I have a new book out, my 11th. Canada’s EggyPress has published a tasty and easily digested collection of my humorous social justice essays. It’s called How the Revolution Started: Essays and Impertinent Thoughts. Revolting times need revolutionary words — and literary reminders that progressive change is not only necessary, it’s imminent. We offer you, dear reader, the...
Excerpted from “How the Revolution Started: Essays and Impertinent Thoughts.” How obvious and ingenuous and untenuous Is the adoration she has for the child, the one she pushes in a fourteen hundred dollar Stroller? Her smile radiates a protective shroud of love over the low chariot And protects the sleeping boy inside, oblivious to what...
Excerpted from “How the Revolution Started: Essays and Impertinent Thoughts.” He’s outfitted for combat: Ankle boots; black dungarees; Sam Jones belt with cuffs and mace and other tools of the craft; bulletproof vest; sunglasses; implacable stare. And a gun, holstered at the moment. The nametag says “Ortiz” or it could be “Gomez” or “Gonzalez” Or...
Hope RekindledThis past week has given us more hope for our diseased republic than any other time in 50+ years of paying attention. Observing and participating in a long-overdue peaceful uprising, occupying the streets, feeling the righteous energy of people of all ages, colors, faiths, and wealth (or lack thereof), has…
Used traditionally, in most Western music the bass keeps time churning out fat quarter-notes based on the root of a chord. Ba-dum-dum-dum-dum. On his addictive new recording Tines of Change, the visionary master bassist and composer explores his instrument’s under-utilized sonic possibilities. The concatenation of squeaks, grumbles, twitters, growls, whistles, knocks, cries, howls, and, yes, nice...
