tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52966034725432456432024-03-20T20:02:02.266-07:00Hammer Mill DaysStrange phenomena surrounding the rock group Big Green.Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.comBlogger1627125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-25009899858996547172022-09-23T02:01:00.001-07:002022-09-23T02:01:00.150-07:00Pulling the plug is never as easy as it looks<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a>
<p>I don’t know. I’m effing sick of this. Are you effing sick of this, too? You <i>are</i>? Wow … okay. For how many years? <i>Damn </i>…. why didn’t you say so? I was just doing this to keep YOU happy! </p>
<p>Well, you learn something new every day. Or at least every week.
Except last week – I was kind of too busy to learn anything. It gets
like that sometimes. Anyway, let’s just agree to say that you learn
something new every little once in a while. Maybe every time Sylvie
brings you some water. Like in the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALiCzsYWFoxA7_i1orq7GqJ1rWUzWrLrUw:1663889594546&q=lead+belly+bring+me+a+little+water,+sylvie&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3MCyvyMnLUeLVT9c3NEwzMksyjk8v0RL0LS3OTHYsKsksLgnJD87PS1_EqpWTmpiikJSak1OpkFSUmZeukJuqkKiQk1lSkpOqUJ5Yklqko1BcmVOWmQoA6xLp8V0AAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8xunhx6n6AhUTJn0KHRLjC9oQri56BAggEAM&biw=1728&bih=879&dpr=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Leadbelly">Leadbelly Song</a>. But I digress. </p>
<h4>What the this is</h4>
<p>The “this” we’re kvetching about is this thing called blogging. We’ve
been doing it for twenty years, and somehow – seemingly unnoticed by us
– the world has kind of moved on. Now everything is social media,
social media, etc. A few still blog, outside of the corporate shills,
but it’s not really a thing anymore, and well … that’s a shame. Still,
blogging has its place. I just don’t know whether or not its place is
here, exactly. </p>
<p>Since we started this back in 1999, it’s been kind of a chronicle, a
travel log, and a journal rolled into one. There have been a lot of
twists and turns, like those times we went to the chewy center of the
earth, blasting our way through miles of nougat until we hit molten
caramel. Or the times <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2018/07/tourmageddon/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Tourmageddon.">we’ve visited the gas giants </a>on
the outskirts of our celestial neighborhood. We always felt that people
would come away from those stories with valuable life lessons. Lessons
like, DON’T TALK TO THOSE SQUATTERS!</p>
<h4>The free hand</h4>
<p>Now some of you might say, well, so you’ve been writing a stupid
blog. What are you doing with your OTHER hand? It may surprise you to
know that it actually takes two hands to type this stuff in. The fact
is, we need to start doing other things …. things that are more, I don’t
know, useful maybe? Not the right word. How about interesting? Probably
still not ideal. Nevertheless, we need at least one free hand, even if
we’re going hands-free. </p><img alt="Us, back in the day" class="wp-image-15926" height="347" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/BigGreen-RootGlen-11-1024x736.jpg" width="482" />
<p></p>
<p>I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Matt’s been writing songs
like a house on fire. Even in our salad days he didn’t put out THIS
much stuff. And we didn’t have a lot of salad days. Anyway, we’re going
to start recording these songs, first as demos, then maybe pull it
together in another album. We have the makings of at least one other
album in the Ned Trek library – the new stuff, though, is completely
different. That’s the one thing we’ve never been short on: material.
Everything else, yes, but not that. </p>
<h4>Wait for it!</h4>
<p>Long story short, I will be posting <a href="https://www.big-green.net/#contact" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Contact us">Big Green stuff on social media</a>,
maybe pull some of that into the blog, but these regular posts will be
going on hiatus. If I hear a flurry of calls for them to return, I will
start posting again … but I’m not holding my breath. Til then, you know
where to find us. (Right here.)</p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-16516719053451564742022-09-23T02:00:00.001-07:002022-09-23T02:00:00.163-07:00Stop hiding your light under that bushel.<p>Well, Trump started channeling QAnon in a big way this week at an
Ohio rally. I’m assuming anyone who reads this blog knows what QAnon is.
It’s basically the blood libel, updated for the modern age. Some idiot
posted some random shit on 4chan (which happens basically every second)
claiming that s/he is a secret intelligence operative and was spilling
tea on upcoming FBI raids on Trump’s political enemies. It was supposed
to happen in 48 hours and, of course, it didn’t. </p>
<p>That failure, however, didn’t stop the true believers. These people
must be total knuckleheads. Who would earnestly believe this crap? Of
course, people have a tendency to believe whatever places them in a
positive light. Whatever the case may be,<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2021/11/playing-and-losing-at-the-same-old-game/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Playing (and losing) at the same old game"> QAnon has a lot of followers</a>,
and they are apparently laser-focused on the conspiracy theory. Trump
is their greasy, corpulent pope. It makes total sense that he would pull
those people close – they are the scrum who never left him. </p>
<h4>What they think they’re running on</h4>
<p>Trumpist conspiracy theories aside, the Republican party appears to
have settled on their central issue for the 2022 mid-term elections:
brown people are coming over the border to KILL you. Sure, they’ll carp
about inflation, spending, taxes, etc., but when they really want to
motivate their voters, nothing works better than a solid dose of
bigotry/racism. DeSantis and Abbott are leading the way on this
currently, but they’re all saying it, tweeting about it, and trying to
fill the airwaves with it as hard as they can. </p>
<p>Our own <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Tenney" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Claudia Tenney</a>,
soon to be the ex-congressmember from NY-22, has been tweeting
furiously about the “border crisis” and an unprecedented two million
apprehensions of people crossing the border to sew together her
garments, grow and harvest her food, care for her sick relatives, and so
on, all at tremendously low pay. She’s running for the bright red 24th
district seat, so I doubt she has to pander very hard, but she also
wants to keep her beloved Trump happy, so it’s under the bus with the
brown people. I’m sure her GOP colleagues in the House all have similar
motivations for saying the exact same things at the exact same time. </p>
<h4>What they’re actually running on</h4>
<p>The fact is, the last thing the Republicans want to talk about is
what they’re planning on doing if they return to power. The reason for
that is simple: their policies are desperately unpopular – politically
toxic, even. Unfortunately for them, Florida Senator Rick Scott mapped
it all out for them in a very public fashion earlier this year with his <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi26NCQxaT6AhW_M1kFHZBYDSMQFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Frescueamerica.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F06%2FRickScott-12-Point-Policy-Book.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2GoXQQjXOVn2PeseL6RG08" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Scott plan">11-Point Plan to Rescue America</a>.
He seems to be soft-pedaling it a bit now for some reason, almost like
he and his colleagues are afraid of blowing their own horn. </p>
<p>One of his 11 points involves rescuing more tax revenue from working
people. It’s basically one of the biggest tax hikes in American history,
hitting poor and working families hard. This should surprise no one –
for all their complaints about taxes, Republicans have raised our taxes
more than a few times in recent decades, particularly in the wake of
their 2010 takeover of the House when the eliminated Obama’s Making Work
Pay tax credit. Not sure why Scott would think this is a great
political move. Is he as stupid as he looks? Perhaps. </p>
<h4>Help the kids out, will you?</h4>
<p>Hey – Republicans don’t want to say that they will, for instance, ban
abortion nationwide if they win back the House, Senate, and Presidency
in the next couple of years. So we should say it for them. Let’s get the
facts out on their policy positions every chance we get, on social
media, in conversation, and elsewhere. They should like that, right?</p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-83867210841832462062022-09-16T02:01:00.001-07:002022-09-16T02:01:00.152-07:00Hey, dis guy ain’t got all his buttons, mack<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>What’s in that box? I’ll tell you what’s in that box. There’s nothing
in the damn box, man. But that box over there, the one with the torn
flaps, that’s got some gig posters in it. From 1987. A little late on
those. </p>
<p>Hey, there, Big Green fans! Just catching us in the middle of Spring
cleaning. Now, I know what you’re going to say. “Joe”, you’ll say, “this
isn’t Spring, it’s late summer, nigh unto fall, you idiot.” And then
you’ll flip me off and storm out of the room in search of cleverer
bands. But before you’re out of earshot, I’ll just remind you that we’re
late with everything we do. We don’t eat breakfast til lunch time, no
lunch til dinner time, and so on. The more you know! </p>
<h4>Damaged collateral</h4>
<p>Back to cleaning. Man, you wouldn’t believe how many recondite
corners there are in this stupid barn of a hammer mill. Somehow that
moving company we hired to carry our stuff from <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2017/10/jump-time/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Jump time.">our lean-to in Sri Lanka</a>
to here managed to squirrel something away in every alcove. It’s almost
like they DIDN’T want us to find anything. But here we are, after only
about twenty years, digging it all up and sifting through it like
panhandlers. Who says we’re slow on the draw? </p>
<p>Anyhow, you wouldn’t believe the shit we’re finding! Old gig
calendars. Stacks of flyers for college bulletin boards and the like.
Every guitar string Matt ever broke and then some. Various decorative
items and abandoned set lists. (No, we’re not hoarders … we just, you
know … keep stuff.) In other words, a bunch of useless junk. Would you
believe it? Perhaps you would. In which case, my earlier declaration
would be inaccurate. It’s hard to know who you can trust nowadays. </p>
<h4>Pin it on, the jam</h4>
<p>In many ways, our junk production outstripped our music production
from the very beginning. Those were the days before the internets, my
friends. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Telephones">Televisions were mostly analog</a>.
Phones were something attached to the wall or plugged into an outlet.
People read odd, inky things called “newspapers”. Personal robot
assistants were made of pots and pans and leftover appliance parts.
(Okay, THAT part hasn’t changed so much.) When you had to get the word
out on something in those days, you had to do it old school. </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="Get ... yours ... squx" class="wp-image-15903" height="325" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/get-yours.jpg" width="462" /></figure></div>
<p>Oddly enough, even during a time when we couldn’t hang on to a
drummer for more than a few weeks, we had a machine that made campaign
buttons. Sure, there was no way we could hold down a gig, but we were
always able to distribute pin-on buttons with our logo on them. Talk
about the cart before the horse! No surprise, then, that in the midst of
our Fall cleaning, we came across a cache of Big Green buttons. I’m
guessing we spent a couple of days stamping those suckers out on that
button press back in ’87. (No wonder our drummers all walked.)</p>
<h4>Get yours today</h4>
<p>Hey, there’s a limited supply of these items in the known universe.
But if you so, so love Big Green, and you wish you could shake the claw
of Marvin (my personal robot assistant), then you deserve one of the few
remaining Big Green buttons. <a href="mailto:info@big-green.net">Just email us</a>
or send a comment via social media and we will fix you up, gratis,
while supplies last. Because that’s the kind of band we are …. the kind
that’s cleaning the junk out of its squat house. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-20704777966473901852022-09-16T02:00:00.001-07:002022-09-16T02:00:00.182-07:00R.I.P., uber rich lady atop killer empire<p>When the queen of England died last week, I felt bad for the
96-year-old human being that she was, a lady about the age of my late
mother. I take no joy in the death of anyone, even people I’m not crazy
about, so all due condolences to her family who, I hear, are planning a
quiet little funeral. Did I say little? I meant large … in fact, six
billion pounds worth of funeral. Such is the institution of the British
monarchy – still crazy after all these years. </p>
<p>No, I’m not a fan of “The Royals”. I watched <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crown_(TV_series)" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="The Crown"><em>The Crown</em> </a>on
Netflix or whatever, and it was mildly entertaining in a slightly
nuanced gossipy kind of way. (They went way too easy on Thatcher and
made Robert Kennedy look like a cheap wing man for his wife-beating
brother the President.) But generally I avoid T.V. dramas about royalty
mostly because it bores the living piss out of me. <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/02/its-the-assholes-vs-the-fuckers/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="It’s the assholes vs. the fuckers">Then there’s that small matter of imperialism</a>, but let’s try to keep our thoughts positive, eh, what? </p>
<h4>They’re changing the guard at Thirty-Rock palace</h4>
<p>I have to say, though, that I’ve been take a little aback by the
degree of monarch worship on display on the purported left-leaning news
channel MSNBC. I’m not sure if they’re drowning in their own tears or
just drooling themselves to death, particularly on the set of <em>Morning Joe</em>,
which is really just the Reagan/Bush administrations resurrected in the
form of a talk show. It’s kind of ironic to hear them railing against
the tyranny of Trump one day, then waxing poetic about the late Empress
of the Realm. </p>
<p>If this is the reaction from the left-leaning news outlet, I can’t
even imagine what the right-wingers are saying, other than Hunter Biden
killed her or something to that effect. Still, it does make me wonder
what the source of this royals adulation might be. I see it in friends
and acquaintances, their attachment to this deeply problematic
institution only deepened by the pomp and circumstance beamed at them
from every television set, smart phone, tablet, etc. </p>
<h4>No tears in Nairobi </h4>
<p>Because Elizabeth II symbolically embodied the empire itself, she
necessarily carries a great deal of imperial baggage. One of the more
searing examples of British colonial thuggery was in Kenya, where <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/caroline-elkins-legacy-of-violence/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">as Caroline Elkins describes</a>,
the empire imprisoned more than 1 million Kikuyu in fortified villages,
reminiscent of the strategic hamlet program in Vietnam and modeled
after the Brit’s own murderous strategy in Malaya. These “native
reserves” were the site of sickening abuse:</p>
<p><em>They used electric shock and hooked suspects up to car batteries.
They tied suspects to vehicle bumpers with just enough rope to drag
them to death. They employed burning cigarettes, fire, and hot coals.
They thrust bottles (often broken), gun barrels, knives, snakes, vermin,
sticks, and hot eggs up men’s rectums and into women’s vaginas. They
crushed bones and teeth; sliced off fingers or their tips; and castrated
men with specially designed instruments or by beating a suspect’s
testicles “till the scrotum burst,” according to Anglican church
official</em>s. (Elkins, via <em>The Nation</em>)</p>
<p>This was under Elizabeth II’s watch, in a country that was of
particular interest to her. Plenty of blame to go around, but …. really?</p>
<h4>Sun never sets on something new</h4>
<p>Kenya was nothing new in the British colonial enterprise. I feel I
owe it to the victims of that centuries-long project to not join in the
near-fanatical worship of this departed demi-god. Seems like the least
we can do, really.</p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-69868669048790928252022-09-09T02:01:00.001-07:002022-09-09T02:01:00.163-07:00All the king’s robots and all the King’s pens<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>We got another one of those notes, man. One of those neighbor notes
about the uncut lawn. Let’s say they’re a little disappointed in us. I
have to admit, I’m disappointed in us, too. We really SHOULD have mowed
that lawn, but we were too damn LAZY and SHIFTLESS. (Please share this
post with our neighbors so that they will feel validated.) </p>
<p>Anyway, here we are in the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill, no
validation in sight … not even for our parking. You know, I think we
might be the subject of yet another community effort to rid the
neighborhood of ne’er do wells. Frankly, I object to being termed in
such a way. I may not always do well, but I certainly <em>sometimes </em>do
well. I can’t speak for any of the other members of our entourage, but I
for one try to remain on the straight and narrow. (It’s been a bit too
narrow lately, though.) </p>
<h4>Call in the lawn robots</h4>
<p>Now SOME people I know, and I won’t say who, hire robots to mow their
lawn. I’m not super comfortable with that idea. The part I’m not
comfortable with, I should add, is the “hire” part. Why buy the milk
when you own the cow, right? We have our own damn robot, thank you very
much. His name is Marvin (my personal robot assistant), and if you <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22marvin+%28my+personal+robot+assistant%29%22&source=lmns&bih=879&biw=1873&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihrImBkIT6AhV5D1kFHXhMCPsQ_AUoAHoECAEQAA#ip=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Google search for Marvin">Google his full name</a>,
you’ll come up with about twenty years of posts on this very blog. Or
some nonsensical artificial intelligence story. Same damn thing. </p>
<p>Thing is, the lawn robots descend onto your property in a swarm and
cut the grass in about ten minutes – just a big flurry of activity, then
they’re gone. Marvin could NEVER do that. If he tried to get a job with
the lawn robots, he would never get past the first interview. They
would laugh him out of Utica, for chrissake. Think of that: Laughed out
of Utica. Good name for a band, I think. But I digress. I can’t ask
Marvin to do our lawn. It’s a matter of principle. Marvin was created
for greater purposes, like vacuuming the hall. I can’t allow him to
lower himself in that way. </p>
<h4>Sign ’em if you got ’em</h4>
<p>What Marvin really needs is a contract. We used to have one of those, with that crazy corporate label <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2012/07/alls-well-that-ends/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="All’s well that ends.">Hegemonic Records and Worm Farm</a>,
Inc., of Indonesia. It was signed in red ink, actually, though it may
have been blood, now that I think of it. Those guys were kind of rough.
They weren’t getting us to do shit by using Jedi mind tricks. It was
more the truncheon and tire iron method. But hey, you don’t want to hear
about our contract signing ceremony under duress. This is supposed to
be a HAPPY occasion. </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="Mow the damn lawn.Stuff it!" class="wp-image-15880" height="257" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/us-stuffit.jpg" width="400" /></figure></div>
<p>It’s actually a good thing we’re no longer under contract to
Hegemonic. We can release our new songs into the wild like birds and let
them fly on their own volition. Labels always make you do dumb shit you
don’t want to do, then cut up your albums to make two or three. You
call that value? Jesus Christmas. What an industry! Even our mad science
advisor, exploiter of the intergalactic time warp, Mitch Macaphee
thinks that’s unjust, and he’s crazy as a loon. Maybe crazier. </p>
<h4>From green to red</h4>
<p>Yeah, so there are drawbacks. And the first is no money to pay the
damn bills. A smarter band would just let them do what they want with
their music, but nobody ever accused us of being smart. At least not to
our faces. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-90894212952540496452022-09-09T02:00:00.001-07:002022-09-09T02:00:00.182-07:00Riding Grievance all the way to armageddon<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/03/asia/china-retaliate-us-taiwan-arms-trade-deal-hnk-intl/index.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Biden recently announced another $1.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan</a>,
this on the heels of Nancy Pelosi’s bizarre-ass junket to the island /
breakaway province. This, I think, is called tripling down, based mostly
on a calculation common to most U.S. politicians that provoking China
is a political winner, regardless of context. That may be true, but only
if you’re cravenly pursuing popularity with no thought of human
consequence. While that may sound particularly like Donald Trump, it
also sounds like pretty much every other modern president. </p>
<p>We live in a time, once again, when<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/04/thine-is-the-power-and-the-story/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Thine is the power and the story"> criticism of American foreign policy is characterized as either foolishly alarmist or callously dismissive</a>
towards the victims of our official adversaries. I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve been called out for not being sufficiently critical of
either China or Russia. It’s not enough to say that the leadership of
both states is arbitrary and rapacious. You need to cheer on the weapons
as they roll off the assembly line and into the waiting hands of our
Ukrainian or Taiwanese allies. </p>
<h4>The actual grievance narrative</h4>
<p>What gets glossed over in this toxic discourse is a fuller
understanding of history and motive. What is the power behind Putin? He
presents himself as the protector of his people – the strong dude who’s
going to rescue them from the ravages imposed by the west. This
narrative resonates with many Russians because they lived through a
catastrophe in the 1990s – an economic implosion born of the “shock
therapy” doctrine pushed by the United States and Europe. Many, many
Russians lost their livelihoods, their security, even their lives. They
also lost any lingering sense that Russia was a great nation. Into that
breach walked Putin. </p>
<p>There’s a similar dynamic with China. Xi Jinping and his cohort seek
to present a strong, non compliant nation. While China is far from being
a democracy, it’s likely that the Chinese people want to think of their
country as consequential. That is probably founded in China’s history
over the last 100+ years, which started with decades of humiliation at
the hands of Europeans (the British especially), followed by civil war
and a long, bitter occupation by imperial Japan. No question but that Xi
is a tremendous dick, like Putin, but their grievance narrative is
based on something real, unlike that of the Republicans. </p>
<h4>Revisionist history 2.0</h4>
<p>It’s kind of amazing how little understood this dynamic is. The public radio show <em>On The Media</em> did <a href="https://www.bestoftheleft.com/_1509_preparing_for_the_next_proxy_war_china_and_taiwan_transcript" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="On The Media story">a story about competing historical narratives regarding Hong Kong and China</a>
(thanks to Best of the Left for clipping this). What fascinated me
about this was that these narratives, which were presented as mythical,
all had varying elements of truth embedded in them. There was this “King
of Kowloon” graffiti artist who became notorious for claiming that his
family owned the Kowloon Peninsula before the British claimed it. Well,
maybe. It was something like a feudal society. Then, of course, there is
the <em>tabla rasa</em> myth of British Imperialism – the place was empty when we got here. </p>
<p>But then this NPR reporter talked about how China was rewriting history books again to, in effect, erase British imperialism:</p>
<p><em>Now they’re claiming that Hong Kong never was a British colony.
They’re saying that when the British took over Hong Kong, there were
these series of treaties, which the Chinese call unequal treaties. They
say they were forced upon them by gunboat diplomacy, by violence, and
they never actually agreed to any of these treaties. So sovereignty was
never ceded. It’s a crazy argument when you think of all those governors
and the British administration of Hong Kong to claim that it was never a
colony, but it also shows you the sort of mutability of history.</em></p>
<p>Is it crazy to say that China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong was taken
from them by force? Really? It was a forfeit as a result of one of
Britain’s opium wars. What do you call that? </p>
<h4>No more gunboats.</h4>
<p>We seem to be leaning into our imperial posture. And while it’s
natural to empathize with the victims of Russia and China, let’s not
forget that there are people directly in the cross-hairs of our policy
as well. We need to spare them some concern and intervention as well. We
also need to bear in mind that major power conflict in the modern age
carries with it an insupportable risk of nuclear war. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-91300321911929349602022-09-02T14:01:00.001-07:002022-09-02T14:01:00.167-07:00If you’re built upside-down, walk on the ceiling<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>Hmmm. That’s kind of catchy. How about this one? Right …. nothing on
the applause meter. Okay, your turn. That’s just goddamned awesome. Now
let me try one. Sucks. WHY WAS I BORN? </p>
<p>Oh, hi. Yes, we’re working. As one of those performing rock/pop
groups that composes its own material, we, of course, need an editorial
process. You just walked in on one of our markup meetings. Here’s how it
works: we write out a lyric on a big sheet of white paper, then hang it
up on the wall. Everyone gets a chance to cross words out and add words
in. We decide with a roll of the dice who goes first. If the winner of
the dice roll is Marvin (my personal robot assistant), I have to put a
bucket on my head. Then Matt is invited to draw a face on the bucket
with magic marker. Got all that? </p>
<h4>Sausage making 101</h4>
<p>I’ve written about our creative process many times on this blog.
Think of my posts as helpful tips for songwriting, especially for those
who aspire to be as commercially unsuccessful as we’ve been. Now, let me
just say right here and now that not everyone is cut out to reach that
lofty goal. It takes a certain special something to be this big of a
flop. You either got it or you don’t, as the saying goes. And baby, we
got it. </p>
<p>How do you write a massively non-commercial song that almost no one
will be able to relate to, except perhaps your neighbor’s dog? Well,
it’s not as hard as it sounds. You start with subject matter – something
real niche-y, like the history of cardboard. We, for example, chose
Rick Perry for one of our albums. Now that may seem like a crass attempt
at capitalizing on someone else’s fame, drafting behind them as they
sail along. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, it’s so
far from the truth, it circled the globe and bumped into the truth from
the other side. </p>
<h4>The ballad of Cousin Rick</h4>
<p>Look – if you’re going to be as unpopular as Big Green, you need to
pick something to write about that’s even more unpopular. Rick Perry was
low hanging fruit in that regard (<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/cowboy-scat-songs-in-the-key-of-rick/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick">see Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick</a>).
So Matt wrote a boatload of songs about him, and I wrote a handful.
That’s our usual ratio. You could say I’m more careful when I write, but
that would be a lie. I rely on found words, forced rhymes, and a bottle
of tempera paint so that I can squeeze it all over my lyric sheet when I
decide it’s garbage. It’s cathartic, trust me – just give it a try. </p><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="Does this look convincing enough?" class="wp-image-15853" height="257" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/convincing-bucket.jpg" width="400" /></figure>
<p>Thing is, as a band we’re kind of built upside-down. I mean, Big
Green started out with the weird songs. You know what I’m talking about –
Sweet Treason, The Milkman Lives, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2014/05/this-is-big-green-may-2014/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="THIS IS BIG GREEN: May 2014">Going To Andromeda</a>, all that stuff, then those umpteen million Christmas songs. After that, it was <a href="https://orcd.co/international_house" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="International House">International House weirdness</a>, then Cowboy Scat, and finally, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/ned-trek-temp/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Ned Trek">Ned Trek</a>. Now we’ve got a boatload of songs about … wait for it …. interpersonal relationships. You know – the stuff that most bands <em>start </em>with before they go all weird and shit. We’re like freaking Benjamin Button, except that I hate that stupid movie. </p>
<h4>Where next?</h4>
<p>I don’t know, man …. we’ve got some recording to do. Lots of songs,
damn it. There’s certainly at least one album’s worth of unreleased
material, and maybe even a box set. That’s right – we could record all
the songs, put them in a cardboard box, set the box out into the middle
of the road, and hope our fans chance upon it. That’s called
“marketing”, kids. Ask your mother. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-60312298267405669362022-09-02T02:00:00.001-07:002022-09-02T02:00:00.163-07:00“The Improvement association” needs improvement<p>I probably spend way too much time thinking about elections. I
suspect you think so too, particularly since I’ve devoted so many blog
posts to the subject. I even talked about it a lot on <a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">my short-lived political podcast, Strange Sound</a>,
though not so anyone would hear. The fact is, I kind of hate elections.
They’re nerve-wracking as hell, they often turn out badly, and I’m not a
big fan of suspense, especially when it runs all night long. But that’s
just experience talking – long, bitter experience. </p>
<p>There are many things we can do that are more important than voting.
Mutual aid, organizing, public service … all of these things make an
immediate difference for people. But more than one thing can be
important at the same time, and my contention has always been that <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2019/04/that-thing-that-matters/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="That thing that matters.">voting is important enough to do</a>,
even if it isn’t as important as all that other stuff. For people like
me – CIS-gender white males – the time commitment involved is
negligible. </p>
<p>So, though I’m not a huge NPR fan, I was excited when I heard that a
recent Serial Podcast had centered on elections in North Carolina and
purported voter fraud. But after listening to it, I can only say that
they kind of hid the ball. Or dropped it. Not sure which. </p>
<h4>Organizing is the enemy</h4>
<p>Without getting too deep in the weeds of the podcast, <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/announcements/the-improvement-association" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="The Improvement Association">The Improvement Association </a>–
a co-production of NPR’s This American Life / Serial and the New York
Times – talks about a political action committee in Bladen County, North
Carolina that does get-out-the-vote efforts for black residents. They
basically hand out a sample ballot with their recommendations and
encourage people to support their list. In short, this is organizing
101, completely legal and above board, and a really effective way to
drive turnout and support for Democratic candidates. </p>
<p>Naturally, the Association is under constant attack by white
politicians, who accuse the organizers of voter fraud. They basically
gaslight the organization, so that when an actual Republican voter fraud
scheme is busted, somehow this black organization’s name is dragged
into the conversation both on a local and a statewide level. The white
people in this story – mostly Republicans – understand the power of this
black voting block, and they’re using the tools available to them (i.e.
baseless accusations of cheating) to undermine it. What is more of a
threat to white power than organized black people? </p>
<h4>Strange focus</h4>
<p>What kind of astonishes me about this podcast is the degree to which
the reporter, Zoe Chase, gets sidetracked by this internal power
struggle within the PAC. Now, it should come as a surprise to no one
that organizers and political agitators tend to have egos. It seems
likely that the two lead organizers, Horace and Cogdell, push to get
their own way in the context of the organization. But if the ultimate
goal is more power and resources for black people in the sea of white
people known as North Carolina, is this all that bad? </p>
<p>Chase follows Cogdell’s efforts to elect three black councilmembers
in a little town named Elizabethtown – a majority black community run by
rich, white people, where there is virtually no public investment in
the black neighborhoods. Chase spends a lot of time on the critics’
accusation that Cogdell is doing this so that he will be able to control
these three black women on the town council. In the end, Cogdell’s
candidates lose, and his colleague Horace suggests that this was
essentially because black people were voting against their own interests
for one reason or another. This is Chase’s take on Horace:</p>
<p>“<em>It’s always zero sum with Horace when it comes to politics. I’ve
learned that. If you’re not with him, you’re against him. And if you’re
against him, you’re wrong.</em>“</p>
<h4>The thing that must not be named</h4>
<p>On the other hand, what I hear from Cogdell is a pretty reasonable
economic, almost Marxist analysis of how power works in that little
town. A minority of white people with money get all the benefits, while
underrepresented black people get the shaft. NPR / NYT say little if
anything about this dynamic. It’s really more about personal squabbles.
That’s what makes a podcast go viral, right? </p>
<p>Am I surprised to learn that NPR / NYT reporters are constitutionally
incapable of giving credence to this kind of analysis? Not at all.
There was a similar issue with the podcast <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Nice White Parents</a> which I talked about on <a href="https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/pvfd5tnwVsb" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">my podcast, Strange Sound</a>. They will twist themselves into knots trying to avoid it. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-85173238825909826402022-08-26T02:01:00.001-07:002022-08-26T02:01:00.155-07:00Welcome to the song recycling center, Campers<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>You want to use that one? Really? Which version? Hmmm … okay. That
one’s not in the best condition. I think Mitch was using it to prop his
closet door open. And then there’s the rising damp. Lots of factors go
into this, dude. It’s not so simple. </p>
<p>Like most bands, Big Green has a back catalog. The question is, what
to do with all that material, sitting idle, not carrying its own weight.
I’ve told our old songs to go out and get a job, but some of them are
reaching retirement age, and that’s not an optimal time to start the
search. The thing is, we’ve got a boatload of new material coming this
way, thanks to the transitive property of Matt Perry, in particular.
Yes, I (Joe) have written a handful, but Matt’s output far outstrips
mine, and good thing too. ‘Cause I’m a lazy-ass mother. Putting it all
on the table here. </p>
<h4>Reviving the nineties</h4>
<p>So, some who have known Big Green since its inception recall that we
had a flurry of activity in the early nineties. We were playing clubs,
schools, etc., with a bewildering variety of guitar players. The decade
before, we couldn’t hold on to a drummer for love or money. John White
took up with us in the late eighties, so problem solved …. except then
we didn’t have a guitarist. Then we got one, then lost one, got another,
lost another, etc. Let me know when you’ve heard enough. (I know I
have.) </p>
<p>Most of the recording we did in the nineties was with Jeremy Shaw,
friend of the band, who played a bunch of gigs with us, did some video,
and a few audio demos. One of the demos we did was a group of songs we
recorded live and later released under the moniker LIVE FROM NEPTUNE.
These were performances straight to DAT tape, no overdubs – we did a
bunch of takes on maybe five or six songs. You can hear Jeremy really
shredding that thing on Special Kind of Blood, Merry Christmas, Jane,
and one or two others. </p>
<h4>Look over there: something shiny</h4>
<p>Okay, so our new material is nowhere near ready for release in any
form. Frankly, we’re still in the composing and rehearsing stage. Then
comes the de-composing. After that, Marvin (my personal assistant)
fashions an album cover out of used ball bearings, and that’s how the
sausage is made. But as of now, we’ve got a long way to go. I mean,
we’ve got personnel issues to straighten out, we’ve got hinky tech
problems, we’ve got rising damp. Our objective – a new album – is either
very, very small, or very, very far away. Don’t ask me to solve THAT
rubic’s cube. </p><img alt="Did you post those oldies yet?" class="wp-image-15829" height="257" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/post-oldies.jpg" width="400" />
<p>What do you do when you don’t have anything new to share? Recycle the
old stuff, that’s what. We’re chucking some older numbers onto our
YouTube channel, so that fans of that platform can listen to our classic
selections free of charge, any time that suits their fancy … even if
they don’t have a fancy suit to their name. We uploaded <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2000-years-to-christmas/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="2000 Years To Christmas">2000 Years To Christmas</a> some time ago, of course. Now we’re working on our EP from the mid 2000s, the afore-mentioned LIVE FROM NEPTUNE. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Axq-KA-Tuc&list=PLnb_1-fgAxNcieeElcLK0Wz3HQfgKO152" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Live from Neptune EP by Big Green - Youtube">The first two songs are posted on YouTube</a>, with more to come. What do you know about that? Something shiny. </p>
<h4>Seasonal effectiveness disorder</h4>
<p>Summer’s almost over, and I know I’m not alone in thinking that it’s
about damn time. Still, we haven’t accomplished much this season. Not
that this summer should be any different from previous ones. Hey, we’ll
keep chucking old songs in the air until we get our arms around the new
ones. (They ain’t chuckable quite yet.)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-90413260649329837852022-08-26T02:00:00.001-07:002022-08-26T02:00:00.180-07:00Getting the most out of your five minutes<p>As anyone reading this blog knows, I come from a history of relative
privilege. My parents weren’t rich; they were white working class during
a time when being that meant a measure of disposable income that’s
practically unheard of for working class people today. Dad worked, and
his income was the only money we had coming in, whereas Mom ran the
household and basically did all the menial work of cleaning, cooking,
washing clothes, etc., etc. </p>
<p>One thing they always made time for was voting. And again, being
white, working class in those days meant voting was relatively easy. I
inherited that state of ease from them, apparently, because I seldom if
ever have to spend more than five minutes on voting. I walk in, sign a
paper, get my ballot, fill it out, and drop it in the machine. Easy as
fuck, particularly since my employer is fine with me taking the time to
do it. For lots of other folks, though, not so easy. </p>
<h4>Calling all white people </h4>
<p>Okay, so, if you’re like me, you’ve got even more of an obligation to
vote in a way that counteracts rampant suppression of voters of color.
Our congressional district has shifted significantly, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Knocking it out old school in the fighting 22nd">as I’ve mentioned before</a>,
so my old classmate Claudia Tenney is moving on to a newly reddened
23rd district to avoid what would almost certainly be a crushing defeat
in the 22nd, which she currently represents. She has been going through
some wild political gesticulations, ensuring that she stays on Trump’s
good side by underwriting his “stolen election” theory and various other
bridges-too-far. Not pretty. </p>
<p>That’s not to say that the Republican contenders for the 22nd
district aren’t as crazy as Claudia. There’s this dude Steven Wells, for
instance, who’s been running about a million ads. <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2022/08/national-gop-group-boosts-steve-wells-with-300k-ad-blitz-as-his-campaign-donations-drop-off.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Syracuse.com">Kevin McCarthy’s PAC dropped $300,000 in TV spending into his campaign</a>
at the last minute, according to Syracuse.com. He’s doing the full
Trump Monty, crowing about Biden’s border crisis, the price of gas,
inflation, crime, did I mention gas? He’s also trying to pull the
businessman piece of it – only he can fix it. The dude is a tremendous
waste of space. </p>
<h4>Primary choices</h4>
<p>I’ve wondered this year if people in the new 22nd district understand
the character of this race. They settled on the lines very late in the
game, and it’s more than possible that a lot of people don’t know what
district they’re in let alone who’s vying for the House seat. Some
Democrats may not know that there’s even an opportunity to win the 22nd.
That opportunity existed before, of course – the two elections Claudia
won even within the old district lines were real squeakers. That was
when the district leaned Republican; now it leans more Democrat. </p>
<p>While there are more progressives in this district than before, like
many other districts they were unable to settle on a single candidate.
Sarah Klee Hood was a good candidate, but she was massively outspent by a
more centrist Dem named Francis Conole, who <a href="https://nyenr.elections.ny.gov/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Race results">took the race by about three or four points (less than a thousand votes)</a>.
Trouble is, there were two other candidates who were more or less to
the left of Conole, who between them took another 25 points. A similar
thing happened downstate, in the 10th, where rich boy Dan Goldman very
narrowly beat out Yuh-Line Niou, a sold progressive. It was another
crowded field of leftists, including Mondaire Jones, Carlina Rivera, and
freaking Liz Holtzman, all of whom took a substantial piece. </p>
<h4>Organize, people</h4>
<p>The only way to beat people like Goldman and Conole is for
progressives to settle on a single candidate, if possible. That takes
organizing, and that means spending more than five minutes on politics.
Some have the bandwidth to do it, but at the very least, white people,
take five to vote when it comes up. With margins this slim, it can
really make a difference. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="210" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><em><br />Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-72036455709537267682022-08-19T02:01:00.001-07:002022-08-19T02:01:00.166-07:00I said keep the bastards away from me!<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="211" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>I told you, I didn’t want to be disturbed. And just because I have a
gaping hole in my wall doesn’t mean you can just jump right through it.
Get out, and take those nasty things with you. Jesus! This mill is a <em>prison</em>! </p>
<p>Okay, I admit that I was overreacting a tad just then. My deepest
apologies, and the same for Marvin (my personal assistant), who was once
again in the process of invading my personal space for no good reason.
Still, that doesn’t justify bad feelings or harsh words. We try not to
fly off the handle around here – that’s part of our credo as a band, and
it’s something we’re particularly, uh … shit ….. WILL YOU TURN THAT
DAMN THING DOWN!!</p>
<h4>Quadropedal unmanned vehicles</h4>
<p>What did Marvin want from me? Well, he made a new friend today and he
wanted to show the bugger off. It’s one of those automated robot dogs –
you know, the kind that chase people to death in your nightmares (or
just in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Black Mirror">Black Mirror</a>).
He thinks he found the robot dog out in the street, but I happen to
know that little iron fido is one of Mitch Macaphee’s latest experiment.
It’s kind of his <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127373/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Tobor, the Eighth Man">Eighth Man</a>, if you know what I mean, though he’s clearly no Professor Genius. </p>
<p>Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust autonomous vehicles of
any sort. They have a mind of their own, you know. And they’re just as
liable to take your leg off as any real dog, maybe more. I mean, I could
possibly get behind Mitch’s experiment if it were about<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2018/07/tourmageddon/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Tourmageddon."> supporting our next interstellar tour</a>. But damn it, man, it’s got nothing to do with that. That’s right – Mitch is going rogue, once again! </p>
<h4>A real Florida story</h4>
<p>Now, I’m not a big fan of all these other states. But apparently
there’s one state called Florida, and apparently there’s a place down
there called Cape Canaveral. And at this Cape Canaveral is a special
installation of the Space Force. And that force needs protection … the
kind you get from <a href="https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2022/08/15/321-launch-space-news-you-may-have-missed-over-past-week/10332271002/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Science Stories, including one about robot dogs">autonomous robot dogs</a>. </p><img alt="Yeah, I'm not crazy about that idea." class="wp-image-15810" height="261" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/not-crazy.jpg" width="485" />
<p>Okay, friends. Like I said earlier, I don’t much cotton to autonomous
robot animals. And I’ve made my opinion quite well known within the
domain of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill. Which is why it puzzles me
so that Mitch Macaphee – whose hearing is excellent, I understand –
would put in a bid for building those robot dogs for Cape Canaveral.
Seriously, do you know what this means? It means all of his beta testing
will be happening right here, in the hammer mill. That’s no fair, man.
Tell Florida to get their own beta-tested robot dogs. (Not even sure you
need to tell them something like that.)</p>
<h4>My little redoubt</h4>
<p>Like with most of Mitch’s contracts, it’s really best to just ride
them out and keep your head down. I might consider investing in some
knee guards – something that will protect my vulnerable shins from those
vicious robots. No, they haven’t done anything mean yet. But they might
decide to at any moment. What part of autonomous do you not understand?
</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-49111619992463973202022-08-19T02:00:00.001-07:002022-08-19T02:00:00.167-07:00When Losing starts to mean winning, we lose<p>Democracy is always an approximation. The countries we describe as
being democratic have systems that exclude some voters, make it hard to
participate in one way or the other, and are otherwise imperfect. That’s
to be expected. We don’t aspire to imperfection, of course. In many
countries, people try to do the best they can with what they’ve got. In
France, it’s the fifth republic. In Britain, constitutional monarchy.
And right here, we have the U.S. constitution – penned by rich white
men, for rich white men. </p>
<p>During the Bush administration, people around the president were fond
of saying that the the constitution isn’t a straitjacket. (Of course,
they were mouthing those words in defense of torture.) Still, we are
kind of locked into certain interpretations of it, and as such remain
firmly under minority rule – just as the founding fathers envisioned it.
I know others have said this, but apart from 2004, the insurrectionist
party (formerly called the Republicans) lost the popular vote in every
presidential race since George Herbert Walker Bush was elected in 1988.
And yet they “won” 3 out of those seven races. Minority rule. </p>
<h4>Narrowing the halls of justice</h4>
<p>It goes beyond just the raw numbers of presidential terms served.
Republican presidents have had far greater consequence than their
Democratic counterparts over this period. Nowhere is this truer than
with respect to the Supreme Court. Between Bush Jr.’s two terms and
Trump’s term, they have appointed five of the sitting justices –
Democrats only three. And we are seeing the results in the form of more
and more draconian decisions being handed down by a court majority that
is openly contemptuous of the public will.</p>
<p>We are being forced, as a nation, to accept an extremist view of
abortion, gun rights, regulatory agencies, and others things. The
Supreme Court is like our version of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iran
or the old Soviet Politburo. But really, more like the former – they
tell us what laws will stand, which will not. They tell us who is a
person with full rights and who isn’t. They are aggressively unelected
and unconcerned with prevailing sentiments. And there really isn’t much
of anything we can do except wait for their next decision. Sure, we can
push for court expansion and other reforms, but we have to do so within
the constraints their decisions establish, and there are many. </p>
<h4>More election drama</h4>
<p>With the fall elections approaching, one wonders if the results will
be broadly recognized. You can bet that, wherever Republicans do badly,
there will be challenges, particularly in states with GOP dominated
legislatures and GOP governors. I would like to think that people on the
leftward side will take this election seriously and show up in
unprecedented numbers, but we shall see. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/03/kansas-abortion-vote-state-constitution" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Kansas vote">pro abortion rights vote in Kansas</a>
certainly came as a surprise, especially since the ballot measure was
designed to be confusing as hell. But even with a massively lopsided
majority, Republicans are forcing a recount. </p>
<p>This is what we can expect. We have to be willing to fight back,
non-violently (though I understand the need for self defense in
oppressed communities). Honestly, we have to get this right. Allowing
them to continue to claim victory whether or not they win races is just a
recipe for authoritarianism. We know where they want to go – they keep
telling us. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/viktor-orban" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Viktor Orban">Viktor Orban </a>is the model they prefer. We need to believe them when they tell us who they are. </p>
<h4>Keeping your options open</h4>
<p>I would admonish you to vote, but <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2021/10/time-to-do-that-thing-weve-got-to-do/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Time to do that thing we’ve got to do">I’ve done that before</a>
and look where it’s gotten us. Suffice to say that I am voting, and I
encourage you to do the same (and to encourage others to do the same).
If only to keep the option to vote open for the years ahead.</p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-36348370599906144712022-08-12T02:01:00.001-07:002022-08-12T02:01:00.158-07:00Even the colonel gets more mail than us<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>Did the mail come in yet? Oh, right. Looks like bills and
solicitations. Again. Not a single handwritten missive in the entire
pile. What was the name of that short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Writes_to_the_Colonel" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="No one writes to the colonel"> “No One Writes to the Colonel”</a>,
or something like that? Well, somebody best tell the colonel that we’ve
got him beat. When it comes to postal neglect, we’re number one, amigo.
</p>
<p>Hey, you know what they say, right? Every complaint is really about
something else. So if we’re complaining about our lack of fan (or hate)
mail, what we’re REALLY complaining about is the heat or somebody’s sore
toe or the price of sorghum in Madagascar. The sorry fact is, we
wouldn’t know what to do with fan mail if it was dropped on us via
helicopter. It’s been so long since we opened the mail bag, I doubt that
any of our current readers even remember that that was a thing. Hey,
newbies – that was a thing! </p>
<h4>First tune, then play … the tune.</h4>
<p>Part of what makes people cranky around the abandoned Cheney Hammer
Mill is the lack of creature comforts. The furniture in this joint is
literally either made of bricks or fashioned crudely from surplus hammer
handles. Looking to get comfy? Just stuff an old burlap sack full of
grass and you’ve got yourself a pillow, dude. And when it gets hot here
in upstate New York, well, you just open up a window. Or wave a fan or
two. (You see? You <em>knew </em>I would steer it back around to fans again, didn’t you?) </p>
<p>That said, we have our tasks at hand. One of them is keeping Marvin
(my personal robot assistant) from setting the mill on fire with his
greasy cooking. The other is rehearsing for our next album, which we are
doing remotely through one of those Zoom-for-music apps. That’s right –
Matt’s on one end of the hammer mill, I’m on the other, and we jam over
the internets. (You gotta problem with that, huh? <em>HUH</em>?) It’s
mostly a process of Matt showing me a half dozen more tunes that he
wrote since the last time we talked. Me? I’m chipping away at one, maybe
two. </p>
<h4>Subject matter experts</h4>
<p>The thing with Big Green, you see, is that we get onto these jags.
This is particularly true of my illustrious brother, Matthew. <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/04/write-in-the-middle-of-it-all/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Write in the middle of it all">I’ve written before </a>about
his tendency to deeply explore a topic through the medium of pop song.
Hell, he wrote about eighty songs on the subject of Christmas, probably a
hundred about Ned Trek, at least 25 about Rick Perry. Now he’s on to
human interrelationships, so it’s relatively unbroken ground. I mean,
who can you think of who has written songs about human emotions? Hell,
no one I know. </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="I don't think that's the colonel Garcia Marquez was talking about." class="wp-image-15785" height="224" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/kentucky-colonel.jpg" width="400" /></figure></div>
<p>Anyway, I’ve got a notebook full of handwritten chord charts that say we’ve got an album on the way. Though, as with the <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/ned-trek-temp/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Ned Trek">Ned Trek material</a>,
it may actually be more than one collection. You musicians know what
we’re grappling with. Do you make three mediocre albums, or one really,
really, really bad album? Such a hard creative choice to make. We
probably need a focus group to help us untie this knot. Where the hell
is Frank Luntz when you need him? Having a sandwich? Okay …. don’t
bother him, then. </p>
<h4>Right, but when the hell …</h4>
<p>Okay, so if we actually DID get fan mail, one of the first questions
would probably be something like, WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING YOU SO LONG
WITH THIS STUPID ALBUM? Well, dear fake reader, I know it’s been nine
years since our last release. And I know that release was really lame.
But bear in mind – our technology is from the stone age, carving music
from living rock. We’ll keep chipping away at it until we’ve knocked off
everything that doesn’t look like a new album. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-20454497942097060312022-08-12T02:00:00.001-07:002022-08-12T02:00:00.165-07:00An unhealthy dose of imperial fetishism<p>As I’ve mentioned more times than I should have,<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2020/11/the-picks/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="The Picks."> I have had very low expectations for the Biden foreign policy</a>
since the beginning. By “the beginning”, I mean well before his
election, when you couldn’t find foreign policy positions on his
campaign web site for love or money. Biden’s fifty-year track record on
foreign affairs is not a particularly good one. I remember him saying he
was “ashamed” of Reagan’s “constructive engagement” policy towards
apartheid South Africa back in the 1980s. Um …. that’s about it. </p>
<p>These past two weeks have done little to change my mind on this. The
drone assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al Qaeda leader, prompted a
lot of fist-pumping on the part of mainstream Democrats and some
never-Trump Republicans. A similar amount of jingoism accompanied House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, as well. I’m not certain what
the expected takeaway is for either of these decisions, but it the point
was to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current
Democratic leadership is well vested into America’s imperial enterprise,
they certainly succeeded. </p>
<h4>A child of bad policy</h4>
<p>Ayman al-Zawahiri was a terrible person, there’s no question. I
think, though, as we are the one global super-power, it’s probably a
good idea to consider how our policy may have contributed to his
no-goodness. Al-Zawahiri started down the road to al Qaeda when he was
imprisoned by the Mubarak regime, where he and his fellow prisoners from
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood were tortured, killed, and otherwise abused.
Egypt, I will remind you, has long been a major recipient of U.S. aid,
far beyond what nearly every other nation has received from us. If
Egypt’s notoriously brutal prison system contributed to al-Zawahiri’s
radicalism (which it most certainly did), we bear considerable
responsibility for that. </p>
<p>Secondly, there likely wouldn’t have been an al-Qaeda for him to join
up with if it hadn’t been for (1) the Afghan CIA operation during the
1980s, and (2) the first gulf war in 1990-91, when U.S. troops were
stationed in Saudi Arabia for the first time, remaining there long after
Iraq was driven from Kuwait. Again, these were policy choices, not
forces of nature. Without multiple interventions in the middle east and
southwest Asia, America might not have been such a big, attractive
target for these people. Can’t be sure, but …. might have been worth a
try. </p>
<h4>Worst of the worst?</h4>
<p>Then there’s the question of how many lives were lost at the hands of al-Zawahiri. I would argue far too many. As <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Rachel Maddow">Rachel Maddow pointed out on her show last week</a>,
he had a long history of planning terrorist actions, including being
one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks, the bombings in
Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, and so on. So,
thousands of live lost. Not a nice person, right?</p>
<p>Now, there should be some reckoning as to how that record stacks up
to the record of his pursuers. All killing is intrinsically bad, so I’m
not suggesting that the rapacious policies of the United States somehow
lessen the severity and the cravenness of al-Zawahiri’s attacks. But if
it’s bad when he does it, then it’s bad when others do it as well,
right? And if others do a lot more killing than he did, well … that
makes them particularly bad, right? </p>
<p>Let’s just stick to the wars that followed 9/11. How many people died
as a result of our actions? Was it less or more than the number of
al-Zawahiri’s victims? In all honesty, America’s victims through this
period run in the high six-figures to perhaps seven figures. Several
countries were destroyed essentially beyond recovery. Fist pump, anyone?</p>
<h4>Unfair comparisons</h4>
<p>Okay, I know …. it’s really not fair to compare nation states like
the U.S. to non-state actors like al Qaeda or individuals like
al-Zawahiri. Nation states have international obligations,
responsibilities, and should at least formally be accountable to their
populations. Terror networks are kind of a law unto themselves, though
international law does bear on them. But honestly …. shouldn’t we expect
more out of our own government then that they should be responsible for
hundreds or even thousands of times the number of deaths caused by our
most ruthless enemies? </p>
<p>Seems like kind of a low bar. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-51136758530907273752022-08-05T02:01:00.001-07:002022-08-05T02:01:00.147-07:00Now, where did I leave those Cardboard tubes?<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>Man, it’s hot today. Maybe we should make some tea. Like a whole pot
of tea. Perfect day for it. Just fill the pot with water, put it on the
counter and watch it come to a boil. No problem – lovely pot of tea. </p>
<p>Well, it’s August, and <a href="https://youtu.be/9ojhtq51Ya8" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Monty Python Aussie skit">it’s hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum in here, as the sages of Monty Python once said</a>
(with a cartoonish Aussie accent). It will come as a surprise to no one
that there is no air conditioning here in the abandoned Cheney Hammer
Mill. In fact, the closest thing we have to air conditioning is some
holes in the roof – holes that let the air in. Sometimes the air is
cool, sometimes not. It’s conditional, on account of the changing
weather …. <em>air </em>conditional. </p>
<h4>Things my comic books taught me</h4>
<p>Summers like this remind me of my misspent youth. I say “me”, because
no one else here remembers my misspent youth. Even Matt, who misspent
much of it right alongside me, doesn’t care to remember, and who can
blame him?<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2009/04/another-gambit-gone-bad/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Another gambit gone bad."> If you remember the 1970s, you probably weren’t there.</a>
That said, I remember quite a bit of it, particularly around the
middle. Like an Oreo or Hydrox cookie, the ’70s had a creamy center,
with crunchy wafers on either side. Ask your mother. </p>
<p>We had a roof over our heads and three squares a day, but not a lot
of spending money. So we took to entertaining ourselves the cheap way.
You know what kids are like – they’ll whittle a canoe out of an old
birch tree. I was like that. Hell, I fashioned a bong out of old
cardboard paper towel tubes and tape. Got the plans out of the back of a
Zap comic book. It might have been Dr. Atomic or something like that.
And yes, it was made of combustibles, but it didn’t catch fire …. right
away. </p>
<h4>Red sales in the sunset</h4>
<p>Another summer tradition: we’re in the red. There’s a lot of reasons
for this. One is that we’ve never really been a beach band. I think you
could count on one hand the times that we’ve collectively been to the
beach for something other than bird watching (Matt) or metal detecting
(Anti-Lincoln). In other words, our music is not synonymous with summer
fun. We’re never likely to write the big hit of the season, despite all
the trying. That’s okay. I’m not sure what we would do with riches at
this stage. (Tell me more about those riches …) </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img alt="Yeah, not really our thing." class="wp-image-15770" height="265" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/notour-thing.jpg" width="400" /></figure></div>
<p>You know, it’s a pity comic books aren’t as universal as they used to
be. If they were, we could move a lot of music through those suckers. I
can see a Big Green ad tucked into the back pages, between the Charles
Atlas fitness course and the patented Onion Gum. Just clip out the
coupon and mail it in with a nickel taped to the little circle. We’ll
send you Big Green’s latest album, plus a publicity photo signed by
yours truly. The thing practically writes itself. </p>
<h4>Get yours someplace else</h4>
<p>Hey, while we’re sweating to the oldies, this is probably a good time to mention that <a href="https://big-green.bandcamp.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="We're now on BandCamp">we’re now on BandCamp</a>.
We’ve uploaded our first two albums there, will add more in the near
future. Check it out, friend us, share our page, throw us a bone, hey
will you? </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-24583877631509502862022-08-05T02:00:00.001-07:002022-08-05T02:00:00.163-07:00Why there’s a housing crisis and what we can do<p>I should start out by saying that I have never been unhoused. There’s
a good reason for that – I am a CIS-gender white male who grew up in a
middle class / upper working class family. (In other words, dad didn’t
have any college but made a decent living during a time when white men
with no degree could do okay, not great.) <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2015/11/chance-not-skill/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Chance, not skill.">The American economy is set up for people like me</a>, and I benefited from my place of advantage. </p>
<p>That means that, even when I was broke, there was a home I could go
to. That home had equity, and when my parents passed away, some of that
equity was passed along to me. Poor Americans, Americans of color, non
CIS gender American largely do not enjoy this level of privilege. When
they run into money trouble, it’s for real, and a lot of them go without
food, medicine, or a roof over their heads as a result. In a country as
wealthy as this one, that’s worse than a scandal; that’s a crime. What
can we do about this?</p>
<h4>If it works in Austria, why not here?</h4>
<p>We have public housing in America. It’s not much to write home about,
though, and it’s been under attack for decades. In my home town, a fair
number of the units have been bulldozed. They were substandard in a lot
of ways, built on undesirable patches of land, some of them<a href="https://www.utica.edu/college-community/utica-stories/leading-way-lead-poisoning-research" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Lead poisoning story"> close to brown fields where lead smelting was done a century or more ago</a>,
leaving poisonous residue that persists to this day. It’s not that
different elsewhere, and public housing tends to reflect the high level
of contempt that wealthier Americans feel towards the less fortunate. </p>
<p>As Americans, we tend to get cynical about government’s ability to
change things for the better. It’s only fair to point out that other
nations have provided for housing rights much more effectively, and they
are not countries that have anywhere near the resources we have. One
good example is Austria,<a href="https://gravelinstitute.org/videos/how-socialists-solved-the-housing-crisis/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Austria public housing"> where socialists put an exceptional public housing system in place in the 1920s </a>that
somehow survived WWII and is still rolling. There are others, but I
think the key is to treat housing as a right, not a privilege, and to
direct public investment towards building livable communities, not just
units. </p>
<h4>The problem is the same damn one it always is</h4>
<p>Of course, the housing crisis in America is a product of the craven
for-profit industry that has grown up around real estate and rental
properties. Just as a general principle, anything that is a necessity
for a decent life should not be a commodity. People should be able to
get the food, water, housing, fresh air, clothing, and health care they
need to thrive. These necessities should not be contingent on your
ability to earn large amounts of cash. People should not be dependent
upon good fortune to keep a roof over our heads. </p>
<p>It’s not a question of not having enough money. Of course we have the
money to solve this problem. We spend enormous amounts of money on
military hardware alone, largely because doing so lifts the political
fortunes of members of congress. It does nothing to keep “us” safe. What
<em>would </em>keep more of “us” safe is investing that money into
sustainable housing. The only real obstacle to giving people what they
need is the blinkered way we tend to think about what others deserve. <a href="https://heathermcghee.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Heather McGhee">As Heather McGhee pointed out much more elegantly in her book <em>The Sum of Us</em>,</a> white people would rather screw themselves than share resources with black people. </p>
<p>How about this – nobody gets a second home until everyone has a first one. </p>
<h4>Zero dark bullshit</h4>
<p>Everyone on MSNBC is fist pumping over the CIA’s killing of Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian cleric who was Bin Laden’s right-hand man and
later head of Al Qaeda. They’re pulling out the John Brennans, the
Richard Engels, the John Kirbys. I will have more to say on this next
week, but these people are no better than the Republicans on foreign
policy. Al-Zawahiri was a horrendous person, but by sheer body count
over the past thirty years alone, we make him look like a piker. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-59117534197780697562022-07-29T02:01:00.001-07:002022-07-29T02:01:00.160-07:00Time to kick out the jams, mother fuckers.<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>Jesus, how the hell did they make that image? Did they use chisels
and clay tablets? I can’t even read the fricking thing. You know you’ve
been around too long as a band when your earliest promo packages were
written in cuneiform. </p>
<p>Well, it’s the doldrums of summer once again, which means we’re
digging into the archives and mining our inglorious past for the
occasional nugget of … whatever. I’m starting to think that Big Green
was founded before the invention of the camera. Actually, it’s simpler
than that – we started playing before everyone had broadcast-quality
video production studios riding in their pockets. </p>
<p>As a result, there aren’t a lot of shots of us playing, hanging out,
cavorting, etc. It’s almost like we didn’t exist before the late
nineties, and we most assuredly did. But back in the day, you had to
wait for the photographer to show up …. and when you’re broke, it’s a
long wait. </p>
<h4>Live from someplace</h4>
<p>Big Green has some old recordings, of course. And yes, we’re working
on new recordings (or at least rehearsing new songs) now, but we’re
always digging out the oldies, cause that’s just how we roll. Just this
week, I posted the first installment of our E.P. LIVE FROM NEPTUNE on
our YouTube Channel – a song called <a href="https://youtu.be/2Axq-KA-Tuc" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Merry Christmas, Jane (Live)">Merry Christmas, Jane</a>, a version of which also appeared on our first album, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2000-years-to-christmas/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="2000 Years To Christmas">2000 Years To Christmas</a>.
Because it’s YouTube, I covered the video screen with stills from our
video demo and other random shots. Again, not a lot to choose from. </p>
<p>Why “Live From Neptune”? It made sense at the time. Mind you, we
recorded the songs live to tape in Jeremy Shaw’s basement. This was a
year after we played an outdoor concert at his house along with a couple
of other bands. (I’ve posted a couple of tracks from that gig on <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/podcast-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Podcast">THIS IS BIG GREEN</a>.)
We were working up a demo of some original songs, playing a bunch of
takes straight into a DAT machine. (This was 1994, mind you.) Merry
Christmas, Jane was one of them. </p><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img alt="I feel pixilated, damn it!" class="wp-image-15742" height="277" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/pixilated-damnit.jpg" width="400" /></figure>
<h4>Stop action headbangers</h4>
<p>Then there were the gigs we played at bars around where we lived in
upstate New York. Most of those were kind of unmemorable. And again, no
photographs … or very few. I have a handful of shots from one night we
played at a club named Fat City in West Utica, NY. We played there a
bunch of times over the years, sometimes under assumed names, like I-19.
(There’s some video of one of those nights <a href="https://youtu.be/zWkkD8XoQ08" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="I-19 on YouTube">on YouTube</a>, courtesy of friend of the band and former I-19 guitarist/vocalist Steve Bennett.)</p>
<p>I suppose it’s just bad luck that back when we were younger and less
crispy looking, nobody had a camera. Now that we’re old geezers, there
are cameras everywhere. It reminds me how, at one of my day gigs, the
standard retirement gift was a company-branded wall mirror. What’s the
last thing you want when you’re hanging up your skates? But I digress.
Eyes forward, Perry – that’s the stuff. Never mind what’s behind, watch
what’s ahead in stead. Harrrrumph! </p>
<h4>Advanced boxology</h4>
<p>Hey look what I found – an old poster or five. You never know what’s
in the next box. Actually, the last five boxes had other boxes in them.
One of them has the key to time in it, or so the legend goes. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-29238982363469474262022-07-29T02:00:00.001-07:002022-07-29T02:00:00.155-07:00Knocking it out old-school in the fighting 22nd<p>Unlike many past election years, I haven’t been keeping close track
of the state of play in Democratic or Republican primary contests for my
Congressional District. Part of the reason for this is <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/what-went-wrong-new-yorks-redistricting" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Redistricting">the redistricting debacle that New York State recently put itself through</a>.
The short version goes like this: the Democratic majority tried to
implement a kind of lopsided gerrymander that would likely have flipped
three seats into the Democratic column. That map was struck down by a
circuit court in Maryland, and New York went with a more “equitable”
version. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/02/taking-a-chance-on-the-twenty-third/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Taking a chance on the twenty third">I have made my opinion on redistricting clear</a>
in previous posts, but to summarize: I don’t believe in unilateral
disarmament. Red states are gerrymandering the living hell out of their
congressional and legislative maps, adding dozens of safe GOP seats
nationwide, ignoring court orders that don’t suit them, etc.
Democrat-led states, on the other hand, are acting like boy scouts,
implementing non partisan redistricting commissions, deferring to the
courts, etc. The result may very well be permanent Republican crazy-ass
rule. But Democrats can take heart in having been good little girls and
boys. </p>
<h4>What’s my number?</h4>
<p>Okay, so … for a while, my residence was in the 19th district. I was
getting invited to meet and greets with Antonio Delgado, the incumbent
in that district who has since been named Lieutenant Governor by Kathy
Hochul. Then came the court decision, and now I’m back in the 22nd,
currently represented by the inimitable Claudia Tenney, the only NY
Republican in Congress to vote against the recent bill protecting
marriage equality. As I believe I’ve mentioned before, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/02/taking-a-chance-on-the-twenty-third/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Taking a chance on the twenty third">Claudia has decided to run in another district</a>, as the new 22nd is a bit bluer than the old one, now that it includes Syracuse. </p>
<p>With Tenney off trying to gain a seat in the new 23rd, a beet-red
southern tier district that stretches to Lake Erie, I am not at all
clear on who will be running for the 22nd on the Republican side. I
mean, I can read Ballotopedia like anyone else, so I know that Brandon
Williams and Steven Wells are vying for the GOP nod. What I don’t know
is who the hell they are. Wells seems to be harping on immigration, the
Biden Crisis at the border, etc., wheras Williams appears to be a COVID
skeptic, anti-lockdown corporatist. </p>
<h4>Party of Roosevelt, Jackson, Kennedy, and Wallace</h4>
<p>The Democrats in the primary race have been shooting me postcards for
a few weeks. I’ve heard from Francis Conole, a dude who looks to be
seven feet tall, Sam Roberts, a guy who was particularly good at getting
his picture taken with Democratic leadership, and Sarah Klee Hood, who
actually stopped by my house when I wasn’t there. Hood may be the best
organized one – she was going door-to-door, after all. I have no sense,
though, that the party leadership has any preference between these
three. </p>
<p>What about policy? Conole seems like one of those Dem party
pragmatists, like Anthony Brindisi was – you know, “common sense”
solutions, etc. He does pay lip service to universal healthcare, or
“greater access” to healthcare – that’s more like what he’s claiming.
Then there’s the campaign finance question – apparently <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertHarding/status/1551691526253596672" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Crypto billionaire supporting Conole campaign">a crypto billionaire is bankrolling Mr. Conole to some extent</a>.
Not a particularly encouraging sign. Roberts has some very thin details
on his policy page – mostly generalities about jobs, conservation,
supporting policing, and – yes – “access” to healthcare. </p>
<p>Sarah Klee Hood, on the other hand, <a href="https://sarahkleehoodny.com/healthcare/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Sarah Klee Hood">appears to support single payer and has posted info-graphics to explain its merits</a>. Not bad. </p>
<h4>Divide and conquer</h4>
<p>Primaries in New York State are always confusing. They break up some
local races from federal and some state races, strangely. For instance,
primaries for congressional seats and state senate seats are held on
August 23; the gubernatorial primary was held in June. They probably do
this to confuse voters, but whatever. </p>
<p>Make your voice heard … even when that means just voting. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-91424074343972512012022-07-22T02:01:00.001-07:002022-07-22T02:01:00.152-07:00There’s no business like no business (I know)<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="213" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></figure></div>
<p>I spy with my little eye …. a table! No, that’s a chair. No, that’s
Mitch Macaphee’s experimental water bong. Yes, yes, finally …. <em>that’s </em>a table. It’s only the last object in the room, for crying out loud. Jesus. Do you know any OTHER games? </p>
<p>Here’s the problem with personal robot assistants: they don’t have
deep cultural knowledge about what it’s like to be a human being. I
mean, Marvin isn’t even programmed to play I Spy. What the hell was
Mitch Macaphee thinking when he left that tidbit out of the poor
bastard’s memory bank? Beats me how he can be expected to make his way
through the world without knowing classic parlor games or learning how
to square dance. (And no, Marvin doesn’t know how to doe – see – doe.)</p>
<h4>Time on our hands</h4>
<p>Now, the more industrious amongst you will no doubt surmise that, if
we are playing parlor games, we have little better to do. As nasty and
condescending as that claim obviously is, it’s also just as obviously
true. Yes, damn it, aside from the odd game of chance, we’re just
sitting on our hands here in the Cheney Hammer Mill, hoping for
salvation to pour down us like milk onto cornflakes. And man, what I
wouldn’t give for a nice bowl of cornflakes just about now! (Focus, damn
it, focus!)</p>
<p>The trouble is, there just isn’t a lot of work out there for aging
indie bands that have zero reputation, zero following, and zero sales
potential. Employment opportunities abound in just about every industry
save local-circuit live music, and what work exists is dominated by kids
(as it should be – it’s their turn, after all). I hired anti-Lincoln to
sit by the phone and wait for the offers to come rolling in, and thus
far, no potato. In fact, he’s grown a beard waiting for that phone to
ring. (It’s the beard he already had, of course, but …. the point is,
he’s been sitting there a long time.) </p>
<h4>Making lemons out of lemonade</h4>
<p>What is there for a bunch of wash-outs to do? Make an album, of
course. Hey, look – if we waited around for people to like us before we
did anything useful, we would do nothing but wait around for people to…
like … us …. Okay, that’s kind of circular. What I’m trying to say is,
we’ve made albums before in the midst of unpopularity. Why not do it
again?</p>
<p>We have the material. And I’m not talking about Big Green’s lost generation of <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/ned-trek-temp/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Ned Trek">Ned Trek songs </a>–
more than 80 recordings just begging to be finished and committed to
some kind of collection. Sure, that album will happen one of these days,
years, etc. I’m talking about a whole raft of new songs by Matt and a
handful by yours truly. Brand new material, just plucked from the Big
Green tree. We’re in preliminary rehearsals right now, via JamKazam, but
I expect we’ll start tracking these pretty soon. I mean, what ELSE is
there to do around this dump?</p><img alt="See what fun they're having?" class="wp-image-15716" height="257" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/having-fun.jpg" width="400" />
<h4>Yeah, but how do you … you know …?</h4>
<p>There’s very likely someone out there saying, but wait a minute – Big
Green no longer has a corporate label. How are you going to distribute
said project, eh? WHERE YA GONNA GET THE MONEY?</p>
<p>Right, well … first off, don’t yell! Second, we’ve opened up<a href="https://big-green.bandcamp.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Big Green on BandCamp.com"> a Big Green site on Band Camp</a>.
It’s got our first two albums posted on it, more on the way. Third, I
don’t know … see number one. I’ve got some parlor games to finish. </p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-80804728327939513262022-07-22T02:00:00.001-07:002022-07-22T02:00:00.155-07:00Here’s the short take: Stokely was right<p>I’ve probably told this story once or twice, but I’ll tell it again
for good measure. Back in 1980 I was a student at S.U.N.Y. New Paltz
and during the course of that year I had the opportunity to hear <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/carmichael-stokely" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Stokely Carmichael</a>
speak on campus. He shared the stage with a Palestinian activist –
sadly, I do not recall who that person was. In any case, a goodly
portion of their talk centered on Israel/Palestine and the Palestinian
liberation struggle. </p>
<p>There were several middle-aged people in the audience that day who
challenged the speakers on Israel/Palestine. I can’t say that I recall
the exact wording of some of the challenges, but one question they put
forward – not an uncommon one at that time – was that with over a dozen
Arab countries in the region, why isn’t there room for one Jewish state?
This and their other questions were not going over well in the room,
which was packed with students. At one point one of the middle aged men
referenced the holocaust, and Stokely’s response went something like
this:</p>
<p><em>“When you said ‘holocaust’, I thought you meant MY holocaust. But now I know you were talking about the Indians.” </em></p>
<h4>First impressions</h4>
<p>I was a leftist back then, pretty much as radical as I am today,
though less knowledgeable (if you can believe it). When I heard Stokely
say this, I felt I knew where he was going with it, but I thought it was
kind of hyperbolic and incendiary. At some point, though, in the
decades that followed, I came to understand what he meant. His people <em>did </em>experience
a holocaust, as did first peoples in America. But instead of ending,
the black holocaust has shape-shifted, adapted, and transitioned into
the current reality – one where Black Americans have less than one
quarter the wealth of white Americans on average, where Black mortality
and morbidity rates are higher than whites, and so on. </p>
<p>What’s more, white people have never atoned or particularly regretted
the holocaust perpetrated on African-Americans. There has been no
de-Nazification, no reparations. New ways to extend the legacy of
chattel slavery keep being innovated, like the recent overturning of <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2019/05/roe-v-squee/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Roe v. Squee.">Roe v. Wade</a>, subjecting those who can become pregnant to forced gestation, one of the central pillars of American slavery. </p>
<p>The holocaust against first peoples is too similar to the Nazi mother
of all crimes to be denied. For the longest time, it was minimized,
justified as part of a civilizing mission, etc. But in the end, millions
were here … and then they weren’t. </p>
<h4>Increasingly hard lesson to learn</h4>
<p>Of course, now we’re seeing Republican-driven legislation to bar any
discussion in school of either holocaust (and to some extent, even the
Nazi holocaust) for fear of making white kids uncomfortable. It seems
like the overriding objective of this policy is to return education to
where it was when I attended grade school. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">The teachers in my grammar school</a>
didn’t talk about anything that would make white people uncomfortable –
that was their entire audience, I should add. New Hartford School
District (New York state) is more diverse today, but back in the sixties
it was white as a sheet. </p>
<p>Most of my learning about race took place outside of the confines of
school, in any case. And at 63, I’m still learning. I think one of the
most effectively educational pieces of media I have seen on this topic
is <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6704972/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">The Underground Railroad</a>
– not because it is a factual account, but because it so effectively
uses the tools of video storytelling to reproduce for white audiences
some element of the terror that black Americans have been subjected to.
It hits you like a boat paddle upside the head, frankly, and that’s what
we need to shake us out of our stupor and acknowledge that this was a
holocaust, pure and simple. </p>
<p>Stokely was right, man. It took me decades to get there, but better late than never, right? </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-26662631059443146622022-07-15T02:01:00.001-07:002022-07-15T02:01:00.180-07:00I said, Oh man, God Damn that Dream!<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="132" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="400" /></a></p>
<p>I told you, I don’t have the money. You can look in my guitar case –
go ahead. Here’s he key to the padlock. Rummage through the back of my
amp. There’s nothing in there but decades-old cigarette butts and some
tortoise shell picks I never use. Hey, get your hands off me! Where are
you taking me? HALP! </p>
<p>What the …. ? Oh. So it was just a dream. What an em-effing relief.
Thank you, Jeebus. Sorry, folks – I must have dozed off in the middle of
our conversation. Dreamland is a bizarro world. Squares look like
circles, time collects in puddles, and people eat potato chips with a
fork. And that’s just in my normal dreams. Thing is, I almost never have
bad dreams, unless I’m dreaming about our old corporate record label,
Hegemonic Records and Worm Farm, Inc. Which is what I was dreaming about
a little more than five minutes ago (according to the time puddle). </p>
<h4>Bad old days</h4>
<p>I know most bands tend to reflect back upon their careers and
celebrate their own youthful missteps and flights of folly. Yeah, well,
that’s not us. We’re constantly re-litigating the past, and as a result,
I’ve gotten at least one grisly visit from a knuckle-scraping denizen
of our former label, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2013/10/time-wasting/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Time wasting.">Hegemonic Records and Worm Farm, Inc.</a>
And yes, it was in dreamland, that’s true, but tell that to my dream
self – to him, it’s just land, right? Does a fish know she’s underwater?
Well, <em>does </em>she? </p>
<p>Dream or no, it brought me back to those bad old days when sinners were murdered for the greater good. No, wait – <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2021/12/making-perfect-stock-for-kindling-wood/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Making perfect stock for kindling wood">that’s a song lyric.</a>
What I really mean is those days when we were laboring under the
watchful eye of our multinational record label, which was actually just a
subsidiary of a big ass mineral extraction company that was busily
grinding Papua New Guinea to a pulp. Like most capitalists, they just
squeezed the juice right out of us. And when they got tired of drinking
Big Green juice, they demanded pomegranate juice, I think because of its
antioxidant properties. (Capitalists are nothing if not guarded about
their own well-being.)</p>
<h4>No redoubt too remote</h4>
<p>I’m assuming I don’t need to repeat for this audience the full
details of our sordid parting-of-the-ways with Hegemonic. Suffice to say
that they didn’t take the announcement of our divorce with equanimity.
Turned out that a contract meant a bit more to them than it did to yours
truly, and so Big Green was kind of in the soup for a few weeks … or
months … or maybe eight years. You lose track of time in deep space, and
the further out you go in space, the further back you go in time. </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="Think it's safe to come out yet?" class="wp-image-15690" height="230" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/safe-redoubt.jpg" width="400" /></figure></div>
<p>What am I talking about? Good question. Here’s a mediocre answer.
When confronted with the hired thugs of our deeply disappointed
corporate overlords, we turned to the one man who could help us in our
hour of need: our mad science advisor, Mitch Macaphee, inventor of
Marvin (my personal robot assistant), the man who closed the space warp
up again (bet you didn’t know that!), and so on. With his help, we were
wisked into deep, deep space where no thug would ever find us. Until
now, that is …. now that<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Primordial star field"> NASA has uncovered the primordial star field</a> that was our exclusive recluse. DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!</p>
<h4>But it was just a dream</h4>
<p>Fortunately, we won’t need the hiding place, at least not yet. Unless
Hegemonic’s dream thugs break out into the waking world. Or continue to
confront us in our REM sleep. No doubt those guys are back to doing
what they love best – poisoning indigenous water supplies in remote
areas of the world for quick profit. That’s the ticket, boys. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-43908381470164875742022-07-15T02:00:00.003-07:002022-07-15T02:00:00.186-07:00Same old same old (and I loathe it)<p>Remember when, during the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden said that
he would return us to the Iran deal (or JCPOA)? Yeah, that was awesome.
Except that they <em>haven’t </em>done that, which is not so awesome.
In fact, it’s infuriating. But it’s also exactly what we should have
expected out of him, frankly – namely, that instead of reversing Trump’s
most heinous foreign policy initiatives, Biden would adopt and even
extend them into his own term. </p>
<p>Some readers may remember <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Muddle in the Middle">my posts from during the Biden/Trump race</a>
regarding Biden’s lack of focus on foreign policy issues. I wrote at
the time about how his campaign site issues section didn’t have a single
item on global affairs, other than some dreck about immigration from
the southern cone nations. My contention at the time was that he had
little good to say about it, and that he assumed his voters didn’t care
about those issues. Perhaps he was right, but I have to think a section
of Democratic party voters are a bit taken aback by some of his
policies. </p>
<h4>The toxic alliance</h4>
<p>The JCPOA is the most glaring example of this. Biden could have
reinstated this agreement with the stroke of a pen in the first days of
his presidency. Instead, he chose to consult with then Israeli PM
Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia – both openly hostile to Iran – before
proceeding. Our State Department is balking on sanctions relief, and
there’s little sign of progress over the past year. This agreement, very
favorable to the U.S., is essentially dead in the water. Why?</p>
<p><a href="https://majorityreportradio.com/2022/07/06/7-6-the-abortion-battle-goes-to-the-states-what-is-biden-really-doing-with-iran-w-aaron-kleinman-trita-parsi" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Majority Report">Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute, who appeared on Majority Report last week</a>,
talked about Biden’s apparent support for strengthening the alliance of
nations that are signatories to the Abraham Accords, a Trump initiative
to defuse support for the Palestinians and isolate Iran. Parsi suggests
that the JCPOA is a casualty of the administration’s desire to build a
common front against the Iranians, pulling Israel together with some of
the more pugnacious gulf states – an alliance built on common enmity.
What a good idea. </p>
<h4>Continuity: not our friend</h4>
<p>Okay, so … why is our government – the government of normie Joe
Biden, not crazy-ass Donald Trump – encouraging conflict in the Middle
East instead of working toward peaceful outcomes of the sort the JCPOA
was designed to produce? Well, this is nothing new in American foreign
policy. Yes, they are extending one of Trump’s worst decisions. But they
are also doing the same sort of thing the U.S. always does in various
parts of the world.</p>
<p>Other examples aren’t hard to find. The first that comes to mind is
another Trump reversal of a late Obama administration policy, the
opening to Cuba. Trump shut that down entirely, and Biden has failed to
even act as though he’s willing to reinstate it. The domestic political
motivations are obvious, but again – why perpetuate conflict when
normalization would bring greater stability and, of course, more
benefits to Cubans living in the U.S.? </p>
<p>The other obvious example is Korea. Here is one instance when Trump’s
instincts were, at a certain point, better than Biden’s. Why have we
failed to settle the Korean conflict when the solution is almost
entirely in our hands? Same reason with all of the other endless
conflicts: we want to remain a force to be reckoned with in all of these
regions. We want to keep potential economic rivals – like an integrated
Asia – from emerging. Same old, same old. </p>
<h4>The way forward</h4>
<p>There are a handful of members of Congress who understand these
issues. We need more like them. I know elections are not the only thing,
but they’re worth the modicum of effort we all need to put into them.
Look at the candidates vying for your district’s House seat, find the
most progressive, and vote. We need allies in government before we’ll
see some movement on backing off of the bipartisan neoimperialist
agenda. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-91181039887281736612022-07-08T02:01:00.001-07:002022-07-08T02:01:00.146-07:00Trying not to be anti-social on social media<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>You know, there are better things you could be doing with your time.
Like, I don’t know …. mowing the lawn. Oh, right – we don’t have a lawn.
How about rearranging the bricks in the courtyard? That’s one task that
won’t do itself. Or beating the rugs. Mind you, I’m not a big fan of
corporal punishment, but they’ve really crossed a line with me over the
past few weeks. </p>
<p>Oh, hello, reader(s). You just caught me in the middle of berating
Marvin (my personal robot assistant) for not being industrious enough.
Yes, I know – he’s an automaton, he only responds to programming, I’m
not being fair, etc., etc. The thing is, I don’t know how to program a
robot, and his inventor, Mitch Macaphee, is not speaking to anyone this
week. All I have left is a dressing down, robot or no. </p>
<h4>Multi-platform clusterfuck </h4>
<p>Marvin has a few responsibilities as my personal robot assistant. One
is taking charge of Big Green’s social media presence. I should say
here that Marvin is in no way an expert in this area. (You could pretty
much say that about <em>any </em>area.) When it came to deciding who
would take that job on, however, we quickly determined that none of us
know anything about it. Ultimately, it came down to him being a robot.
That’s a lot closer to being the internet than we humans are. </p>
<p>Not every band is successful online. In fact, many are not. But few
are as unsuccessful online as Big Green. I hate to be boastful here, but
if they gave out a trophy for being obscure, we would have walked away
with it a dozen times over. We’ve been on online platforms for almost
twenty years, starting with <a href="https://www.mp3.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="MP3">MP3.com</a>, which isn’t even a thing anymore, then <a href="https://www.theorchard.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="The Orchard">The Orchard</a>,<a href="https://cdbaby.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="CDBaby"> CDBaby</a>, and a few others I can’t even remember. Our sales? Less than stellar. Let’s just say, we’ve got some remainders lying about. </p>
<h4>Find us on Face-where?</h4>
<p>Then there’s<a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/contact-us/" title="Contact Us"> the major social media sites/apps</a>,
like Facebook, etc. Big Green has been on Facebook for, I don’t know,
ten years? More? Not sure. We started a Twitter feed ages ago, but we
only got onto Instagram earlier this year. Mostly, these platforms are
designed so that your listeners can interact with you easily, share
posts, etc. We get some of that, but not much, and don’t sell anything
via any of those sites. (I blame Marvin.) </p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="Well, get to it, man!" class="wp-image-15677" height="257" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/get-to-it-marvin.jpg" width="400" /></figure></div>
<p>Actually, with the low number of visits we get, our Facebook page is
probably the safest place on the internet. You can probably store your
passwords, bank account and routing numbers, and social security number
on there and they would all be safe as houses. Ditto with Twitter. I
give Big Green a few mercy likes on Twitter posts, but not too often,
because mostly their content is crap. (What am I saying??) Instagram
gets a little more activity, but in the grand scheme of things, we’re a
dead letter on social media. Own it, baby – own it!</p>
<h4>New horizons</h4>
<p>Anyone else would just give it up. But not us. We don’t know the
meaning of the word quit. We think it has something to do with work, but
none of us is sure. And since we have a general aversion to work, our
consideration goes no farther than that. </p>
<p>Anyway, we just signed up for BandCamp and set up a new page at<a href="https://big-green.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Big Green on band camp"> big-green.bandcamp.com</a>.
Why did we do it? Well, like Everest, it’s there … and we’re not.
Except that now we are. Hey, if you’re on BandCamp, give us a mercy
follow. That’s right – encourage us! </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-14857663325879202252022-07-08T02:00:00.001-07:002022-07-08T02:00:00.159-07:00Take over the Democratic Party right effing Now<p>I’ve probably told this story before, but let me repeat it for some
of the young people out there. I have never been a sustained political
activist, but I’ve been activist-adjacent all of my adult life. During
that time, I have attended political meetings (mostly around foreign
policy issues), participated in protests, and interacted with more
committed activists at various levels. I bloviate – that’s most of what
I’ve done. I’ve also worked phone banks for specific candidates a
handful of times from 2006 on. </p>
<p>Since the mid to late 1990s, I have also taken part in online
organizing at a very low level. At the beginning, this involved
subscribing to listservs, message boards, that sort of thing. As I
mentioned above, I started working on Democratic party campaigns about
sixteen years ago, but I never contributed money to a campaign until
relatively recently. Nevertheless, around the time of the 2004 election,
I started getting fundraising emails from the Democratic party. One of
my colleagues on one of the listservs probably shared list data with the
party at some point. (I suspect I know who this might have been, but it
hardly matters.)</p>
<h4>The money machine</h4>
<p>I’m providing this background to illustrate one of the central
problems with the Democratic party today. In this instance, they treated
a group of activists, some very committed to social change, as a market
for fundraising. The groups I was involved in fell away after that
period, partly as a function of the rise of social media. So now,
instead of receiving messages from activists and participating in
conversations, I get an inbox full of fundraising messages every day,
and I’m bombarded by similar pleas every time I go on FB or Instagram. </p>
<p>There are complex reasons for this, and I won’t delve into all that
right now, but suffice to say that this isn’t how change happens. Yes,
Democratic party candidates need money to compete. But a party cannot
just be about extracting money from its base in $5 or $10 increments.
($22 seems to be the favorite this season.) A party needs to be <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2017/04/three-percent-solution/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Three percent solution.">connected to political and social movements</a>.
It needs to be present in people’s lives and making a tangible
difference in their communities. Right now, the only time people hear
from the Democratic party is when they need money or votes. That’s why
we need to take its sorry ass over. </p>
<h4>Where it’s working</h4>
<p>There are some good efforts underway to accomplish this. The
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are a good example. Yes, they
endorse candidates and support fundraising efforts, but principally they
work within local communities to build change from the ground up. <a href="https://www.socialists.nyc/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="DSA New York">The New York City chapter is doing some great work</a>,
combining actual organizing and activism with an electoral strategy.
It’s encouraging that they recognize the centrality of community-based
efforts while putting some energy into electoral politics. </p>
<p>Let’s face it – you can do great things in your community, build
strong, radical institutions, foster positive change from the ground up
…. only to have it all taken apart by some right wing legislature,
governor, Congress, president, or supreme court. The recent supreme
court decisions illustrate how important it is for the left to keep its
hand in elections. And since we are now working against time with
respect to the climate crisis, the only way to facilitate radical change
is by commandeering the ossified Democratic party, filling its ranks
with activists, and replacing its leadership with people willing to do
what needs doing. </p>
<h4>No time to lose</h4>
<p>There’s a lot going on in this country at the community level,
particularly on the labor front. Policies largely associated with the
left are popular, but the leadership of the Democratic party has had its
head up its ass since the 1990s. The only way we can move crucial
issues forward is by combining committed activism with a national
electoral strategy, built on the bones of the Democratic party. </p>
<p>Not easy, but it’s easier than starting from scratch. And we just wasted a day. </p>
<p>luv u,</p>
<p>jp</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://anchor.fm/strangesound" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><img class="wp-image-13167" height="209" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/facebook-banner-1024x536.png" width="400" /></a><figcaption><em>Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.</em></figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296603472543245643.post-46304651873991205762022-07-01T02:01:00.003-07:002022-07-03T11:46:14.357-07:00Scratching out a whole new way of itching<p> <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/music/"><img alt="Get Music Here" class="wp-image-15303" height="212" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/get-music-here-banner-1024x339.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>Okay, that club on Route 5 … was that the Garden Cafe or Looney
Tunes? It feels more like the latter than the former, frankly. Jesus,
what the hell am I asking YOU for? The only thing YOU remember is random
facts about some log cabin and the battle of Gettysburg. And even THAT
you get backwards. (Though to you it seems forwards.) </p>
<p>In case you’re worried, no, we’re not writing a memoir of Big Green.
Who the fuck would buy that? If nothing else, I can practically
guarantee that there will never be a (1) tell-all retrospective, (2)
drippy bio-pic, or (3) lost journal having to do with this, the world’s
most obscure indie rock group that ever recorded more than 100 of their
own songs. That said, we will milk it for a blog post or two. <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/2022/06/the-many-incarnations-of-one-big-green/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="The many incarnations of one Big Green">The first one was last week</a>; the second, this week. The third will have to wait its turn. </p>
<h4>Back to the Early ’90s</h4>
<p>So anyway, in the early nineties we made the questionable decision of basing ourselves<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utica,_New_York" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Utica, NY"> in the Utica, NY area, our home town</a>,
which at the time was not on a particular upswing culturally. We
started by working with guitarist Armand Catalano, playing clubs and campuses around the region, serving up our own
songs plus an assortment of covers. As I mentioned last week, the guitar
seat in Big Green was governed by the rules of musical chairs, pretty
much. Armand played with us, then friend of the band Steve Bennett, and
later, other friend of the band Jeremy Shaw. </p>
<p>This was fine, except when we got confused and called guitarists by
the wrong first name. There were occasional gaps as well,
unsurprisingly. But the gigs we played then represented the least of
what was going on in our tiny little world. None of them were in the
least high-profile events. We opened for Mere Mortals at MVCC sometime
in 1991 , I think. We opened once for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodline_(band)" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Bloodline">Joe Bonamassa’s Bloodline </a>at
what is now known as SUNY Poly in Utica, probably in 1993. We played
Middlebury College one New Year’s, if I recall correctly. And then there
were a bunch of dead end bars. </p><img class="wp-image-15646" height="250" src="https://www.big-green.net/bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/metro-video-still.jpg" width="400" />
<h4>The output was put out</h4>
<p>The thing was, by the early nineties, Matt Perry was writing songs
like a house afire. He was writing his Christmas numbers – a new album
every holiday season. And he was cranking out a bunch in-between. (No,
he didn’t write songs about <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saint-Swithins-Day" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Saint Swithin's day">Saint Swithin’s day </a>–
that’s just an ugly rumor about Big Green that some meteorologist
started.) We were doing piles of demo recordings, and we managed to get
into a studio a few times (the former AcqRok, thanks to friend of Big
Green <a href="https://music.metason.net/artistinfo?name=Mere%20Mortals%20%283%29" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" title="Mere Mortals">Bob Acquaviva of Mere Mortals</a>.) </p>
<p>We had some live recordings as well. We’ve played a few of them on our podcast, <a href="https://www.big-green.net/bg/podcast-2/" title="Podcast">THIS IS BIG GREEN</a>,
and there are a few more we haven’t posted as of yet. Probably the best
ones of these are the DAT recordings we made in Jeremy Shaw’s basement
in 1993 (or ’94? I don’t freaking know.). Then there was the video demo
done by some hipster dude named Angel who worked at a vegetarian
restaurant and considered the VHS tape he recorded for us some kind of
masterpiece (when it wasn’t). </p>
<h4>Yesterday is not today</h4>
<p>So, the upshot of all this is, we have a better audio record of the
1990s than we do of the 1980s, when the only technology we could afford
was a bic lighter and a pack of Marlboros. Ever try to run sound through
a pack of Marlboros? It ain’t pretty. Makes a kazoo sound like a brass
freaking band. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Big Green lives at <a title="Big Green's home on the Web" href="http://www.big-green.net">www.big-green.net</a>. Excoriate them at your pleasure.</div>Big Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15559752354427862190noreply@blogger.com0