Secret Society

All I can render is my body and my soul

The US Supreme Court today rejected the appeal brought by Maher Arar, a victim of the US's policy of extraordinary rendition -- which, in Arar's case, involved kidnapping a Canadian citizen and shipping him off to Syria to be imprisoned in a 3'x6'7' underground dirt cell and brutally tortured every day for over 10 months. Arar has been repeatedly and thoroughly exonerated of any wrongdoing -- he was an innocent man to whom unspeakable things were done, and done in all of our names. But the people who are responsible for these awful crimes have never been held to account, and thanks to today's ruling, they probably never will -- at least not by the U.S.:

"Today's decision eliminates my last bit of hope in the judicial system of the United States," Arar said in a statement.

"When it comes to 'national security' matters the judicial system has willingly abandoned its sacred role of ensuring that no one is above the law," he alleged.

"My case and other cases brought by human beings who were tortured have been thrown out by US courts based on dubious government claims. Unless the American people stand up for justice they will soon see their hard-won civil liberties taken away from them as well."

The refusal by the Supreme Court to take up the case means Arar's last legal avenue is closed in a decision that could impact on any similar cases.

Interestingly, though, it seems the RCMP (Canada's national police force) are investigating the role played by U.S. and Syrian officials in Arar's torture, and may lay criminal charges against those responsible.

As the Center for Constitutional Rights' attorney Maria LaHood said:

The U.S. should be conducting its own criminal investigation of the officials responsible for sending an innocent man to Syria for a year to be interrogated under torture, not covering for them.  Again, the Canadians are doing the right thing by criminally investigating not only Syrian officials, but officials from the U.S. as well. The Obama administration should look to the Canadian example and do what's right - apologize to Maher and hold his torturers accountable.

The RCMP aren't blameless here -- they were complicit in Arar's rendition, and Canada's top cop found himself having to apologize to Arar for the "terrible injustices" he endured. Apologies are all well and good, but nothing says "I'm sorry" like criminal indictments against those who ordered your kidnapping and torture. "The Mounties always get their man" or so the saying goes -- let's hope in this case it holds true.

Things I Agree With

Looking For Gold edition.

(N.B. Looking For Gold is the blog of the Toronto-based, Polaris Prize-winning punk band Fucked Up.)

[Also, apologies to Isaac Butler for, uh, "borrowing" his shtick.]

Just one of my mother's sons who got thrown under the bus

What do I think of NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant's scalp ending up pinned to Glenn Beck's belt?

This (from Jeff Chang @ Can't Stop Won't Stop)

Last night the 34-year old communications director at the National Endowment For The Arts was asked to resign. Why? Because he was trying to organize artists to support President Obama’s national service program, United We Serve. If your next question is: so what? That was ours too. But Glenn Beck compared the effort to “Nazi propaganda”.

(Just sick–especially since Sergant, a Jewish American, has worked as an activist for peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.)

This (from Ian Moss @ createquity, who happened to be a participant in one of the "Nazi" conference calls that had Beck so incensed):

The NEA “purportedly” wanted to commission art “within major areas of President Obama’s administration”? It would be kind of hilarious if it weren’t so disingenuous. As usual, Fox and facts don’t mix. For one thing, as far as I can tell, the NEA as an agency has no official role in the initiative whatsoever. Their logo is not on the serve.artsusa.org website; it is mentioned nowhere on the NEA’s website; and no one from the agency participated in the second conference call. Secondly, the push was not for artists to “create” work in line with Obama’s political agenda–the real push was to highlight work that artists are already doing that fits in with the overall United We Serve initiative. Finally, the push didn’t come from Obama–it came from artists: Sergant, and earlier, the group of 60 arts community activists who met with the administration in May and asked to get more involved. If there is a political agenda, it is perhaps that in involving artists explicitly in an initiative of this magnitude, maybe it will help build the arts’ public profile and help convince Congress to move this country’s level of federal arts support a notch upward from “laughably miniscule” to “embarrassingly paltry.” That’s all there is to it. Well, unless you believe that getting out of the house and helping people who are less fortunate than you is a partisan political act. Sadly, this conservative movement seems to believe that caring about anyone who isn’t yourself or directly related to you is something to condemn.

This (from 99 Seats):

The consevative wing of this country and the GOP have made it their life's work to minimize the role of arts in public life. They have spent twenty-five years teeing off on the NEA, gutting it, in an effort to, as Grover Norquist says, make it small enough to drown in a bathtub. They do not have the best interests of artists in mind. Not to mention the fact that, if you read something about govermental overreach by the Obama Administration, double-check those facts. And then triple-check them. You're dealing with a bunch of liars. So there's that, to begin with.

And, as I said here, you're just reinforcing this notion that art shouldn't address real-world issues, shouldn't be involved in advocacy or the public sphere. Which just makes us all the more useless. Again, as I've already said, I'm against the notion of government-sponsored propaganda, but that wasn't what anyone was talking about here, except lunatics. You wanna listen to lunatics?

And, finally, this (from Isacc Butler @ Parabasis):

On some level, it's never going to be worth it to an American administration to stick up for the arts. There's always going to be "something more important" that we need to "move beyond this issue to address". This is going to be particularly true with the Obama administration because Obama has made it extremely clear that he's a very ambitious President w/r/t public policy. In one year, he was hoping to tackle a bailout, financial regulations, cap and trade, a stimulus package and health care reform. Two of those big ticket issues (the regulations and cap and trade) have been moved at least until next year and probably won't get taken up until after the mid-term elections.

This state of affairs w/r/t the arts is upsetting to me, and disappointing. And like 99, I'm pretty fucking pissed off. But being from the "Don't mourn, organize" school of thinking, my mind immediately goes to: It's going to take a lot work on our part to make sure the arts aren't just a convenient and controversial horse to trade. Or if they are, if that's going to be the arts' role in the legislative process, we need to get something out of it in return.

In the meantime, if this issue pisses you off, write a letter. A real one. You probably know the address already, but in case you don't it's:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Wasington, D.C. 20500

According to the website, they want you to include your e-mail address with your letter.

Sexy Results

I was encouraged at the outcry from the arts community over the Coburn Amendment, but I honestly did not expect this:

House and Senate negotiators on the bill dropped the language prohibiting stimulus funds from going to museums, theatres, and arts centers which was included in the version of the bill passed by the Senate. 

Woot! Put one on the board for our team. Well played, people.

Via NYSarts.org.

Fuck art let's demagogue

So perhaps you heard that on Friday, the Senate passed an amendment to the stimulus bill, sponsored by the loathsome Tom Coburn, that bars any stimulus money from going to "any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project." In other words, it might as well have been called the "'How To Make Sure None Of The Stimulus Money Will Go To Enriching Or Bettering People's Lives' Amendment." But the tax cuts -- which have a negligible stimulus effect -- those are staying. 

The amendment passed overwhelmingly (73-24), and even NY Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has a reputation as an arts advocate and -- perhaps someone should remind him of this -- whose state includes New York Fuckin' City, where the arts are rumored to be somewhat important to the local economy, voted in favor of the amendment. (To her credit, the newly-minted, nominally right-leaning Sen. Kristen Gillibrand was one of the few to vote against it.)

I am furious, but fortunately Isaac says everything I wanted to say. Also, go to the Americans for the Arts Action Center and write your senators. It takes two minutes of your time and makes an enormous difference.

And hey, remember last week when people were all worried that America might indulge in too much arts funding (cue fear-mongering about "censorship"), or that Obama might appoint an Arts Czar and that would be... bad, somehow? Good times.

See also Ian Moss -- here and here.

MLK 2009

The best non-fiction book I read last year -- probably the best book of American political history I have ever read -- is Rick Perlstein's Nixonland. As a transplanted Canadian, there is a lot of recent American history that I am only dimly aware of. Learning about certain emblematic incidents -- the  Newark Riots, for example -- really helped clarify a lot of things about why America is the way it is. Obviously, events such as these still resonate incredibly strongly for the people who lived through them.

One of the best things about Nixonland is how unflinchingly it looks at race as a shaping force in American politics. Viewed from the lens of today -- especially in light of the impending inaugural --  it's easy for Americans of all races and all political stripes to see Martin Luther King as a unifying figure, a universally admired beacon of hope and harmony.

This is not how he was viewed at the time.

In Chicago on July 29 [1966], Martin Luther King led what was supposed to be an all-night vigil in front of F.H. Halvorsen Realty in the Bungalow Belt [i.e., all-white] neighborhood of Gage Park. The police rescued his group from an advancing mob. They returned to the same spot the next morning and were met by a hail of rocks.

[...]

Five hundred marchers first moved out into the Bungalow Belt on Sunday, July 31, daring the mob of four thousand to attack as if it were Selma, to offer the spur to a nation's conscience that might deliver up transcendence.

A fusilade of rocks, bottles, and cherry bombs came. Priests and nuns ("Whores!") were singled out. A first-grade teacher, Sister Mary Angelica, was pummeled to the ground. A cheer went up: "We've got another one!"

"White Power! White Power!"

"Polish Power! Polish Power!"

"Burn them like Jews!"

Marchers returning to their cars found them torched, overturned, or rolled into the muddy Marquette Park lagoon. Dante's inferno, right there in the Bungalow Belt.

A neighborhood newspaper called it "the blackest day in the history of the Southwest Community," but also found the violence "understandable." The attackers, after all, had "earned their way into the community by hard work and expect others to do the same."

[....] 

[B]ack in Chicago, Mayor Daley met with Bungalow Belt civic leaders, who looked forward to solidarity with one of their own.

But Daley was in a difficult spot. Arrest Martin Luther King and Daley would become an international pariah. A committee of Chicago VIPs was shuttling back and forth from D.C. to lobby for the Democratic Party's 1968 convention. Hosting it was Mayor Daley's dream. Winning elections for the Democratic Party was the focus, the meaning, of Richard J. Daley's entire life. Here before him was the heart of his machine. Black Chicago had, meanwhile, given him 90 percent of their vote in 1963 -- and his margin of victory. This was perfect agony: his constituencies were at war with each other. And so he did something extraordinary: he lectured the stunned white ethnics. Told them not to demonstrate. And ordered the police to offer King's marchers safe passage.

August 5. Six hundred open-housing activists, ten thousand counter-demonstrators. Some wore Nazi helmets. Other waved Confederate battle flags, carried George Wallace banners, swastika placards that helpfully explained THE SYMBOL OF WHITE POWER.

Martin Luther King, Mahalia Jackson by his side, led his legions forth: "We are bound for the promised land!"

"Kill those niggers!"

"We want Martin Luther Coon!"

Police trying to keep the two sides apart were screamed at: "Nigger-loving cops!" "God, I hate niggers and nigger-lovers," a reporter overheard an old lady say.

Martin Luther King walked past.

"Kill him! Kill him!"

"Roses are red, violets are black, King would look good with a knife in his back."

Instead he got a baseball-size rock above his ear. He slumped to the ground -- the Gandhian moment of truth. "I think everybody in that line wanted to kill everybody that was on the other side of that lie," a marcher later recalled. King got up and kept marching. We shall overcome.

On the approach to Halvorsen Realty, someone did throw a knife at King's back. It caught some white kid in the neck instead. King had marched six weeks earlier through the Mississippi town where the civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner were murdered. He had called it the most savage place he had ever seen. Now he revised his opinion. "I think the people of Mississippi ought to come to Chicago to learn how to hate."

(Nixonland, 117-120)

There's been a lot of talk since Obama's election about how we are now living in "post-racial America." It would be hard to overstate how incredible it is that just forty years after MLK's assassination -- a few days after what would have been King's 80th birthday -- America is about to inaugurate its first black president. It's worth celebrating how far we've come. But it's also worth remembering where we've been, and how far we have yet to go.

-----

See also Pam Spaulding. And Andrew Golis on the Santa Clausification of MLK. And Matt Yglesias about the radicalism of nonviolence. And (via Alex) Wynton's pre-inaugural thoughts. And, once again, Mr. Jay Smooth with "Ten OTHER Things Martin Luther King Said":

Organ donor needed

Saxophonist David S. Ware is in need of a compatible kidney donor. More info here.

Mark Turner update

Aaron Parks has posted the latest news regarding Mark Turner's injury. The hand surgery appears to have gone well -- while it is obviously too soon to know for certain, everyone seems optimistic about the prospects for a full recovery. The procedure was (thankfully) covered by Mark's health insurance and he'll be taking on additional private students to help make ends meet during his convalescence. Aaron is also looking into setting up a fund for those who wish to contribute. Naturally I'll post a link to that once it goes live.

Mark Turner tragedy

Mark Turner_3, originally uploaded by vladrus.

Sweet christ this is grim. Aaron Parks reported this on his MySpace blog yesterday:

I'm afraid I have some sobering news to share, though, about one of my friends, someone who is an inspiration to countless musicians, a true genius, and a beautiful spirit: Mark Turner.

A few minutes ago, I received a text message from Kurt Rosenwinkel informing me that Mark severely cut two of his fingers with a power saw, and is in the hospital awaiting surgery tomorrow morning. They will be trying to reattach nerves, tendons, and arteries. With luck, the surgery will be successful, and he will eventually regain the use of his injured fingers. It'll be no less than 6 months of rehab, though.

I asked Kurt whether I should keep it quiet or not, and he told me it would be okay to blog about it and get as much positive energy sent in Mark's direction as possible right now, especially until tomorrow's surgery is finished. So, everyone, please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers tonight, and tomorrow morning. My heart is hurting as I imagine the pain that they must be going through right now.

There's not much more I can say. I'm having a difficult time imagining what kind of silver lining can be found in a senseless accident of this kind. Let's just hope that everything heals, that his recovery is speedy, and that he'll soon regain full command of his instrument and will be once again creating those moments of transcendent musical beauty, in the way that he always so uniquely does.

(11/5 update: for those who are wondering, I haven't managed to get any information yet about how the surgery went, but will let you know as soon as I do. In the meantime, I'm working with some friends to try to organize a benefit concert playing Mark's compositions to raise some money for his family. More details to come...)

Mark Turner is, of course, one of the greatest saxophonists of his generation. Here's hoping his surgery is a miraculous success.

UPDATE: More from Aaron...

The show of support for Mark over the last few days has been incredible. Please keep the positivity flowing in.

A lot of people have been asking for an update, so I wanted to pass along the little bit of information that I know. The surgery was this morning, with one of the best hand surgeons in the country, and it apparently went as well as could be hoped for. It'll take some time to know whether the procedure will ultimately be successful in restoring the full use of his hand, but everyone is hoping for the best. Mark is, of course, inspiringly Zen about the whole thing, already accepting things however they turn out. We'll just have to wait: time will tell, I guess.

In the meantime, keep all the support coming. Many people have asked if there's a way they could help financially, since he's basically lost his main source of income for the next 6 months at least. I'll look into it to see if he's receptive to that kind of thing. Will let you know.

Thanks again for all the love you've shown towards him and his family...

Let freedom ring

We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment.

We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights.

We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin.

The reasons are deeply imbedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. We can understand -- without rancor or hatred -- how this all happened.

But it cannot continue. Our Constitution, the foundation of our Republic, forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. And the law I will sign tonight forbids it.

[...]

This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our States, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country.

So tonight I urge every public official, every religious leader, every business and professional man, every working man, every housewife -- I urge every American -- to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people--and to bring peace to our land.

My fellow citizens, we have come now to a time of testing. We must not fail.

Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this Nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all.

Thank you and good night.

— President Lyndon Baines Johnson, July 2, 1964

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

— President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama, November 4, 2008

Categorical Imperative

If you run into problems at the polls, remember this number -- 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Pride before the fall

I used this (new link, YouTube yanked the old one), but this works too:

One week to go. Let's not fuck it up, okay? We need to get out the goddamned vote. I'm going to PA to canvass. If you can get the day off, please join us. Do you want to help make history, or do you want to sit back and watch it on the teevee machine? Your call.

They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue

What a real union leader sounds like:

That's AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. Are you paying attention, Tom Lee?

Also, thanks to Dan in comments for posting the email addresses of the American Federation of Musicians' International Executive Board. These are the people responsible for deciding that the AFM would be one of the only unions in America not to endorse Barack Obama. I encourage you to let them know what you think of that decision.

Tom Lee, President -- [email protected]
Harold Bradley, Vice President -- [email protected]
Bill Skolnik, Vice President from Canada -- [email protected]
Sam Folio, Secretary-Treasurer -- [email protected] (N.B. Sam has personally endorsed Obama.)
Joe Parente, Executive Officer -- [email protected]
Bob McGrew, Executive Officer -- [email protected]
Erwin Price, Executive Officer -- [email protected]
Billy Linneman, Executive Officer -- [email protected]
Ray Hair, Executive Officer -- [email protected]

Also: in case you have any doubts about which candidate has a better arts policy.

From my daddy's knee I learned the union songs

Speaking of unions, Ted Hearne has a great post on the current drive to organize the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music.

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We are fundraising! Please help Secret Society record our debut album by making a tax-deductible contribution.

Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?

One of the first things I did when I moved to New York was to join the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. My reasons for doing so were partly self-serving -- union members get access to the Local 802 rehearsal space, which is the best deal in NYC. And as a freelance copyist by day, I pretty much had to join if I wanted to work on any Broadway shows or film scores. But I am a huge, straight-up supporter of the union movement generally. Unions are the only protection workers have against exploitation by the corporate elite, who have more power today than at any time since the Gilded Age -- and the current economic crisis is likely to only increase the clout of those at the top, which makes unions more important than ever. Seriously, I'm so old-school, the lyrics to "Solidarity Forever" make me all weepy, thinking of how long and hard working people have fought just to get a fair share of the wealth they produce. This struggle is no joke -- the ruling class used to kill union organizers in this country. They are still doing it in countries like Colombia.

RE: "Solidarity Forever," I am especially partial to these verses:

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made
But the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.

So I've been proud to be a member of the AFM. Of course, like everyone else I have my misgivings about their slowness to adapt to the challenges of today, and their inability to play a relevant role in the lives of musicians of my generation. Still, the work they do is vital to maintaining the health of NYC's music scene — to cite one direct example, many of the musicians in Secret Society would not be able to play our absurdly low-paying gigs if they did not also have a regular, unionized Broadway gig to pay the rent. And the AFM protects their right to occasionally sub out of their show to play our hits without getting fired or sanctioned.

Given all of the above, I can't help but be incredibly depressed to see this news:

But in October's International Musician, President Tom Lee says that our "International Executive Board has chosen to not make an endorsement for President this year" citing "surveys" showing that "union members do not wish to be told for whom to vote."

You have got to be shitting me.

For the record, here is a partial the list of the national unions that have endorsed Barack Obama for president:

American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Nurses Association
American Postal Workers Union
American Small Business League
Association of Flight Attendants
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
Change to Win Federation
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers
International Association of Fire Fighters
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
National Air Traffic Controllers Association
National Association of Letter Carriers
National Education Association
Service Employees International Union
Transport Workers Union
UNITE HERE
United American Nurses
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada
United Auto Workers Union
United Food and Commercial Workers
United Healthcare Workers West
United Mine Workers
United Steelworkers
Utility Workers Union of America

But not the American Federation of Musicians. That's pathetic.

At least Local 802 is doing the right thing, but our international executive board is an embarrassment. What possible benefit do they think they will obtain by refusing to endorse Obama?

I leave the final word to Brother Ed Shamgochian of AFM Local 134:

[O]fficial silence from the AFM is a disservice to our members, and to unionism in general, which developed out of democratic principles, has been constantly threatened by Republicans for more than two decades, and which is supported by only one of the two candidates for President today: Barack Obama.

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We are fundraising! Please help Secret Society record our debut album by making a tax-deductible contribution.

The audacity of... hope?

I'm skipping the debate tonight to catch Lee Konitz at the Jazz Gallery, but I am definitely watching the replay online. If Obama really has a six-point lead in North Carolina, John McCain is in a world of trouble. But let's not pull a DeSean Jackson here — a lot can happen between now and Nov. 4.

Today I signed up with MoveOn to go to Pennsylvania to get out the vote on Election Day. I encourage everyone to get involved, esepcially if you are in or near a battleground state. After all, even if this election does turn out to be a blowout of epic proportions, don't you want to play a part in that?

Please also allow me to draw your attention to the following Obama benefit concert at LPR this Friday, featuring Brad Melhdau and Chris Thile, both of whom will be performing some classical rep alongside their own works. All proceeds will go towards ensuring that the next President and Vice President of the United States are both responsible adults. Some of you will be too young to remember the last time that happened, but trust me — it's good.

You can spark it up and I'ma put you out

George Will can go fuck a fire hose. Seriously.

David Sirota:

In a column about underfinanced municipal pension systems today, Will expresses deep anger that veteran police, firefighters and municipal workers eventually get paid well for their services. In one California town on San Francisco Bay, Will tells us that - gasp! - "after just five years, all police and firefighters are guaranteed lifetime health benefits." The horror.

[…]

Indeed, Will would have us believe it is a moral outrage that firefighters and policemen risking life and limb have the nerve to form unions and negotiate pay and benefits packages that are a tiny fraction of what a run-of-the-mill investment banker gets paid. Their outrage may seem like an obscene joke - but it's not. This is what today's aristocrats are really angry about.

Rick Perlstein:

May I point out as an addendum to David's excellent post below that George Will chose to run his column about how firefighters don't deserve pensions on... September 11?

Oh, yeah: and the tasteful headline? "Pension Time Bomb."

Let's flip the track, bring the old school back

Gov. Palin's spiteful dig against Obama's days as a community organizer have -- deservedly -- drawn a lot of heat from a lot of different corners. Jay Smooth has a good video response, but the most badass judo-flip rebuttal comes from John Raskin, founder of the Community Organizers of America:

Community organizers work in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the failing economy. The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we’re trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn’t need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.

Attention Obama campaign: more like that, please.

[h/t dday]

Gustav

Sweet Jesus not again.

Officials' biggest fear by far was a direct hit to New Orleans, where post-Katrina rebuilding remains a work in progress. Roughly two-thirds of the population has returned and countless homeowners have used their savings to fix up their properties. But many homes still lie in disrepair, and the byzantine system of canals, pumps and levees that is supposed to protect the city from flooding remains incomplete.

"Although we have made strong strides in rebuilding our infrastructure, the levees have not been fully repaired and we have an $800-million budget gap to complete our sewage and water systems," Nagin said earlier in a statement.

You will not be able to stay home

Rachel Maddow is set to become the smartest host on the teevee machine beginning September 8.

This is indescribably awesome. I have been a huge fan of Rachel since she debuted on Air America Radio in early 2004, and her radio show is the only remaining bright spot on the rather dismal current AAR schedule. She has, by all accounts, done a formidable job as a regular commentator on MSNBC's Race To The White House and as a fill-in host for Keith Olbermann, so I could not be happier that her talent, intellect, and political acumen are actually being rewarded. This is, erhm, not the way things usually work.

The only drawback is that I personally do not have access to the cable teevee. But those of you who do can look forward to an unadulterated dose of anti-bullshit every weekday at 9 PM on MSNBC. For my part, I am selfishly glad to hear that Rachel's radio show will continue as well. (Remember, everyone needs to subscribe to the podcast of The Rachel Maddow Show on AAR.)

I guess a man's got to do what he's best at

And people wonder why I I'm so angry:

19-year-old US Army Private LaVena Johnson, was found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq in July, 2005 and her death characterized by the US Army to be suicide as a self-inflicted M-16 shot. On April 9, 2008, Dr. John Johnson and his wife Linda, parents of Private Johnson, flew from their home in St. Louis for meetings with US Congress members and their staffs. They were in Washington to ask that Congressional hearings be conducted on the Army’s investigation into the death of their daughter, an investigation that classified her death as a suicide despite extensive evidence suggesting she was murdered.

[…]

After two years of requesting documents, one set of papers provided by the Army included a xerox copy of a CD. Wondering why the xerox copy was in the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. With help from his local Congressional representative, the US Army finally complied. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter’s body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.

The photographs revealed that LaVena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault. [Emphasis mine.]

Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, LaVena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor’s tent to inside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire. [Emphasis mine.]

[…]

The Army investigators initially assumed Private Johnson’s death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, shortly into the investigation, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators must stop the investigation into a homicide and to classify her death a suicide.

As a result, no further investigation took place into a possible homicide despite strong evidence available to the investigators.

More at FireDogLake, Feministing, Electronic Village, Kate Harding (Salon), Buzzflash, and Megan Carpentier (Jezebel).

There's a petition for a full investigation at Color of Change, and a heartbreaking interview with LaVena's parents on Democracy Now (starts 23:58).

Laurie Frink update

Amazing news.

Laurie

Much love and support for Laurie Frink.

I drew a map of Canada

Peter Hum notes that amidst the controversy over Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada (Canada's highest civilian honor, basically the equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom), almost no one seems to have noticed that Paul Bley also got the nod this year. Bley, is of course, a genius and one of the most influential pianists in jazz, so kudos to the Order's advisory council for giving him the nod.

The other musicians named to the Order this year include trombonist and composer Ian McDougall (of Canada's favorite bigband, Rob McConnell's Boss Brass), José Verstappen (executive director of Early Music Vancouver), Charles Aznavour (honourary) and Randolph C. Bachman.

Wait... Randolph C. Bachman? Bachman, Bachman. You don't mean... ?

Yes.

Sincere congratulations to all.

They still call it the White House, but that's a temporary condition, too.

Yes he did.

Oliver Willis: It's Like The Moon Landing

When Obama clinched the nomination I called my Mom up to tell her the good news. And she is ecstatic. Jamaica is its own country with its own problems, big and small. And they know this is a big deal. As I spoke to her she opened up her front door and yelled out into the night that “Barack Obama is going to be President of the United States!”

Rikyrah (Jack and Jill Politics)

Be honest, you didn't think he had a chance. I know that I didn't, but I was going to support him, because I believed it was time for the country to see a run for President by someone that possibly had a chance. It had been a generation since Jesse Jackson's runs in 1984 and 1988, and it was time for us, as a nation to take that step.

Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend)

It's time to heal, get a ticket in place and demolish McCain.

Jesse Taylor (Pandagon)

This speech is so good that Obama just guaranteed six months of Republicans declaring him a homosexual Muslim abortionist. On his good days.

Publius (Obsidian Wings)

And who knows, maybe this time, the good guys will win. Maybe in this version, there is no Nixon -- no 1968. Maybe Mercutio survives. It’s a historic and exciting time — progressivism appears to be in an intellectual revival. The Democrats — having shed its Dixiecrat wing — are poised to command the most progressive majority in American history. And there’s a very real chance that Barack Obama could be leading that majority come next year.

Ezra Klein

Towards the end of the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Dr. John Wane Prentice, played by Sydney Poitier, sits down with his fiance's white father, played by Spencer Tracy. "Have you given any thought to the problems your children will have?" Tracy asks. "Yes, and they'll have some...[But] Joey feels that all of our children will be President of the United States," replies Poitier. "How do you feel about that?" asks Tracy, looking skeptically at the black man in front of him. "I'd settle for Secretary of State," Poitier laughs.

Written in the late-1960s, the exchange was, indeed, laughable. The Civil Rights Act had been passed three years prior. Two years before, the Watts riots had broken out, killing 35. Martin Luther King Jr. would be assassinated a year later. But here we are, almost exactly 40 years after theatergoers heard that exchange. The last two Secretaries of State were African-American and, as of tonight, the next president may well be a black man. John Prentice's children would probably still be in their late-30s. They could still grow up to be cabinet officials or even presidents, but they would not necessarily be trailblazers.

Let's make promises that we can keep

We just watched HBO's Recount, which was (surprisingly) outstandingly good. I would not have thought that the director of Goldmember had it in him, but the film is incredibly taut and suspenseful, despite the outcome being a foregone conclusion. All of the performances are terrific, especially Kevin Spacey's self-effacing Ron Klain, Laura Dern's pitch-perfect Katherine Harris, and John Hurt as the hapless Warren Chirstopher. It was also acutely painful to watch all of those awful moments re-enacted (or sometimes just re-exhibited -- there's an awful lot of archival TV news footage woven into the film): the networks initially calling Florida for Gore, then pulling it back, then Fox calling the state for Bush and everyone else falling in line... Gore's aborted concession... the butterfly ballots... the Brooks Brothers riot... Joe Lieberman's stab in the back (the first of many)... the appalling voter purge... that fucking chad... and of course, the greatest legal travesty since Plessy v. Ferguson.

It's hard to watch Recount without becoming completely enraged and dispirited all over again -- if anything, our national media is even worse today when they were in 2000, when they opted to pretend like the blatant theft of a presidential election was simply business as usual. It's true they failed us horribly during the leadup to the Iraq war, but for that, they invoke the post-9/11 "patriotic fever" as their excuse for not exercising more skepticism. In 2000, they had no such excuse.

What is staggering to me, though, is that this year's class of incoming college freshman were ten years old when this all went down. To me, the scars of the stolen election in 2000 and all the tragedy that flowed from that are still a gaping, open wound, to the point where I can barely think about that stuff without wanting to punch through a wall, and I can barely get through this docudrama about the recount without weeping tears of rage. But these kids graduating high school next month, starting college in the fall -- they were too young to remember much of anything about the recount. George W. Bush is effectively the only president they have known. Maybe they dimly recall something about Bill Clinton's presidency, but they would have been, like, eight years old when the Lewinsky scandal broke. George W. Bush is their normal.

That is horrifying. (Also: I feel extremely old.)

If you know an 18-year old who's excited about casting their first vote this November -- I must insist that you get them to watch Recount. (Don't worry -- if they don't have HBO, they will know how to access the video by other means.)

Pander to the marginalized

Every so often, Barack Obama delivers some seriously good fanservice:

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

"I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama.

In my mind, I like to pretend that that call begins, "Hello, Russ?"

There's a party in my mind

I've been a huge fan of Rachel Maddow since the star-crossed launch of Air America Radio back in early 2004.  She is now the last host standing from Air America's initial slate, and also the only host to emerge from the network who has successfully cracked the mainstream media bubble -- she is a regular commentator on MSNBC, and last Friday was invited back for her second stint guest-hosting Keith Olberman's Countdown.

Her radio program -- the best news show on the radio -- has been linked to in the "Redeye Newsfix" portion of the sidebar since back when her show was broadcasting at 5 AM Eastern. It now airs 7-9 PM most places -- but the best way to get it is to subscribe to the free podcast, courtesy San Fransisco's Green 960AM. (What you want is Hours Two and Three, which are 100% Rachel -- Hour One is a simulcast of MSNBC's Race to the White House.)

In addition to being an incredibly astute political commentator (Rhodes scholar, D.phil in political science) and entertaining radio host, Rachel is also a serious classic cocktail aficionado, one who is, like all right-thinking drinkers, especially partial to the whiskey drinks. So yeah, basically I am completely smitten with her, which is inconvenient as we are both taken, and also she is a lesbian.

Anyway, last night on her show, Rachel broke with format to deliver a long, incisive, and chilling analysis of where the Democratic race is headed if we don't have a candidate before the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on May 31. If that happens, then the process ball will start rolling on the question of what to do with the results of the disputed primaries in Michigan and Florida. And once that ball starts rolling, it essentially cannot be stopped until the Democratic National Convention in late August.

I think Rachel is essentially correct -- Hillary Clinton has shown no intention whatsoever of dropping out of the race, and shows every sign of using the uncertainty her campaign has created around the fate of  the Michigan and Florida delegations as justification to take this fight all the way to the convention in Denver. That means that unless something incredibly dramatic happens with the superdelegates over the next nine days, we are in for three and a half more months of infighting, with no official Democratic candidate, culminating in what is sure to be a bloodbath on the convention floor.

I do not think this scenario bodes well for the eventual nominee's chances versus John McCain in November.

Here is Rachel's post on this, which outlines her argument in detail:

The Clinton strategy, as best as I can tell, is to stay in the race. You can't win if you don't play -- conceding the nomination is sure defeat, not conceding means there's still a chance.

The way for her to avoid conceding is for her to avoid conceding that the race is resolved.

As long as the Florida and Michigan dispute is alive, and it is being used as the basis of Clinton's claim that the nomination is unresolved, we should expect that Senator Clinton will stay in the race.

We should also expect that if the Democratic Party's committee system takes up the Florida and Michigan dispute through its rules as they stand now, Clinton's campaign will be able to keep the Michigan and Florida dispute alive until the convention. If there's a secret Democratic-insider plan to keep that from happening, it's time for that plan to become un-secret.

The pundit corps has been counting Clinton out and saying the race is over -- but saying it doesn't make it so.

If Clinton fights to stay in until the convention -- which seems utterly plausible to me -- then I believe the Democratic Party's nominee (Obama or Clinton) will lose the general election to John McCain. This last point is of course infinitely debatable -- but my take is that in November, the party that's had a nominee since February/March, beats the party that only got a nominee the last week in August.

There appears to be one, slim hope remaining to avoid this nightmare scenario:

[I]f the Democrats are to avoid a divided convention, the Florida and Michigan dispute will have to be taken off the table -- settled in a way that avoids the risk of a rules dispute that stretches the nominating contest out through the convention. I can think of only one way to do that, but there may be others.

Here's my way: based on my read of NBC's delegate math, I think if the Clinton campaign won 100% of what they wanted on the Florida and Michigan dispute, Obama could still clinch the nomination -- even according to the most pro-Clinton math -- if 90 of the remaining 210-or-so undeclared superdelegates declared for Obama.

If they so declared before May 31st, the Rules and Bylaws committee would have no reason to take up the Florida and Michigan dispute because it would be a moot point -- Obama's camp could concede every Clinton demand on the subject and still win the nomination.

Read the whole thing. Or (better), listen to the episode where Rachel lays out her argument in full (which begins at the 13:00 mark).

Rachel concludes by noting that the last three disputed conventions -- in 1968, 1972, and 1980 -- were complete electoral catastrophes for the Democrats. I really don't think we can afford to go 0 for 4.

UPDATE: Well, okay, sure, that is one way we could avoid a disputed convention. I'm not sure it would exactly be my first choice...

Seriously, Hillary, WTF?

No, really:

W.

T.

F.

Especially coming on the heels of this.

50 Shots

Another fucking travesty:

Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens.

'Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago

By way of contextualizing the anger that underlies Reverend Wright's recent controversial remarks -- anger that many white Americans seem to find unfathomable -- Hilzoy points out that Jeremiah Wright was born in 1941 -- the same year as Emmett Till.

[I trust you all know who Emmett Till is, but in case you need to study up: Wikipedia. Eyes On The Prize segments on Till (YouTube) -- One. Two Three.]

I also second Hizoy's recommendation here:

To see a photo of what remained of [Till's] face -- and photos like this were printed in Jet and circulated around the world -- click here. It's not pleasant to look at, but if you haven't seen it before, you should steel yourself and try.

I had not seen this photo before.

Hilzoy goes on to say:

The murder of Emmett Till was not particularly unusual. Neither was the fact that the killers, though known to their community, were not brought to justice. (The jury deliberated for 67 minutes; one juror said that "they wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't stopped to drink pop.") What made it unusual was the actions of Till's family: his mother's decision to have an open casket funeral, and his uncle's decision to testify against his killers in court.

Jeremiah Wright was fourteen when Till was killed. Though he did not live in the South, Jim Crow was in full force there until his early twenties. He was twenty one when George Wallace called for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He was a few days shy of twenty two when a bomb went off in a Birmingham church, killing four young girls who were at Sunday School, about a month shy of twenty three when Lyndon Johnson finally signed the Civil Rights Act, and almost twenty four when Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

By the time our country got around to guaranteeing voting rights for blacks, Jeremiah Wright had served his country in the Marine Corps for three years, and in the Navy for two more.

One more date, both because it is itself outrageous and because it is something to bear in mind if you should happen to wonder why someone like Rev. Wright might believe that our government caused HIV: when the Tuskegee Study ended in 1972, Rev. Wright was thirty one years old.

Read the whole thing.

-----

David Adler comments on Wright, Obama's Philadelphia speech, and the jazz blogosphere's reaction.

-----

In lighter news (uh, no pun intended, really), the author of the very funny blog Stuff White People Like has apparently scored a $350,000 book deal.

Got to. This America, man.

Senator Obama's speech yesterday in Philadelphia is mandatory viewing:

Transcript

His delivery is almost preternaturally cool. He doesn't dramatize the text with his usual sweeping oratory -- he lets the words carry themselves. It is a major speech in American political history. It is honest and complex and non-pandering and a welcome contrast to all the petty bullshit of day-to-day horserace politics.

It is also a speech that in a better, more just world, a more understanding, more historically conscious world, he should not have had to give. In that better world, the people who were offended by some of Rev. Wright's fiery comments might have paused a moment to reflect about where the reverend's anger is coming from, and think on whether they, too, might be angry if they had experienced what he has experienced. People might also consider why anger, especially African-American anger, is considered so politically radioactive, when it is precisely righteous anger at oppression and injustice that fueled many of the great civil rights activists of the past century.

Matana Roberts writes a letter to White America:

I find it rather depressing that Senator Obama had to make a lengthy and concise speech today, not about the plight of American poverty, the continual decline of American education , our very troubling healthcare system ( though to his credit he did try to tie these issues in to his speech), but he had to use this valuable time to speak in defense of a man that has been defending the rights of black Americans in Chicago for decades. My grandmothers house is about 4 blocks away from the original Trinity Church that Reverend Jeremiah Wright preached at for the last 36 years. My Mother still remembers when he started that church and had a small following of maybe 65 congregants, my uncle and aunt attended that church for a time, and I remember passing by it as a kid. That church now has a congregation of thousands, and I think it's also interesting to note that some of it’s congregants are white Americans just like you. 

[…]

The tradition of black preachers using their sermons to inspire, incite, and encourage slaves and descendants of slaves to look toward a bigger picture of existence in the haven of being a good Christian saved many a soul from the depression of some everyday realties, and I believe many of your white American ancestors from one less race riot. Does that excuse some of Reverend Wright’s opinions? Not completely. But when put into to context that these thoughts came from the son of a Black Baptist preacher, who experienced racism just by the genetic indetermination of being born brown, raised during the Jim crow era, seeing racism as not only a witness participant, but also as an staunch community activist participant in a very segregated politically windy city, I’d say that if anybody had the right to speak on these touchy issues he should be allowed to, without his tactics being defined as that of a “cult leader”.

Read the whole thing.

However, given the sorry state of American discourse on race -- which has been especially stupid during the current presidential campaign, and I fear it will only get worse -- I am glad Sen. Obama gave the speech he did. It is hard to imagine a better one.

Some other reactions from around the jazz musician blogosphere:

Taylor Ho Bynum:

And finally, I rarely venture into politics here, but I have to say, I was impressed, even moved, by Obama’s speech yesterday. To have any politician talk about race in such a nuanced and honest way is incredible, let alone a major presidential candidate. My immediate family happens to be about as wildly diverse as Obama’s: asian, white, black, jewish, you name it; my friends run the gamut from those openly advocating for revolution to those working within the political system. I’ve had loving and complex relationships and discussions with all these friends and relatives similar to what Obama describes with his pastor and his grandmother. It is beyond refreshing to have an intelligent national conversation about this, it is potentially transformative. If only it lasts, and becomes part of our waking reality, rather than than the vague memory of a compelling dream.

Andrew Durkin:

Ezra Klein is right. The power of that Obama speech -- the power of the candidate himself -- is traceable to a characteristic so rarely seen in politics: honesty.

As I listened, I was reminded that, for all of the left-generated criticism of Obama as "not progressive enough" (do you remember how common that was back in the Fall?) -- there is simply no way a Dennis Kucinich or a Ralph Nader (both of whom I admire greatly) could put the issue of race on the table so deftly, respectfully, and forcefully.

Whether you think race is our crucible issue as a nation is up to you, of course. I happen to think it is.

Finally, I note this only because no one else seems to have mentioned it yet -- some may recall Rev. Jeremiah Wright from his appearance on a Wynton Marsalis album. He provides the narration on the track "Premature Autopsies (Sermon)" (click to listen via Rhapsody). The text is by (wait for it...) Stanley Crouch.

On this track, one of the things Rev. Wright says is: "If you give me a fair chance, I will help you better understand the meaning of democracy."

From the depths of the sea, back to the block

There's a grassroots movement afoot to rename one of Montreal's metro stations after Oscar Peterson -- it's gone from a 5,500-strong Facebook group to a serious national campaign. While I sympathize with those who oppose renaming local landmarks on principle, it's actually pretty fucking shameful that a metro stop was named after Abbé Lionel Groulx in the first place -- dude was a stone cold fascist who wrote books with titles like L'Appel de la race and did his level best to keep Jews fleeing the Holocaust out of Canada. He personifies all of the ugliest racist and antisemitic elements of pur laine Québec nationalism.

I am actually extremely sympathetic to the desire of francophone Québecois to protect their language and culture -- and if you don't believe Québec is a a distinct society, you've never heard two blue-collar francophones get into a public shouting match about the relative merits of various raw-milk cheeses. But regardless of what side of the sovereignty debate you fall on, there's just no denying that Groulx is an entirely reprehensible figure, and when the station was named after him (in 1978 -- it's not like we are talking about the distant past here), it was an affront to Montreal's Jewish and minority communities.

Oscar Peterson grew up in the neighborhood served by the stop (St-Henri), which is home to the Union United Church, the oldest black congregation in Québec. As Michael Citrome, who created the Facebook page says, "There's something sick about the fact that in one of the oldest historically black neighbourhoods in Canada, there's a subway station named after a terrible racist."

The Transit Commission opposes the change, as does the Gazette (Montreal's English newspaper), but their arguments are pretty feeble. The Gazette editorial objects that "the métro station is not named after him; it's named after the street" -- actually, the street was renamed Lionel-Groulx when the station opened. So fine, let's also rename Avenue Lionel-Groulx after Oscar Peterson while we're are at it.

Historian Jarrett Rudy is quoted in the Globe & Mail piece, saying: "Yes, there is a disagreeable underside to the man – the anti-Semitism, the fascist sympathies." (Okay, please stop right there. We all know a "but" is coming, and it won't be pretty.) "But he also had a significance for a huge part of the population. I feel uncomfortable about erasing his impact from Quebec history."

No one thinks we should only name streets and landmarks after perfect people, but you know, I feel pretty comfortable at drawing the line at actual unapologetic fascists. I mean, it's not like we go around naming public spaces after the father of the KKK, right?

Oh, okay... bad example.

Andrew D'Angelo Benefit Shows

Unbelievably tragic news:

Fuck this is not easy because it's not good news folks. I have brain cancer. Oligodendroglioma. Is the form. They grade these aggressive tumors on a scale from 1 to 4, (4 being the most aggressive), mine is a 3. Poopshit. The better side of the news is, that for now, they feel they got enough in the retraction so there will be no immediate surgery. That's a bit of a relief for my head. For sure. Down side is, I have to start figuring out how to attack this thing and shrink it.

I don't really know what the hell to say. Everything I try to write seems laughably inadequate.

I only met Andrew once, briefly, after his big band's Tea Lounge gig, but I've been following him on record and live for years, and watching and listening, it seemed like there was no division between the person and the music. Via Ethan Iverson, we learn that Andrew's Human Feel bandmate Kurt Rosenwinkel describes Andrew as a "pure element," which from a fan's perspective seems absolutely dead-on.

It strikes me that far too many people still don't know about Human Feel. I was talking to some young Toronto-area jazz students at The Rex during IAJE, and while they knew and greatly admired all of the individual musicians -- D'Angelo, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Speed and Jim Black -- they had no idea those four dudes had come up in a band together, nor how deep Human Feel's influence runs.

For more, I direct you again to Ethan Iverson, and to Steve Smith's writeup of the band's 2006 reunion show at Fat Cat.

Benefit shows are taking place all over the world: Antwerp, Olso, Ferrara, Ghent... here are the Brooklyn dates:

February 22, 2008 : 9pm - Benefit Concert
The Tea Lounge
http://www.tealoungeny.com/
837 Union St. Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
718.789.2762

FEATURING:
• Matt Wilson group •
• Whoopie Pie - Mike Pride, Jamie Saft, Bill McHenry •
• Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant with Chess Smith and Mary Halvorson •
• Jim Black Chris Speed Oscar Noriega Trevor Dunn play D'Angelo •

February 28, 2008 : 8pm - Benefit Concert
Barbes
http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/
376 9th St. (@ 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY

FEATURING:
• Jessica Pavone and Mary Halvorson duo •
• Laura Cromwell's Queen Moonracer •
• Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon duo •
and more TBA....

More to come, I'm sure.

Andrew does not have health insurance. Because this country is unbelievably fucked up, heath care in America is a luxury, one that the overwhelming majority of jazz musicians cannot afford. Andrew is literally fighting for his life here and he needs our help. He will likely require radiation or chemotherapy or some combination thereof.

Come to the shows. Make a donation. Buy his CDs -- they are astounding. Read his blog -- it is as uncompromisingly personal as his music.

We're binary code, a one and a zero. You wanted violins, and you got Nero.

Yes, I am seemingly jacking everything from Atrios these days, but I can't very well post this without showing you this, now, can I?

[And yes, for you kids out there, Cindy McCain really did steal drugs from her own charity, and that "$50/hour to pick lettuce for a whole season" thing doesn't make any more sense in context.]

Video by Lee Stranahan, originally linked to by LitBrit.

UPDATE: And yes, there's another one:

This one is by comedian Andy Cobb. Via Hilzoy.

Captain Brain

Andrew D'Angelo's surgery is today. In fact, it should be currently underway as I type this.

Just a few hours ago, Andrew published his final pre-surgery blog post -- I take back what I wrote earlier, "fucking hardcore" doesn't even begin to cut it. Andrew has been a big musical inspiration, but the personal resilience and humor and unmediated candidness that comes through in his most recent post (Hospital, the day of) is really something. Reading it, I couldn't help tearing up a little. Take good care of that brain, Dr. Alterman.

Best of luck to Andrew, and best wishes to his family and loved ones.

Lily Maase brings word that the first benefit show for Andrew will be February 22nd -- details TBA but rest assured I will keep you all posted.

Allegiance

Fucking hell.

Andrew D'Angelo, of Human Feel and many other influential groups, sent an email around earlier today directing people to this notice on his website:

SAXOPHONIST ANDREW D'ANGELO HAS BRAIN TUMOR

On Friday, January 25, 2008 world-renowned saxophonist/composer Andrew D'Angelo suffered a major seizure while driving in Brooklyn, NY. Tests in the hospital revealed a large tumor in his brain. Andrew will undergo brain surgery at some point in the next few weeks. At this time, it is believed that the tumor is not cancerous, but this will not be confirmed until a biopsy is performed.

Like many Americans, Andrew has no health insurance. A fund has been established to help with the costs of his surgery and recovery. Donations can be sent via PayPal to [email protected]. We deeply appreciate any efforts that can be made to spread the word about Andrew's situation.

Benefit concerts are currently being planned for New York City and Boston. More information about these concerts will be posted on www.andrewdangelo.com as soon as it is available.

Andrew D'Angelo, born 1966 in Seattle, Washington is one of the key members of Brooklyn's avant-garde jazz community. His work as a composer, performer, and bandleader has been a pivotal influence on his peers, as well as on younger generations of musicians. Andrew first achieved worldwide notoriety as a member of Human Feel with his longtime friends Jim Black, Chris Speed, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. After moving to Brooklyn in 1986 he joined the downtown music community centered around the Knitting Factory, working with musicians like Mark Dresser, Erik Friedlander, Bobby Previte, and many other leading artists. He is also currently a member of the Matt Wilson Quartet and Hilmar Jensson's band Tyft. Skirl Records released "Skadra Degis," the debut of Andrew's trio with Jim Black and Trevor Dunn on January 31, 2008.

For more information, please visit www.andrewdangelo.com.

Please take a moment to sign Andrew's guestbook and wish him well.

UPDATE: Andrew is blogging from his hospital bed. Because yes, he actually is that fucking hardcore. See also the photo gallery, wherein you can check out his MRIs and CT scans.

Surgery has apparently been delayed until at least Wednesday, possibly even Thursday or Friday. The good news is that Mount Sinai's Neurosurgery Department is the bomb.

We are pulling for you, Andrew.

I approve this message

Good video. And I'm speaking here as someone who normally loathes the Black Eyed Peas.

I'm still a bit bitter that Edwards couldn't stick it out through Super Tuesday, at least, but Obama really could be transformational. I have been skeptical that his "can't we all just get along" approach would be effective against the GOP goon squad (not to mention the Vichyites in his own party), but he really is inspiring heretofore cynical and/or apathetic young people to get involved, in unprecedented numbers. It's increasingly clear that Obama might actually be able to deliver on his promise to unite people of good will against the forces of douchebaggery.

MLK

These are some photos I took when I was down in Atlanta last May.

The home at 501 Auburn Ave. where King was born and spent his early life:

The old Ebenezer Baptist Church:

MLK became deacon in 1960, following in the footsteps of his father. It was the headquarters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. MLK's mother, Alberta Williams King, played the organ, and in 1974 was shot dead while sitting at this organ.

The new, currently active Ebenezer Baptist Church is across the street. The historic church is currently closed for repairs and restoration.

MLK is so often de-radicalized in the remembrance. We should not forget that the same people who fought tooth and nail against the revolutionary ideas he espoused continue to do so, and that many of the power structures he sought to dismantle are still very much in place. This April 4, we will mark 40 years since King's death. How have we fared in his absence? How much of his legacy have we brought to fruition over the past four decades?

Just imagine the howls of outrage and dismissive sneers "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" would elicit from the establishment press corps and punditry if it were written today:

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

[…]

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

[…]

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti religious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

And he can't stand Conrad Black either:

This just in: Conrad Black has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for his role in "misappropriating" (which is Rich People for "stealing") millions of dollars from the Hollinger newspaper empire, and for obstructing justice by allowing certain documents, which would have determined whether or not he was guilty of the nine charges he managed to evade (including racketeering), to "disappear."

For you non-Canadians out there, Conrad Black is our Rupert Murdoch, except with added imperial douchebaggery -- when Conrad found out he couldn't become Lord Black of Crossharbour because Canadian citizens are forbidden from accepting British peerages, he threw a massive hissy fit and renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001. (Don't let the door, etc.) Then he tried to get it back again last year. Now he's been sentenced to 78 months in an American jail. Time to break out the bubbly -- schadenfreude never tasted so sweet.

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La movida en Venezuela

Some welcome news: a narrow defeat for Chávez, a giant victory for the people of Venezuela.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 3 — Voters in this country narrowly defeated a proposed overhaul to the constitution in a contentious referendum over granting President Hugo Chávez sweeping new powers, the Election Commission announced early Monday.

It was the first major electoral defeat in the nine years of his presidency. Voters rejected the 69 proposed amendments 51 to 49 percent.

The political opposition erupted into celebration, shooting fireworks into the air and honking car horns, when electoral officials announced the results at 1:20 a.m. The nation had remained on edge since polls closed Sunday afternoon and the wait for results began.

The outcome is a stunning development in a country where Mr. Chávez and his supporters control nearly all of the levers of power. Almost immediately after the results were broadcast on state television, Mr. Chávez conceded defeat, describing the results as a “photo finish.”

Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons has a good analysis, leading off with a pertinent quote from a certain Simón Bolívar. [Via Scott.]

Some inevitable, but nonetheless deeply tragic news: Putin's party "wins" landslide "victory" in Russian "elections."

MOSCOW, Dec. 2 —With President Vladimir V. Putin’s opponents persistently hobbled by the Kremlin, his party swept Sunday to the kind of landslide long predicted for the parliamentary elections. Yet the results, while a triumph for Mr. Putin, also usher in a new era of political instability for Russia.

Even as Mr. Putin has been accumulating power and popularity, he has been stirring deep uncertainty about his intentions, making it all but impossible to answer a fundamental question about Russia’s future: Come next spring, who will be in charge?

Yielding to the constitutional limit of two consecutive terms, Mr. Putin has said he will not be a candidate for president in March. But he has declared that he will retain significant influence, whether as prime minister, leader of his party, United Russia, or a vague role described here as “father of the nation.”

UPDATE: Also, this.

Putin’s Last Realm to Conquer: Russian Culture

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
MOSCOW — The fight is long over here for authority over the security services, the oil business, mass media and pretty much all the levers of government. Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, notwithstanding some recent anti-government protests, has won those wars, hands down, and promises to consolidate its position in parliamentary elections. But now there is concern that the Kremlin is setting its sights on Russian culture.

Just a few weeks ago, the Russian culture minister censored a state-sponsored show of Russian contemporary art in Paris. Criminal charges have been pressed during the last couple of years against at least half a dozen cultural nonconformists. A gallery owner, a rabble-rouser specializing in art that tweaks the increasingly powerful Orthodox Church and also the Kremlin, was severely beaten by thugs last year. Authorities haven’t charged anyone.

At the same time, the Kremlin is courting some big-name cultural figures like Nikita Mikhalkov, the once-pampered enfant terrible filmmaker of Soviet days, today a big promoter of Mr. Putin.

There are signs of a backlash. In late October, a television debate program pitted Viktor Yerofeyev, a prominent Russian author, against Mr. Mikhalkov, who with a few others wrote a fawning letter, supposedly in the name of tens of thousands of artists, asking the president to stay in power beyond the constitutional limit of his term in March. “Have you heard of cult of personality?” Mr. Yerofeyev asked him.

Mr. Mikhalkov fumbled. Mr. Yerofeyev won the program’s call-in vote by a large margin, an event almost unheard of on today’s Kremlin-controlled television.

[…]

Mr. Mikhalkov, on the military base outside town, was directing a sequel to his Oscar-winning “Burnt by the Sun” the other day. He was surrounded by actors in Soviet uniforms stomping their feet against the freezing cold in deep trenches dug into a vast, lonely snow-covered field. The sky was leaden gray. Aside from the Putin re-election letter, Mr. Mikhalkov has raised eyebrows lately by filming a pro-Putin election advertisement, and he produced a gushing birthday tribute to the president, which was shown on state-run television. He retreated to a trailer to hash over the debate, which, even as someone who loves attention as much as power, obviously continued to gall him.

“Why are people frightened of patriotism?” he asked. He wanted to differentiate it from xenophobia. “There’s a lot of worrying among the intelligentsia about teaching the basics of Orthodox culture. It’s a hysteria.”

Russia needs authority, he said. “Maybe for the so-called civilized world this sounds like nonsense. But chaos in Russia is a catastrophe for everyone. Even if Putin isn’t always the most democratic, he should nevertheless remain in power because we don’t know that the new president won’t begin by undoing what Putin has done.”

When I mentioned this remark to Alexander Gelman, a high-profile playwright during the perestroika days, he shook his head. “In the Soviet era there was only one party but there were plays and books that supported the idea of democracy, ” he recalled. Despite the different spelling, he is the art dealer’s father, so not exactly unbiased. That said, he made a good point: “The less democracy, the more cultural figures matter. If the tendency against democracy continues, cultural figures will gain more influence.

“It’s a disgrace for Russia that writers would replace political parties,” he added. “But maybe that is what will have to happen.”

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There's a growing feeling of hysteria

The hottest thing in classical music right now, by a country mile, is 26-year old Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who made his NY Phil debut a couple of nights ago. I couldn't make it, although I loved his account of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra at Carnegie just a few weeks ago, and if you haven't yet seen that jaw-dropping video of Dudamel conducting the Mambo from West Side Story from the BBC Proms, you must. Dudamel is a product of the remarkable state-sponsored music education program called El Sistema, which enrolls more than 250,000 Venezuelan youths -- "Venezuela already has more schoolchildren in orchestras than on soccer teams."

Two good writeups of that hit -- one from Tony Tommasini in the NYT, and one from Peter Matthews at Feast of Music, who might just have been the only person in the audience at Avery Fisher Hall who had also attended a Todd P.-curated show the night before. Both reviews are notable for being among the few accounts of a Dudamel appearance that do not include a paragraph or two of hand-wringing about how the young conductor is morally compromised for not publicly denouncing Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

This is, as you may know, a bit of a hot topic in the classical sphere. In in his New Yorker column, Alex Ross writes "I wondered about the wisdom of putting on such a patriotic display at a time when other Venezuelan students have been protesting Hugo Chávez’s increasingly anti-democratic regime," and in a follow-up post on his blog, entitled "The Venezuela Problem," he adds: "What disturbs me [...] is that when politicians throw money at music, some in the classical business tend not to scrutinize the politics too closely."

Steve Smith, in reference to Chávez not being mentioned in a pre-concert discussion at Carnegie, writes:

[José Antonio] Abreu [founder of El Sistema], whose achievements in Venezuela unquestionably deserve respect, went on to say that similar programs were being launched in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston, and told the audience that he had urged the Carnegie Hall board to start presenting its artists in Venezuela.

Not that I wanted [Ara] Guzelimian [host of the chat] to get all Lee Bollinger here, but I did hope that some political context might be provided for the remarkable progress -- on both artistic and humanitarian levels -- that "El Sistema" has caused in Venezuela.

Instead, this was something like Dumbledore talking about opening Hogwarts franchises all over the world -- while He Who Must Not Be Named simply wasn't.

Neither Alex nor Steve take Dudamel himself to task for being insufficiently anti-Chávez, but Bob Shingleton (aka Pliable) of On An Overgrown Path has been far more vocal and persistent in his criticism. In this post, he writes: "The two photos show Venezuelan riot police facing university students during protests against Chavez’s decision to shut down opposition-aligned television station RCTV in May 2007. Perhaps DG will use them on the next Dudamel CD sleeve?"

Let me be clear -- I am not a fan of Chávez. Although democratically elected, his administration has taken a decidedly authoritarian turn, and people are right to be troubled. If Dudamel were to use his newfound international celebrity to take a strong public stance against Chávez's antidemocratic policies, I would certainly welcome it.

But I am also troubled by what I see as a certain double standard. It seems to me that many in the classical blogosphere are following the lead of conservative pundits in vastly inflating both Chávez's importance in the world and the extent of his antidemocratic activities. This led me to make some intemperate comments on certain threads, but I am frustrated by what looks an awful lot like hypocrisy.

I am not arguing that Hugo Chávez is a good guy. He is not. But compared to, say, Vladimir Putin, he's chump change:

Voting starts in Russian election

Polling stations have opened in the Russian capital, Moscow, as the country continues to vote in general elections over 22 hours across 11 time zones.

Eleven parties are competing for places in the lower house, the Duma - though it is not clear how many will secure the 7% needed to qualify for seats.

President Vladimir Putin's party is predicted to win, boosting his bid to retain power after leaving the Kremlin.

Opposition parties have accused the government of stifling their campaigns and of intimidation.

Independent monitors say their attempts to observe the poll have been hampered.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has abandoned its plans to send a big team of election observers to Russia after accusing the Russian government of imposing unacceptable restrictions and of deliberately delaying the issuing of visas. Russia has denied the claims.

Only a much smaller group of MPs from the OSCE's parliamentary assembly will be in attendance.

That means just 400 foreign monitors will cover 95,000 polling stations.

[...]

The largest party in the Duma going into the elections is United Russia, and it will be hoping to maintain its dominance against the challenge from the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Yabloko party and others.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is at the top of the United Russia party list - opening the possibility that he could keep a grip on power from parliament even after stepping down as president next year.

During the run-up to the election, demonstrations were forbidden, and opposition coalition leader (and former World Chess Champion) Garry Kasparov was jailed for five days for his role in an anti-Putin rally. He has called the election a "farce."

And who happens to have made an appearance at Carnegie Hall last night? Why, it's Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra! And what does Maestro Gergiev have to say about Putin?

But the biggest boost, says Gergiev, "comes from the sense of stability which Putin immediately brought to the country. We worked together in the most difficult years. Today the country is in better shape […]."

In this same article, we learn that Putin was personally responsible for directing $184 million worth of state funds towards the renovation of the orchestra's home, the Kirov-Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Or how about this charming personal detail, gleaned from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's website:

He [Gergiev] reputedly has a direct line to Russian president Vladimir Putin (a fan of Gergiev's), and he and Putin are godfathers to each other's children.

Have any of the critics and bloggers writing about the Kirov Orchestra's current tour mentioned how they are troubled by Gergiev's "direct line" to Putin? (Especially given the farce of a Russian election currently underway?) Has anyone asserted: "Supporting [Gergiev], his [Kirov] orchestra, and other [Russian] cultural products is akin to saying that we love the produce of a nascent dictatorship"?

Anyone? Anyone?

I do not like to play the "if you are outraged about this, why aren't you outraged about that" game. But in this case, the parallel is too clear and the double standard too glaring to let pass without comment.

UPDATE: I did not know, at the time I wrote this, that Leterland proprietor David Adler had recently posted on both Gergiev/Kirov and the Dudamel-Chávez question. He has since weighed in in the comments to this post and on his own blog -- as always, David's thoughts are well worth reading.

UPDATE 2: Patrick J. Smith (The Penitent Wagnerite) responds.

UPDATE 3: More responses: Pliable (On An Overgrown Path). Matt Guerrieri (Soho The Dog).

Also -- I mentioned this in the comments, but just so nobody gets the wrong idea: It was certainly not my intention to single out Alex Ross or Steve Smith for opprobrium! The passages I quoted from Alex and Steve are, taken by themselves, entirely reasonable. But in order to point out the institutional double standard, which is hardly the fault of any one individual, I needed to pull some representative quotes from someone. I could have citied any number of critics, but I chose Alex and Steve precisely because (I hope!) they both understand that I have tremendous respect for their work and that no personal slight is intended.

UPDATE 4: MK (Tonic Blotter) has a humane and insightful take:

Dudamel is no Furtwängler or Shostakovich because Chávez is no Hitler or Stalin. But the basic choice is the same: Either: 1. confront the regime and risk retaliation which may force you into exile or worse, which will cause you to lose all influence at home and risk the undoing of all your previous efforts; or 2. find a way to deal with the system so that you can build something that will outlast the regime.

Read the whole thing.

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Lots of people talk and few of them know

Studios = pwned.

Via Ezra Klein.

Meanwhile, on Broadway, the stagehands union is being sued by theatre owners and producers. Tiger tiger tiger.

Sorry about the dearth of recent blogging. Like I said, deadline -- parts will be handed in later today and there will be much rejoicing.

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Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?

John Rogers, one of my favorite scriptwriting bloggers, explains the basis for the Writers Guild of America strike. It makes for fascinating reading, especially for anyone involved in trying to make a living from their creative work. I especially like this bit:

One of my favorite jokes, just a lovely piece of writing, is Chris Rock's bit about the time one of Siegfried and Roy's tigers mauled Roy.

"Everybody's mad at the tiger. 'That tiger went crazy!' That tiger didn't go crazy ... that tiger went tiger."

This is how I feel about corporations in general, extended to the Studios in particular. There are those who rail at the AMPTP for being profit-maximizing heartless, soul-less bastards as if that were a bad thing. It's not.

A corporation's job is to make money, and if necessary fuck you in the process. Just like a tiger's job is to eat, and if necessary kill you in the process. I'm okay with that. I like capitalism. A lot. I like tigers. A lot. That doesn't mean I trust corporations not to try to screw me and everyone next to me when negotiating. Nor would I trust a tiger not to attack me in the wild. Nor am I personally offended when they try.

All this to say that the Studios have not been negotiating in good faith, nor probably did they ever intend to. Why? They went tiger.

Read the whole thing.

Obviously, I am 100% for the WGA (when it's Viacom vs. the writers of the Daily Show, who the hell cheers for Viacom?), but I can't help but be a little rueful about the relative bargaining power of their union versus our union. You take your victories where you can find them, of course, but I can't help but feel that if the American Federation of Musicians had ever gotten serious about organizing and fighting for recording artists (not just the session musicians, orchestral musicians, and B'way pit players it primarily represents) -- and, on the flip side, if recording artists had ever recognized the need for solidarity, especially when negotiating with tigers -- we would not all have gotten saddled with recording contracts that look like this this.

A measly 0.3% residual on DVD sales is certainly a raw deal, but when it comes to going tiger, the AMPTP has got nothing on the RIAA:

The Copyright Office sets the statutory rate for mechanical royalties [N.B. "mechanical royalties" are the fee a composer or lyricist gets paid when an album containing their music is sold], increasing every two years according to changes in cost of living as determined by the Consumer Price Index. The rate increases are by authority of the 1976 amendment to the Copyright Act. The first rate increase was in 1981. It was at about this time that the Controlled Composition clause became commonplace in record contracts.

The main purpose of the controlled composition clause is to NOT pay artists the statutory rate and to NOT increase royalties as costs of living increases; basically, to thwart copyright law.

The controlled composition clause limits the amount of mechanical royalties the company is required to pay for records it releases, and holds the artist responsible for the excess. In essence, the record companies are compelling artists to subsidize the payment of mechanical royalties. Here’s how they do it: (all examples assume today’s royalty rate of $.0755).

[N.B. This was written in 2001 -- the statutory rate for mechanicals in 2007 is now a whopping $.091 per song.]

Artist gets 75% of the statutory rate per song = $0.056 per song, not $0.0755
This is based on the minimum statutory rate, so the company calculates the same rate for a 10-minute song as for a 2-minute song. This thwarts the statute, which provides increased rates for songs over 5 minutes.

Artists gets royalties on maximum of 10 songs = $0.56 per album total
Under the statute, an album with 12 songs would earn $.90. Under this clause, the maximum royalties payable would be $0.56. If the maximum is exceeded (by using a cover song or a producer demanding a higher rate), the artist is held responsible for that excess.

Rate is fixed on date master is delivered.
The reduced rate will never increase, thwarting the Copyright Office statutory cost of living increases. Record labels lock in the earliest date possible. Some contracts fix the date at execution of the contract signing, knowing full well that the record won’t hit the shelves for two years.

Not pay royalties on “free goods”
Under the compulsory license provisions of Copyright Act, record labels are required to pay mechanical royalties on all records “made and distributed.” Instead, record labels thwart this law by refusing to pay for so-called “free goods.” This confusing word “free-goods” is not defined as promo albums. Rather, all major labels define “free goods” as 15% of the records they sell. Using this provision, major labels calculate royalties on only 85% of records sold.

Reduced rate applies to all “controlled compositions”
The definition of “controlled composition” casts a wide net. It includes songs written by producers on the album. Customarily, the record company hires these producers without negotiating a reduced mechanical royalty rate. The artist is forced to make up the difference. This is particularly egregious because most artists have no control over producers.

Hold Artist responsible for excess mechanical royalties.
If the total amount paid by the company does exceed the specified maximums, the difference will be deduced from the artist’s royalties. The possibilities of the artist running afoul of all these provisions are endless and, potentially, very expensive for the artist.

The following example illustrates the devastating effect this clause has on royalties:
Example: Artist has agreed to be responsible for any costs of mechanicals over $0.56 (75% of statutory times 10 songs). Artist has no say over what is recorded. She records 15 songs written by the record label’s “affiliated publisher” who charges the full statutory rate of $.075 per song, or $1.13 for the album. The Artist now OWES the record label $0.57 per record. In five years, when the statutory rate increases to [$.091] per song, but the artist’s rate stays the same, the artist will OWE $0.85 per album! Each record sold puts her deeper in the hole, and farther away from ever recouping.

Read the whole thing (and weep).

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In other Darcy news

This is unexpected, and awesome. May Ms. Burner continue to kick ass and bring honor and glory to our shared name.

In the time of chimpanzees we were monkeys

Me and you and everyone we know all suck.

Via James Wolcott, who claims to suck, but could honestly suck a whole lot worse.

Mesmeric full demolition

I haven't blogged on the conviction Thursday in Jose Padilla show-trial, because the whole thing is just too depressing. Almost 60 years after Project MKULTRA was launched, the US government is still inflicting Manchurian Candidate-style psychological violence on US citizens. The "enhanced interrogation techniques" they used are not designed to extract useful information from you. Instead, they are absolutely guaranteed to destroy your mind, just as surely as if they had lobotomized you.

There's a word for this -- it's called "menticide."

See also Hilzoy, Greenwald, Koch, and  Helmut.

This is a public service announcement... with guitar!

From my inbox to your screen:

For years, AFM members have had problems bringing musical instruments aboard planes as carry-on luggage. Recently, discussions with the airlines trade association and Congress have picked up to the point where an acceptable solution to the problem is possible. However, we need to show that there is urgency to the problem. We would appreciate it if you would describe your recent experiences when traveling with instruments to us so we can show the seriousness of the situation for musicians. Please send your recent airline experience to me at [email protected]. Thank you.

You don't have to be a Union member, just a traveling musician who'd like the right to not have your axe mulched.

Torture Garden

Naomi Klein: A Trial For Thousands Denied Trial

Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born former gang member, was classified as an "enemy combatant" and taken to a Navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was kept in a 9-by-7-foot cell with no natural light, no clock and no calendar. Whenever Padilla left the cell, he was shackled and suited in heavy goggles and headphones. Padilla was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. He was forbidden contact with anyone but his interrogators, who punctured the extreme sensory deprivation with sensory overload, blasting him with harsh lights and pounding sounds. Padilla also says he was injected with a "truth serum," a substance his lawyers believe was LSD or PCP.

According to his lawyers and two mental health specialists who examined him, Padilla has been so shattered that he lacks the ability to assist in his own defense. He is convinced that his lawyers are "part of a continuing interrogation program" and sees his captors as protectors. In order to prove that "the extended torture visited upon Mr. Padilla has left him damaged," his lawyers want to tell the court what happened during those years in the Navy brig. The prosecution strenuously objects, maintaining that "Padilla is competent," that his treatment is irrelevant.

US District Judge Marcia Cooke disagrees. "It's not like Mr. Padilla was living in a box. He was at a place. Things happened to him at that place." The judge has ordered several prison employees to testify at the hearings on Padilla's mental state, which begin February 22. They will be asked how a man alleged to have engaged in elaborate antigovernment plots now acts, in the words of brig staff, "like a piece of furniture."

It's difficult to overstate the significance of these hearings. The techniques used to break Padilla have been standard operating procedure at Guantánamo Bay since the first prisoners arrived five years ago. They wore blackout goggles and sound-blocking headphones and were placed in extended isolation, interrupted by strobe lights and heavy metal music. These same practices have been documented in dozens of cases of CIA "extraordinary rendition" as well as in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many have suffered the same symptoms as Padilla. According to James Yee, former Army Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo, there is an entire section of the prison called Delta Block for detainees who have been reduced to a delusional state. "They would respond to me in a childlike voice, talking complete nonsense. Many of them would loudly sing childish songs, repeating the song over and over." All of Delta Block was on twenty-four-hour suicide watch.

[...]

The manual was based on the findings of the agency's notorious MK Ultra program, which in the 1950s funneled about $25 million to scientists to research "unusual techniques of interrogation." One of the psychiatrists who received CIA funding was the infamous Ewen Cameron of Montreal's McGill University. Cameron subjected hundreds of psychiatric patients to large doses of electroshock and total sensory isolation and drugged them with LSD and PCP. In 1960 Cameron gave a lecture at the Brooks Airforce Base in Texas in which he stated that sensory deprivation "produces the primary symptoms of schizophrenia."

There is no need to go so far back to prove that the US military knew full well that it was driving Padilla mad. The Army's field manual, reissued just last year, states, "Sensory deprivation may result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and anti-social behavior," as well as "significant psychological distress."

If these techniques drove Padilla insane, that means the US government has been deliberately driving hundreds, possibly thousands, of prisoners insane around the world. What is on trial in Florida is not one man's mental state. It is the whole system of US psychological torture.

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Zoilus (Carl Wilson): Celine Dion, Barney the Dinosaur and the Weaponization of Culture

Now, I get the impulse to blurt out, "Anybody with a toddler knows what effective torture the Barney song can be!" If I've never called a piece of music "torture" in print in the past decade, I'd be very surprised (though pleasantly). But when you stop and think, Sesame Street songs as psychic bludgeons isn't just ugly; it's a gross perversion of what that music was made for. It's the weaponization of culture.

Clearly, it is only one point on a spectrum that includes worse abuses. I don't mean to magnify it out of proportion. But I think people whose lives revolve around culture, and music in particular, should consider taking the lead in objecting to this one.

[...]

But musicians and music lovers' deeper moral rights are violated when the story goes beyond a figurative abuse of cultural discourse to the literal abuse of human subjects. And finally, some people are saying so. In February, the U.S.-based Society for Ethnomusicology took an official, unanimous position against the use of music as torture, demanding the U.S. government end the practice. (Predictably drawing yet more asinine humour.) In 2005, Irish music therapist Jane Edwards wrote a letter to Condoleeza Rice in protest and a column urging her peers to speak out (notice the Celine Dion crack she quotes). Perhaps the music industry could follow their lead, turning their attention from the "monetization" of music to the weaponization of it for a few heartbeats.

You say that you got me all in your notebook

From the archives: Thomas Pynchon's introduction to the 2003 Plume edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell was amused at those of his colleagues on the left who lived in terror of being termed bourgeois. But somewhere among his own terrors may have lurked the possibility that, like Galsworthy, he might one day lose his political anger, and end up as one more apologist for Things As They Are. His anger, let us go so far as to say, was precious to him. He had lived his way into it—in Burma and Paris and London and on the road to Wigan pier, and in Spain, being shot at, and eventually wounded, by fascists—he had invested blood, pain and hard labour to earn his anger, and was as attached to it as any capitalist to his capital. It may be an affliction peculiar to writers more than others, this fear of getting too comfortable, of being bought off. When one writes for a living, it is certainly one of the risks, though not one every writer objects to. The ability of the ruling element to co-opt dissent was ever present as a danger—actually not unlike the process by which the Party in 1984 is able perpetually to renew itself from below.

The single most offensive thing about glib contrarians like Andrew Sullivan and Christropher Hitchens -- other than the fact that anyone takes anything they write seriously -- is that neither of them ever misses an opportunity to announce that they have appointed themselves the official torchbearers of the Orwell legacy. Compare the Pynchon essay to anything penned by Sully or Hitch for a graphic illustration of the difference between a writer and a hack, between someone who actually gets Orwell versus someone who's only interested in using Eric Blair's pseudonym to prop up his own fragile delusions.

What else should I be

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized to Maher Arar, offered him compensation for his terrible ordeal, and pledged to ensure that what happened to him will never happen again.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is quoted as saying:

The Canadian Government now has taken several steps to accept responsibility for its role in sending Mr. Arar to Syria, where he was tortured.

The question remains why, even if there were reasons to consider him suspicious, the U.S. government shipped him to Syria, where he was tortured, instead of to Canada for investigation or prosecution. I look forward to hearing the Justice Department's answer to that question next week.

It's refreshing to see that there is at least least one US elected official who takes Arar's case seriously.

Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings (one of my all-time favorite bloggers) asks us to compare and contrast:

As I understand it, Canada's role in Arar's detention was twofold. First, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided information, some of it baseless and misleading, to US authorities. Among other things, it described him and another person as an "Islamic Extremist individuals suspected of being linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist movement", a claim for which the Canadian investigation into this whole affair says they had "no basis" (p. 13 (pdf).) Second, they didn't do enough to try to free him once he was in detention.

We, by contrast, actually detained him and shipped him off to Syria, where he was kept in a three foot by six foot underground cell and tortured for ten months. Unlike the Canadian government, we have not initiated an investigation of how we ended up shipping an innocent engineer off to be tortured in Syria. To my knowledge, no one has resigned. We have not apologized, nor have we made any effort at all to help Mr. Arar put his life back together after we broke it apart. Here's what Alberto Gonzales had to say after the Canadian government's report appeared:

QUESTION: Canada, as you know, released a long-awaited report yesterday on the treatment of Maher Arar. Since the Department was the agency that allowed his removal to Syria in which he was then tortured, doesn't the Department owe him an apology?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria, I'm not aware that he was tortured, and I haven't read the Commission report. Mr. Arar was deported under our immigration laws. He was initially detained because his name appeared on terrorist lists, and he was deported according to our laws.

Some people have characterized his removal as a rendition. That is not what happened here. It was a deportation. And even if it were a rendition, we understand as a government what our obligations are with respect to anyone who is rendered by this government to another country, and that is that we seek to satisfy ourselves that they will not be tortured. And we do that in every case. And if in fact he had been rendered to Syria, we would have sought those same kind of assurances, as we do in every case.

QUESTION: From the report, he had no connections with any terrorist groups, and he has sought an apology from the U.S. government.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Again, I haven't read the report.

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