Hammer Mill Days

Yeah, I'm back. Did you miss me? Didn't notice I was gone? Okay, then. (Sigh...) Not for nothing that Big Green was once described as one of the most obscure bands out there. We are freaking invisible - just ask the people standing behind us, all of whom you can see clearly, because ... again ... we're freaking invisible. But just because we're invisible, that doesn't mean we're inaudible. That old adage about children being "best seen and not heard" doesn't apply here, as we are not children, and we are not quiet. Nay, we are LOUD. Well, loud-ISH, and occasionally louder than that. Exhibit A: our song Jesus Has A Known Mind, which we've featured a couple of times on our podcast, THIS IS BIG GREEN . That's loud, if you turn up the volume. Try it next time you play the podcast. Or put your iPod bluetooth speaker in the middle of a cavernous room, then crank it up to 11. That should be the advisory on all of our albums. That and "avoid...

It's been quite a week for our low-rent gropen-fuhrer, and as of this writing it's only Wednesday. First we saw him re-tweet Euro-fascist videos, then excoriate the FBI in response to Flynn's indictment, followed by a full-throated endorsement of Alabama Senate Candidate, state Supreme Court Justice (twice removed), and mall stalker (many times removed) Roy Moore on Monday, opening of vast Western lands to oil and gas development on Tuesday, and U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Wednesday. Throw in little details like the travel ban being reinstated by the Supreme Court Tuesday, his allies in the Senate passing a draconian "tax" bill (larded with much else besides) the weekend before, and stepped up provocative war games on the Korean peninsula this week, and you've got ... well ... just what you voted for, America. The Jerusalem announcement basically lights a fuse that's been rolled out and set for decades. As Trump pointed out, ...

In remembrance of our mom Iris, who passed away this week, I'm posting the lyrics to this song Matt wrote more than a few years back (one of my favorites) that keeps running through my head (and out of my mouth). It's called Don't give up the ship , and here it is: Well, it grieves me when I see you in some moldy homemade raft You've no life jacket, there's no precautions You're spinning downstream and you're laughing Well, I'm not about to stop you I've not the will and I've not the means Still I stand here like I'm waiting A world without you I've never seen You say, read it off the flag, boy Don't give up the ship says the flag that flies above the turbulent waves Don't give up the ship Be a fool and hold the course away from the shore Sailor learns something from each splinter in those old and creaking boards Now you're not apt to change your reasons You'll never reinvent the doors that led you ...

Okay, time to clear the table. That's right - push yourself back a few inches, climb to your feet, and start gathering up the plates. Chop chop! Hey ... don't throw that ladle at me! OUCH! Well, I hope YOUR Thanksgiving was better than this. Here at the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill, it's catch as catch can, as you might expect. We have no particular tradition with respect to this holiday; no frantic cooking, no decorations, no ritual television viewing or binge shopping. Just another pot of gruel, boiled to a fare-the-well, and ladled out to the dwindling contingent that is the Big Green collective. Solidarity forever! Actually, it sounds worse than it is. Everybody wants an extra day off, right? Now, you might be justified in asking, "Day off from what?" My only rejoinder would be that it takes a lot of creative energy to write, record, and distribute songs in this day and age. In anticipation of the question, I have asked Marvin (my personal robot assistant)...

If you had your fill of thankfulness over the past week, this might be a good time to look in on some stuff that's happening at the national level that seldom gets reported on. So much media attention is focused on the current administration's relationship with the Russian government, various sexual harassment revelations, and Trump's latest asinine tweets (all important topics, to be sure), some of the more impactful stuff the administration and its Congressional allies have been doing is slipping by unnoticed. Time to fight back ... and give thanks for the Internets. Court-Packing. As Trump appoints circuit court judges at an unprecedented pace, his friends and supporters in the Senate have greased the skids obligingly, disabling the filibuster and individual Senators' right to put a hold on nominations - methods the Republicans used liberally during the Obama administration to prevent his nominees from being seated. Now the reactionary Federalist Society has prop...

I'm kind of busy right now, Marvin. Just tell them that I can't talk. And in any case, I don't want to go on a Caribbean Cruise, even if it IS free. Cheese and crackers. (Hey, that sounds kind of good right about now.) Writing is a hungry business. Just ask Hemingway, the guy with the moveable feast. I'm a little sensitive about interruptions today, so I beg your pardon ... Marvin (my personal robot assistant) keeps coming into my study (a.k.a. the old forge room in the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill) with nonsensical requests. Stuff like, "You've got a phone call from Missouri" or "There's a brush salesman at the door" or "Leave the building - it's on fire". Be honest - would you listen? What am I working on so feverishly? Ah, nothing. Just the script to this year's Ned Trek Christmas Special. Last year we did an "It's A Wonderful Life" parody. The year before I believe it was "A Christmas Carol"...

The Saudis have destroyed a key airport in Yemen, a point of entry for crucial aid shipments, making the grim prospect of a major famine even more likely than before. This happened the same week that the Kingdom apparently chose to hold Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri against his will, by some accounts, and forced his resignation (Hariri now disputes this) in an effort to sow discord in a country that survived a 15-year sectarian civil war. This multi-pronged effort to roll back Shi'a influence in the region is largely the handiwork of Arabia's 32-year-old crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (or "MBS" as the folks in the know call him), a man who is taking the blood-stained legacy of Saudi's extremism up to the next level. Praised by many in the American imperial class as a "modernizer", Prince Salman has leveled neighboring Yemen over the past two years, turning it into one of the world's most deadly war zones. This attack was probably born of th...