Progress equals change by definition. If you live unexposed to others around you, you effectively wall yourself in to your own world view. When you're young, sheltered and raised on extremism with your leader's enacting systemic racial profiling and stoking your fears with hate rhetoric, someone not that balanced will take those cues and act on them. It doesn't matter whatever fringe side you come from, the unchecked nonsense spewing from political leaders of the right and their puppet talk show pundits is very poorly calculated to get people fired up and rally to their causes which thinly veil harmful and increasingly out of date positions regarding God, guns and gays. And lately socialism, stupidism and dumbfuckism. I say poorly calculated because the rhetoric has to some day add up to action and/or responsibility. You keep crying about a wolf in the hen house and people eventually go look for the wolf in the hen house.

Generally we all are thought to get along. And those of us with a degree of sense and some decent public school education should fall on the community morals and values we all have to live by:  killing is wrong, we solve things through democracy not violence. Unfortunately, our leaders and our media outlets are our educators lately. We have been at war for the past decade. What lessons does this teach our children?

I consider Mr. Loughner (the shooter) a child. We'll see that this plays out as a very polarizing issue. But I will bet that the right wing, who's already claiming that he was a fringe lunatic, listened to heavy metal, was a loner, etc. will paint this to try to push more of their agenda forward. Really? That is the true insult to all of us.

For the poor 9-yr old Green girl I feel most outrage toward her useless murder. That's the largest real tragedy here. Again, a girl with seemingly lots of potential and with her heart in the right place was found in the path of violence. She's not alone. We're all in that path and reason needs to prevail. 

Anyhow, you'll all form your own opinions, but I know where I pan out on this.

Here's the lyrics to "Football Players and Homecoming Queens". Let is serve as a refresher.

FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND HOMECOMING QUEENS
I've seen those flowers off the side of the road
too many times to make a note
But I heard of a Melody just down the road
and the anger got caught in my throat

I fought back some tears as I read of the news
16's a stupid age to die
It makes me so mad that some fuck can go brag
about killing a girl in a drive by
about killing a girl in a drive by


The weakest of weak is the one who thinks that
it's manly to carry a gun
It's screwed that I have to worry about
living here in town without one

There's nothing that's clean when you have to explain
why a girl was killed by a teen
on a crowded street after a homecoming game
a sixteen year old should dream
about football players, and, homecoming queens

a sixteen year old should dream
about football players. And homecoming queens


Kids today, kids today only can blame
the things that they see on TV
For the kid who shot Melody that homecoming game
killing was something to envy

And why shouldn't it be seen as a prize
We've warred for 9 years as the country divides
We taught from the top down to the street
Killing is how we solve problems
Yeah killing is how we solve problems


I wish we could say, that enough is enough
But more will die here it seems
There's more blood to fall and we ain't gonna stall
while there's children losing their dreams

A sixteen year old should dream
about football players.
And, homecoming queens

A sixteen year old should dream
about football players. And homecoming queens

©2010 Humdevil Makes Music

 Well, it's with pleasure that I announce our first donation to American Vets. The group Foundation for American Veterans has gotten this donation. It's small, but it's something. Thank you for your service Vets.