November 29, 2011 · 4:31 pm

Tunes from soul night

I’m honored to be included in the Missing Link soul nights.  Featuring a bevy of thoughtful soul DJs (Mantease, Adam & Matt, Jay Morg) the night has been a grand success.

On saturday 11/26 I took the stage  to play an all-45 set to an appreciative crowd of about 200 people at that point.  Here is a rundown of the tunes:

1. J.R. Bailey – we need love

2. Eddie Bo – hook and sling 1

3. Ripple – funky song

4. Bobby Freeman – four piece funky nitty gritty junky band

5. Betty Wright – Let me be your love maker

6. Gladys Knight & the Pips – Nitty gritty

7. David Robinson – I’m a carpenter

8. Jamo Thomas – Arrest me

9. Shadows of Knight – Shake

10. David Batiste – Soul p2

11. Gaturs – cold bear

12. Aretha Franklin – this is the house that jack built

13. Calvin Arnold – I better rest

14. Voices of East Harlem – sit down

The next Missing Link soul party is December 15 at Humbrews. You can also catch King Maxwell on December 11th at the Blue Lake Roller rink for EIGHTIES SKATE!  And I’ll be playing 45 of the best funk and soul 45s at the Alibi on December 17.

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November 26, 2011 · 9:03 pm

Double down objectification: turkey bowling

Thanks to national geographic for the photo of a living turkey

An advertisement for Turkey bowling jumped out at me today.  I said the words aloud to see if they made any more sense: “Turkey bowling.  Turkey bowling.”  Hmm, not really.

A local casino is offering a promotion where punters attempt to throw a frozen turkey down a makeshift bowling alley.  Huh?

Easy enough to explain: animals become objects when killed.  To insulate reflection against the ethics of the dead animal erupting, humans are encouraged to treat the newly-deceased animal as a stand-in for some other object.   Reflection about the mass slaughter of turkeys is less likely when the turkey becomes the bowling ball.

 

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November 24, 2011 · 7:54 pm

Shopping for native american appropriation

Who is buying the cultural hijack this season?  Here are four excerpts from my buddy Zack’s reflection on cheesy selling of Native American identity.

Seeing as how this week is that special time of the year when Americans young and old come together in order to collectively indulge in enough food, mirth, and myth to sanitize the brutal genocide upon which America country was founded, I thought it would be nice to provide some shopping advice for this Friday’s consume-a-thon, and to pay tribute to the corporate tribe that has been gracious enough to supply the world with Eskimo Redneck Ice Chisels and 50 round rifle magazines.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Who calls it colonialism?  I just see some king-of-the-hill type wisdom.

Contrary to the logic of sane people, the British arbitrarily decided that this vast expanse of land was ‘theirs’, since the ancient law of man asserts the right for pigmentally-challenged people to claim anything and everything as their own private property, as long as they arrive at said destination by boat (FACT: Even today, if a white guy can technically sail a boat right up to your house and dismount on your property, then it’s totally his for the taking.)

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

And of course the real question about shopping is WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT ME?

Whether seen as a tools, weapons, or tweapons gifted directly from the Great Spirit to the neoprene’d hands of man, there are three models from which consumers can choose, including the Stone Club (pictured above), which is the ideal choice for (a) those wishing to add masculine nuance to their existing ‘Indians-were-majestic-but-I’m-not-giving-back-this-mountain’ chalet decor, or perhaps (b) the smaller niche market shopper who simply wants to add Blunt Force Trauma to his or her resume.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Selling the certificate-to-justify-genocide along with the offensive weapons — capitalism at the most savvy!

This item is also “100% Navajo-crafted with a certificate of authenticity,” and this means that you’re actually getting a second guarantee for free, which is Cabela’s certificate of assurance that, if necessary, any critique of their gross commodification of Native history can be deflected with the proverbial Navaho human shield whose name appears on the certificate.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Cheers to Souciant!   Add Zack’s new blog “Dudes against ‘dudes’” to your RSS feed.

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November 24, 2011 · 6:41 pm

Martha Stewart, pepper spray and a dead bird

Looks like jail time gave Martha a good sense of humor.

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November 23, 2011 · 6:56 pm

Thinkin’ Turkey

I’m a vegetarian.  Don’t eat the thanksgiving bird.  It’s easy.  If a being had a mom and has a face — don’t eat it.

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November 22, 2011 · 5:11 pm

Juxtaposition: the tear gas edition

Artifact 1. The editor-in-chief of the Bay Citizen was gassed in the #occupy oakland actions.

I looked down and my hand was black, my four fingers covered in toxic chemicals. I couldn’t feel my hand much but could clench it and unclench it and assumed I was okay. My blue flannel shirt also was black, stained where the canister had struck me and discharged. I was soaked in tear gas, but for some reason it was having less of an effect than the burning on my hand.

Another strange but not entirely unexpected thought popped into my head: 6 inches lower and it would have hit me in the crotch.

via Gassed – The Bay Citizen.

Artifact 2.  South Korean debate involves MPs using tear gas in the parliament building.

An opposition MP set off a teargas canister in the South Korean parliament in a failed attempt to prevent the ruling party passing a free trade deal with the US.

Proponents said the deal, the largest US trade pact since the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), could increase commerce between the two countries by up to a quarter. But the opposition claims it will harm South Korean interests, putting jobs at risk.

via South Korean MP lets off teargas in parliament | World news | guardian.co.uk.

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November 21, 2011 · 7:15 pm

Visibility of power: controlling the message on #occupy wallstreet

Thanks to Democracy Now! and MSNBC for unveiling the corporate lobbying group that has offered to the American Banking Association to undermine #occupy wallstreet.

According to MSNBC, the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford sent the memo to the American Bankers Association and offered to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” for a fee of $850,000. The memo advises the ABA to take the movement seriously, writing: “It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a ragtag group of protesters but they have demonstrated that they should be treated more like an organized competitor who is very nimble and capable of working the media, coordinating third party support and engaging office holders to do their bidding. To counter that, we have to do the same.” The memo goes on to warn the ABA that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and suggests the financial industry focus its energy on specific races that would lead to Republican elections.

via Washington Lobbying Firm Offers to Undermine Occupy Movement on Behalf of Wall Street.

In times of crisis, arguments about power become more visible.  In this case, we get to see the generation of propaganda at the stage of inception and amplification.

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November 21, 2011 · 6:55 pm

Kamala Harris against the banks

Let us praise Kamala Harris, California’s Attorney General for her pressure on the big five banks who exploited the mortgage crisis for profit.  The banks, state governors and Obama administration folks have been negotiating a pay-out deal for the states.  Of course the deal would protect these mortgage lenders from future lawsuits.

But the key player in the battle to make the banks pay is Harris. California’s catastrophic recession is due above all to the unpayable debts with which the banks saddled entire regions of the state. Harris recognized this in September, when she announced that, like Schneiderman and Biden, she was pulling out of the negotiations because the banks remained uninvestigated and the waiver they were being offered for their possible misconduct was way too broad. In her letter to Associate U.S. Atty. Gen. Thomas Perrelli and Miller announcing her decision, Harris said the agreement “would allow too few California homeowners to stay in their homes…. After much consideration, I have concluded that this is not the deal California homeowners have been looking for.”

Without California’s participation, of course, the banks would never assent to a deal.

via Kamala Harris is key in mortgage settlement with banks – latimes.com.

 

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November 18, 2011 · 5:25 pm

Dumb arguments about breastfeeding

Just to speed  up your life, Feministe has outlined the more idiotic arguments against public breastfeeding.

Here are the tired, stretched-out, armpit-stained arguments that won’t fly:

1. Breastfeeding is comparable to pooping. One is food at the beginning, the other is food at the end. One has everything the body needs, the other is everything the body has decided it doesn’t need. Changing a diaper != breastfeeding. (Also, public sex != breastfeeding.)

2. Breasts are sexytime. For some people, necks and knees and earlobes are just as erogenous as breasts, and yet we’re allowed to walk around in shorts and boatneck tops. And unlike the aforementioned body parts, breasts can be used to feed people.

3. Breastfeeding is a private, intimate moment between mother and baby. And dinner is a private, intimate moment between me and my cheeseburger. Breastfeeding = hungry baby + accommodating, lactating woman. Which is not to say that breastfeeding isn’t intimate–and natural and beautiful, too–but it’s also functional.

4. Breastfeeding should take place in bathrooms. Generally, private, intimate moments in public restrooms are frowned upon (and that’s a mistake you only make once–sorry again, Georgia Dome!), but apparently it is appropriate to feed a helpless infant in a place where people are pooping.

5. Moms can always pump or use formula. Not every woman can pump, not every baby will take a bottle, and even then trying to schedule the pumping and the feeding and the toting of perishable bodily fluids can be a hassle.

6. Ew, I don’t want to see that. Yeah? Well, I don’t want to see your FACE.

via Extreme Debate Makeover: Public breastfeeding edition — Feministe.

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November 17, 2011 · 5:04 pm

How do you know if it’s propaganda: Iran edition

I guess a large explosion has erupted in Tehran.  Iran proclaims that it had nothing to do with the United States or Israel.  No news here right?  Wrong!  Check out the last paragraph in this L.A. Times write up:

Exonerating archenemies Israel and the United States from any foul deed seems to some a peculiar turn of events, likely deserving further inquiry. An uneasy Iranian populace, steeped in intrigue and conspiracy theories, sometimes assumes the opposite of what its leaders say.

via Iran, again: No U.S. or Israeli mischief in explosion – latimes.com.

Huh, that’s interesting.  I wonder if that kind of criticism happens in the United States?

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