by David Burn | Oct 21, 2007 | Music
Femi Kuti was on Austin City Limits last night. During the interview segment ACL Producer Terry Lickona asked, “What’s going on back in Nigeria today?”
Here’s the beginning of Femi’s answer:
The situation is horrible, because there are too many poor people. The government tells a lie, a lot of lies in the press pretending that things are all right. But people can’t afford a good eduaction. People can’t afford to eat. We still have no lights. My father complained about this since the 70s. Way back in ’74. We still have no lights. Many places don’t have water. People are just completely down. If you go to any of the embassies, the French, English, American, everybody is trying to get out of the country, everybody is looking for a better life outside Nigeria. All the doctors are leaving, the lawyers, everybody is leaving Nigeria. The govermnment is so corrupt, the country is so corrupt, to find an honest Nigerian is so difficult. Not because the people want to be corrupt these days, but becasue it’s so difficult to survive, you have to be corrupt.
I encourage you to visit the PBS website and listen to the remainder of his words. He says he doesn’t believe he will live to see the day that Africa pulls out of the mess it’s in, but he keeps fighting for justice with the hope that his son will.
by David Burn | Oct 20, 2007 | Music
image courtesy of Flick user, Funky Tree Town
Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues played in Savannah last night for the first time. It was an interesting show, something totally out of the ordinary. Having never seen Cat Power but knowing her something of her story and her music, I came expecting a character, but not the one I saw. Ms. Power, also known as Chan Marshall, was all over the stage. Her white flats were magic slippers allowing her to float. She bent down on one knee, flirted with her keyboard player, coaxed several adjustments from her mixing board man, drank from a Starbucks cup, coughed a lot and sang songs loaded with emotion.
When her keyboard player announced her mid-set, he said, “The woman you all came to see–Chan Marshall–the world’s greatest soul singer.” That description seems not quite right. Yet, Marshall does have a lot to offer. She puts herself out there, unfiltered, and that’s not easy to do. You need guts to do that.
The show was opened by Dex Romweber Duo. According to Jim Reed at Connect Savannah, Romweber is “an intense—and at times unhinged—guitarist and singer whose pioneering psychobilly/surf/garage combo The Flat Duo Jets came to prominence in the mid-’80s thanks to a mind-blowing live performance in the cult documentary Athens, GA Inside Out.” Romweber is also an inspiration to Jack White of White Stripes.
See more photos of Cat Power at Underground Bee.
by David Burn | Oct 18, 2007 | Place
“Throw out them LA papers and that moldy box of vanilla wafers. Adios to all this concrete. Gonna get me some dirt road back street.” -Guy Clark
Image couretsy of Flickr user Matt Logelin
I stumbled across this strange, but well writtern, BLDGBLOG post about the city of Los Angeles, after following a link from Dooce’s sidebar. Geoff Manaugh, the writer, is interested in architecure and urban planning and he LOVES L.A. (more than most).
L.A. is the apocalypse: it’s you and a bunch of parking lots. No one’s going to save you; no one’s looking out for you. It’s the only city I know where that’s the explicit premise of living there – that’s the deal you make when you move to L.A.
The city, ironically, is emotionally authentic.
It says: no one loves you; you’re the least important person in the room; get over it.
What matters is what you do there.
So, it’s some kind of extreme version of America meritocracy? I’m not so sure. I think appearances, contrary to Manaugh’s arguments, do matter in L.A. But I will concede that it’s far, far away from the East Coast aristocracy (where the fact that your great great grandfather went to Harvard matters immensely).
In the comments to his post, a person known only as Steve, has some great insight and reactions. Steve–who says he lives across the street from Manaugh in San Francisco–invites Manaugh to return to the City of Angels.
I’m sick to death of ambitious people moving to San Francisco and complaining the whole time about how it’s not L.A. or New York, and whining about how it’s not whatever it was they expected, which usually boils down to “I thought San Francisco would give me X, but it’s not doing that!” …as if the good to be gotten from a city is what you can take from it, rather than what you can add to it.
San Francisco doesn’t need any more people lecturing it about how it should feel inadequate because it’s not somewhere else. It needs its own heroes: people who are committed to making it great here and now by doing and making stuff that leverages the city’s unique beauties, and forming fertile collaborative bonds with other people who live here — like everywhere; like you would be in L.A.
One thing that’s not up for debate—place fosters culture. And being in the right place is central to one’s happiness.
by David Burn | Oct 18, 2007 | Politics
President Bush ignored China’s pleas and honored one of the world’s most spiritual men yesterday.
“Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away,” Bush said at the U.S. Capitol building, where he personally handed the Dalai Lama the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal.
“I support religious freedom; he supports religious freedom. … I want to honor this man,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “I have consistently told the Chinese that religious freedom is in their nation’s interest.”
China reviles the 72-year-old monk as a Tibetan separatist and vehemently protested the elaborate public ceremony. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing said the events “seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China’s internal affairs.”
Maybe Chinese officials could consider the internal affairs of Tibet, before spouting off in such fashion.
[via The New York Times]
by David Burn | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
I’m late to the party, but I just learned that the David Gans’ Grateful Dead Hour is now being archived and made available from the band’s site. Dead.net ads a new show every Wednesday. So far, there are 15 to choose from. The files stream in Quicktime or Windows Media.
by David Burn | Oct 17, 2007 | Music
Austin City Limits is the best show on TV. It has been for decades. So it should come as no surprise that this year’s lineup of shows is truly outstanding.
Pitchfork has typed up the schedule:
10-06 Norah Jones
10-13 The Decemberists/Explosions in the Sky
10-20 Femi Kuti
10-27 Jimmy Reed Highway: Jimmie Vaughan and Friends
11-03 Wilco
11-10 Arcade Fire
11-17 Brad Paisley/Dierks Bentley
11-24 Van Morrison (Encore)
12-01 Gretchen Wilson/Miranda Lambert (Encore)
12-08 Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Encore)
12-15 John Mayer
12-22 Lucinda Williams/Old Crow Medicine Show
12-29 Bloc Party/Ghostland Observatory
01-05 Crowded House/Grupo Fantasma
01-12 Regina Spektor /Paolo Nutini
01-19 Roky Erickson/Kings of Leon
01-26 ACL PRESENTS: The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
I was watching last Saturday night when The Decemberists appeared on screen, delivering 30 minutes of their sublime maritime rock.
You can watch the interview with the band and/or a clip from “Perfect Crime #2” on PBS.org.
by David Burn | Oct 16, 2007 | Music
[via Hype Machine]
by David Burn | Oct 14, 2007 | Go Big Red
My heart is heavy today, for an old friend lost his little boy to cancer last night.
Mason’s story is a heartbreaking one. It’s also a story of immense courage, compassion, love, family, community, soccer and more.
Thanks to the generosity, eloquence and untiring bravery of Mason’s parents, we can all share in this boy’s life and his family’s struggle. There’s a lot to learn and feel.
It’s clear that Mason touched the lives of those around him and made them better. I regret that I never had the good fortune to meet him.
[UPDATE] At the suggestion of Mason’s parents, I’m helping Mason do something special for the pediatric oncology floor at Children’s Hospital by donating to: Mason Leach’s Super Star Fund, c/o Children’s National Medical Center, attn: Volunteer and Consumer Support Services, 111 Michigan Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20010.
by David Burn | Oct 12, 2007 | Lowcountry, Politics
The town that helped end school segregation offered Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a backdrop Thursday to offer a variation on a familiar theme: the two Americas.
“We still have two school systems in America,” he told a group gathered in the library at Scotts Branch High School. “We have one for the affluent and one for everybody else.”
Edwards’ remarks came in the town that spawned the Supreme Court ruling that, in 1954, ordered the desegregation of schools. It was part of a daylong tour of S.C. counties known as the “Corridor of Shame” for their impoverished schools and economies.
Edwards pushed a litany of remedies for failing rural schools. Among other things, he would offer universal preschool, a bonus of up to $15,000 to teachers in needy schools, and a new “teaching university” he compared to West Point. It would offer a free education to those willing to commit to teaching.
[via The Charlotte Observer]
by David Burn | Oct 11, 2007 | Music
Music bloggers are really stepping up in the world. Aside from being daily tastemakers, they put on showcase concerts during South By Southwest and Austin City Limits Festival, conduct a major music festival in Chicago, host a radio show on Sirius and release tribute albums. It’s this last feat, I’d like to point to in this post.
Stereogum has made its second tribute album available for free. It’s a tribute to Automatic for the People by REM on the 15th anniversary the record’s release.
Some of the artists that appear include: Meat Puppets (the only band of REM’s generation), The Veils, Rogue Wave, Catfish Haven, Shout Out Louds, The Wrens and Dr. Dog, among others.
