by David Burn | Jul 7, 2007 | Media, Politics
If you believe Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson–the bowtie-wearing preppie who poses as a TV newsman–the word “empathy” has no place in the nation’s political dialogue.
In a recent speech in Iowa, Senator Obama said, “Somehow we have lost the capacity to recognize ourselves in each other. You know, people talk a lot about the federal deficit, but one of the things I always talk about is an empathy deficit.”
Carlson’s snooty retort: “How high is this guy? It’s like, what is he — he always talks between bong hits? I mean, what is that? What does that mean, an ’empathy deficit’?”
I get the feeling that Carlson truly is confused.
[via Media Matters]
by David Burn | Jul 6, 2007 | Music
WHEREAS, for approximately two decades Planet Bluegrass has staged a music festival with the express goal of using renewable energy to help protect our environment while producing a world-class festival; and
WHEREAS, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is powered entirely by renewable energy, offsetting 100 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions created by the traveling attendees of the concert, or “Festivarian Travel”; and
WHEREAS, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival will host world-renowned musicians, as well as contests, workshops, jugglers, clowns, and many more fun-filled activities that will continue day and night for the entirety of the festival; and
WHEREAS, Planet Bluegrass has exerted countless hours and immeasurable efforts to create a unique, environmentally friendly festival in a naturally beautiful location, not only for the people of Colorado, but for those that have traveled from across the country and from other nations; and
WHEREAS, the State of Colorado appreciates the tireless work of Planet Bluegrass to protect and sustain the environment, while giving the people of Colorado an incredible celebration to attend;
Therefore, I, Bill Ritter, Jr., Governor of Colorado, do hereby proclaim June 23,
2007,
BLUEGRASS DAY
in the State of Colorado.
by David Burn | Jul 4, 2007 | Media, Politics
In honor of the Fourth of July, Boulder Weekly spoke to Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places and other books, about the nation’s founding fathers.
Hightower on American democracy:
In the first presidential election, only 4 percent of the population was eligible to vote, because you couldn’t vote if you were a woman, couldn’t vote if you were slave or African American, couldn’t vote it you were Native American, couldn’t vote it you did not own property. So that left nearly everybody out. It’s not that they established democracy; they established the possibility of democracy, and that possibility is, I think, what people look back to.
Every step along the way, every bit of democracy we have has required great sacrifice, blood, death and financial ruin on the part of the people who did that extension of democracy. It’s always been the establishment that has opposed it. The establishment doesn’t bring us progress. Progress comes from the grassroots.
Hightower on excessive corporate power and the outsourcing of American jobs:
Well, that’s what the Boston Tea Party was about. It wasn’t about a tea tax; it was about the East India Company being allowed to monopolize the tea trade in this country and in England…So it was a rebellion against a global corporation. They engaged in what would be considered corporate terrorism today by going aboard the East India Company’s ships and dumping the tea overboard.
The founding fathers would have definitely been opposed to oil giants or any kind of giants. They hated corporations. They feared corporations. Again, the East India Company was a large part of what the rebellion was about. They didn’t believe corporations should have any more unique standing in society than the corporate charter itself. They put very strict terms on allowing a corporate charter to be issued. Today you go down and file a piece of paper. You don’t even have to go anywhere. You just e-mail it in. But in those days you had to have a clear public purpose.
by David Burn | Jul 3, 2007 | Music
The Indianapolis Star looks at one of the Hoosier state’s top tastemakers–Craig “Dodge” Lile. According to the article, Lile’s My Old Kentucky Blog–a site I frequent–gets 5000 unique visits a day and helps to support the Lile family.
“I have a real core group that trusts what I like,” Lile says. “They believe my ear is valuable, and they trust it. That’s ultimately what I’m going for.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever broken a band (to widespread popularity),” he says. “I’ve probably helped contribute to the hype behind bands on a national level. How much of that sticks in the long run, I don’t know.”
Lile is also a budding satellite DJ. He appears on the Left of Center channel at Sirius Satellite Radio, presenting two hours of music every Tuesday night.
by David Burn | Jul 3, 2007 | Politics
I was working to digest my dinner last night when that daily process became unnecessarily difficult. It wasn’t the food’s fault, nor my stomach’s—it was the TV’s fault, for that’s where the news that Scooter Libby would walk away from his 30-month prison sentence was found.
Barry Grey, writing for the World Socialist Web Site, calls the move, “A monument to the lawlessness of the Bush administration and the utter corruption of the American ruling elite.” A conservative patriot couldn’t have said it better.
Nixon’s people broke into a hotel room and went to jail. These people take the White House illegally, twice, lead the nation to war under false pretenses and blow a covert CIA agent’s cover in a scheme to discredit her husband. And “we the people” just stand by and let them. Will anything at all wake this nation of good people from its slumber?
by David Burn | Jun 30, 2007 | Literature, Politics
Rolling Stone is running a feature on the new Senator from Virginia, Jim Webb. The story paints him as an indignant populist in the grand tradition.
Just a few years ago, Webb described America’s elites in terms that might be familiar to the fans of Fox News. Liberals were “cultural Marxists,” and “the upper crust of academia and the pampered salons of Hollywood” were a fifth column waging war on American traditions. But Iraq has refocused his views. Now when he speaks of the elites he more often means “the military-industrial complex,” and “the Cheney factor,” the corporate chieftains he describes as the new robber barons. The war and the crimes of class — sending Americans to Iraq and their jobs to China — are becoming interwoven in his mind.
The story shows Webb’s transformation from Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy to an advocate for the rural coal miners of southwest Virginia. “Captain Webb is marching leftward, and he’s taking many of his old views with him,” writes Jeff Sharlet. Sharlet also points out that Webb is an historian and author.
Publishers Weekly describes Webb’s latest offering, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America:
As Webb relates, the Scots-Irish first emigrated to the U.S., 200,000 to 400,000 strong, in four waves during the 18th century, settling primarily in Appalachia before spreading west and south. Webb’s thesis is that the Scots-Irish, with their rugged individualism, warrior culture built on extended familial groups and an instinctive mistrust of authority, created an American culture that mirrors these traits.
Sounds like an interesting read, and it’s good to know at least one Democrat Senator is constitutionally ready for the fight it’s going to take to win our country back.
by David Burn | Jun 29, 2007 | Food & Beverage, Lowcountry, The Environment
According to The Beaufort Gazette, St. Helena farmer Sara Reynolds, 56, introduced her newly certified organic produce to the public Wednesday at a new market off U.S. 21 behind Gullah Grub restaurant.
photo by Bob Sofaly
The market is still in its early stages, but organizers hope it will include other local farmers interested in growing produce using fewer chemicals.
From noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays at the market, Reynolds will sell an array of organic seasonal produce including tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, cantaloupe, watermelon, bell peppers and yellow squash for $15 a box.
The mixed produce boxes are roughly enough to add to recipes to feed a family of three for a week and must be reserved in advance.
For more information search Local Harvest, an online directory of organic farms, farmers and farmers’ markets.
by David Burn | Jun 28, 2007 | The Environment
The mental health of 21st-century children is at risk because they are missing out on the exposure to the natural world enjoyed by past generations.
Dr William Bird, the health adviser to Natural England, has compiled evidence that people are healthier and better adjusted if they get out into the countryside, parks or gardens.
Stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces, he says. Even filling a home with flowers and plants can improve concentration and lower stress.
“If children haven’t had contact with nature, they never develop a relationship with natural environment and they are unable to use it to cope with stress,” he said.
[via Daily Mail]
by David Burn | Jun 28, 2007 | Music
St. Louis-based blues player, Boo Boo Davis, has 6540 MySpace friends. Yesterday, after he made a friend request, I became one of those fortunate to enough to be in the know. It took just a few minutes before I was on iTunes purchasing his 2006 record, Dear, Mississippi, a release MOJO Magazine named as one of the 10 best blues records of the year.
Davis was reared in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Boo Boo’s father, Sylvester Davis farmed cotton and played several instruments. Musicians who he played with include John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Pete Williams and Robert Petway. Boo Boo remembers these and other musicians dropping by and rehearsing at their house.
At the age of five Boo Boo was playing the harmonica and singing in church with his mother. By thirteen he was playing guitar, and by eighteen he was playing out with his father and older brothers under the name of The Lard Can Band.
Davis, who moved to St. Louis in the 1960s, is presently on the Black and Tan label located in The Netherlands.
by David Burn | Jun 24, 2007 | Music
Pete Nawara painted this live at City Hall on Friday
We travelled to Nashville, a.k.a. Music City, for the weekend and managed to see six acts in four different venues. On Friday night we saw Dinosaur Jr. and The Black Keys at City Hall in The Gulch. As luck would have it The Station Inn–perhaps the most famous bluegrass bar in the land—is situated directly across 12th Avenue from City Hall. Between sets we wandered over and paid the ten-dollar cover to see Blind Corn Liquors Pickers, a bluegrass outfit from Lexington, KY. The two scenes could not have been more disparate. Inside City Hall, 1500 plus 20-something hipsters were willingly being pumelled by the power of electric guitar, whereas BCLP played to a tiny crowd of acoustic music lovers in a setting as comfortable as old boots.
On Saturday, we ventured out to the Grand Ole Opry in the heat of the afternoon because Jim Lauderdale was scheduled to play for free in the Plaza. We caught his soundcheck then realized he wasn’t coming on for another two and a half hours. So we headed back to the city and found an Italian restaurant in Music Row for dinner. After a nice bottle of Syrah from Washington, ceasar salad, chicken parm and pork loin, we made our way down 8th Avenue to Douglas Corner Cafe for Bruce Robison. Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore opened the show. Masterson currently plays with Son Volt, but this acoustic romp revealed another side. We also picked up his new EP, The Late Great Chris Masterson, which sounds great. Following Masterson, Robison and his band–which includes Whitmore on fiddle and mandolin–delivered 90 minutes of Texas-sized tales befitting his 6′ 7″ frame and Bandera upbringing. All this in an intimate Nashville room. It was a great cap to a good weekend.
