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02:00:20 02/12/13
23 Policies That Would Make It Easier To Save The World
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 02:00:20 02/12/13
It's been said that the wealthy win because they can always hire half the poor to shoot the other half. Rarely is there a sadder case of this than when it comes to trying to protect the planet that feeds us, clothes us, and generates the only pocket of breathable atmosphere in our solar system.
Because look, say you're a committed environmentalist, your beloved spouse has treatable cancer, and the only way to save his or her life is to take a job clubbing the last baby seal on the beach. That seal is toast. And so is anything or anyone else that stands between your partner and their chemo.
Don't think the greedy jerks who own everything don't know it; they downright count on it to get their way.
Driving down wages, increasing animosity among the lower classes by scapegoating various segments of also-poor people, decreasing the health and safety of working conditions -- these aren't unfortunate side effects of our current economic incentive structures. They are the point , fueling a vicious cycle where more profits flow to the top while workers are too desperate to do anything about it. The effect, as it was recently said , is this: >
The great problem we have today in improving our society, in fixing our economy, is that so many people don't want to give up what they have. . . . [W]hat the past 40 years have proven is this: if you lose your job, you're on your own. If you're in your 40s and 50s and you lose a good job, you'll probably never, ever, have a good job ever again. . . .
People know, they know and they are right, that economic change, in our society, could cost them everything. Their job and any prospect of a good job. Their house. Their marriage. Their health care and even their life.
So they grasp tightly to what they have, and everyone fights to make sure that nothing really changes. Each person, with their little or big piece of the pie, fights viciously to keep it whether it's good for society or not. They are right to do so.
The biggest enemy of our environment, therefore, is mass desperation wielded like a billy club in the hands of the extremely wealthy. The following are some ideas on how to both disarm them and take the next steps towards creating a more awesome society to live in.
-----
1. Increase the minimum wage. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is lower than it was in the 1970s. It's not a family wage, even though it's all some families can get. Yet the whole time it's been declining, productivity and profits have gone up, but a fair share of the increase hasn't been passed on to workers. Raising the minimum wage would put upward pressure on the share of business profits that go to workers, making life less precarious for millions of people.
2. Shorten the work week and increase paid time off. It's hard to have an engaged citizenry when work demands so much of people's time that they can barely unwind, let alone follow the news. A full-time work week barely leaves time to be a good parent, a good friend, or even a good housekeeper; forget hitting the mark on all three. The idea that a 40 hour work week, plus the 10-20 hours of preparation and commute time involved, is a reasonable base amount of time to demand of someone is premised on the social expectations of a bygone era where a full-time worker had a full-time caregiver at home. Lowering the full-time work week to even 35 hours would not only create more job openings, it would likely boost per hour productivity, as it has done in some European nations.
3. Cut higher education and worker retraining costs to students. In the era of the GI Bill, not only was it free for returning veterans to go to college, it was affordable for almost anyone who could spring a part-time summer job. But federal funding cuts have piled on top of state funding cuts, and tuition is now ridiculous at most public colleges. It's patently ridiculous to saddle new college graduates with a mortgage-worth of debt when they graduate and set out on their own. Particularly when the value of a college education has decreased for so many, but is nonetheless necessary because it's barely possible anymore to find family-wage blue collar employment. And when people lose their jobs, they should be able to retrain, if possible, if they can't find work in their original field.
4. Restore federal funding for university research programs. Research departments have had to increasingly rely on industry funding, a type of ballyhooed public-private partnership, which has reduced the independence and objectivity of the nation's research institutions to everyone's detriment. There are many cases, but you have to look no further than the way the fossil fuel industry has corrupted university research on fracking , such that very little information at all is available about the risks of hydraulic fracturing recovery of natural gas, and the public must mainly rely on anecdotes and independent filmmakers to hear anything negative about its consequences.
5. Expand unemployment insurance. Want workers not to fear the loss of outdated, polluting industries? Make sure they know they won't be out on the street if they have to look for work for a while, and that they don't have to take the first crappy job that comes their way . It would go a long way towards preventing rank-and-file workers from fighting to the death to defend industries that are long past their sell-by date.
6. Break up the big banks. The financial sector has grown significantly in terms of their share of GDP and has been the biggest accelerant of income inequality in the country. Add to that the longstanding investment policies of these very large banks to either refuse loan capital to, or downgrade the ratings of, businesses who refuse to move production overseas, bust unions, liquidate pensions or drive down wages, and they have overweening power to make life miserable for the average worker. They can no longer be trusted in any respect to be good stewards of the capital they've extracted from the rest of us and their power must be dismantled.
7. Financial transaction tax. Rapid-fire speculation, computerized trading, reckless short-term investing, all add to financial insecurity and promote a casino atmosphere in stock exchanges. It doesn't create a good economy for the average person, though, and these tax-free transactions privilege investors over every other sector of society that has to pay taxes when money changes hands. And there's no one it's more fair to ask to pony up for the public good than the people who've been busily dismantling democracy all these years.
8. Tax capital gains as income. Since capital gains are taxed at very low rates, the wealthy have been incentivized to collect more and more of their household income as some form of investment payout, and disincentivized to reinvest in the productive economy. It's just another way to encourage the wealthy to uselessly hoard cash and is grossly unjust. Tax it fairly and spend it on building a better world.
9. Crack down on overseas tax evasion. With feeling, the wealthy must stop unproductively hoarding cash and starving the public of the funds to run a civil society. This must become unacceptable in every country.
10. Move your money. While large, unaccountable international financial institutions have an incentive to starve their native economies and follow the global race to the bottom wherever it may lead, they're not the only banks. The prosperity of independent credit unions and community banks is much more directly tied to the prosperity of their local economies and the well-being of their customers. These institutions can't afford to recklessly gamble with their financial reserves and are among the most responsible actors in the financial sector. If you can take your business to one of them, please do.
11. Uncap Social Security taxes. If FICA taxes were collected on all income, not just that below the inflation-adjusted, currently ~$110,000 threshold, it would make the program solvent for the foreseeable future. Taking Social Security's solvency off the table for the next few decades would remove a significant wedge issue used by the financial elite to distract the public by leaving us terrified that we're going to wind up homeless when we're too old to work anymore.
12. Lower the retirement age. Increases in the retirement age in the last few years have been a significant cause in the higher rates of disability claims . I mean, duh. When people get older, we tend to get sicker and less able to work. You don't need a PhD to know it. And recent life expectancy gains have mostly gone to the wealthy , not the sort of folks who'd be lucky to find a diner or a paper route to work at when they're 67. Our current national retirement programs have decreased elder poverty by ridiculous amounts. We should look at ways to decrease it further.
13. Open Medicare to everyone. Small businesses would on better footing when competing for talent if they didn't have to worry about covering insurance, and would-be entrepreneurs wouldn't have to be afraid to strike out on their own. Medicare's program costs would go down because of the large influx of healthier people and there'd be a much larger constituency for improving the quality of coverage. Baby seal; saved.
14. End crop exclusions. Currently, if a farmer wants to participate in the federal farm subsidy program, which comes with a host of benefits such as ready access to crop insurance and disaster aid, they can only grow what are known as program commodity crops. A program crop is one of a set number of cereal grains (wheat, corn, etc.), oilseeds (like canola) and legumes (usually soy.) A requirement for participation is that no other type of crop be grown on the land, no fruit, vegetables, etc. This severely limits the ability of farmers to use beneficial intercropping and crop rotation techniques. It would bar a farmer from using, for example, the venerable Native Central and North American Three Sisters intercrop, of corn, beans and squash, because squash isn't a program crop. This restricts farmers' freedom to try new techniques, pursue emerging market opportunities and diversify their businesses. And don't get me started on what a disaster it is for soil carbon sequestration.
15. Break up slaughterhouse consolidation. The biggest obstacle to getting rid of CAFOs is that the slaughterhouse industry has been consolidated under the ownership of the meat packing and distribution industry, with independent slaughterhouses closed down and small, on-farm operations mostly regulated out of existence at the behest of industry lobbyists. In a given geographic area, there's often only one slaughterhouse within a reasonable distance, and you can't use it unless you're contracted with the packer who owns it, for a price they can arbitrarily set and change at whim. There is no other single factor more responsible for the fact that animal production is dangerously concentrated on relatively small, virulently unhealthy feedlots, and why it rarely makes economic sense to farm animals any other way. It's also hard to emphasize enough what an incredible disaster this has been for small livestock producers, who've gone out of business in droves, driving up unemployment in rural communities. In addition to making farming a more economically stable enterprise, reversing livestock consolidation shifts animal waste from being an expensive environmental toxin and back towards being a useful, cost-saving soil supplement.
16. Immigration reform. When you have a large, very desperate population of workers who are afraid to go to the police if they're abused or witness a crime, report wage theft, or organize for safer workplaces, it drags down wages, community safety and working standards for everyone. Give immigrant workers a pathway to citizenship and the security to bargain for better working conditions, it raises the bar for everyone, instead.
17. Marriage equality. It's a joke in liberal circles when fundamentalist preachers blame natural disasters on the gays and other hapless scapegoats, but for a lot of desperate people looking for comfort and perhaps not knowing anyone who's out, it redirects their anger away from the rich jerks who are really fleecing them. Functionally, it's a use of religion to preserve the economic power structure. If marriage equality is a reality everywhere though, everyone will eventually get over it and we can do more productive things with our time than argue about who we let in the clubhouse.
18. Gender equality. When women do better, families do better, children are healthier and intimate violence starts trending downwards. The public health and workforce productivity benefits are immense. Women who are in control of their reproductive options, which is to say that they have access and means to prevent pregnancy or freely choose to carry to term and care for a child, make good decisions about how large a family they can reasonably support. But when they're expected to provide vast amounts of free labor, when they're scapegoated for all of society's ills, and when their sociopolitical capital is tied to some impossible standard of virtue, they too often end up in desperate circumstances. A necessitous woman is not a free woman. A society that can put women's considerable talents towards solving more interesting problems than surviving on the raggedy edge, that's a society that can solve a lot more problems.
19. Paid family leave. There need to be government supports for new parents of both genders to take time off work for the birth or adoption of a new child, or for the acute care of sick family members. It's inherently unfair for women to do all of this type of work at significant economic penalty, or to throw up barriers to men who want to be more involved with their families but feel that they have no choice but to put their shoulder to the grindstone at work. The strain on a family's time and resources that result from having no paid leave to care for the very young or the unwell leaves many people in dire straits, and contributes to the birth of a child being a leading cause of a fall into poverty.
20. Expand public sector employment. There are jobs that need to be done that will never be profitable if done well, but that society needs done and can well afford. Teaching young children is a prime example, as the direct recipients of the service have no purchasing power and society as a whole is poorer if children are only taught on the premise that their parents can afford to pay for it. Having a literate workforce is a pearl beyond price, as it were. There are many more cases to be made for expansive public safety and sanitation services, for public transportation, roads and infrastructure maintenance. A society that provides these services is more attractive to commerce, has more good paying public sector jobs, and inherently reduces desperation.
21. Incentivize local production of everything. I don't know the precise policy mechanism that would be best, but one way or another, cheap, long-distance transportation is going to become more scarce and it's already imposing significant costs in terms of environmental devastation. Further, the trend for ever fewer businesses to consolidate supply chains across the globe starves many local economies of employment opportunities, and many individuals of work they'd find meaningful and enjoyable. It might be more 'inefficient' in terms of consolidation of profit, but the consolidation of profit is a big problem in its own right, as discussed.
22. Make it easier to form a union. If it was as easy to call an election for a union as getting a majority of employees to sign a card saying they wanted one, unionization rates would go way up. This would drive up the share of profits that go to workers, boost workplace safety, decrease economic gender and ethnic discrimination, and generally push working conditions upwards for everyone as non-unions workplaces had to compete for workers with more desirable places of employment.
23. Protect the right to vote. A great deal of progress has been made in terms of dismantling the formal structures of white privilege in America and conferring the full benefits of citizenship on communities of color. We're by no means there yet, but current efforts to restrict voting rights and make our electoral system even less representative of a one-person, one-vote ideal, have the potential to significantly delay progress by putting in power reactionaries who'll continue acting to divide working families against each other and further the desperation of historically disadvantaged populations. And people struggling to have their basic rights, dignity and humanity recognized are often a bit hard pressed to lend a hand to save the oceans. Further, the politicians working to preserve as much racial inequality as possible are usually the same politicians working hardest to burn the world to a cinder for cash. Save democracy, save the planet, I say.
----
Humanity has been mired for so long in fighting over whether or not there's enough to eat that we almost didn't notice that we'd finally achieved a world in which there's enough for everyone … and we're catching up with the plot of the story just in time to watch that world get wrecked before we can figure out how to share amongst ourselves a little better. But it doesn't have to get wrecked.
Even better, we're wealthy enough that if we'd stop trying to starve each other, we could move on to more interesting questions, like, why can't we mine the asteroids? How healthy *could* everyone be? Would it be possible to achieve a 95 percent global literacy rate? When can we get fusion power? Can we halt species extinction? Where's my goddam flying car? You know, fun stuff. We have the technology, we just need the will.
I should admit that I'm not actually aiming to save the world. I'm hoping we can make it awesome. But I'm pretty sure than can only happen if we also commit to saving each other.
Image credit: Samuel Blanc
1 Views
02:00:20 02/12/13
23 Policies That Would Make It Easier To Save The World
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 02:00:20 02/12/13
It's been said that the wealthy win because they can always hire half the poor to shoot the other half. Rarely is there a sadder case of this than when it comes to trying to protect the planet that feeds us, clothes us, and generates the only pocket of breathable atmosphere in our solar system.
Because look, say you're a committed environmentalist, your beloved spouse has treatable cancer, and the only way to save his or her life is to take a job clubbing the last baby seal on the beach. That seal is toast. And so is anything or anyone else that stands between your partner and their chemo.
Don't think the greedy jerks who own everything don't know it; they downright count on it to get their way.
Driving down wages, increasing animosity among the lower classes by scapegoating various segments of also-poor people, decreasing the health and safety of working conditions -- these aren't unfortunate side effects of our current economic incentive structures. They are the point , fueling a vicious cycle where more profits flow to the top while workers are too desperate to do anything about it. The effect, as it was recently said , is this: >
The great problem we have today in improving our society, in fixing our economy, is that so many people don't want to give up what they have. . . . [W]hat the past 40 years have proven is this: if you lose your job, you're on your own. If you're in your 40s and 50s and you lose a good job, you'll probably never, ever, have a good job ever again. . . .
People know, they know and they are right, that economic change, in our society, could cost them everything. Their job and any prospect of a good job. Their house. Their marriage. Their health care and even their life.
So they grasp tightly to what they have, and everyone fights to make sure that nothing really changes. Each person, with their little or big piece of the pie, fights viciously to keep it whether it's good for society or not. They are right to do so.
The biggest enemy of our environment, therefore, is mass desperation wielded like a billy club in the hands of the extremely wealthy. The following are some ideas on how to both disarm them and take the next steps towards creating a more awesome society to live in.
-----
1. Increase the minimum wage. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is lower than it was in the 1970s. It's not a family wage, even though it's all some families can get. Yet the whole time it's been declining, productivity and profits have gone up, but a fair share of the increase hasn't been passed on to workers. Raising the minimum wage would put upward pressure on the share of business profits that go to workers, making life less precarious for millions of people.
2. Shorten the work week and increase paid time off. It's hard to have an engaged citizenry when work demands so much of people's time that they can barely unwind, let alone follow the news. A full-time work week barely leaves time to be a good parent, a good friend, or even a good housekeeper; forget hitting the mark on all three. The idea that a 40 hour work week, plus the 10-20 hours of preparation and commute time involved, is a reasonable base amount of time to demand of someone is premised on the social expectations of a bygone era where a full-time worker had a full-time caregiver at home. Lowering the full-time work week to even 35 hours would not only create more job openings, it would likely boost per hour productivity, as it has done in some European nations.
3. Cut higher education and worker retraining costs to students. In the era of the GI Bill, not only was it free for returning veterans to go to college, it was affordable for almost anyone who could spring a part-time summer job. But federal funding cuts have piled on top of state funding cuts, and tuition is now ridiculous at most public colleges. It's patently ridiculous to saddle new college graduates with a mortgage-worth of debt when they graduate and set out on their own. Particularly when the value of a college education has decreased for so many, but is nonetheless necessary because it's barely possible anymore to find family-wage blue collar employment. And when people lose their jobs, they should be able to retrain, if possible, if they can't find work in their original field.
4. Restore federal funding for university research programs. Research departments have had to increasingly rely on industry funding, a type of ballyhooed public-private partnership, which has reduced the independence and objectivity of the nation's research institutions to everyone's detriment. There are many cases, but you have to look no further than the way the fossil fuel industry has corrupted university research on fracking , such that very little information at all is available about the risks of hydraulic fracturing recovery of natural gas, and the public must mainly rely on anecdotes and independent filmmakers to hear anything negative about its consequences.
5. Expand unemployment insurance. Want workers not to fear the loss of outdated, polluting industries? Make sure they know they won't be out on the street if they have to look for work for a while, and that they don't have to take the first crappy job that comes their way . It would go a long way towards preventing rank-and-file workers from fighting to the death to defend industries that are long past their sell-by date.
6. Break up the big banks. The financial sector has grown significantly in terms of their share of GDP and has been the biggest accelerant of income inequality in the country. Add to that the longstanding investment policies of these very large banks to either refuse loan capital to, or downgrade the ratings of, businesses who refuse to move production overseas, bust unions, liquidate pensions or drive down wages, and they have overweening power to make life miserable for the average worker. They can no longer be trusted in any respect to be good stewards of the capital they've extracted from the rest of us and their power must be dismantled.
7. Financial transaction tax. Rapid-fire speculation, computerized trading, reckless short-term investing, all add to financial insecurity and promote a casino atmosphere in stock exchanges. It doesn't create a good economy for the average person, though, and these tax-free transactions privilege investors over every other sector of society that has to pay taxes when money changes hands. And there's no one it's more fair to ask to pony up for the public good than the people who've been busily dismantling democracy all these years.
8. Tax capital gains as income. Since capital gains are taxed at very low rates, the wealthy have been incentivized to collect more and more of their household income as some form of investment payout, and disincentivized to reinvest in the productive economy. It's just another way to encourage the wealthy to uselessly hoard cash and is grossly unjust. Tax it fairly and spend it on building a better world.
9. Crack down on overseas tax evasion. With feeling, the wealthy must stop unproductively hoarding cash and starving the public of the funds to run a civil society. This must become unacceptable in every country.
10. Move your money. While large, unaccountable international financial institutions have an incentive to starve their native economies and follow the global race to the bottom wherever it may lead, they're not the only banks. The prosperity of independent credit unions and community banks is much more directly tied to the prosperity of their local economies and the well-being of their customers. These institutions can't afford to recklessly gamble with their financial reserves and are among the most responsible actors in the financial sector. If you can take your business to one of them, please do.
11. Uncap Social Security taxes. If FICA taxes were collected on all income, not just that below the inflation-adjusted, currently ~$110,000 threshold, it would make the program solvent for the foreseeable future. Taking Social Security's solvency off the table for the next few decades would remove a significant wedge issue used by the financial elite to distract the public by leaving us terrified that we're going to wind up homeless when we're too old to work anymore.
12. Lower the retirement age. Increases in the retirement age in the last few years have been a significant cause in the higher rates of disability claims . I mean, duh. When people get older, we tend to get sicker and less able to work. You don't need a PhD to know it. And recent life expectancy gains have mostly gone to the wealthy , not the sort of folks who'd be lucky to find a diner or a paper route to work at when they're 67. Our current national retirement programs have decreased elder poverty by ridiculous amounts. We should look at ways to decrease it further.
13. Open Medicare to everyone. Small businesses would on better footing when competing for talent if they didn't have to worry about covering insurance, and would-be entrepreneurs wouldn't have to be afraid to strike out on their own. Medicare's program costs would go down because of the large influx of healthier people and there'd be a much larger constituency for improving the quality of coverage. Baby seal; saved.
14. End crop exclusions. Currently, if a farmer wants to participate in the federal farm subsidy program, which comes with a host of benefits such as ready access to crop insurance and disaster aid, they can only grow what are known as program commodity crops. A program crop is one of a set number of cereal grains (wheat, corn, etc.), oilseeds (like canola) and legumes (usually soy.) A requirement for participation is that no other type of crop be grown on the land, no fruit, vegetables, etc. This severely limits the ability of farmers to use beneficial intercropping and crop rotation techniques. It would bar a farmer from using, for example, the venerable Native Central and North American Three Sisters intercrop, of corn, beans and squash, because squash isn't a program crop. This restricts farmers' freedom to try new techniques, pursue emerging market opportunities and diversify their businesses. And don't get me started on what a disaster it is for soil carbon sequestration.
15. Break up slaughterhouse consolidation. The biggest obstacle to getting rid of CAFOs is that the slaughterhouse industry has been consolidated under the ownership of the meat packing and distribution industry, with independent slaughterhouses closed down and small, on-farm operations mostly regulated out of existence at the behest of industry lobbyists. In a given geographic area, there's often only one slaughterhouse within a reasonable distance, and you can't use it unless you're contracted with the packer who owns it, for a price they can arbitrarily set and change at whim. There is no other single factor more responsible for the fact that animal production is dangerously concentrated on relatively small, virulently unhealthy feedlots, and why it rarely makes economic sense to farm animals any other way. It's also hard to emphasize enough what an incredible disaster this has been for small livestock producers, who've gone out of business in droves, driving up unemployment in rural communities. In addition to making farming a more economically stable enterprise, reversing livestock consolidation shifts animal waste from being an expensive environmental toxin and back towards being a useful, cost-saving soil supplement.
16. Immigration reform. When you have a large, very desperate population of workers who are afraid to go to the police if they're abused or witness a crime, report wage theft, or organize for safer workplaces, it drags down wages, community safety and working standards for everyone. Give immigrant workers a pathway to citizenship and the security to bargain for better working conditions, it raises the bar for everyone, instead.
17. Marriage equality. It's a joke in liberal circles when fundamentalist preachers blame natural disasters on the gays and other hapless scapegoats, but for a lot of desperate people looking for comfort and perhaps not knowing anyone who's out, it redirects their anger away from the rich jerks who are really fleecing them. Functionally, it's a use of religion to preserve the economic power structure. If marriage equality is a reality everywhere though, everyone will eventually get over it and we can do more productive things with our time than argue about who we let in the clubhouse.
18. Gender equality. When women do better, families do better, children are healthier and intimate violence starts trending downwards. The public health and workforce productivity benefits are immense. Women who are in control of their reproductive options, which is to say that they have access and means to prevent pregnancy or freely choose to carry to term and care for a child, make good decisions about how large a family they can reasonably support. But when they're expected to provide vast amounts of free labor, when they're scapegoated for all of society's ills, and when their sociopolitical capital is tied to some impossible standard of virtue, they too often end up in desperate circumstances. A necessitous woman is not a free woman. A society that can put women's considerable talents towards solving more interesting problems than surviving on the raggedy edge, that's a society that can solve a lot more problems.
19. Paid family leave. There need to be government supports for new parents of both genders to take time off work for the birth or adoption of a new child, or for the acute care of sick family members. It's inherently unfair for women to do all of this type of work at significant economic penalty, or to throw up barriers to men who want to be more involved with their families but feel that they have no choice but to put their shoulder to the grindstone at work. The strain on a family's time and resources that result from having no paid leave to care for the very young or the unwell leaves many people in dire straits, and contributes to the birth of a child being a leading cause of a fall into poverty.
20. Expand public sector employment. There are jobs that need to be done that will never be profitable if done well, but that society needs done and can well afford. Teaching young children is a prime example, as the direct recipients of the service have no purchasing power and society as a whole is poorer if children are only taught on the premise that their parents can afford to pay for it. Having a literate workforce is a pearl beyond price, as it were. There are many more cases to be made for expansive public safety and sanitation services, for public transportation, roads and infrastructure maintenance. A society that provides these services is more attractive to commerce, has more good paying public sector jobs, and inherently reduces desperation.
21. Incentivize local production of everything. I don't know the precise policy mechanism that would be best, but one way or another, cheap, long-distance transportation is going to become more scarce and it's already imposing significant costs in terms of environmental devastation. Further, the trend for ever fewer businesses to consolidate supply chains across the globe starves many local economies of employment opportunities, and many individuals of work they'd find meaningful and enjoyable. It might be more 'inefficient' in terms of consolidation of profit, but the consolidation of profit is a big problem in its own right, as discussed.
22. Make it easier to form a union. If it was as easy to call an election for a union as getting a majority of employees to sign a card saying they wanted one, unionization rates would go way up. This would drive up the share of profits that go to workers, boost workplace safety, decrease economic gender and ethnic discrimination, and generally push working conditions upwards for everyone as non-unions workplaces had to compete for workers with more desirable places of employment.
23. Protect the right to vote. A great deal of progress has been made in terms of dismantling the formal structures of white privilege in America and conferring the full benefits of citizenship on communities of color. We're by no means there yet, but current efforts to restrict voting rights and make our electoral system even less representative of a one-person, one-vote ideal, have the potential to significantly delay progress by putting in power reactionaries who'll continue acting to divide working families against each other and further the desperation of historically disadvantaged populations. And people struggling to have their basic rights, dignity and humanity recognized are often a bit hard pressed to lend a hand to save the oceans. Further, the politicians working to preserve as much racial inequality as possible are usually the same politicians working hardest to burn the world to a cinder for cash. Save democracy, save the planet, I say.
----
Humanity has been mired for so long in fighting over whether or not there's enough to eat that we almost didn't notice that we'd finally achieved a world in which there's enough for everyone … and we're catching up with the plot of the story just in time to watch that world get wrecked before we can figure out how to share amongst ourselves a little better. But it doesn't have to get wrecked.
Even better, we're wealthy enough that if we'd stop trying to starve each other, we could move on to more interesting questions, like, why can't we mine the asteroids? How healthy *could* everyone be? Would it be possible to achieve a 95 percent global literacy rate? When can we get fusion power? Can we halt species extinction? Where's my goddam flying car? You know, fun stuff. We have the technology, we just need the will.
I should admit that I'm not actually aiming to save the world. I'm hoping we can make it awesome. But I'm pretty sure than can only happen if we also commit to saving each other.
Image credit: Samuel Blanc
2 Views
20:53:34 01/14/13
Thousands Wear No Pants on New York Subway
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 20:53:34 01/14/13
Thousands Wear No Pants on New York Subway
Annual "no pants" subway ride take place in NYC Full Story: It's the middle of winter, but New Yorkers are shedding their trousers for some serious shock factor. City subway riders on Sunday got more than they bargained for, as some riders boarded cars missing one important article of clothing -- their pants. It's certainly not every day you see a grown man wearing Hello Kitty underpants! The thousands of participants in this year's No Pants Subway Ride hope to make people laugh and spread a little goodwill. Living in New York her whole life, Barbara Hill thought she had seen it all. [Barbara Hill, New York Resident]: "Shocking. Oh my God. I mean, I've seen weird stuff, but not like this. Not people in their underwear on the subway." Not everyone thought the idea was very sanitary. [Ryan McDonald, New York Resident]: "The first thing that comes to mind is that's a little dirty, especially if you sit down on the subway without any pants on.I saw one girl that was sitting down just in her underwear, but she had a backpack underneath because she didn't want to sit directly on the train. That's what I would do 'cause it's a little dirty." One of the "No Pants" participants tells of how an old lady was tickled by the event. [Jennifer Melara, No Pants Subway Ride Participant]: "The best reaction...I saw a little old lady and she just did, not a double take. Not a triple take, but did like a quadruple take. I mean, she was just so confused and she just started laughing because ... From: NTDTV Views: 460 15 ratings Time: 01:41 More in News & Politics
3 Views
00:58:06 01/09/13
Packing the Car~Crystal Zevon's latest Michael Moore blog entry
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 00:58:06 01/09/13
Searching For Occupy
Packing the Car
By Crystal Zevon
Just back from washing and vacuuming the car. Trying to figure out how we cram clothes, camping gear, photo equipment, food, two people and the dog in my little Prius for a 6 month to 1 year road trip… Searching for Occupy. I commented to my partner in this venture, Denise Valdez, that at least when we were occupying in D.C., we had tents. Suddenly, the memory of those frozen, leaky tents translates into plush, cushy, comfy luxury. We don’t know where we’ll be sleeping from night to night… What if one of us gets sick… How do we avoid corporate food stops... What if we get arrested and they take the video equipment that has been depleting my bank account...What if… what if … what if what the media implies is truer than we believe and we can’t find Occupy?
Those were the thoughts crowding my already unfocused brain as I decided to check my email before vacuuming and cleaning my condo for the renter who arrives tonight. Then, lo and behold, the first email I opened was from a guy from Occupy Waldo County, Maine with photos and news accounts of the actions they are involved in to stop LPG from building a massive liquid gas tank in their community of Searsport. There was confirmation of the dinner we’re to have in Brunswick with the Maine chapter of Veterans for Peace, one of whom is putting us up. More confirmation of meetings with members of Occupy Portland. The next email offered us shelter for a couple nights at the home of a retired judge and his wife in New Hampshire. They headed up legal teams at the height of Occupy, and are planning to risk arrest (again) in defense of Bradley Manning. More invitations from New Jersey near beaches where Occupy Sandy Relief has been working non-stop. There are so many offers of places to stay in D.C., we risk offending someone if we don’t choose them! And, in St. Louis where activists are training for Keystone Pipeline and Mountain Top removal actions… more Veterans for Peace have said we can share their hotel room. We have invitations from Wichita, Kansas, Paonia, Colorado, Chicago, Ohio and Oregon.
Well, that’s a relief. Now the worry becomes… there’s so much going on… how do we pick and choose? What’s the best route to follow? There’s an action in Kansas City at the same time as the conference in New York…
Please follow our blogs here on Michael Moore’s site, and on our website: www.searchingforoccupy.com as we follow the unfolding story of Occupy in 2013. You can contact us directly through our website. We would love to camp on your floor and hear what is impacting you and your community. There is a lot to be done, exposed and documented. We’ve got a camera, a car and a very friendly and well-behaved little dog. Let’s get together and Occupy 2013.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/still-searching-for-...
http://warisacrime.org/content/searching-occupy-packing-and-heading-out
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01:47:21 12/07/12
Teaching Dogs to Drive Cars
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Teaching Dogs to Drive Cars
Three dogs rescued from a New Zealand animal shelter are being taught to drive a car to show their intelligence and encourage people to give rescued animals a home. Full story: Man's best friend is learning its latest, toughest trick yet. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New Zealand is teaching three dogs to drive in order to highlight their intelligence and encourage people to adopt rescued animals. Chosen by trainer Mark Vette, the three car driving canines are Monty, an 18-month-old giant schnauzer, Ginny, a one-year-old whippet cross and Porter, a 10-month old beardie cross. Their training began in September. Like their human first-time-driver counterparts, they were first taught proper driving position and how to hold a steering wheel. After five weeks, movement was added by mounting training aids on a trolley. Then came a real car, with a trainer in the passenger seat to help out. But like any driver's ed instructor, the trainers can tell you that it hasn't always been a smooth ride. [Mark Vette, Trainer]: "We had a couple of days ago the car was going too fast, the trainer nearly got run over, the car, the breaking, the dogs but no, we've got it all here now. There's no excuses. We've got to get in there and show that dogs can drive cars. It'll be 'dial-a-dog' the week after this." Now the dogs can start the car, accelerate and steer. They'll eventually be evaluated by driving in a narrow lane, where the canines also have to break. But before ... From: NTDTV Views: 2593 22 ratings Time: 01:22 More in Pets & Animals
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20:19:00 11/12/12
Veterans Day Electric American Flag Tribute Jon's Journal November 12 2012
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Veterans Day Electric American Flag Tribute Jon's Journal November 12 2012 Electric American Flag Video by LORI from Jon Hammond Show - Honoring our fearless and brave veterans on this Veterans Day here in the Land of the Free - Manhattan NYC - thanks and deep gratitude to all of them! Sincerely, Jon Hammond *Member American Federation of Musicians Local 802 / Local 6 / ASCAP *WATCH VIDEO: Blue Angels 2012 Fleet Week Air Show at SFO with Music from Jon Hammond Band http://archive.org/details/BlueAngels2012FleetWeekAirShowAtSfoWithMusicFromJonHammondBand Youtube http://youtu.be/2C3KtLtMVm8 America's pride The Blue Angels here at SFO to perform fearlessly in honor of Fleet Week 2012 with support from United Airlines Team at United Family Day very special annual event, special thanks to all these fine folks it takes to make it happen. From the Firefighters, to the Mechanics, Air Controllers, Crew, Food Preparations even the Imperial Storm Troopers from Star Wars were on hand for this very special family day - with music here from The Jon Hammond Band with special guest Lee Oskar harmonica, recent performance in Frankfurt Germany at the famous Jazzkeller "Tribute to 9/11 - Get Back In The Groove" Tony Lakatos tenor sax, Giovanni Gulino drums, Joe Berger guitar, Jon Hammond at Sk1 organ, enjoy folks! Sincerely, Jon Hammond http://www.HammondCast.com Serious Press Conference with Mayor Ed Koch at the giant Diamond Vision TV Screen at corner of 47th Str. & Broadway by the TKTS Youtube http://youtu.be/qBjLUT-0vUM An incredible Press Conference with NY Mayor ED KOCH as seen on The Jon Hammond Show Jon HammondndCast in Times Square NYC on Mitsubishi DiamondVision! Jon made a deal with Mitsubishi to have his TV show with Video by LORI on the big DiamondVision Times Sq. screen (First big-screen outdoor TV!) for 1 and half years, 80-times-a-day including the famous New Years Countdown seen on Dick Clark's ABC Broadcast 2 consecutive years *with commentary by Jon Hammond..AND a cameo appearance in the crowd with Nikon! *Info: http://www.HammondCast.com/ this is a must-see! - JH — with Ed Koch Love this shot! James Brown was a soulful organ player as well folks! Here on a very special visit to his God Son of Soul Michael Falkenstein at the birthplace of Hammond Germany - Hammond Studio Setzingen, blowin' smoke! - Jon Hammond Youtube http://youtu.be/YsIvjWvt-p0 James Brown the Godfather of Soul with his actual God Son Michael Falkenstein. The incredible story of the bond between them, the story can only be told in words by Michael, but a picture tells a thousand words, and here we have 44 images from behind the scenes with this outstanding and soulful young organist who was befriended by the late great James Brown over a period 20 years until Mr. Brown's untimely death. James Brown and his personal entourage made a special journey to Michael's family house in the tiny village of Setzingen 'kleines dorf' nearby Ulm Germany, in the middle of night in 2 white limousines so that Mr. Brown could meet Michael's mother, father and his sister Martina. Here you will see the photos that have never before been shown as James Brown has cake with the family and enjoys immensely playing soul music together with Michael in their house and Hammond Organ Studio Germany, which is one of the greatest Hammond organ museums in all of the world, built by Michael's father Professor Klaus Maier and Michael together as a tribute to Laurens Hammond founder of Hammond Instrument Company and clocks of Chicago ILL The story will be forthcoming as soon as Michael can bring himself to write it as he is still mourning the loss of his Godfather James Brown R.I.P. enjoy these never-before-seen photos and original music recording of Michael "Time With You" as heard on Jon Hammond's HammondCast Show KYOU Radio — with James Brown and Michael Falkenstein BackBeat Productions Presents - The Jon Hammond Show! 28th year, now on MNN TV *The Chicago Special http://youtu.be/IJHHdPNoHow Now in 28th year on Cable Access TV - The Jon Hammond Show, this particular episode is known as the Chicago Special which includes one song from Tim Cain I played Hammond organ on called I Saw You with some vocal help by Bill Champlin recorded by rjm productions, then to Chicago Summer NAMM Show where I personally filmed the very first performance of the late great bassist John Entwistle with band Rat Race Choir which happened at The Vic Theatre June 29, 1987, (same night) followed by Leslie West with T.M. Stevens bass, watch Leslie's face when smoke machine goes! Then a little bit of Bag End Party at Park West with Joe Berger, T.M. Stevens, Tal Bergman and Theodus Rogers. And of course JH Show Theme Song "Late Rent" - enjoy folks, this one is a classic! Jon Hammond http://www.HammondCast.com/ *Note: Joe Berger personally introduced his friend John Entwistle to Rat Race Choir band, John came all the way from London on Joe's recommendation - JH Bicycle Boy - circa 1982 - Jon Hammond New York NY - yes and for short time I was a bicycle messenger, until the dispatcher wanted to dispatch me to Brooklyn on the hottest day in history, then I quit - JH The Hardest Working Man In Show Business - James Brown James Brown Band circa 1982 at Bimbo's 365 - San Francisco California - Jon Hammond *main man Hollie Farris hardest working trumpet player long-long-time band member in this great lineup folks! - JH — with Hollie Farris The late great basssist of The WHO - John Entwistle and Jon Hammond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 1944 – 27 June 2002) was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players.[1][2] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990. Folks, this is the famous actual plastic plate that I shared peanuts while drinking copious amounts of the best Cognac with the late great John Entwistle *see sig - and my long-time friend & musical associate Joe Berger when Joe introduced me to John Entwistle in 1987 in a suite at the Frankfurt Marriott Hotel the night before my very first Musikmesse - rest in peace John! It was a defining time in my life to meet John, who had also been an enormous influence on own playing and personal musical taste & style. I had the good fortune thanks to Joe to work on several projects with John, some of which are still in the works folks. This is not just any plastic plate - Jon Hammond — with John Entwistle 2 of my favorite horn players - this is the 2 man section right here: Earl Gardner trumpet and Alex Foster saxophone backstage at NBC Saturday Night Live Show - Jon Hammond — with Alex Foster and Alex Foster at Saturday Night Live- NBC Studio 8H, Rockefeller Center Jon Hammond - Saturday Night Live 15 a few years ago 21 Year old Jon Hammond self portrait 1974 while attending Berklee College of Music Boston JUKE with Allen 'Gaz' Gaskell from Liverpool http://www.gazgaskell.com/ - in the sound cabin at Musikmesse circa 1988 - Jon Hammond Youtube http://youtu.be/rye5S2VL4Ks Juke at the Grosse Freiheit (1) - also Live at Montreux: http://youtu.be/wlVOegwDz3k — at Musikmesse Frankfurt Guitarist Joe Berger playing for Engl Amplifiers at Frankfurt Musikmesse '87 - those are the 2 Engl brothers, Horst and the other cat I can never remember his name (I think it's like "Egon" or something like that) - this was 1987 when they were a tiny little company. Now they are a big player. Good work launching those cats Joe! — with Joe Berger at Musikmesse Frankfurt Taking the Mercedes to the shop - Jon Hammond Paris France -- Rest In Peace (2) my friends, the great jazz drummer Oliver Johnson http://www.jazzhouse.org/gone/lastpost2.php3?edit=1016637285 Born: December 5, 1944 in Oakland, California Died: March 6, 2002 in Paris, France and RIP Francois Chassignite the great trumpet player band leader, died very young very suddenly sadly - Jon Hammond *article: Oliver Johnson was a noted participant in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, but was a versatile and adaptable performer in many settings. He settled in Paris in the late-60s. He worked with a number of major figures from the free and experimental scene, including Anthony Braxton, Dewey Redman, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and David Murray, as well as more mainstream players, including Hampton Hawes, Bobby Hutcherson, Maynard Ferguson, Yusef Lateef, Atilla Zoller and Johnny Griffin. He worked regularly with saxophonist Steve Lacy between 1978-89. He co-led the trio TOK with Takashi Kako and Kent Carter. His body was discovered on a bench near Les Halles. Youtube http://youtu.be/W0Tc_9BI3mM Uploaded by Jon Hammond on Jun 22, 2008 1988 Jazz Concert musé d'art moderne in paris: Francois Chassagnite trp., Oliver Johnson drms, Jean Bardy bs, Arnaud Mattei piano as seen on The Jon Hammond Show TV Show and HammondCast — with Joe Berger My beautiful Giulietti Classic 127 electric accordion (and me playing it) in 1975) - this is the same accordion I played when I won Jr. Jazz Championship in 1966 - Jon Hammond *Note: Somebody came through my window in Boston while I was attending Berklee College of Music there and they stole my Giulietti Accordion John DeLorean when we met just casually walking down Fifth Avenue - very nice cat, rest in peace! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean John Zachary DeLorean (January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, most notably with General Motors, and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company. He was best known for developing the Pontiac GTO muscle car, the Pontiac Firebird, Pontiac Grand Prix, and the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car, which was later featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future, and for his high profile 1982 arrest on charges of drug trafficking. The alleged drug trafficking was supposedly an attempt to raise funds for his struggling company, which declared bankruptcy that same year. He successfully defended himself against the drug trafficking charges, showing that his alleged involvement was a result of entrapment by federal agents. John Zachary DeLorean was born on January 6, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan, the eldest of four sons of Zachary and Kathryn Pribak DeLorean. This poster is framed under glass on my wall in New York - I had the pleasure of playing organ as special guest with Musical Director and Drummer Danny Woody and his great jazz band at the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai Centre China during the Music Messefrankfurt Music-China, we had some very special guests there - including Mayor Willie Brown (San Francisco CA) who I had just seen in San Francisco at the birthday party of the Honorable Terence Hallinan when I played for then District Attorney Terence (Nancy Pelosi was there, I met her also, very nice!) on the band with Danny was a great lineup of veteran NY jazz bass player - Alex Layne, great singer LaDee Streeter, Dr. Dwight Dickerson at the piano and myself at the Hammond organ - nice! Thanks Danny! Jon Hammond Youtube http://youtu.be/nJFWMjIMh9I Shanghai PORTMAN RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL Jazz Movie Shanghai PORTMAN RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL Jazz Movie 8,853 Organist JON HAMMOND teams up with DANNY WOODY in this rollicking JAZZ MOVIE at Shanghai PORTMAN RITZ CARLTON HOTEL Jazz Bar *Featuring the entertaining vocalist LaDEE STREETER (Stevie Wonder backup voc.), Dr. DWIGHT DICKERSON-piano, ALEX LAYNE-bs. JON HAMMOND-organ, DANNY WOODY-musical director/drums. Special performance for SUPERLUX Microphones "JON HAMMOND'S MUSIC CHINA WARM UP PARTY" annual sister trade show of MUSIKMESSE & NAMM.Some Big Tippers were in the house that night! Great Jazzy Shuffle Blues with m.d. Danny Woody and Jon Hammond 1st of 4 years, enjoy! *Note: Danny Woody is also the famous Restorer & Vendor of Chinese Military Sidecar Motorcycles Chang Jiang: California Dreamin' in Shanghai - Newsweek June 28 issue - Venice Beach native Danny Woody is living the California dream. He drms in a jazz band at night, then tours motorcycle shops by day. "But who would have imagined," he says, "that I'd be doing it in Shanghai!"Woody, 59, is a fixture at the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel lounge, but his real claim to fame is a motorbike with sidecar on display in the lobby. The Chang Jiang is a Chinese knockoff of the classic 1930s BMW R-71. During World War II, the Germans gave the design to Russia, which passed it to China. Woody fell in love with it on a 1998 trip to Beijing. He bought one, and another. Soon, he had shops refurbishing them. Now he's a top vendor of the bikes, which have a global cult following. In 2003 he sold two dozen for about $10,000 each. "It's not really a dream job, more like a nightmare," he quips http://www.vsidecars.com/home/current/page1/ http://www.HammondCast.com/ Jon Hammond is Host of daily CBS Radio show "Jon Hammond's Afternoon Slide" on KYCY/KYOU 1550 AM *Official Broadcast Home of the Oakland A's. *Note: San Francisco MAYOR WILLIE BROWN was in the house..Shanghai & San Francisco Sister Cities! — with Alex Layne, Danny Woody and LaDee Streeter at The Portman Ritz Carlton Shanghai China. Jon Hammond and The Late Rent Session Men Band Mikell's 760 Columbus Avenue NYC L to R: Alex Foster, Chuggy Carter, Jon Hammond, Bernard Purdie, Barry Finnerty http://youtu.be/6FSQrnuKDLU Jon Hammond Late Rent Session Men with Bernard Purdie drums, Alex Foster sax, Chuggy Carter perc., Barry Finnerty gtr., Jon Hammond at 1959 B3 Organ in MIKELL'S 97th St. & Columbus Ave. NYC, very first hit of 5 ...See More — with Alex Foster, Leslie J. Carter, Jon Hammond, Bernard Purdie and Barry Finnerty Bernard Purdie drums at Zanzibar and Grill on gig I played with Bernard 22 years ago with the late great tenor saxophonist David Fathead Newman Youtube http://youtu.be/4YaChOk6K2Q FATHEAD Pocket Funk HAMMOND PURDIE The late great tenor saxophonist David Fathead Newman getting down on Jon Hammond composition "Pocket Funk" Jon Hammond at the B3 Organ, explosive funk solo from Bernard Purdie "The Hit Maker" May 17th 1990, camera: Joe Berger, R.I.P. David Newman and Zanzibar owner Eric Fuchsman ©JON HAMMOND Intl. ASCAP http://www.jonhammondband.com/ — with Bernard Purdie and Bernard Purdie at 550 Third Avenue New York City. This picture is from a gig I played with Bernard Purdie and David Fathead Newman in Zanzibar And Grill New York City May 17th 1990. I had my double stack of Leslie 122 speakers with the B3 that night. Fun gig! Youtube http://youtu.be/5aMZi87Fr7c David Fathead Newman plays Georgia Jon Hammond B3 organ Bernard Purdie drums Veteran's Day, Musikmesse, 21 year old, Bicycle Boy, Berklee College of Music, Organ, Accordion, Local 802, Musicians Union, Bernard Purdie, Zanzibar, Mikell's "The FINGERS...are The SINGERS!"™
0 Views
23:57:23 11/05/12
BEST CHILDHOOD VIDEO GAME - Need for Speed Most Wanted NFS001
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 23:57:23 11/05/12
BEST CHILDHOOD VIDEO GAME - Need for Speed Most Wanted NFS001
NEW MW3 SHIRTS! www.whiteboy7thst.spreadshirt.com Pre order BO2 EARLY Here! http Tweet me Black Ops 2 Stuff! www.twitter.com FB for black ops 2 news www.facebook.com KEEK! www.keek.com As a perk of being a Machinima partner, I received a free copy of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" and a monitory bonus for posting this video as a part of a promotion for NFSMW" High School Stories - First Car Accident high school stories whiteboy7thst first car accident crash suv repair total crashes truck speed light stop NFS001 NFSMW From: WhiteBoy7thst Views: 133483 4558 ratings Time: 04:49 More in Gaming
1 Views
19:54:00 10/11/12
The Karate Kid (2/8) Wax On, Wax Off - (1984) HD
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 19:54:00 10/11/12
The Karate Kid (2/8) Wax On, Wax Off - (1984) HD
The Karate Kid Movie Clip click to subscribe j.mp Daniel (Ralph Macchio) is skeptical when Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) tells him to wax a series of cars during their first karate lesson. TM & %copy Sony (2012) Cast: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove, Randee Heller Director: John G. Avildsen MOVIECLIPS YouTube Channel: j.mp Join our Facebook page: j.mp Follow us on Twitter: j.mp Buy Movie: amzn.to Producer: RJ Louis, Bud S. Smith, Jerry Weintraub Screenwriter: Robert Mark Kamen Film Description: The Karate Kid is a 1984 coming-of-age film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Robert Mark Kamen, starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and Elisabeth Shue. It is a martial arts film, and an underdog story in the mold of a previous success, Avildsen's 1976 film Rocky. It was a commercial success upon release, and garnered favorable critical acclaim, earning Pat Morita an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. "the karate kid" "the karate kid clip" "the karate kid full movie", "the karate kid part 1", "the karate kid 2010", "ralph macho", "pat morita", "Elizabeth shue", "martin kove", "randee heller", "john g. alivildsen", "Mr. Miyagi", "Iconic Lines", "Mentoring", "movie clips", "movieclipsdotcom" From: movieclips Views: 1176 31 ratings Time: 02:13 More in Film & Animation
30 Views
15:30:00 09/29/12
Pocket Funk 2012 Jazzkeller Frankfurt and Jon's Journal September 29, 2012
[LESS INFO] 30 VIEWS | ADDED 15:30:00 09/29/12
*WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Pocket Funk 2012 Jazzkeller Frankfurt Musikmesse Warm Up Party Jon Hammond Band Youtube http://youtu.be/Nn6BjZoJyEk Jon Hammond's annual Musikmesse Warm Up Party in Jazzkeller Frankfurt featuring Tony Lakatos tenor saxophone, Giovanni Gulino drums, Joe Berger guitar, special guest: Lee Oskar harmonica and Jon Hammond at the Hammond Sk1 organ powered by TecAmp 2 x 12 Neodymium rig special thanks to Thomas Eich TecAmp. This evening marks 26 years continuous Musikmesse for Jon and also on his 59th birthday, special thanks to the Saray Pastanesi Baeckerei & Konditorei bakery for baking the beautiful Chocolate on Chocolate cake which you will see in this film, thanks Martina for wonderful presentation, Eugen Hahn, Marc and all Jazzkeller Frankfurt Team, Messe Frankfurt, P.Mauriat Music Saxophones Alex Hsieh team, Suzuki Hammond, Tombo Lee Oskar team, camera by Jennifer http://www.HammondCast.com see you next year! Pocket Funk as heard on The Jon Hammond Show TV program on MNNTV and on Late Rent album - Behind The Beat http://behindthebeat.com/2004/12/jon-hammond-late-rent/ by Steve Rosenfeld "Jon Hammond says "the fingers are the singers.'" The latest CD from this exceptional and soulful Hammond organist is the proof. "Late Rent" draws on decades of great recording sessions and top live performances to showcase his own playing and many top jazz and funk artists. It shows why the Hammond organ is one of the most enduring electric instruments and why Hammond is one of its best players." StageDive Feature: http://www.stagedive.com/jonhammondband/videos/777/Francoise-Pujol-and-Band-special-performance-presented-by-Cobi-Narita-on-911-at-ZEBs-NYC honor of anniversary of 9/11, pianist Francoise Pujol direct from Paris France wi th her Band at ZEB's New York City performing her original composition "Not Yet" *note, from Francoise - in French the title is really: "Pas Encore" ( = "Not Yet" ) ( not yet ...blond !, not yet ... dead ! ) with (also from Paris) Marc Loy vocals, Florent Richard Fender bass, Alain Gouillard drums - camera: Jon Hammond and announcement at end before his playing. This was a special program produced by great lady of Jazz, Cobi Narita and Saul Zebulon Rubin with many top jazz performers. Frank Owens was the master of ceremonies and also played wonderful piano with his trio backing many of the vocalists and saxophonists Frank Staton (97 years old) and BIlly Harper who also performed on this special evening. "Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 - REMEMBERING SEPT. 11 - NEVER AGAIN! AND CELEBRATING JAZZ IN NEW YORK" Enjoy! Jon Hammond Joe Morello His NAMM Oral History was completed on June 8, 2007 http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/joe-morello Joe Morello’s influential drumming style was showcased on the landmark Dave Brubeck recording of “Take Five.” Ever since, he has inspired generations of performers. Joe became an icon in the music product’s industry through his long associations with manufacturers as an endorsee, music retailers as a clinician, and publishers as an author of successful method books. He gave advice and lessons to all who ask, and was often known to be the last to leave a clinic – ensuring all questions have been answered. Joe Morello the legendary Jazz Drummer July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011 Instead of hearing aids, he had a lady who would repeat everything in to his ear - Jon Hammond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Morello Joseph Albert Morello (July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011) was a jazz drummer best known for his 12½-year stint with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk". Popular for its work on college campuses during the 1950s, Brubeck’s group reached new heights with Morello. In June 1959, Morello participated in a recording session with the quartet — completed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the bassist Eugene Wright — that yielded “Kathy’s Waltz” and “Three to Get Ready,” both of which intermingled 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures Morello suffered from partial vision from birth,[3] and devoted himself to indoor activities. At six years old he began studying the violin, going on to feature three years later as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, and again three years later. At the age of 15 Morello met the violinist Jascha Heifetz and decided that he would never be able to equal Heifetz's "sound", so switched to drumming, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then George Lawrence Stone, author of the noted drum textbook Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Stone was so impressed with Morello's ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone. After moving to New York City, Morello worked with numerous notable jazz musicians including Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Stan Kenton, Phil Woods, Sal Salvador, Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Art Pepper, Howard McGhee, and others. After a period playing in McPartland's trio, Morello declined invitations to join both Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey's bands, favoring a temporary two-month tour with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1955; Morello remained with Brubeck for well over a decade, only departing in 1968. Morello later became an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader whose former students include Danny Gottlieb, Max Weinberg, Rich Galichon, Phish drummer Jon Fishman, Gary Feldman, Patrick Wante, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons drummer Gerry Polci, Jerry Granelli, and Glenn Johnson. External videos Oral History, Joe Morello explains how he became a member of The Dave Brubeck Quartet. interview date June 8, 2007, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Oral History Library Morello appeared in many Brubeck performances and contributed to over 60 albums with Brubeck. On "Take Five", he plays an imaginative drum solo maintaining the 5/4 time signature throughout. Another example of soloing in odd time signatures can be heard on "Unsquare Dance", in which he solos using only sticks without drums in 7/4 time. At the end of the track, he can be heard laughing about the "trick" ending. He also features on "Blue Rondo à la Turk", "Strange Meadow Lark", and "Pick-Up Sticks". During his career, Morello appeared on over 120 albums, 60 of which were with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He authored several drum books, including Master Studies, published by Modern Drummer Publications, and also made instructional videos. Morello was the recipient of many awards, including Playboy magazine's best drummer award for seven years in a row, and Down Beat magazine's best drummer award five years in a row. He was elected to the Modern Drummer magazine Hall of Fame in 1988, the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993, and was the recipient of Hudson Music's first TIP (Teacher Integration Program) Lifetime Achievement award in June, 2010.[4] Joe Morello died on March 12, 2011, at his home in Irvington, New Jersey. He was 82 years old. His death was announced on his website, although no cause of death was given — with Joe Morello Frankfurt Germany -- Jon Hammond with Volker Buchele in the Fernandes TecAmp stand at Frankfurt Musikmesse — at musikmesse Frankfurt Germany -- Jon Hammond and Ralph Voggenreiter of Voggenreiter Verlag - I've been to 26 consecutive Musikmesse's but I bet Ralph has me beat! - JH — at musikmesse Go for the Sound! - and don't forget your Hat - Jon Hammond and Alex Mingmann Hsieh PMauriat Saxophones — with Alex Mingmann Hsieh New York NY -- Time for Gyros Plate dinner with good friend Andy Christo #1 good music fan on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village - L to R: Joe Berger, Andy Christo, Jon Hammond Ali Baba Restaurant 126 MacDougal St New York — with Joe Berger New York NY -- King of Radio & TV Joe Franklin with Jon Hammond in Joe's famous office "Memory Lane" Youtube http://youtu.be/NEWGszvpduU Joe Franklin "King Of Nostalgia" Host of Radio & TV who's guests have been entertainers like Bill Cosby to legends like Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, John Lennon, here with Jon Hammond.. — with Joe Franklin Jon Hammond and Joe Berger aka Ham-Berger Joe is playing through the Leslie G37 100W 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp, Jon has the hammer down through the 300 watt Leslie model 3300 Youtube http://youtu.be/H-wZJpToWbE — with Joe Berger at Namm Jazz Organist Jimmy Smith was absolutely hilarious here, exactly one month before he kicked the bucket unfortunately Youtube http://youtu.be/HYHNxdXCny4 Jimmy Smith NEA Jazz Master Award Recipient Hammond Organist telling last jokes just one month before he passed away on February 8 2005. Filmed by Jon Hammond on NEA Panel including Kenny Burrell, Slide Hampton, Paquito D'Rivera, A.B. Spellman. Jimmy tells the story about his adventures driving his Hammond B3 Organ and musicians in a Hearse and story of (like the commercial) "Got go gotta' go gotta go right now...almost made it" while on the gig on bandstand. Hilarious must see.. Jon Hammond — with George Wein Melvin Sparks March 22, 1946 – March 15, 2011 - Jon Hammond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Sparks Melvin Sparks (March 22, 1946 – March 15, 2011)[1] was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.[1] Sparks was born in Houston, Texas, United States, and raised in a musical family. He received his first guitar at age 11. Sparks began working in the rhythm and blues genre as a high school student, first with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, and then with the Upsetters, a touring band formed by Little Richard, which also backed Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.[2] Sparks moved to New York City and worked as a session musician for Blue Note and Prestige Records. As part of the burgeoning soul-jazz scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sparks often backed organists like Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Charles Earland. Sparks released his debut album, Sparks!, for Prestige in 1970.[2] He was seen on Northeastern television commercials as the voice of Price Chopper's House of BBQ advertising campaign.[3] Sparks died on March 15, 2011, at age 64, at his home in Mount Vernon, New York. He had diabetes and high blood pressure. — with Melvin Sparks Frankfurt Germany -- Jon Hammond setup in Jazzkeller Frankfurt - Hammond Sk1 organ through TecAmp Puma 900 - 2 x 12" Neodymium drivers - Youtube http://youtu.be/AJT522j_nPQ Get Back In The Groove Jon Hammond Band in Jazzkeller Frankfurt 2012 Annual Musikmesse Warm Up Party hosted by Jon Hammond Band in Jazzkeller Frankfurt "Get Back In The Groove" / Tribute to 9/11 by Jon Hammond with Tony Lakatos tenor sax, Joe Berger guitar, Giovanni Gulino drums, Jon Hammond at the Hammond Sk1 organ, special guest Lee Oskar harmonica. This performance marks 26 years consecutive attending Musikmesse Frankfurt and it was also on the birthday of Jon Hammond March 20th, 2012 with a big chocolate on chocolate cake baked by Saray Pastanesi Baeckerei & Konditorei bakery — at Jazzkeller Ulm Germany -- Excellent amplifier for Lead/Rhythm and or Bass/Organ - from Professor Klaus Maier class room at Ulrich-von-Ensingen-Realschule Ulm - Jon Hammond http://www.uve.schule.ulm.de/ ULRICH-VON-ENSINGEN-REALSCHULE Frauenstraße 101 89073 Ulm Emeryville California -- Grand Opening Treff Cafe is already closed, hopefully another reopening in future, the coffee was good while it lasted! Jon Hammond — with Nader Shabahangi and Nora Davis at Agesong At Bayside Park Setzingen - Ulm -- Godfather and God Son of Soul - James Brown and Michael Falkenstein - Hammond Germany Organ Studio happy 30th anniversary! Jon Hammond Youtube http://youtu.be/VjiDnJM0bd0 Congratulations 30th year Hammond Organ Germany Studio pictorial James Brown Visiting his God Son Michael Falkenstein - incredible must see and hear: James Brown the Godfather of Soul and his God Son Michael F...See More — with James Brown and Michael Falkenstein Anaheim California -- Bonnie Raitt and Jon Hammond *Thanks for coming over to check out my band at Shoreline Amphitheatre Bonnie! - Jon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is a renowned American blues singer-songwriter and slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including "Nick of Time", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the slow ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt has received nine Grammy Awards in her career and is a lifelong political activist. Raitt, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock, began playing guitar at an early age, something few of her high school female friends did. Later she would become famous for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. "I had played a little at school and at camp", she later recalled in a July 2002 interview. The camp Raitt refers to is Camp Regis-Applejack, located on Upper St. Regis Lake in New York. [edit]Pre-recording career After graduating from Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1967 Raitt entered Harvard's Radcliffe College as a freshman, majoring in Social Relations and African Studies.[1] "My plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism", Raitt recalled. "I wanted to help undo the damage that Western colonialism had done to native cultures around the world. Cambridge, Massachusetts was a hotbed of this kind of thinking, and I was thrilled." One day, Raitt was told by a friend that blues promoter Dick Waterman was giving an interview at WHRB, Harvard's college radio station. An important figure in the blues revival of the 1960s, Waterman was also a Cambridge resident. Raitt went to see Waterman, and the two soon became friends, "much to the chagrin of my parents, who didn't expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen," recalled Raitt. "I was amazed by his passion for the music and the integrity with which he managed the musicians." During Raitt's sophomore year, Waterman relocated to Philadelphia, and a number of local musicians he counted among his friends went with him. Raitt had become a strong part of that community, recalling that "... these people had become my friends, my mentors, and though I had every intention of graduating, I decided to take the semester off and move to Philadelphia .... It was an opportunity that young white girls just don't get, and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything." By now, Raitt was also playing folk and rhythm and blues clubs in the Boston area, performing alongside established blues legends such as Howlin' Wolf, Sippie Wallace, and Mississippi Fred McDowell, all of whom she met through Waterman. [edit]Signing with Warner Bros. In the fall of 1970, while opening for McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from Newsweek Magazine, who began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt, in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of whom praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists. While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to universal acclaim; though many critics still regard it as her best work, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's Takin' My Time was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales. Raitt was beginning to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone Magazine, but with 1974's Streetlights, reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's Home Plate. In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album with his friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. 1977's Sweet Forgiveness album gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her cover of "Runaway." Recast as a heavy Rhythm and Blues recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics. However, the song's commercial success prompted a bidding war for Raitt between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia – Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia...And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia — no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal." Warner Brothers held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, 1979's The Glow, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt would have one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows spawned the a three-record gold album as well as a Warner Brothers feature film, No Nukes. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and numerous others. For her next record, 1982's Green Light, Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records. However, to her surprise, many of her peers and the media compared her new sound to the burgeoning New Wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this would have a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Brothers. [edit]Drop from Warner Brothers In 1983, as Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, entitled Tongue & Groove, Warner Brothers "cleaned house", dropping a number of major artists such as Van Morrison and Arlo Guthrie from their roster. The day after mastering was completed on Tongue & Groove, the record label dropped Raitt also. The album was shelved indefinitely, and Raitt was left without a record label. By then, Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse problems.[2] Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City", the anti-apartheid record written and produced by guitarist Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt traveled to Moscow in 1987 to participate in the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert, later shown on the Showtime television network. Also in 1987, Raitt organized a benefit in Los Angeles for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid. The benefit featured herself along with musicians Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Holly Near and others. [edit]Tongue and Groove's name change and release Bonnie Raitt at 1990 Grammy Awards Two years after dropping her from their label, Warner Brothers notified Raitt of their plans to release Tongue & Groove. "I said it wasn't really fair," recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as Nine Lives." A critical and commercial disappointment, 1986's Nine Lives would be Raitt's last new recording for Warner Brothers. In late 1987, Raitt joined singers k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocals for Roy Orbison's television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, Raitt began working on new material. By then, Raitt was clean and sober, having resolved her substance abuse problem. She later credited Stevie Ray Vaughan for his help in a Minnesota State Fair concert[3] the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. During this time, Raitt considered signing with Prince's own label, Paisley Park, but negotiations ultimately fell through. Instead she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records. Raitt had met Was through Hal Wilner, who was putting together Stay Awake, a tribute album to Disney music for A%M. Was and Wilner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine", the lullaby from Dumbo. Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Was to produce her next album. [edit]Peak commercial success After nearly 20 years, Bonnie Raitt achieved belated commercial success with her tenth album, Nick of Time. Released in the spring of 1989, Nick of Time went to the top of the U.S. charts following Raitt's Grammy sweep in early 1990. This album has been voted number 230 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. Raitt herself pointed out that her 10th try was "my first sober album."[4] At the same time, Raitt received a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album The Healer. Nick of Time was also the first of many of her recordings to feature her longtime rhythm section of Ricky Fataar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson (Although previously Fataar had played on her Green Light album and Hutchinson had worked on Nine Lives). Nick of Time has sold over six million copies in the US alone. Raitt followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw which has currently sold nearly 8 million copies in the United States. Three years later, in 1994, she added two more Grammys with her album Longing In Their Hearts, her second no. 1 album. Both of these albums were multi-platinum successes. Raitt's collaboration with Was would amicably come to an end with 1995's live release, Road Tested. Released to solid reviews, it sold well enough to be certified gold. For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different," Raitt said. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on Fundamental in 1998. [edit]Current era Raitt performing onstage in 2004 In March 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Silver Lining was released in 2002 while Souls Alike was released in September 2005. Australian Country Music Artist Graeme Connors has said, "Bonnie Raitt does something with a lyric no one else can do; she bends it and twists it right into your heart." (ABC Radio NSW Australia interview with Interviewer Chris Coleman on 18 January 2007)[5] In 2007, Raitt accepted an invitation to contribute to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino. With Jon Cleary, she sang a medley of "I'm in Love Again" and "All by Myself" of Fats Domino. Raitt appeared on the June 7, 2008 broadcast of Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". She performed two blues songs with Kevin "Keb' Mo'" Moore: "No Getting Over You" and "There Ain't Nothin' in Ramblin'." Raitt also sang Dimming of the Day with Richard Thompson. This show, along with another on which Raitt with her band in October 2006, is archived on the Prairie Home Companion web site. In February 2012, Raitt performed a duet with Alicia Keys at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012 honoring Etta James. In April 2012, Raitt released her first studio album since Souls Alike in 2005. Entitled Slipstream, the new album was released in North America on April 10. Slipstream has been praised as "her best album in years and one of the best of her 40-year career" by American Songwriter Magazine.[6] In September 2012, she will be featured in a campaign called "30 Songs / 30 Days" to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book. [7] Bonnie Rait is listed at number 50 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of 100 Greatest Singers.[8] She is also listed at number 89 in the Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Guitarists. [9] [edit]Political activism Raitt's political involvement goes back to the early seventies. Her 1972 album "Give it up" had a dedication "to the people of North Vietnam ..." printed on the back. Raitt's web site urges fans to learn more about preserving the environment. She was a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 and a catalyst for the larger anti-nuclear movement, becoming involved with groups like the Abalone Alliance and Alliance for Survival. In 1994 at the urging of writer Dick Waterman, Raitt funded the replacement of a headstone for one of her mentors, blues guitarist Fred McDowell through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Raitt later financed memorial headstones in Mississippi for musicians Memphis Minnie, Sam Chatmon, and Tommy Johnson again with the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. At the Stockholm Jazz Festival in July 2004, Raitt dedicated a classic to sitting (and later re-elected) U.S. President George W. Bush. She was quoted as saying, "We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!" before she launched into the opening licks of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)", a cover that was featured on her 1979 album The Glow. In 2002, Raitt signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S.A. She has visited children in the program and sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member. In 2008, Raitt donated a song to the Aid Still Required's CD to assist with relief efforts in Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami. Raitt worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2005 Fall/Winter and 2006 Spring/Summer/Fall tours.[10] Raitt is part of the No Nukes group which is against the expansion of nuclear power. In 2007, No Nukes recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth".[11][12][13] During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign Raitt, along with Jackson Browne and bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson, performed at campaign appearances for candidate John Edwards. [edit]Personal life Raitt and actor Michael O'Keefe were married on April 27, 1991. They announced their divorce on November 9, 1999. New York NY -- Junior Mance at the piano - on the gig at Local 802 Musicians Union - this piano finally bit the dust unfortunately - the old Steinway Junior Mance and Jon Hammond interview in 5 parts: http://youtu.be/crsVk2Nt_bA http://youtu.be/Tt5aI2JmoAw http://youtu.be/w2sqVBSIP3M http://youtu.be/8_RtxDg1z_0 — with Junior Mance at Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802 AFM Junior Mance, New School, Pocket Funk, Jon Hammond, Musikmesse, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Morello, NAMM, Blues, Jazz, Sk1 organ "The FINGERS...are The SINGERS!"™
13 Views
02:00:02 08/14/12
New Releases For August 14, 2012 - Press Pause Daily
[LESS INFO] 13 VIEWS | ADDED 02:00:02 08/14/12
This week’s new releases takes you on a ride with death through the gritty streets of Hong Kong and then takes you to a fantasy land to deal with daddy issues.
SHOW NOTES:
GAME 1: Sleeping Dogs - PS3, X360, PC
First up today is Sleeping Dogs. The game began life as True Crime Hong Kong, but then after it was cancelled by Activision, Square Enix picked up and renamed it.
The game places you in the shoes of Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer who goes undercover to a infiltrate Triad known as the Sun On Yee.
As with many open world games, Sleeping Dogs will give you many ways to get around. On foot, players will be able to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts skills in combat. On the vehicle front, you will have access to many types of transportation such as cars, boats and motorcycles.
On the combat side, the game borrows quite a bit from the recent Batman games. It also has what it calls a “freeflow” cover system that will let players flow from cover to cover. All the while you’ll be able to blind fire, free aim, and target specific enemies. You can even target specific body parts as well.
You’ll find all of the usual ways to kill time aside from story missions. There are plenty of side missions as well as many activities such as carjacking, a fight club, karaoke, and more.
On the surface this sounds like a GTA clone with an Asian paint job, but early reviews sound good, and might just be a way to scratch your gritty crime itch until the next GTA game.
GAME 2: Darksiders II - PS3, X360, PC
When the first Darksiders game was released, many didn’t think it would turn out well. A lot of those people were quite surprised though when they played it, and have been looking forward to the next installment.
Darksiders 2 changes things up from the first game, as you no longer play the character of War, and instead move over to his fellow Horseman of the Apocalypse Death. This game basically runs parallel to the first game as you set out to try to prove the innocence of your brother War, who was convicted of having started the Apocalypse early.
The game is a hack-n-slash game that will pit you against many enemies across many environments such as the White City of the Angels and The Eternal Throne where the Lords of the Dead reside. Unlike his brother War, Death is much more nimble and can attack with a combination of melee and ranged attacks. Your primary weapon will the the scythe, but you’ll also have many other weapons and items at your disposal.
And of course they are called the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so you will also be able to ride across the game land on your trusty steed.
The first game was a lot of fun, and felt a lot like a slightly more violent version of The Legend of Zelda, if this game is just as fun as the first one, then I got no worries. It’s available now for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. It will also be making it’s way to the upcoming Wii U as well.
GAME 3: Dust: An Elysian Tail - XBLA
Our first digital game of the week is a little indie developed by Humble Hearts, which is actually just one guy who basically made the entire game by himself.
According to the developer’s website Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D action-RPG video game created for the Xbox 360 platform. Set in the beautiful yet mysterious world of Falana, this game chronicles protagonist Dust's journey to liberate an oppressed village, and rediscover his past. He is aided by an ancient sword, Ahrah, and his helpful if unreserved sidekick, Fidget.
The game was hand animated and painted, and has plenty of exploring and platforming. It also contains a fighting system that rewards skillful players, though it also allows casual or younger players to enjoy the narrative without feeling frustration.
The game looks beautiful, and is amazing when you think that it was done by just one guy. If you’re up for an interesting RPG, the game is available now on XBLA.
GAME 4: Papo & Yo - PSN
And our last game of the day is also a digital game that uses one man’s personal trauma to craft an interesting story about a boy and his monster.
The story focuses on a boy named Quico, who wanders through a South American Favela with his best friend called simply Monster. Monster is the boy’s protector, but he does have a dark side. Monster is addicted to frogs, and when he gorges himself on them becomes violent and is a danger to the Quico and himself. The main thrust of the story is the Quico’s quest to cure Monster of his disease.
The game was developed as part of Sony’s Pub Fund Initiative. The game’s creator is Vander Caballero, who was the former creative head of EA Montreal. Caballero used this game as a way to deal with the relationship with his own father, who was an abusive addict.
This game looks very interesting, and take a very serious subject and uses it to create a unique gaming experience. The game is available now on the Playstation Network.
EXTRA:
Also out this week is the North American release of The Last Story. This game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has been greatly anticipated and also features the music of original Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. The Last Story was the second game in the fan driven Operation Rainfall event that convinced Nintendo to bring it and Xenoblade Chronicles to North America.
Be sure to catch past episodes of Press Pause. To do that, you just need to go to presspause.mevio.com , or our YouTube channel youtube.com/presspausemevio .
2 Views
17:00:16 05/22/12
Best Drifting With Beaters (Part 1) - CAR and DRIVER
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 17:00:16 05/22/12
Best Drifting With Beaters (Part 1) - CAR and DRIVER
Episode 4 - Story 2, Part 1 - Team Champion (Nissan 240 SX) Vs. Team 100 Octane (1972 BMW 2800) (drifting course) This round pits two rival auto garages against each other. But unlike our first two teams, have never done a race like this before. How will this play into their car selections and how will they prepare for it? Can you buy and build a race car for $1000? Matty Blake hosts Battle of the Beaters, in which we see if two teams can do exactly that. In this first of three parts, the teams set out to find the right cars for the job. Only when they've spent the money and tested their cars can they find out if their rides will do the trick. Connect with Matty Blake: Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.youtube.com Connect to Car and Driver: Twitter: bit.ly Facebook: on.fb.me Every week the Car and Driver YouTube Channel will launch episodes of Full Hoon, Driver Rehab, Battle of the Beaters, Car and Driver Tested, Popular Mechanics Saturday Mechanic, and Road & Track Presents! From: CARandDRIVER Views: 11962 200 ratings Time: 09:56 More in Shows
2 Views
09:26:53 11/29/11
Second London Iranian Film Festival
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 09:26:53 11/29/11
Second London Iranian Film Festival
For more news visit ☛ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ http Follow us on Facebook ☛ me.lt Londoners enjoyed a week of films and culture at the Second London Iranian Film Festival. Our correspondent met up with two Iranian film-makers there who are also established film experts. Let's here what they have to say. The Second London Iranian Film Festival presents a week of the best documentaries, shorts, animations and feature films from both established and upcoming film-makers. Esmaeil Mihandoost's first feature film "A Very Close Encounter" tells the story of a highway car crash with a twist. The unusual nonlinear narrative unravels the hidden mind games of the four main characters, and is centered on the close relationship between the two women. Mihandoost says the recent political turmoil in Iran has helped put Iranian cinema on the world map. [Esmaeil Mihandoost, Film Director]: "The world's attention on the Iranian community in recent years has also put Iranian cinema center stage. Also Iranian cinema has improved greatly. One will always find a movie from Iran premiered at any global film festival." The documentary "Bonjour Mr. Ghaffari" pays homage to a pioneer film maker and founder of the Iranian film archive. The revered film expert died in exile in Paris in 2006. Director Parviz Jahed is himself a film critic and Iranian cinema lecturer in London. [Parviz Jahed, Film Director]: "Ghaffari, Golestan and other filmmakers like them were trying to change ... From: NTDTV Views: 2 0 ratings Time: 02:32 More in News & Politics
30 Views
21:00:01 11/14/11
Confirmed Serial Adulterer Passes Alleged Serial Harasser in GOP Race
[LESS INFO] 30 VIEWS | ADDED 21:00:01 11/14/11
Here in a nutshell is the state of play in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes: alleged serial sexual harasser Herman Cain is being surpassed by confirmed serial adulterer Newt Gingrich . With Mitt Romney stalled and Cain hemorrhaging support from women voters, polls last week from CBS and Marist showed the former House Speaker had surged into a virtual three-way tie at the top. By Monday, new surveys from CNN and PPP showed Newt vaulting past the fading pizza maker. Nevertheless, that development should be a discomforting prospect for a Republican Party which lost the women's vote by 13 points in 2008. As his public statements and personal life show, the thrice-married Gingrich is hardly a champion for American women.
That starts with Newt Gingrich's belief that marriage is an institution between one man and three women in rapid succession.
In 1980, Newt was separated from his first wife and former high school geometry teacher , Jackie Battley. As she lay incoherent in her hospital bed following surgery for a reoccurrence of uterine cancer, Gingrich paid her a visit to announce he wanted a divorce. As Lee Howell , a Gingrich friend and associate at whose wedding Newt was best man, described it: >
"Newt came up there with his yellow legal pad, and he had a list of things on how the divorce was going to be handled. He wanted her to sign it. She was still recovering from surgery, still sort of out of it, and he comes in with a yellow sheet of paper, handwritten, and wants her to sign it. >
Newt can handle political problems, but when it comes to personal problems, he's a disaster. He handled the divorce like he did any other political decision: You've got to be tough in this business, you've got to be hard. Once you make the decision you've got to act on it. Cut your losses and move on."
He moved on to wife number two, Marianne Ginther . But Marianne fared little better, getting dumped for Congressional staffer Callista Bisek after a six year affair even as Newt was leading the inquisition of Bill Clinton. As Vanity Fair summed it up last year: >
According to Salon, Gingrich and the former Hill staffer (23 years his junior, mind you) would frequently dine in the Supreme Court cafeteria--an unsuspectingly sordid detail. (In 1995, Vanity Fair referred to Bisek as Gingrich's "frequent breakfast companion.") Gingrich stepped down from Congress in 1998 following an ethics scandal, among other things. The two were married two years later.
Gingrich, who swapped his Baptist faith for Catholicism just in time to attack President Obama's 2009 address at Notre Dame University, later explained that his rapid fire infidelities were the actually product of his own patriotism: >
"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them."
Of course, the things Newt Gingrich was saying to American women weren't any better.
As the New York Times recounted 16 years ago, Newt suggested menstruation should keep women out of essential roles in the American military: >
"If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don't have upper-body strength. I mean, some do, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets -- you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn't matter, you know."
And for Gingrich, the biggest "infection" of them all - liberalism - caused a young mother to murder her children.
Back in 1994, after dumping his cancer-stricken first wife but before marrying his mistress following the adulterous affair that ended his second marriage, Newt pointed the finger at Democrats for the Susan Smith affair.
It was Smith who drew Americans' initial sympathy - and subsequent scorn - for her invention of a black bogeyman to conceal her heinous crime.
On October 24th, 1994, as the New York Times recalled, Smith killed her young sons, killings for which she was eventually sentenced to life in prison: >
That night, investigators say, Mrs. Smith pulled her car to the edge of a deep lake, stepped out, put the gearshift in drive and let it roll down the boat ramp into the black water. Her two little boys, buckled snugly in their safety seats, died under the lake... >
..."I believed her, right up to the end," said Juliaette Kerhulas, of Mrs. Smith's story that a young black man had ordered her out of her burgundy 1990 Mazda on the night of Oct. 25, then driven away with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander in the back seat.
Ms. Kerhulas wasn't the only one who believed in her. None other than future House Speaker Newt Gingrich rushed to the defense of Smith, whose step-father ironically happened to be a prominent Republican fundraiser and member of the Christian Coalition. Even after her confession, Gingrich insisted the Smith murders showed the decay of American society under Democratic Party rule : >
Enter Newt Gingrich, who rushed into action on election eve with another reliable generic culprit: society. He said the double murder "vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things," expediently adding that "the only way you get change is to vote Republican."
As Frank Rich recounted in August 1995: >
Asked later by Tom Brokaw to elaborate, the Speaker-to-be cited "a direct nexus between the general acceptance of violence" and "the pattern that the counterculture and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society began in the late 60's."
Of course, the 1960's also happened to be the time when the women's movement rose to prominence. The victories it achieved for women's political equality, economic independence and reproductive rights transformed American society and helped move the nation closer to a "more perfect union."
Apparently, those epochal changes escaped Herman Cain's notice. And while Cain's is being punished in the polls for it, he is being replaced atop the GOP field by Newt Gingrich . While that may be a good thing for Tiffany's bottom line , it's a sad development for American women.
27 Views
21:00:01 11/14/11
Confirmed Serial Adulterer Passes Alleged Serial Harasser in GOP Race
[LESS INFO] 27 VIEWS | ADDED 21:00:01 11/14/11
Here in a nutshell is the state of play in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes: alleged serial sexual harasser Herman Cain is being surpassed by confirmed serial adulterer Newt Gingrich . With Mitt Romney stalled and Cain hemorrhaging support from women voters, polls last week from CBS and Marist showed the former House Speaker had surged into a virtual three-way tie at the top. By Monday, new surveys from CNN and PPP showed Newt vaulting past the fading pizza maker. Nevertheless, that development should be a discomforting prospect for a Republican Party which lost the women's vote by 13 points in 2008. As his public statements and personal life show, the thrice-married Gingrich is hardly a champion for American women.
That starts with Newt Gingrich's belief that marriage is an institution between one man and three women in rapid succession.
In 1980, Newt was separated from his first wife and former high school geometry teacher , Jackie Battley. As she lay incoherent in her hospital bed following surgery for a reoccurrence of uterine cancer, Gingrich paid her a visit to announce he wanted a divorce. As Lee Howell , a Gingrich friend and associate at whose wedding Newt was best man, described it: >
"Newt came up there with his yellow legal pad, and he had a list of things on how the divorce was going to be handled. He wanted her to sign it. She was still recovering from surgery, still sort of out of it, and he comes in with a yellow sheet of paper, handwritten, and wants her to sign it. >
Newt can handle political problems, but when it comes to personal problems, he's a disaster. He handled the divorce like he did any other political decision: You've got to be tough in this business, you've got to be hard. Once you make the decision you've got to act on it. Cut your losses and move on."
He moved on to wife number two, Marianne Ginther . But Marianne fared little better, getting dumped for Congressional staffer Callista Bisek after a six year affair even as Newt was leading the inquisition of Bill Clinton. As Vanity Fair summed it up last year: >
According to Salon, Gingrich and the former Hill staffer (23 years his junior, mind you) would frequently dine in the Supreme Court cafeteria--an unsuspectingly sordid detail. (In 1995, Vanity Fair referred to Bisek as Gingrich's "frequent breakfast companion.") Gingrich stepped down from Congress in 1998 following an ethics scandal, among other things. The two were married two years later.
Gingrich, who swapped his Baptist faith for Catholicism just in time to attack President Obama's 2009 address at Notre Dame University, later explained that his rapid fire infidelities were the actually product of his own patriotism: >
"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them."
Of course, the things Newt Gingrich was saying to American women weren't any better.
As the New York Times recounted 16 years ago, Newt suggested menstruation should keep women out of essential roles in the American military: >
"If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don't have upper-body strength. I mean, some do, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets -- you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn't matter, you know."
And for Gingrich, the biggest "infection" of them all - liberalism - caused a young mother to murder her children.
Back in 1994, after dumping his cancer-stricken first wife but before marrying his mistress following the adulterous affair that ended his second marriage, Newt pointed the finger at Democrats for the Susan Smith affair.
It was Smith who drew Americans' initial sympathy - and subsequent scorn - for her invention of a black bogeyman to conceal her heinous crime.
On October 24th, 1994, as the New York Times recalled, Smith killed her young sons, killings for which she was eventually sentenced to life in prison: >
That night, investigators say, Mrs. Smith pulled her car to the edge of a deep lake, stepped out, put the gearshift in drive and let it roll down the boat ramp into the black water. Her two little boys, buckled snugly in their safety seats, died under the lake... >
..."I believed her, right up to the end," said Juliaette Kerhulas, of Mrs. Smith's story that a young black man had ordered her out of her burgundy 1990 Mazda on the night of Oct. 25, then driven away with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander in the back seat.
Ms. Kerhulas wasn't the only one who believed in her. None other than future House Speaker Newt Gingrich rushed to the defense of Smith, whose step-father ironically happened to be a prominent Republican fundraiser and member of the Christian Coalition. Even after her confession, Gingrich insisted the Smith murders showed the decay of American society under Democratic Party rule : >
Enter Newt Gingrich, who rushed into action on election eve with another reliable generic culprit: society. He said the double murder "vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things," expediently adding that "the only way you get change is to vote Republican."
As Frank Rich recounted in August 1995: >
Asked later by Tom Brokaw to elaborate, the Speaker-to-be cited "a direct nexus between the general acceptance of violence" and "the pattern that the counterculture and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society began in the late 60's."
Of course, the 1960's also happened to be the time when the women's movement rose to prominence. The victories it achieved for women's political equality, economic independence and reproductive rights transformed American society and helped move the nation closer to a "more perfect union."
Apparently, those epochal changes escaped Herman Cain's notice. And while Cain's is being punished in the polls for it, he is being replaced atop the GOP field by Newt Gingrich . While that may be a good thing for Tiffany's bottom line , it's a sad development for American women.
21 Views
15:25:05 10/12/11
The Art of Casting: Unraveling the Myth - SXSW 2011 Film
[LESS INFO] 21 VIEWS | ADDED 15:25:05 10/12/11
The Art of Casting: Unraveling the Myth - SXSW 2011 Film
For independent filmmaking, casting is an essential part. The casting director's role can encompass pre-production, dealing with un-financed material, and helping first time directors gain knowledge about actors, acting, and the business in general. PRESENTERS MODERATOR Suzanne Weinert Pres Flatiron Pictures Suzanne Weinert in an independent writer/producer who began her career as the VP of Shoelace Productions, participating in the development and production of more than 25 projects including Erin Brockovich, Step and the award winning wildlife documentaries Nature Series: Wild Horses of Mongolia and Orangutans of Borneo as well as the award winning short film The Call Back starring Sam Rockwell. Her recent screenplays include rewriting Shrinking Violet for Revolution Studios; Road Stories, directed by Steven Seebring and released February 2004; Good to the Last Drop, a finalist for Best Comedy at the Austin Film Festival; and ExTerminators, a dark comedy about a group of women (Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard) who form a successful business exterminating ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends. Suzanne is currently in post-production on the western The Legends of Hell's Gate, starring Eric Balfour, Henry Thomas, Jenna Dewan, Summer Glau, Robert Buckley and Lou Taylor Pucci and is set to begin production in Sring 2011 on a race car movie, One In a Million Hero. Suzanne holds an MFA from the School of the Arts, Columbia University; a Graduate Certificate from The ... From: sxsw Views: 761 0 ratings Time: 08:12 More in Film & Animation
29 Views
03:00:00 09/20/11
New Releases for September 20, 2011 - Press Pause Daily
[LESS INFO] 29 VIEWS | ADDED 03:00:00 09/20/11
This week’s new releases has burly soldiers, fast cars, and some downloadable content.
SHOW NOTES:
GAME #1:
First up is the next game in the Gears of War franchise. Gears of War 3 brings back Marcus Fenix and crew to do more battle with the Locust as well as the more powerful and dangerous Lambent. With time is running out for the remnants of humanity, will Delta Squad be able to save what is left? I guess that depends on you.
The game will have explosive run and gun action, as well as an expansive multiplayer section with many cooperative and competitive levels.
And hey...Ice-T voices a character in the game and even made a song for the soundtrack. So I mean....what’s more awesome than that?
GAME #2:
For you race fans out there we have F1 2011. This latest game in the Formula One series places you in the role of an up and coming driver on the FIA Formula One World circuit. You’ll race in locations around the world with a beautiful game engine that has detailed damage and physics. It also has authentic real world vehicles and large range of player customization. You’ll also have many of your favorite drivers, as well as new circuits and rules brand new for 2011. There is also a new focus on multiplayer gaming, that includes co-op racing.
If the thought of strapping yourself in, and hitting the track makes your heart race, then grab this game and get the next best thing to hitting the road yourself.
GAME #3:
And lastly we a couple of downloadable releases.
Capcom is releasing the first of it’s HD Resident Evil remakes: Resident Evil 4. The game that basically saved the franchise is back with HD graphical improvements and feature all of the previous bonus content. So if you missed the 15 other releases of this game, or just want to revisit it with improved visuals, it will be available for both PSN and XBLA for a price of $19.99 (or 1600 Microsoft Points).
Also, the fourth DLC pack for Fallout: New Vegas will be released which brings the story full circle. In the release, called Lonesome Road, you are contacted by the original “Courier Six”, a man named Ulysses. He was the man who refused to make the delivery that set your character’s story in motion. He promises to give you an explanation why he did it, but only if you take a job that will lead you into the hurricane swept canyons to the Divide.
The release is coming to PS3, 360, and PC, so head back into the post-apocalyptic lands of the American southwest and find out if you have what it takes to survive The Divide.
That will do it for your daily dose of Press Pause. Be sure to check out our live discussion show today over at twitch.tv/presspause at 12 pm pacific. You can also find fully edited episodes over at our Youtube channel: youtube.com/presspausemevio .
