Fucked Up About Race

Well, it finally happened. with their backs against the wall, unable to make a viable case for her candidacy, the Clintons managed to make the campaign for the Democratic nominee for president all about race. It's a lot easier to create reasons why you shouldn't vote for a candidate than to make the case for why you should. The greater good of the party be damned. There aren't a lot of policy differences between Clinton and Obama so she's gone down what will turn out to be a problematic road once the general election comes along for whichever candidate triumphs in the end (if anyone ever does). It was bound to happen at some point I suppose. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that we are a country (and a world for that matter) that is still fucked up about race. People simply cannot understand each other and cannot or will not understand all the factors that leave other people believing what they do. It seems to me that Obama for the first time is really trying to be somewhat honest about race (truthful compared to his ideas of working hand in hand with republicans which we know is never really gonna happen) and to no one's surprise it's hurting him politically. All these pundits are up in arms over what Jeremiah Wright said in his sermon. Frankly it didn't seem like that big a deal to me. It's not something we haven't heard before. If I were black I'd be saying much the same things. It's fairly obvious that people are actually not treated equally and that we have not achieved the utopian color blind fantasy land in which most pundits live. I've been following the case in Long Island in which Daniel Ciccario Jr. was shot and killed by John White. Daniel was drunk when he went to White's home with four friends late at night to confront White's son Aaron about what turned out to be a bogus rape threat. Racial slurs were exchanged and the gun went off. Now I don't claim to know exactly what went down that night and I'm sure you could make a strong anti or pro gun case according to what perspective you have and it is a tragedy that a houng man was killed but come on. He was leading what amounts to a drunken lynch mob to a man's house late at night to do what? Talk civilly tohim? Where did these kids think this was going? John White was sentenced to 2 to 4 years and Daniel's dad freaked out. He has threatened Aaron's life and the White's property has been vandalized. The thing I find fascinating is Cicciaro Sr's claims of reverse racism. If White were white he argues White would have gotten a much stiffer sentence. As if blacks get so many privileges in our society. As if jails are not filled disproportionately with black men. Actually if the races were reversed and White was white and was confronted by a drunken mob of black men at his doorstep I doubt if he would be looking at any jail time at all. This perception of privilage amazes me. Your Geraldine Feraro's of the world claiming Obama is only successful because he's black and oh by the way I'm not a racist. Actually it seems he's been successful despite his color and now that it has been pointed out endlessly that he actually is black (to say nothing of the things that have been pointed out about him that are not in fact true) and race has become an issue in the campaign, lo and behold, Obama isn't doing so well anymore. Why was the Sopranos a huge hit and the wire wasn't when the wire was clearly the superior show? Because people are uncomfortable with race and with confronting the realities of the society we have created. And until we are willing to face those realities we will continue to do very little to change them. What you do not understand you cannot fix.

Mission Accomplishing

I like to keep up with what people on both sides of the aisle are saying. On my recent tour in Texas I listened to a bunch of right wing radio (that's just about all you can get) and between that and your Krauthammers of the world I learned that apparently the war in Iraq is now a success. We're well on our way to victory and the democrats are being completely unrealistic and disingenuous about the prospects of withdrawal. The last part may actually be true. Far be it from politicians to lie to the public. It's not so easy to just aup and close down an operation of this magnitude. But it seems to me the republicans are being equally evasive. McCain knows it is unrealistic to expect to occupy Iraq for the next 20 years. We can't sustain troop levels and we can't afford what it costs. What I don't understand about conservatives is how in their own country they are against big government and they claim to want to reduce spending but they are all about prolonged nation building overseas. Yeah there is a certain threat imposed on us by terrorism but frankly it's not nearly as great a threat to American lives as the decaying infrastructure of this once great nation. Perhaps we could mix things up and try a little nation building here at home...

OKC

Just cruised in to Oklahoma City. The weather is finally what I expected down here. Sunny during the day and crisp and cool at night. I was afraid that I had permanently brought the northern cold down south with me. I was just reading about the rep for Oklahoma City who said that Gays are a bigger threat to America than terrorists. What is it with people? Are they really so uncomfortable and so afraid? Today’s big political news is the storm back in New York over Eliot Spitzer and his thousand dollar prostitutes. Part of me truly doesn’t care and part of me has to wonder about a man who is so confused that he would actually prosecute one prostitution ring while hiring another. He should probably resign for that hypocrisy alone. As far as the bigger battle goes, seems like we’re going to go all the way to August. I am continuously amazed by what a mess the democratic system is in the United States. Anytime a contest is close we seem to learn how flawed and confusing the rules are.
I spent last week visiting the legit world of the tuba at Texas State University in San Marcos. I’ve got to say I had a great time. I was pretty nervous about how things would go over but everyone there was extremely open minded. It was a totally different experience for me as I’m used to rock clubs and such. I can barely remember the last time I was on stage in a concert hall at an academic institution. I used to get really nervous but I guess the key to that was just being really comfortable with the music you’re playing and I surely am that by now. I’ve got a few more shows to go here before getting to Austin for SXSW where I’m certain David Geffen is just waiting to sign me to a really big contract…
Tonight’s show in OKC was not great but let me tell ya a weird little story. At my instore in Dallas, Texas at Good Records I asked the guy there to recommend a cd. He suggested a band called HolyFuck. I liked the cd and bought it. So today before my show I open up the paper and they’re playing this same night down the street from me. A weird coincidence. So I go down there to say hello and see when their show is and I run in to Jay, one of the bartenders at Piano’s in NYC where I play my weekly show. His band is opening up. Two coincidences together make one big fat weird coincidence…

Super Fat Tuesday Celebration

Like Haley's comet we recently had an extraordinary confluence events occur. Never again will so many people vote on the same day as Mardi Gras when the Giants are having their victory parade. Crazy! Well, my time in Canada is a little prematurely at an end. My show tonight has been cancelled and of course it is snowing...again. On the Republican side of things I must admit to being shocked that John McCain has all but wrapped up the nomination. How a man so reviled by the Rush Limbaugh wing of the Republican party could win is hard to fathom. I suppose it's more an indictment of the paucity of candidates than anything else. I mean, who couldn't beat a man named Mitt. And Huckabee, let's be serious. He is way too populist for any of those right wingers. Religion is fine as long as it doesn't involve sharing the wealth. So it comes down to McCain. Who would have thought last year that someone so in step with Bush on the war could have a really good chance of winning the presidency. Somehow the war has been spun as this huge success now. Because it is no longer a collosal horrible mess it is now a huge victory. There are strong anti war arguments to be made but the Dems are not really making them. Part of their problem was that they never really made a good anti war case beyond we shouldn't have gone in there in the first place. Yeah, true, but we did and now what? Neither side is being very truthful or realistic. Are we going to be there the next 15 or 20 years because that's at least what it is going to take. Whether or not you think the surge is working we just do not have the man power to sustain so we'll have to withdraw troops whether you are for the surge or not. Can we afford to spend a couple hundred billion a year (I'm sure it probably ends up costing even more than that). What about Afghanistan and North Korea and Iran and... Don't it make most of our threats and intimidation and influence empty when it is clear we can only just barely sustain the wars we are already fighting? On the Democratic side we're looking at a long drawn out slugfest. I suppose I'm one of these undecided people you hear about. I think I'm leaning towards Obama but I'm not entirely sure about his lack of policy details. He's great at the platitudes but it'd be nice to have some more specific proposals. At least he would avoid a quarter century of only two families ruling the most powerful country in the world (Go Democracy!). And on top of that he seems like a genuinely good guy. Not that it is necessarily the job for a good person. To me politics is like sports and I follow it the same way checking out all the scores and trades and it's pretty fascinating. The stakes happen to be a little bit higher though.

What the Hell is Wrong With Me

The problem with being a solo act is that there is no one around to tell you what an idiot you are being. It's good to have people around sometimes who will edit your stupidist ideas. Like the bright idea of touring Eastern Canada in late January early February. I drove about 15 hours yesterday to get to Antigonish, Nova Scotia where upon arriving I found out that "people really don't normally come out on Wednesday nights." The difference between playing Canada and the US is that in Canada the people at the club still pay you and put you up at a Hotel and don't complain about it. In the US the promoter tells you that unfortunately even though you had a guarantee he can only offer you a few dollars. I have to admit that upon arriving in Antigonish I had a pretty hard core "what the hell am I doing with my life" kind of moment. For some reason my constant failure of technology over the past ten hours contributes greatly to this feeling. My gps apparently isn't programmed for Canada and my cell phone is being rejected although according to Verizon everything should be working fine. Somehow not knowing quite where I am and not being able to commiserate with anyone makes it easy to question things. It's back to a map and a pay phone. Old school--circa '95. So I decide that life is actually pretty good. First off, I'm alive. The weather was pretty hairy. It rained constantly and if it had been a little bit colder I never would have made it. Fortunately it didn't get cold enough to turn to ice until I finished my drive. Not only am I alive but I get to play music--granted I've risked life and limb for 4 audience members, 1 sound guy, 1 opening band and a handful of people working and just getting off work (eventually a few more people show up but not until well after I've started). Oh I almost left out the crazy old lady playing slots in the back. One drunk, crazy old guy comes up to me and wheezes "where are you from." I tell him but he's not really listening to me. He announces that he's from Sherbrooke. I reply that that doesn't really mean anything to me but once again he's too busy popping his teeth out of his mouth to pay any attention to me. His gumps mush together against the frame of his false teeth as he contemplates his next drink. They kick him out of the bar for being too drunk before I start which is probably for the best but it doesn't reduce my actual paying audience at the time by 25 percent.

More Texas...

Just as a follow up to my last Blog I gotta mention that I am continuously amazed at the number of huge battleship-like pick-up trucks in the state of Texas. Just about every vehicle on the road is either a pick-up or an SUV. The Houston show went pretty well. Super Happy Funland is a very strange but cool place. I just left Dallas and am now in Denton. What is with Houston and Dallas. These are huge cities which have almost no music scene. Dallas especially. That should be a thriving city but even the one little area that used to have stuff going on (Deep Ellum) is pretty much close to disappearing. There is hardly any place to play anymore and those places that do exist aren't that exciting. I did take the opportunity to catch up on some movies. What else is there to do but go to the mall and do a little theatre hopping (please don't turn me in!). I saw Darjeeling limited which I thought was excellent. For some reason it's gotten lots of negative criticism but I thought it looked beautiful and had the kind of characters with whom I was happy to spend my time. I also saw Gone Baby, Gone which had some potential but was kind of flawed. Strangely enough I thought the flaws had little to do with the direction and acting (Gotta give some props to the Afflecks) but more to do with the story. For something that was trying to be super realistic I thought there were a few leaps of stupidity I wasn't sure I could buy. Spoiler alert! When they go alone to the quarry I just wasn't buying it and the whole thing with the kid being alive was a little too obvious and I just wasn't buying the number of sacrifices these guys were making. In any case it was entertaining. I also watched Eastern Promises which was pretty mediocre. If you've got absolutely nothing else to do it was ok but it doesn't go too far and didn't really feel like a full length movie.

China

So I'm back out on tour which means more blogging! Went to China late last night. China, Texas that is. After the show in Beaumont at the Vortex I went and crashed at my friend Herb's place in China. This morning he took me on a tour of his farm. They grow sun flowers and rice and grass and blueberries and a new crop called energy cane which is similar to sugar cane but is more easily converted to ethanol. Most american farmers have been making ethanol out of corn which really doesn't yield any significant energy savings because it uses just about as much fuel to make it as the end result produces. Apparently it also can't be transported in pipe lines necessitating shipment by trucks which burns a shit load of gas. Taking their cue from Brazil which is way ahead of the United States in this kind of stuff they're trying to produce ethanol in a much better fashion. The whole growing and converting thing should be up and running in a few years and hopefully will serve as a model of what can be done. I got to ride in the combine which is one scary and daunting piece of machinery. Herb also had a bio-diesel rig set up for which he gets restaurant grease and recycles it for fuel. The whole thing was pretty exciting to a city boy like me. All that stuff at the grocery down stairs from my apartment actually comes from somewhere...