July 4, 2014

On this July 4th I hope you’ll remember that the U.S. of today bears little resemblance to the beacon of freedom envisioned by the authors of the Declaration of Independence. The chief liberty sought by the founders was freedom from economic oppression. But there are always powerful people willing to go to any ends to protect their hordes. So while the economic royalists in our midst have always had their place, they had been nearly controlled and their exertions almost brought into alignment with the greater public good until the complete breakdown of the last 50 years.

Remember:
You are not free if your employer chooses your doctors and what they can prescribe.
You are not free if your only chance at higher education and self-betterment requires permanent debt to the private banking cabal.
You are not free if your right to self-determination in body, mind and heart is at every turn undermined by hypocritical religious radicals.
You are not free if your only expression of self-worth is the constant display of overwhelming violent force.
You are not free if you live in fear of change and progress.
You are not free if you have given up community spirit and the willingness to share.
You are not free if you have no respect for human dignity and no respect for Life, itself.
You are not free if facts cannot persuade you.
You are not free if you would sabotage human liberty to gain greater and more invasive power for industrialists and entrepreneurs.
You are not free if you believe you are better than others.
And you are not free if you believe only one thing.

The American experiment in democracy is on permanent hold. We live in a hollow plutocracy with a dwindling middle class and some of the worst civil services in the developed world. But the states could change it. A constitutional amendment brought through the states could remove the money train from the federal election process. This could be achieved by We, The People, with no input from congress. We could cut off all of their campaign contributions and back door deals with one pen stroke. Do you care enough to make real change? To restore the democratic experiment? Have a happy 4th.

And I guess that I just don’t know…

Apparently, Lou Reed is dead. Fully and totally. Dead.

That hurts.

How about a Lou Reed Fun Fact!

Did you know that both The Velvet Underground AND The Grateful Dead were originally named The Warlocks?

Now loosen up, you hipster snobs. Eat some acid. That’s what Lou would do. (Or not. He was notoriously willful.)

A Letter to UVa’s Board of Visitors Concerning the Continued Presence of Rector Dragas

I just received an e-mail purportedly co-authored by UVa President Teresa Sullivan and Rector Helen Dragas. The e-mail promises cooperation and hand-holding and lots of hugs and kisses and warm fuzzy stuff. In other words, it’s total P.R. trash designed to reassure the dulled wits of the extra gullible.

If you haven’t been following the story, Dragas is the head of UVa’s Board of Visitors. In early June 2012 she led a quiet coup to have Sullivan removed as President of the University, dropping the news a week after the student body had left town for the summer. On a Sunday. The whole thing stank of dirty pool.

Visible Hand

(NOTE: This is the original unedited version of the piece that ran in the Hook.)

Wow. Invisible Hand’s been getting a nice “happy ending” from the conspiratorial press and disc jockey establishments around here for a few solid months. That’s just annoying.

I’m sorry, but as a rule I always despise any and all flavor-of the-season bands. As far as I’m concerned local press anoints them just to piss me off. I ask you: how many acts du jour actually end up in nationally recognized or sustainably profitable music “careers?” Few, my friends, far too few.

Dan Deacon at the Southern 10/28/10

Dan Deacon brought his super-spazmodic freaky electro-loop delicious digital weirdness to the Southern on Thursday, October 28, and a good time was had by all. All the cool kids were there and they brought their bands to warm up the show. I got drunk and talked smack. Deacon took the floor (he sets up on the floor) and whipped us into a frenzy with a series of silly visualization exercises and dance contests. Too much fun. Here are some pics:

Concentrated E’Ville

6 Day Bender’s new album kicks like a keg-standing mule

(NOTE: This is the original of the version of my piece for the Hook.)

Is this thing on? Cripsy Duck to Command Central… come in, Command Central.

What the hell am I doing? It’s been eight long, boring years since my semi-self-imposed sabbatical from print music journalism. Who am I kidding? Just because there’s been nary a sentence fragment of interesting music writing in this town since I was summarily fired from C-Ville all those years ago is no reason to think I can just jump back in and pick up where I left off. Or maybe…

WTJU Town Hall Gives Management a Frickin’ Clue

On Monday evening, about 200 or so community members, DJs past and present, and various supporters flooded a town hall meeting held by UVa’s Department of Public Affairs (now in charge of TJU) to let ’em have an earful of what it means to love something as thoroughly as Charlottesville loves WTJU.

Carol Wood, head of Public Affairs for UVa, got up and assured us that our voices were important and the turn out was impressive. Next – looking like a hapless villain sent down from central casting – came Burr Beard, the new WTJU station manager. After admitting he was from out of town and basically had no clue what a WTJU was, he stammered something along the lines of, “gee guys, gosh, I still think an all-Americana station would work in this market, shucks.” He damn near got himself laughed out of there. But the announcers and those assembled were respectful, knowing full well they need a qualified station manager who is ready to go to bat for them.

Not More Fucking Banjos!

AHHHHHHH!

Burr Beard, the man brought in to revive WTJU from its slump, is proposing turning major blocks of programming to “Americana” or “Roots” – generally, folk, blues, country and country rock – making that the new “station identity.” The notion sickens me so badly I couldn’t even make it through the proposal.

Ok, I’m all for banjos and bluegrass and “Wagon Wheel,” and ironic tattoos and Pabst Blue Ribbon, but enough already! This Americana thing is not the end-all-be-all. (Whatever happened to rock and roll?) It’s already been an excruciating decade of weekend-redneck toothless hipsters forming Hank Sr. tribute bands. I’M OVER IT. Moving to Brooklyn, taking up banjo and heroin and getting a tattoo of bacon does not make you an artist. ENOUGH!

Cripsy Duck’s Confessions of a WTJU Addict

(DUCK NOTE: Recent discussions of reformatting WTJU, our beloved multi-format college/community radio station, inspired this retrospective rant.)

“I LOVE RADIO! I have learned of more incredible music listening to WTJU 91.1FM – local multi-format UVa radio – in my umpteen years in Charlottesville than anywhere else. Something about broadcast makes music seem more alive, and the djs have always been so deliciously anarchic. Heaven is a kickass TJU rock show.”

That’s verbatim from my personal Myspace page under “Music.” (Copied and pasted, actually.) I wrote that in 2005 or whenever I set that thing up. (Oh Myspace, so much promise, and then… Murdoch. Blech.)

At that time, I had been listening to WTJU for about twenty years. The station had gone through some mostly cosmetic changes, but one beautiful, crucial thing remained constant: when a DJ was on his game, and you were in the mood: MAGIC.

Justice Unserved

Justice, that blind old bat, has swerved off the highway, into the woods and is headed right for the quarry!

EmmaKate Martin and Benjamin Bryant, protesters attempting to block access to Massey HQ in Boone, W. Va on May 17, have been hit with $100,000 bail. This for charges of trespassing and littering. Uh huh.

Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Massey makes billions blasting the tops off ancient mountains, ignoring safety regulations and regularly KILLING its own employees through criminal negligence (29 just last month, remember?), and CEO Don Blankenship is out and about, doing fine, sipping wine. Meanwhile, activists attempting to non-violently protest these abuses receive enormous penalties for inconveniencing the aforementioned abusers.

Wanna help? Call Boone County Magistrate Snodgrass’s office and demand a bail reduction. (304) 369-7360

Thanks to http://climategroundzero.net/.