Pretend I just woke from a dream in which the United States of America was a land built on liberty and justice for all. My mind is still addled, full of silly egalatarian notions. I don’t get how stuff really works. So help me. Remind me again why… Remind me again why it’s legal in...
For those who came of age in segregationist America, while Jim Crow laws still littered the South and neighborhoods in the North observed pernicious unwritten boundaries, Barack Obama’s victory feels like a hot shower after an interminable day spent toiling in a filthy, disease-ridden swamp. Even for people of my generation, who grew up post-Martin...
A cursory search of the archives here will provide numerous examples of my distaste for the sickening charade that passes as American democracy in action. Aside from emotionally charged issues such as abortion, gun rights, and school prayer, the differences between the two major parties are negligible, especially in their comical willingness to subsume ôprinciplesö...
Among the usual detritus that makes its way into my inbox, an email I got recently made the come-ons for penny stocks, penis enlarging pills and Nigerian lottery windfalls seem downright benign. I was forwarded a missive featuring an authentic photo of Barack Obama standing in front of an American flag with his hands...
Our quasi-elected government, the one that ran successfully in 2004 on the stirring “protecting the institution of marriage from sodomites and dykes” platform, the one that upholds “family values,” the one that consults divine “higher powers” before making tough human decisions — that same government, the one populated by “compassionate conservatives,” advocates the use of...
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...
