Dashan Coram 1981-2012

New Rayvon Browne Release

Despite a slight conflict of interest:

The Only "Pimpin' Ain't Easy" That Matters

May 4, 2012: I Can't Believed I Missed This Song Until Now

Justin Remer made a surprise appearance at the Everything Goes Book Cafe on Staten Island Friday night.  This is one of the songs he performed. If anyone has his performance from that night on tape let me know so I can post it here as well.

Charles Mansfield Tells It True

The Struggle To Be A Better Human Being

Is made a tiny bit easier by listening to Debe Dalton. Don't you think?

Boomers or Stickers: What Be We?

http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/wendell-e-berry-lecture

Remember: You Heard It Here First

The Weight @ Catweazle 4/19/12

Joe Crow Ryan In The Studio Covering Soft Black

Bed of Seeds

Thursday March 1, 2012 - Stuff Happened

 Stuff Like This:

Matthew Silver at Goodbye Blue Monday
"don't take it personally "
"I'm an artist!" 

Bird To Prey at Goodbye Blue Monday

1. Peppertree Road
2. Big Dog
3. [The Shed]?
4. The Devil Deep Inside
5. Mirrors and Smoke I'm Dancing With The Ghose
6. Emily
7. Mighty River

Matthew Silver at Goodbye Blue Monday
(defends his voice)
"the enlightened duck"
"quacking is as important as farting" 

Ben Pagano (w/Charles Mansfield and Nate Dyer) at Goodbye Blue Monday

1.  It's My First Day At School
2.  Frozen Hearts
3.  Liquid Drops of Mushroom Candy
4.  Woman In White
5.  I'm A Hipster, Baby (Williamsburg Wet Dream) 
6.  Farewell
7.  Robots are controlling your.com

Matthew Silver at Goodbye Blue Monday
(speaking in his actual voice) 

Final Night of the Festival: Missing the Oscars And Not Even Realizing It

2012 Winter Antifolk Festival at Sidewalk Cafe
Fifth and Final Night
Sunday February 26, 2012

It was A Blackout Night. Candlelight with No Amplification.

Opening Sing-A-Long Led By Level 2:  The Star Spangled Banner. (Lyrics by Francis Scott Key Music said to be an old drinking song entitled Anacreon In Heaven.)

Beau Alessi

1. Hypercollider
2. Three Day Weekend
3. Trudy Is Not A Punk
4. Architeuthis
5  Baby Boomer Auto-Fellation Party
6. Pseudoephedrine
7. Wendy
8. Flavor Country

Blueberry Season

1. would write
2. you are one for me
3. head to toe. covered in snow
4  love is a complex being
5. dreamfucker
6. blending disrepair
7  i can't save you from the rain
8. unrepentant demise
9. grumble grumble grumble
10. shelling

Breadfoot


1. International Esther
2. Polly Loved Me I Know
3. For My Sake
4. "I didn't bargain on it being so hard..."
5. Valentine
6. You're Not Your Money (w/ Anders Griffen on drums)
7. With Uncle Pappy Theme
8.  Uncle Pappy's Learning Blues
9. Bringing It Home

Anders Griffen- Interlude


Osei Essed


1. Wild Dakota
2. I'm The One
3. Narrow Ease (w/ Anders Griffen on drums)
4. Wants Some
5. Saints Romantic
6. Saint Augustine
7. Shelter Me
8. How Am I Doing, Ma?

Anders Griffen- Interlude


Myron The Magnificent and the Lovely Vera


1. Salt
2. Non-Flaming Rope Vivisection
3. Memories of Meeting
4. Souls of Thousands of Silkworms
5. Telekinesis
6. Thought Transference
7. What's wrong with Stuey The Stupendous
8. Floating Knish

Anders Griffen - Interlude


Larkin Grimm

1.  Pool Of Milk
2. How To Catch A Lizard
3. Dominican Rum
4. The Road Is Paved With Leaves
5. Pool Of Tears
6. Without A Body Or A Numb And Useless Mind
7. Be A Great Burglar


Turner Cody
1. Memories of You
2. Beautiful Day
3. The Score
4. Know How I Feel About You
5. Everyone and No One
6. Ounce of Gold
7. Get Back On The Train

Chink Floyd
Master Lee on Reality; Jonathan on Piano

Mr. Patrick
Stories of the Dead and the Living

Level 2 led the Final Singalong
1. Stand By Me
2. Margaritaville
3. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, his name is my name too. Whenever we go out the people always shout "There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt." Da da da dadada.
4. Down By The Riverside
5. Lean On Me
6. One Bottle Pop
7. You Are My Sunshine
8. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
9. Free Falling
10. Row Row Row Your Boat
11. Don't Let Me Down
12. This Land is Your Land


  
   

 

This Night Went Fourth

Dewey and the Decimals

1. Red-tailed Fox
2. Orchids
3. "I give you all my happiness. . ."
4. Shakes
5. Progenitors
6. You're A Mystery
7. House Guest
8. Blue Raincoat


Jon B. Roche

1. Bottom To Thee Bottle
2. Go Love
3. Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms
4. Small Life
5. Good Hearted Woman
6. Dr. Dragatsky
7. You've Been On My Mind
8. Getting Used To It
9. Crawdad Song
10. How Much Do I Owe
11. D-R-U-N-K

BEN PAGANO & CHARLES MANSFIELD
(Dubbed Chagano by Mr. Krieger)

1. "Snow falling slightly" (CM)
2.  Woman in White (BP)
3. Inside Your Head (CM)
4. The World Was Not Enough (CM)
5 Robots Are Controlling Your.com (BP)

6. Pray To Make It Okay (CM)
7. Reality (BP)
8. I'm A Hipster (BP)
9. Ghosts (CM)
10. Farewell (BP)
11. Monday Morning (CM)
12. Bugs & Flowers (J.Lewis)
13. It's My First Day of School (BP)

Bernard King Presents:
1. "Dear Ben 2 Ducks. . ." read by the Bee Keeper
2.  Shelter 2005 by Elizabeth Watson read by Morgan Heringer
3. "I love you. . ." read by Brian Fitzsousa and 2 unnamed companions
4.  Poem by Denise Levertov read by Nate Dyer
5. "tears of sympathy. . ." read by the Bee Keeper
6. Poem for the Half Light read by Ben Pagano
7. Flaxen Haired Girl read by the Bee Keeper
8. How Can My Pen Cease To Write read by Timmy Rut
9. Alexa read by Brent Cole and Cat Rockefeller
9. "copper etchings..." read by the Bee Keeper
10. Catholics on Ash Wednesday by Jen Kaplan read by Jen Kaplan
11. Ash Wednesday by Nerissa Nields read by Elizabeth Watson
12. Shrove Tuesday by Marguerite Maria Rivas read by Sarah Turk
13. "all is new..." read by the Bee Keeper
14. Our Savior Lutheran Church Spring Fair read by J.J. Hayes
15. "It was inevitable..." read by Matthew Silver

ROB SHAPIRO talked about Narcissistic Assholes that roam our streets and Recovery and stuff like that; and finished with his  Drunk song with Brer Brian on piano.
JEN KAPLAN talked about having 10 magnum size condoms and having had sex 4 times and stuff like that

GO LOVE 

1. Go Love
2. Cast my Fate To the Wind
3. Minty
4. Mask
5. Goodhearted Woman
6. Vote Allan For Prom King
7. Sun-Trap
8. How Much Do I Owe
9 .Monster Ballad
10.  Go Love

BERTH CONTROL

1. Backwoods Nation
2. Telephone Wires
3. Banned In Brooklyn
4. Man-made of Objects
5. No Quitters
6. Girls From The City
7.Corrupted DNA
8. Lower Middle Class Anthem
9. Vegetarians Are Bland
10. Hearts Beat

Deep Sound Diver

1. Brian Epstein
2. "what goes up must come down..."
3. Walkin'
4. Tennessee July
5. "You're blue shirt is a red flag. . ."
6. "wish you'd come and see me..."
7. "blackout baby. . ."
8. "product of a year long bender. . ."
9. Little Bells
10. "Babylon is scramble-on. . ."      
   
   

Third Night

2012 Winter Antifolk Festival at the Sidewalk Cafe
Third Night
Friday, February 24, 2012

Pinelawn Empire


1. Cheatah
2. 400
3. I Know
4. Vampire
5. A Leaving Song
6. 5 1/2 Minute Hallway
7. The Lonesome Death of Hank Williams
8. Shove It
9. Crack Rock Candy Mountain

Ivan Sandomire

1. Floor Number 4
2. Wolfskin Sheep
3. Halley's Comet
4. Pencil Markings
5. Alone (From "Night At the Opera")
6. Silkworm
7. Teacher's Pet
8. Moonshiner

Gina Mobilio


1. Dino Love
2. Interview
3. Steal the Show
4. Cha-ching!
5. Razor Behavior

Keyke


1.  Fish and Birds
2. Bobby Joe Watkins
3. Intro to Three Daughters
4. Don't Be Fucking Stupid
5. As Cocaine
6. Ingested Ajax
7. Boy No Love

Emily Einhorn


1. Fairytale of 2009
2. Marie
3. In The Office
4. Beggartown
5. Nonsense
6. Roses
7. I Wake Up

The Daily Planet


1. Moanin'
2. Moon River
3. Summertime
4. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
5. My Funny Valentine
6. Sunny
7/ Bubbles

Mutiny Amongst Friends


1.  Atlas Ain't Got Shit
2.  Hopscotch in Holland
3.  A Bottle of Wine
4.  The Naugatuck Song
5.  Don't Worry About It
6.  The Rap Song
7.  A Wong Hong Kong Fubar
8.  Fire Escapes on Fire
9.  Thick Black Frames
10. Addicted

BROOK PRIDEMORE


1. First verse of Steve Miller's "Rockin' Me" followed by a song whose name I don't know, but help me out here guys, with lines like "eyes slammed shut" "the city is teeming with grownups parading as kids" "the damage is done.

2. Brighter Light
3 Castrop-Rauxel
4. The Kalamazoo Promise
5. Listening to TPM
6. Hurricane Ivan
7. No One Belongs Here More Than You
8. Absolutely Zero Potential
9. Brother Comfort
10. Baptist Crutch
11. John Darnielle
12. Grace of a Corpse

Yossarian Feedback
1.

2.  Bird in Pain
3. This is the World at Sunset

First Two Days of the 2012 Winter Antifolk Fest

2012 Winter Antifolk Fest at Sidewalk Cafe
First Night
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Miguel Morte Valentine

1. Young Witch
2.  The Christ in You
3.  Women Always Take The Winner Home
4. Snow Queen
5  Shot in Head
6. (Song from Raggedy Ann's Musical)-"When You Don't Have a Friend") + Blue

7. "We're gonna kill the California girls"
8.  Faith and Lovers

Rachel Laitman

1.  Possibilities
2.  Sea Song
3. Ally Song
4. A Better Son/Daughter (Rilo Kiley cover)
5. Couldn't Be You
6. Country Song
7. Grateful
8. Angry Boyfriend
9  Nice/Rad Boyfriend
10. Hanna

Andrew Choi

1. Beatiful Liar (#10)
2. Bitter Pill (#28)
3. Korea (#78)
4  Kroger Twilight (#25)
5. Nixon (#55)
6. First Days (#41)
7. Cleveland Avenue (#11)
8. Bethesda (#48)

Jon Berger

1. By Way of Introduction
2. In Flight
3. First  Come
4. (Add an F?) (Adenev?)
5. Wandering Heart
6. He who is me
7. One in in a thousand
8. Change of Rhythm
9. Quit Me, Baby
10. Rhymes with X
11. Poem While Running Away
12. Wins
13. Bad Fit
14. How's My Drinking
15. Komodo Rats
16. Abroad
17. In the Grey
18. Jude Law Could
19. The Pandas
20. Six Days
21.  Ballad of Jon Berger
22.  Untenable Beauty
23.  Melody n Rhyme
24  Suck Wintergreen
25. Steving
26. Right To Choose
27. I  like you
28. My name is Jon Berger

Brian Speaker

1. "I'm gonna let you down easy..."
2.  Collector
3. Telephone Switchboard Operator
4. Isabella's Ghost
5 "You creep along" (la la la L.A.'s)
6. Sun Kiss
7. "Swirl me around in your mouth. . ."
8. Song for Dan & Rachel ("She must be just like me")
9. Heart With a Hammer
10. Bird

Morgan Herringer

1. February Heat
2. Sun-Trap
3. Helium Balloon
4. Fuck You Tony
5. Prook in the Pudding
6. Cat on Chest
7. I Need A Boyfriend
8. Blackout (?)
9. B-46
10. Ghost of Rick Danko
11  Susanne

Ching Chong Song

1. Roreesa
2. Dream 7
3. Heads Will Roll
4. Not white white
5. To The Rising
6. Madeline
7. Short Reprise of Not white white
8. Who You Sleep With
9. Ghost Clock
10. Old Man

Nate Awesome

1. "Never tell your Momma. . ."
2. Last Call Girls
3. Tiptoed into Love
4. Nothing Living Can Stop Us Now
5. "Girls like you aren't supposed to like guys like me
6 "The church is my home, the bar is my vacation...."
7. "Tramps like us..."
8.  I Bleed

Alex P. and the Shoe-String Revue

1. What kind of friend is what
2. Smile In Silence
3. The 12 Minute Girl
4. You Left Me Here
 [Vamp while changing strings]
5. In The Ridge
6. How Could You

2012 Winter Antifolk Festival at Sidewalk Cafe
Second Night
Thursday February 23, 2012

Intro by Joe Crow Ryan
1. One of Each

Side O' Ranch

1. My Dues
2. So, I Like You
3. A Drinking Song Called Apathy
4. Tomboy
5. No Weed in Wythesville Virginia
6. Alcohol
7. Makes My Day
8. Mas Duro
9. Ring of Fire/Single Ladies

Girls Scouts

1. Don't Hold To Me
2. Thinking About You
3. In Your Shell
4.Doncamatic
5. Holy Blackbird
6.Prototype
7. Owl Style
8. I Don't Know Which One
9. Walking In The Dark

Mike Cecconi

1. "Fuck you, Ayn Rand..."
 2. Generic Poetry Slam Poem

Matthew Silver (w/Nick Creger)

1. No You Are Not OK and Yes You Must Go On

Matthew Peverly

1. The Breezy Shore
2.Skin and Bones
3. Useless Piece of Equipment
4. God's Green Kingdom
5. Weatherman
6. Over and Over

Domino

1. Tissues
2. Elizabeth
3. Romano Cheese
4. Morrison Inspired
5  I Want You To Do This When I Say So
6  Baby, It's Cold Outside
7. The Super Repeats

Matthew Silver (w/ Nick Creger)

1. Fear Is Illusion (Love is the only Thing That's Real)

Mike Cecconi

1. Like A Sasquatch in Amber

2. An Open Letter to the Erectile Dysfunction Medication Industry


Frank Rathbone

1. After Their Cry
2. Do Re Mi (Guthrie)
3. Duck Song
4. I Saw Fences Abound
5. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (instr.)
6. I Was In Your Room
7. Freight Train Blues
8. Constellations

Joe Crow Ryan

1. Misty
2. Stardust
3. I Can't Help Falling In Love With You
4. Worryin' It
5. My Favorite Things
6. Of Course I Do
7. Irish Blessing
8. Chicken Blows

Debe Dalton

1.W8NC
2. Willie Moore
3. In My Dream I
4. I Just Wanted To Go Home (Fuck You Thomas Wolfe)
5. He Loves You
6. In The Dark

Closing Remarks and Song By Joe Crow Ryan

1. Somethings Wrong and I'm Angry.....Genital to Genital, Mouth to Mouth

Minor Historical Question: Are these about the Same Guy? Is One a Response To the Other?

Not that it's anyone's business. Really.

The Long And Winding Road To Possible Evidence In Support of an Historical Hypothesis

Prelude: On December 8th and 9th, 2011 Kenny Young and the Eggplants played Edinburgh Scotland. Whether they were ever part of the scene, they certainly graced the stage of the Sidewalk at times.  The supporting act for them on December 8th was Lach, recently relocated to Scotland.


Two days later our story begins:

This was part of the Chameleon reunion night at the Sidewalk Cafe.  Later on I was speaking with Ray Brown  and, if I recall correctly, Charlie who had been his bandmate (with Cybele) from the short lived "Six Inch Dick".  Ray put forward the notion that although punk is often mentioned as one the defining musical influences on antifolk, or at least the one everyone talks about, there was also a real hip hop influence and that the some of the folk at the Chameleon were in fact very into hip hop.  This discussion I think came up somewhat in response to a song I had written about what I was doing in 1989, while Kid Rock was singing "Sweet Home Alabama" all summer long and all the good stuff was happening at the Chameleon.

Now the histories of Antifolk, often as extensive as a paragraph or two, always emphasize the punk influence,  and perhaps a punk aesthetic, and at least a punk spirit. But was hip hop influence, aesthetic or spirit anywhere in the mix?

Flash forward to earlier today (now yesterday).  I had read Gina Mobilio's interview with Ben Krieger for American Songwriter. In addition to one of the more apt descriptions of the Antifolk Fest as "a five-day mind-altering artistic hypnosis" the intro to the Q & A also describes Lach as 'self-proclaimed coiner of the term “Antifolk.”'


Now it will be recalled that Gina Mobilio's article for the Fall 2011 Fest featured Jeffrey Lewis attempting a definition of antifolk which engendered some discussion including a detailed response from Lach.  That definition did link antifolk to punk in a very strong way, somewhat limited by Lach but strongly affirmed by Joe Bendik. But nowhere in that exchange is hip hop mentioned.  


Nevertheless  the mention of the "term 'Antifolk'" sent me on a chase to find the earliest mention of the word antifolk  as we use it now. The earliest I found was this 1988 article in Option  by Mark  Kemp entitled "Folk Off".  That article is interesting as an early press notice of the scene. It  focuses on Michelle Shocked, Lach, Kirk Kelly, Roger Manning and Cindy Berryhill.. What caught my eye was the description of the scene at the Chameleon:


On some nights, you’ll catch Manning or Kelly or Berryhill there, and there’ll always be scads of new kids on the folk music block.

Among the scads of new kids on the folk music block I presume were people like the two members of Six Inch Dick I was speaking with 23 years later. The ones who were positing a real early hip hop influence on the scene. 

Now understand that through all this searching I was not thinking about punk, hip hop or my conversation with two-thirds of Six Inch Dick. I was looking for the usage of the term Antifolk. Out of curiosity I went to a slightly later article,by Charlie Ahearn in the September 1990 issue of Spin. And there I found this:

Basically Lach wants to be known for his songs. He claims to have written over 500, influenced by everybody from Hank Williams to Chuck D.

Chuck D!

And suddenly I recall that in the law office I sat and worked at those nights in the late eighties/early nineties I would speak with our then killer typist, Ed Logue.  He was a drummer. I recall him telling me how he would love to do an acoustic version of  "Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos" His band was getting very popular in Scotland. They were called Kenny Young and the Eggplants.  

Did the Times and News get it all Wrong? What REALLY went on at the Vatican?

Here is a picture from the New York Times website:

This is from the Daily New website:

The caption on the News photo is:

"New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan received his red hat from Pope Benedict inside Saint Peter's."

The Times described the scene this way:


"Benedict received the cardinals-designate from his throne under a soaring dome designed by Michelangelo, as one by one they knelt before the 84-year-old pope and received the red silk square-ridged hats, called birettas, that signify princes of the church."

"RED HAT" "RED SILK" 

The hats in those pictures look mighty orange to me.  Am I wrong about this. Is my eyesight going? I found this image from NY1:

And this AP photo:

That is Red. 

So what really went on in the Vatican? Clearly photos can disagree about the true color scheme of the events. This is important. How am I to visualize? Do I take the words "red hat" or  "red silk" literally or figuratively? 

They say Timothy Dolan received his red hat at the Vatican today. Can we really believe that? If so what are the Times and the Daily News up to?

Remedies And Preventatives For the Upcoming Season Of Hate Part I Identity Schmidentity, Liberal Schmiberal, Conservative Schmervative

As we enter the Quadrennial Season of Hate I have thought to explore possible remedies and preventatives. After all that a large number of persons who don't even know me and whom I have never met should wield such control over my soul, that my last moments on earth whenever they may be could consist of my being angry at something I saw on TV or Facebook, should be utterly unacceptable, and yet I have accepted that state of affairs for years. From my point of view I cannot be sure that any alleged importance of keeping up on current events is worth a single sin against charity.  I don't know Obama. I don't know Gingrich. I don't know Romney.  The only contact I will have with any of them is no contact at all. I will be moving a lever, or touching a screen, or punching a hole next to one of their names.

But in fact a closer look shows that I am not only or even mostly angry at the people in power or seeking it. I am angry at Republicans or "conservatives".  I know there are people who equally believe that "liberals", "progressives" and Democrats are really evil. Why I heard Rush Limbaugh say just two days ago (or a voice on the radio sounding a lot like the guy who has been called "Rush Limbaugh") that it's not that conservatives hate America its just that they hate what liberals and progressives have done to it.

If I substituted "Catholics" for that any of those named groups Bill Donahue would be all over me. If I substituted "blacks" I would be de-friended en masse.  Such an exercise of course shows that this is all bigotry. Yet many of us seem to embrace it.  Something has become so ingrained in us that we we don't even realize we are talking in generalities which seem to require a hateful and violent conclusion were the usual rules of logical discourse followed.

If I do believe that Obama is a secret socialist bent on establishing a dictatorship then it would seem that there is more justification for shooting him, than there was for attacking Iraq, or is for attacking Iran.  If I believe that Republicans are vile people who, if allowed to rule, would seek to control our every move, rob us of our civil liberties, send our children to be ripped apart physically and mentally while killing other children all in order to remain in power, then it would seem we should start taking out Republicans. Likewise if liberals are traitors, or demonic, then we should start getting rid of them as well.  Does it not logically follow?  We are dangers to one another.

We try to get out of this usage by saying of course there are exceptions, or we don't mean individuals for many of them are deceived, or we don't justify violence even though it is true that liberals are demonic and socialistic and conservatives are fascistic and death dealing.  This is nonsense. You use a collective noun, attribute properties to the members of that collective, and then try to say that you weren't saying it about a particular member of that collective. That is just lazy reasoning or outright lying.

I do not know which comes first-- the anger or the generalization. I have begun to notice that when people get angry they start to speak in generalizations not out of laziness but because something in the anger makes us perceive the world in such universal terms, "Why am the only one who..." "Why does everybody say...." "Why doesn't anybody care...."

The fact however that many of us do have this visceral reaction leads me to believe that something else is going on. What that something else is I am not quite sure. I just know that in anger I am less rational, in anger I am more easily manipulated, and in anger I can perpetuate hurt and anger. So why would any of us-- those of us who are of the party of Roe v. Wade (Republicans) or of the party of Jim Crow (Democrats)-- want to put ourselves in that position? Sure I like the warm feeling of anger but in the end it is really unpleasant and destructive and allows me to be controlled by the people who can keep me in that state.

Many years ago I was staying at a Benedictine Monastery guesthouse and there was a gentleman there who was on a retreat of sorts, to pray over his particular besetting sin-- racism. In other words he was a racist, he had racist inclinations and yet he knew it was wrong (or a spiritual advisor or priest or someone had told him it was wrong and he was willing to accept their assessment).  I was highly impressed at the notion that a person could have instinctive (and perhaps socially reinforced for years) fears and hatreds and try to do something about it, even to the point of asking an infinite power to give them aid.  This is an act of reason. It is trying to change one's instinctive and received  view of the world so that it comports with the truth, rather that trying argue that one's instinctive view of the world is true.  It may not have even been that active. It may have been an attempt to let the truth about the world work on his view of the world.

But there is also a converse to this. People want to be part of a group. Candidates vie to be considered conservative. They accuse one another or commentators accuse them of violating conservative principles. Who makes these rules and drafts these principles by the way? And yet the mere power of the word "conservative" or "liberal" or "progressive" is enough that people want to be considered one. This is psychotic. No actually it's more Stalinist or something.  It's allows people to set up mental show trials, it has people looking over their shoulders wondering whether they will be exiled from Progressivism because they are opposed to third trimester elective abortions.

We have to find something better to do with our time. Like love one another.

This identity politics problem needs to be countered. It makes no sense for me to be saying "No. That is really a conservative principle," or "Progressives don't believe that."  This is lazy speech. If it conveys any information, and  I am not sure that it does, it is based on a notion that there is such a thing as a liberal or conservative and that it is important that this noun be part of the predicate attached to my particular "I".
Who makes up this stuff? And why would someone spend so much time and money wanting to convince us it is important. I can't help but be a bit suspicious. Nevertheless this is about remedies for the anger not getting angry about the people who use anger to manipulate me.

Is it not a little disturbing that serious  polls and surveys which are trying to ferret out the truth about the world actually will ask people to self-identify themselves as "liberal" "conservative" or various degrees of not, not very and very whatever? Do people self identify as such in daily life or do they self-identify only when asked. Do we view ourselves in these terms? It's weird. Are we so ensconced and controlled by words?

Saul Kripke in his "Naming and Necessity" came up with an interesting way of approaching the problem. In discussing "identity" Kripke met the objection that in English usage "identity" is a relation between names not objects Kripke wrote:

"If anyone ever inclines to this particular account of identity, let's suppose we gave him his account. Suppose identity were a relation in English between the names. I shall introduce an artificial relation called 'schmidentity' (not a word of English) which I now stipulate to hold between an object and itself. "

There is it is. If some says well you are not being a true conservative because true conservatives hold a, b and c, whereas you hold a, d and e. You may reply, "Conservatism? Schmervatism! I hereby posit a political viewpoint which consists of what I accept as true and good at this moment and I will call it Schmervatism. There. Let's discuss whether Schermvatism is true, false or problematical."

One of the dark areas of the human psyche is this division in the U.S. between capitalism and socialism (or communism)  which appear sometimes to be the only two choices of economic system. No if the world were actually divided between only two possible economic systems, capitalism and socialism then of course attacking capitalism would be logically tend to upholding its only alternative. That is not capitalism you are talking about!  Posit what you think would be a just proper good and true economic system and call it Schmapitalism or Schmocialism whichever you prefer.

This is part of my new ideology Schmogressivism. I am a Schmogressive. With the emphasis on "Schmo."

It Is Never Too Late To Miss the Grammys Today/Missing Rayvon Browne Yesterday

Unless you've already seen them. But in the event you haven't and it is still relatively early you should go to Goodbye Blue Monday at 10:00 P.M. for there is a sick lineup for the Catweazle 'Zine Release Party including Rayvon Browne, St. Lenox, and Dave Deporis.  Go now! All of these acts are worth. Go I tell you. Brave the cold; forsake the TV.  Wish those LA people well with their scene but really, and no disrespect, if you can see a bill with those 3 acts on it, all of a sudden  being part of the greater culture starts to fade in importance. If you don't believe me. Experiment  and GO!

In the meantime although I did not witness it first hand I have it on some good authority what the setlist was:

RAYVON BROWNE at Tea Lounge 2/11/2012:

Four By Debe Dalton 2/6/12

2/6/12  at Sidewalk was billed as Debe Dalton Finger Feature @ the Monday Night Open Stage "celebrating a year since her finger injury and subsequent recovery." Departing from the usual format Debe sang four songs. It is hard for me, poor writer that I am, to do justice to how well this set went, but every time Debe sang that final high note of the phrase "in my dream I" the world around me disappeared. 

DEBE DALTON at Sidewalk

1. Butcher's Boy

2. I Just Wanted To Go Home

3. In My Dream I (w/Rachel Costello)

4. Close The Door (w/ Dan Costello)

Today There Is Some Kind of Ball Game or Something but Yesterday (2/4/12). . .

RAYVON BROWNE at Cafe Orwell

1.     Fuck You, Tony
2.     Guided
3.     Ghost of Rick Danko
4.     The Street Where You Live
5.     Sun-trap
6.     The Longest Time
7.     The Proof's In The Pudding
8.     Cat on Chest
9.     I Need A Boyfriend
10.   Having A Love
11.   Having A Boyfriend
12    Keep On Smiling

ALEX P. AND THE SHOESTRING REVUE at Cafe Orwell


1. "Is it too late..."
2,  What Kind Of Friend Is This
3.  Smile In Silence
4. "If it were up to me. . ."
5. You Left Me Here
6. Wine, Wine, Wine
7. In The Ridge
8. a poem read by Eddie then by Alex

Goodbye Blue Monday Late Upon A Friday 2/3/12. . .

On September 12, 2011 I was in the audience at the Sidewalk Open Stage and suddenly this happened:


But that was then is now is now and yesterday was now at GBM and this same man did a full set. "Who is he," you ask?  "Yes," I ask in return.

And then the next day followed and suddenly it was today by a certain arbitrary secular calendar and...

RAYVON BROWNE at Goodbye Blue Monday


1.  Sun-trap
2.  The Street Where You Live
3.  Fuck You Tony
4.  Going Into Town Song
5.  Ghost of Rick Danko
6.  The Longest Time
7.  The Proof's In the Pudding
8.  Cat on Chest
9.   I Need A Boyfriend
10. Having a Love
11. Having A Boyfriend
12. Keep On Smiling

I have never heard harmonies like Rayvon Browne's harmonies.

I Can't Even Think of A Title to Do This Justice-- 2/2/12

Traveling between two poles of this scene on foot, I leave Catweazle at the intermission. Things were heating up as Cal Folger Day had just done the only version of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time"  ever worth listening to. (It's too bad you missed it.) Brer Brian picks up a guitar during intermission and begins playing "We Didn't Start The Fire." Ray Brown informs me that he will have to fight his way past Brer to get to his own instrument to tune up. I depart and hoof it across the East River upon the self same Bridge whereon Cockroach was once blunted.

Liv Carrow was playing and that link is to a description posted by Major Matt in September 2009 which Carrow has rendered obsolete by virtue of her relative isolation in Hudson. Her guitar skills no longer mediocre, and her songs most definitely no longer  "like the little animals that 4-year-olds make out of play-doh".  I love those songs, but Liv Carrow has transformed herself into a player of songs which  either announces:


1)  We will be watching the Country Music Awards in a couple of years and saying things like "I knew her when her songs were like the little animals that 4 years olds make out of play-doh,"


OR


2)   That there is something weird and deep and dark and beautiful brewing in the Hudson Valley and the souls or ghosts  of the people therein,


OR BOTH..


Liv Carrow says she is basically a side project of herself now that she is concentrating on her band. Pocatello which band is playing  next Friday at Union Hall with the Debutante Hour and Emily Einhorn.  




LIV CARROW at Sidewalk


[Once again most titles are speculative- corrections welcome]


1. "If all you young men..."
2.  Nothing Nice To Say
3    I Can't Remember Anything I Said ( But I Remember That I Meant It)
4.  Tumbleweed
5    Sweater
6    Watership Down song:  "There's nowhere to run when you run from everyone"
7.   "If you go digging near the mines..."
8.   "When the trees are ripe..."
9.   Thin line.

A Corner of Minkowski Space-Time Rendered Particularly Important 1/31/2012

Rachel Laitman for the Drawing In; Rayvon Browne for the Lifting Up; Dewey and the Decimals for the Bringing Back; and Charles Mansfield for the Final Recognition of the Human Heart.

RACHEL LAITMAN at culturefix

1. Poison Apple Friend
2. Birds and Bees
3. Keepsake (State Radio Cover)w/Aly Young
4. The Worst of Me w/Aly Young
5. Possibilities
6. Yellow Bird
7. I'm So Grateful
8. Aly Young sang her "Folk Song For A Goodbye"
w/ Rachel on harmony
9. Vista
10. "I pull back through my eyes..."

RAYVON BROWNE at culturefix

1. Ghost of Rick Danko
2. On the Street Where You Live
3. Blackout
4. Liberties
5. The Proof Is In The Pudding
6. Cat on Chest
7. I Need A Boyfriend
8. Having A Love
9. Having A Boyfriend
10. Keep On Smiling
11. Sun-trap

DEWEY AND THE DECIMALS at culturefix

[I apologize as except for the first and last song I don't know most of the titles. I give lines from the songs. If you can identify the titles for me, let me know and I will correct this entry]

1. Orchids
2. "I'm electrified"(?)
3.  ". . .when you are dead
4.  "I give you all my happiness..."
5. "Take me back to the river..."
6. "The water sustains me without even trying..."
7. "Where were you really, when you were by my side?"
8.  "I'm not gonna break any hearts no more"
9.   Blue Raincoat

CHARLES MANSFIELD at culturefix

1)   Poetry Song
2)   Snow
3)   Never Loved That Dog
4)   Rome, NY
5)   God's Eyes
6)   We Can't Be Friends
7)   All The Way

Fox enters the Chicken Coop Seeking Illicit Activity

Many years ago. In the good old days. About the time when, if I recall, which is difficult having been a drunk and liar at the time (and many years after), Madonna and Cindy Lauper were dressed similarly, AND both the Curly Shuffle and Rodney Dangerfield were popular , AND I had occasion to talk down a gun wielding employee, AND  crack was blasting an entire generation and driving down the offering price of street walker sex AND a big question from day to day was whether any given friend you hadn't seen in a while who happened to be a gay male was still alive, AND the only integrated department of the company I worked for (in New York City)  was "coding" as data entry was called,  about that time, I say there seemed to be a division amongst persons of Hispanic ancestry. To put it bluntly it appeared that Puerto Ricans hated Dominicans and vice-versa (exemplified by one young Puerto Rican lady who professed to dislike all Dominicans, except her boyfriend who, of course, was different).

Any way one of the guys I worked with claimed that the reason he, a Puerto Rican, hated Dominicans is that "Dominicans fuck chickens".  I replied that I thought that was absurd.  The gentleman proceeded to take me around to a number of other employees asking the following question: "Isn't it true that Dominicans fuck chickens?" They all said yes.


But all the people he asked were Puerto Rican.


[The following I just now saw on TV, and if I misheard, or have taken it out of context, not having seen the whole segment please correct me]


Likewise I just now was over at my folks and Fox News had a commentator on who stated something very like an accusation historically made against Catholicism except it was about Islam. It was a slander, by which I mean whether true or not, if accepted by people as true would diminish the reputation of Islam. Whether it was true or not I cannot say. Basically it was that Muslims are permitted to lie to infidels (I have heard the same claim made about Orthodox Jews and goyim)  and that therefore there the may swear on the Koran and proceed to lie. The commentator was apparently the author of a book "Why Catholics Are Right".  He stated that this fact about Muslims lying is true:


"Just ask any Christian Arab"

(or words to that effect).

Of course now that I think about it-- it was strange to even bring up the subject. . The story was about a man accused and found guilty of murder. He apparently lied.  Why in any version of reality do we need to go beyond the fact that he was accused of murder (and may have been guilty of murder) to explain why he lied?

But my temper is flaring. Best go back to the laundry and reflect about how to blog about  Phoebe Blue last night at the Sidewalk. Much better for the spirit.  As the song says:

.

The Arc of My Night 1/27/2012

Stephen Stavola at the Sidewalk


1.  Let It Come To You
2.  Virginia
3.  Let Her Go
4.  Brothers
5   About The Broken Window
6.  Someday, Someday
7.  You Were My Only One
8.  Heal My Broken Sky
9,  She Loves Jesus
10. Within



Lenny Molotov And The Fascinators at the Sidewalk 

1.     I Cover The Waterfront
2,     I've Got The World on a String
3.     Prelude to a Kiss
4.     Pennies From Heaven
5.     Old Devil Moon
6.     Profoundly Blue
7.     Stardust
8.     Undecided
9.     If I Could Be With You
10.   Mood Indigo

Matthew Silver The Great Performer At Tribes
 These are the sections of Matthew's Routine. Titles are mine. I don't even know if Matthew Silver does Titles
1.    Douchehead
2.    Boobyhead
3.    Dickhead
4.    Baby Named Love without the G
5.    Focus (Fart in My Face)

Rayvon Browne At Tribes 

1.   [Good Girl]?-- I'm unsure, someone help me out.
2.   Ghost of Rick Danko
3.   Fuck You Tony
4.   Keep on Smiling
5.   I Love You So Much It Hurts
6.   Saga of Jenny
7.   Am I A Cocktease
8    The Only Thing You Like About My Personality
9.   I Need A Boyfriend
10. Yawn, Yawn, Yawn
11.  Sun-trap

Jim Flynn at Tribes


1. A Short Newt Gingrich Moonbase Rap
2. Lower East Side
3. Summertime Love
4. a short blues referencing psychiatry, not even sure if it was the whole song
5. Take Me Away From New Jersey
6. (Sweet Like) The Juice of the Mango
7  Ol' New Orleans
8. Yuppie Fuck

Listening To TPM

I have ripped off the title of a Brook Pridemore song.  Alas, I cannot find a link to it. On the other hand, in my searching I have learned that TPM can refer "The Phantom Menace" and "The Perfect Mix".  And thus is  illustrated the nature of differing scenes. For although on the Interwebs one may find people abbreviating various entities as "TPM," here on the perimeter TPM has referred only, and for years, to Thomas Patrick Maguire.

That link is to a blog entry by Robin Hilton about TPM  for NPR's "All Songs Considered".*  The short review, which comes with a promise of more of TPM's music on "All Songs Considered" makes clear  my own lack of descriptive talent,  for Robin Hilton pretty much hits the nail of "try-and-communicate-an-aural experience-in-words" on the head in summing up TPM's sound, something I have been unable to do when trying to recommend his music: **

"It's basically acoustic grunge, which admittedly falls in my aural sweet spot. It's woozy and unpredictable, but also melodic and infectious."


I also find it interesting  that Hilton does not give that description until after giving the reader a link to "Unemployment Dreams" which (at least in the abstract) is the way I think  it should be done in these days of easy linkage.  The structure is basically "there's this singer someone turned me onto, here's a link, I think he sounds like whatever and is good for this reason, what do you think?"  It' attempts to spark a conversation.  Unfortunately as I write this only about 7 people have taken Hilton up on the offer to give their opinion of his music.  Five of the commenters already know TPM's work-- so for them the review was preaching to the converted, but at least it's an opportunity to point out that, like I am about to, that Hilton has discovered our secret that this guy's music is  worthy of following. I mean that literally as in  following him from show to show over the years to hear what he's doing.  The other 2 commenters got pointed to TPM by the review and seem to dig what they are hearing.  I am happy for TPM that he has new fans, and happy for the new fans that they got to listen to TPM. 

Hilton has also inadvertently revealed another failing of my own approach to music, namely, that since coming upon this scene I have gotten most of my music live.  I have been able, almost daily, to listen to some of the top songwriters in the country without ever having to own an iPod. I have been keeping their CD's  for reference purposes only.  I first heard Diane Cluck and Dave Deporis in the catacomb like basement of the Lit Lounge on a Monday Night during my wait to play at my first Anti-hoot at the Sidewalk. It was years before I got a CD by either of them even though they were and are on the must see their shows when possible list.

There was a virtue to this, I think, insofar as it helped me look at the music I was experiencing in the same way that  music has been experienced by the human race for  most of history-- in small spaces, close to the performer, live,  and without one's brain being prepped for the experience by the public relations juggernaut of a centralized recording and distribution system.  But that kind of thinking can get real snooty real fast.


As I result I have tended to neglect the recorded product of many of the artists I follow. Actually, sometimes I feel I am too busy following them from venue to venue  to sit down and listen to their albums.   But all my Luddite justifications and pretentious primitive principals aside, recording can now also be received unprepped for and uncontrolled by the "captains of consciousness"***.   


Those CD's (and, and increasingly, vinyl) that I collect are not simply reference material to remind me of what I've been hearing at the shows (I paused after writing this to slip in TPM's 2007 album "A Slight Return"-- 1st track Mirrors and Smoke--sample snippets:  . . . cause you're not Nevada, you're not even Kansas so why even bother" and "it seems like the rumors have outsold the bible" ) Recording is a separate and important art form.  


Indeed, I forget  that the reason I was at that first Anti-hoot was that while I was in the midst of listening to and reading as much of Leonard Cohen as possible, Bernard King  handed me the CD  "Old Prospect"  by Cockroach. As as a result Mr. King spun my musical investigations into a whole new world, this very world in which I now write and in which I heard about Thomas Patrick Maguire and then eventually actually heard him sing. 


I hope those who now been introduced TPM via NPR might get to experience him live.  A few months back he played a Justin Remer video release party on Staten Island at Phoebe Blue and Tommy Bones's place.   Now TPM is an ebullient conversationalist who embraces even places like Staten Island with a wide eyed wonder and an enthusiastic joyful gesturing with the hand that's holding the PBR.  But he is a soft singer. The softness draws you in as much as that low "woozy" thrumming of the guitar.  You become entranced.   OWS was still going on and TPM, who is perfectly capable of singing of the brutal aspects of a working class background****,  rendered his "I Am Not An Elitist" in this quiet, intense manner, as if he were rising to lay bare the lies of those on the blogs, on the TV, on the meme-reproducing Facebook postings, who repeat the canard that the extremely hard working people who sympathized with OWS were all looking for government handouts while simultaneously being members of some elite.  In those days my own anger was hair-trigger, and I kept finding myself unable to visit my parents for long, since they constantly had a certain news network on in which commentators would generalize from ugly particulars, which is bad enough but when you are a different particular that logically must come under the falsely created generalized universal, the survival mechanism of anger reacting to the Aristotelian slight can rise up and overwhelm whatever peace of mind you may have thought you  had after a hard day at work. 


But TPM's music is not angry. It is factual. And the room is quiet. He sits leaning over his guitar. The guitar thrumming three low strings. And the room is quiet, and Thomas Patrick's voice is soft, and the guitar is thrumming deeply, and the room is quiet. The room is quiet. And it is factual and the room is quiet:


I am not an elitist
I do not come from wealth
You're deaf to working class complaints
You're listening to privileged bells


So please don't talk about us
And how we are not right
'Cause when the next fake war comes around
You will not have to fight. *****


I love the primitive "and how we are not right."  It is the way a child might phrase it (cf. the title of the new album "The Future's Coming So Fast").   It is the syntax of innocence,  of the child from the hard working and barely middle class. if not the outright impoverished, who is defending his mom and dad and his family and friends.******  


Those last two lines have a certain ambiguity. On the one hand they can be taken as the  complaint of an extremely hard working class who traditionally serves as cannon fodder in the defense of wealth and privilege. But that night, in that room, I heard a sense of "believe me you'll be thanking us for putting this message out there so no one has to fight in the next fake war the government will try to drag us into." *******


So that is how I like listening to TPM.  He never seems to raise his voice all bent over that guitar. Even in a noisy lower East Side venue like the late lamented Banjo Jim's he left it up to audience to choose to pay attention.


But  there is the other way of listening to music which "All Songs Considered" (and Brook Pridemore) has brought me back to.  I shall throw "Pissing Streams" on the CD Player and when this post is posted and this link is offered to the NPR blog I will spend the next hour or so on this snow covered freezing New York City night, grateful to be in a warm apartment and  listening to TPM. 

*(NPR having (in many places, including the perimeter, and for years) been understood to refer to National Public Radio-- Sidenote: In New York I have noticed that people don't usually say I heard it on WYNC, the actually radio station, they say I heard it on NPR even  if its a PRI [look it up] production)  

**And without using cliche's such as "hit the nail on the head"


***This is the title of a book by a teacher of mine from college-- Stuart Ewen-- I have never read it. But it looks very interesting and I have probably been remiss these past decades for not reading it. Is there not a bit of irony that I am sending you to a link at Amazon.com.?


****

*****

****** It is somewhat incomprehensible in an emperors new clothes sort of way that millionaires may actually call workers "elitists" and have the power to spread the lie to other workers.  


               "You may say that I am bitter but of this you may be sure
              The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor"-- Leonard Cohen


By the way this in no way implies an endorsement (by me or TPM whose actual views I do not know) of the many douchebags and maniacs who showed up at OWS, and it is for another Philosophic Analyzer piece to discuss the way we can be manipulated by the choice of images that are fed into our preconceived world views to ramp up our anger.


******* Maybe that interpretation was wishful thinking but that is the wonder of live music, it is fleeting and it sparks the neurons in ways that may turn out to unsustainable upon later review. On the other hand listening to the video I think the line still can bear that interpretation and it still is the first  meaning I hear. This may be because of the experience that night and in that room  left an imprint on the interpretative section of my brain.