Saturday, September 10, 2005

The Laura Flanders Show this weekend Cindy Sheehan, George Galloway, Collen Rowley, Kate Taylor, Michael Franti and Reps. Woolsey and Cheeks Kilpatric

I just did a post about The Laura Flanders Show over at The Common Ills. I'm putting it up here to make sure everyone knows what's on Laura's show AND to get some credit from the jokers who feel I'm too laid back in my blogging duties.

"The Laura Flanders Show: Sat: Collen Rowley, Michael Franti, Kate Taylor; Rep. Cheeks Kilpatrick; Sunday: Lynn Woolsey, Cindy Sheehan, George Galloway"

Kat here. Before anyone starts BMW-ing about when this post went up, C.I. asked me to help out Friday afternoon by doing this post and said as long as it went up before The Laura Flanders Show started, everything was fine. So everything's copasetic.
That's both a sixties term and, I think, a Yiddish word. I'm on the phone with Ruth right now. She did her Ruth's Morning Edition Report. Shirley had agreed to post it this morning around ten a.m. Shirley's time but going through the e-mails (at both common_ills@yahoo.com and the private address for members only) she couldn't find anything from Ruth. Ruth's sending it to my account (kats_korner@hotmail.com) and I'll put it up after I get done with this.
Maybe not right after because the mirror site is way behind on cross postings and I told Ava and Jess I'd try to grab some of that. Already here, I've written more than I often do at my own site (Kat's Korner) so I don't want to hear from any of you jokers about "Where are the posts?" at my site. In fact, I'll probably cross post this at my site.
The Laura Flanders Show airs Saturdays and Sundays. You can listen online or via the radio. It's six hours of strong radio hosted by Laura who is the reason the show's so awesome. I can't imagine a community member not knowing about this show because Lord knows it's noted "up in here" (nod to Cedric) often enough. But I do know that for every member like Maria who makes it a point to listen each Saturday & Sunday, there are others who are unable to. Some members don't have speakers. Some have slower computers (which is why C.I. avoids, at your request, sites that feature pop ups -- in our community there are at least five members that have computers which will freeze up for a bit if the pop ups pop up).
So if you don't get Air America broadcast on a station you can pick up, if you don't have XM satellite radio and if you're unable to listen online, let me just give you some basics on the show so you'll get why members who do listen really love, love, love this show. (Nod to the Beatles and their "All You Need Is Love.")
Saturday and Sunday, the program starts off with an editorial by Laura. She talks about what's happened this week. She pulls from this event and that event, from this Bully Boy mistake and that you-just-can't-believe-it-happened-but-it-did report, to put it all in perspective. These things going on aren't isolated events. In her passionate editorials, she finds the thread that connects them together and connects us to one another. That's my biggest beef with the editorials in the New York Times. It's always this "I am shocked, just shocked, that ____ happened" as though a similar thing didn't happen last week or the one before and the month before and hell the last five years.
Laura's not playing here's piece of the puzzle, she's showing you the full puzzle and how it all fits together. She can make you laugh during that or she can get your blood boiling or both. But, and I think this is the reason she's such a community favorite, she never leaves you feeling helpless. She never leaves you thinking, "Well that happened, let's be mad at least and now let's move on."
"Don't leave politics to the politicians," she'll regularly implore you and she gives you enough facts that you know you can't leave it to them and enough hope that you know you can do something if you get off your lazy butts.
After that opening, she may come back to it after the first commercial break or she might go immediately to calls or guests. And she's got amazing guests. Joan Baez was on two Sundays ago. Susan Sarandon's called in. Matthew Rothschild, another community favorite, has been on the show. Danny Schechter, ditto, has been on the show. The amazing Richie Havens has been on the show. Medea Benjamin, who we all love, has been on the show countless times. Jesse Jackson and his son Jesse Jackson Jr. have been on the show. Eve Ensler is another frequent guest.
Look at just those names, there's a lot more to that list, and notice the mix. Politics, activism and arts. Gender and race. It's all got a place on this show. This isn't Meet the Press where you scratch your head and wonder, "Is the whole country made up of white males?"
Tonight, while we're all on the phone working on The Third Estate Sunday Review, we'll have it on the background sometimes one person's broadcast is a bit behind and we'll have an echo thing going on in the background. When e-mails ask about why Ava and C.I. especially are quiet for huge sections of the roundtable, they'll usually fall back on "We're the ones that get stuck taking down notes that turn into the transcripts." That's usually true, but let's be honest, if The Laura Flanders Show is on during one of those things, they've usually got one ear on the show. We all do. (Which is why Dona will not let "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review" start until after the show ends. She knows for that feature to work, we need all ears on deck.)
If you miss something on a show or miss a show, you can go to Air America Place and pull up the archives and listen at any time, day or night.
So if you're unable to listen live you might want to consider checking out the show on Air America Place. The Laura Flanders Show airs seven to ten est. Here's what's coming up tonight and tomorrow:

Saturday, September 10
Bring the troops home, but not the war. Americans are saying no to the occupation of Iraq and no to an occupation of the Gulf Coast.
REP. CAROLYN CHEEKS KILPATRICK, D-MI, on her Friday visit with storm survivors in Baton Rouge and Houston.
COLEEN ROWLEY, the FBI whistle-blower who tried to prevent the 9/11 attacks and now a congressional candidate, on how this administration stops career public servants from doing their job.
MICHAEL FRANTI, of Spearhead, from San Francisco’s 7th annual "Power to the Peaceful" concert.
KATE TAYLOR on memories, healing and remembrance.

Sunday, September 11
REP. LYNN WOOLSEY, wants a date to bring U.S. troops home.
British M.P. GEORGE GALLOWAY in his first U.S. appearance since he called out the Senate on Iraq, on the war, truth-telling and fighting power.
CINDY SHEEHAN from the 'Bring Them Home Now' bus tour that’s taking the anti-war movement from Crawford, TX, to Washington, D.C.
NEW - Now you can listen to the Laura Flanders Show via podcast on iTunes!
Go to the Laura Flanders Blog

Look at those guests and think about the mix. And thanks to Martha for forwarding that e-mail that had the information above.
So that's what you got coming to you this weekend. You can watch that movie on broadcast or cable that, if it was worth seeing, you already saw a few times before. Or maybe you're thinking, "Man there just ain't enough centrist and right programming for me!" in which case, tune into NPR. It's easier to sit on the fence and maybe you like getting splinters in your ass.
But if you want to get informed, if you want to get motivated and if you want to get some reality, check out The Laura Flanders Show. (I know, I'm preaching to the converted here and most members are already listening. But we do have members who aren't able to listen online and don't have Air America in their area or satellite radio.)
C.I. usually ends with this so let me put it in:

Remember, you can listen over broadcast radio (if there's an AAR in your area), via XM Satellite Radio (channel 167) or listen online.

C.I. will be back tomorrow morning. You got three entries this morning (don't miss the thing on Iraq). That was a last minute thing, having to go out of town. But for those who've worried since Rebecca announced that C.I. and others would be in D.C. at the end of September, if it comes down to it and there's no time to knock out some entries ahead of time, C.I. will dictate them over the phone. (Cindy e-mailed me asking about Rebecca's post if that meant this site would "go dark" during those days of activism. No, Cindy, it won't. Entries will go up. Though I agree with Rebecca that it's past time C.I. grabbed a few days off.)
I'm going to get some cross posts up because I know the members that prefer the mirror site understand and come over here when there's nothing up, they, especially the European members, really prefer the look of the mirror site and consider it their own. After I do that, I'll post Ruth's latest. And remember it will go up again Monday morning as well.

Friday, September 09, 2005

No Greg Dulli

I'm feeling kind of lazy today and going out shortly. But I wanted to lay something on everyone so gather round.

Labor Day I wrote this:

C.I. also put me wise to an item in The New York Times' "Arts, Briefly" by Grant James Varjas, "New CD's This Week."
1) Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang.
2) Sarah McLachlan's Bloom.
3) Joan Baez's Bowery Songs.
4) Greg Dulli Amber Highlights.
5) Alison Moyet's Voice.
6) Idlewind's Warnings/Promises.
7) North Mississippi Allstars' Electric Blue Watermelon.

Now here's the deal. I told you I'd pick up Greg Dulli and listen to it so you'd know if he'd gone limp or was still swinging a stiff one.

That was my plan. I didn't do it. I didn't buy it on Tuesday like I promised to.

"B-b-but Kat, you promised!"

Hey kids, I tried. Believe me, I tried.

I wanted nothing more than to hear Dulli.

Here's what stopped me.

Despite what The New York Times tells you, the album didn't come out Tuesday.

The albums out in a manner of speaking.

You can buy it at Greg Dulli's concerts. Have been able to buy it there since at least September.

When I asked for it at Tower, they looked at me like I was crazy. Then they went into their computers and no Dulli release. I went to amazon.com last night. You can check right here. They sell used copies (one). Or you can read a review of it from Sept. 7, 2004 here. So here's the thing, The New York Times WAS WRONG.

The album didn't come out. It's not coming out. It shouldn't be listed in the article but for some reason it is. It is an ERROR. It is an ERROR on the part of The New York Times.

They need to do a CORRECTION.

Now their arts coverage sucks. But on something as simple as an album coming out, when they're surely working off a list and other material on new releases given to them by A&R folks from the labels, you'd think they could at least get something as basic as a release date correct.
They couldn't.

They need to do a correction.

I did review Joan Baez's latest album, like I said I would. It's called "Kat's Korner: Joan Baez Bringing It All Back Home on Bowery Songs" and I think you'll like the review but I think you'll like the album even more. I'll post the review here later.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

radio: Sojourner Truth CD: Joan Baez's Bowery Songs

"If the people don't stand up and step up to the plate on this, the government has no interest [in helping us] get back to our homes."

"There will be very black people in New Orleans if they can design it. There will be a number of blacks in concentration camp-style living conditions around the country. . . . Long term we've got to talk about fundamental change."

The quotes above are from guests on Margaret Prescod's Sojourner Truth on KPFK. I planned to spend the day listening to Joan Baez's Bowery Songs nonstop but I saw Ruth's flare she sent up over at The Common Ills and I'm glad I did. Dak-Ho and Toni listened with me.

This was a really important radio broadcast. If you were in the area, like me, you could listen with just your radio. But I'm hoping that some people listened online because this is something we need to hear.

Race discussions make people nervous. You hear a lot of people talk about how class issues can't be addressed and that's true. Mainly because our "speakers" usually don't have the guts to face the attacks from the right. But when race is brought up, there's a lot of pooh-pahing if you're not of the race involved. The mainstream media ignores it because we're not supposed to have race problems anymore, the Civil Rights movement was supposed to have ended all of that.
That's the argument. That's not the reality.

I think we avoid the reality for a number of reasons. The most noble one is that we don't want to take anything away from that movement which accomplished so much. But it wasn't the end of the struggle and pretending that it was is why attacks on affirmative action and other programs can take root. The attacks come out of the echo chamber of the right. But they succeed, in part, because we don't like, as a country, to talk about race.

We need to talk about it.

The class war that Paul Krugman documents repeatedly in his writing succeeds in part because White America convinces itself that Black America is getting some easy break. Pitting the two races against one another allows Whites in low income and poverty to avoid acknowledging the reality of the economic inequality.

But racism, added with economic inequality, is another factor and we really need to address it.
We need to have a dialogue and John Edwards' "Two Americas" can be a start but the dialogue needs to go beyond that and acknowledge the economic inequalities that all races face is very real but to also address the added inequalities that come into the equation due to race.

I'm not sure how much I'm getting across here. But I'll leave it with this, racism was not conquered by the Civil Rights movement. It was a step up the ladder. But it's a big ladder and being on the lower rungs may be better than not even having a spot on the ladder, but it's by no means equality.

I'm going to be working on my review of Joan Baez's Bowery Songs tonight and tomorrow. I hope to have it completed before the end of the week and up at The Common Ills for you to read. But, whether you heard Sojourner Truth or not, I hope you'll think about the issues. Ruth sent up a flare and as a member of the community, I responded. I hope you'll do your part as well.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Elaine and upcoming CDs

Well the e-mails filed in with people asking me to help Mike's cause: convince Elaine to start her own site.

I don't know guys. Elaine's got the chops but she may not have the time. I think what she did filling in for Rebecca at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude was incredible. And if she were doing a site like mine, I'd be on the petition drive, on the e-mail writing campaign, and maybe even stage a sit-in in her living room. But I know Cedric and I are the only ones who don't guilt over missing a day of blogging. If she's not comfortable with doing her own site, it might be because of that. I'll call her tomorrow and convey the wishes from the e-mail but I'll respect her right to decide what she feels comfortable with.

That's not a dig at Mike or Ava or Jess or Ty or anyone who's trying to get her to start her own site. A number of you wondered why C.I. wasn't doing something on this at The Common Ills.
I spoke to C.I. on the phone this morning and it's no surprise to me. C.I. and Elaine are old friends and C.I.'s feeling is that the last thing Elaine needs is the added pressure coming from a long term friend. C.I. says Elaine is thinking about and that she's touched by the response from members.

C.I. also put me wise to an item in The New York Times' "Arts, Briefly" by Grant James Varjas, "New CD's This Week."

1) Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang.
2) Sarah McLachlan's Bloom.
3) Joan Baez's Bowery Songs.
4) Greg Dulli Amber Highlights.
5) Alison Moyet's Voice.
6) Idlewind's Warnings/Promises.
7) North Mississippi Allstars' Electric Blue Watermelon.

Of the above, I'm interested in Joan Baez's Bowery Songs, obviously. It's a live CD and I did catch her last tour. I felt she brought to bear her full range of living on each song. The group I went with had lousy seats at the beginning of the concert (we were practically at the entrance) but one of the guys working the concerts knew me and found a place upfront for my group.
Even from what was practically the last seat in the house, I was blown away by what she was doing, that little speck on stage that I could barely see, but that voice that reached as though it was sitting next to me. If Bowery Songs documents even a fourth of what Baez provided on Dark Chords tour, it's worth having.

The Times notes that Keith Richards will sing on one of the Rolling Stone songs. That usually means the album's a little less formal (and formalized) and a little more fun so that honestly raises my interest in the album. (Further honesty, I wasn't all that interested before that.)

Sarah Mac. If you love her, and some are obsessed with her, Bloom's probably just your thing. (We discussed her Surfacing at The Third Estate Sunday Review. I'll try to post that up here later this week.) I'm not inclined to like Bloom so don't expect a review. She's not a dance diva and if she'd grasp that and stop trying to tweak the production on her albums (World on Fire, for instance), she'd be so much more powerful. But if you're all about the booty shake, check out Bloom.

Alison Moyet's a great voice but never one I've been into. I can take her after a night of partying. The fact that she's recording, among others, Elvis Costello may raise your interest in this album.

Greg Dulli. If you know music, you know the Afghan Whigs. (His last group is better off forgotten.) This man was a cock. The biggest cock in music. And not afraid to swing it around or even slap you in the face with it. His bravado made the Afghan Whigs what they were, one of the best damn groups of the nineties. If he's back to free ballin' and letting it all hang out, this could be one of the better albums of the year. Most recent go arounds, he's pulled away from his maleness. Here's hoping he's reaching back into his briefs to explore the good, bad and ugly of manhood. I'll be purchasing this album. If you were burned by his previous incarnation, feel free to wait on a review. I'll try to get one together by Tuesday after tomorrow at the latest.

Those are my highlights from the list. Joan Baez a must buy; Sarah Mac for booty shakers still mourning the musical death of Donna Summer, Moyet may expand on her specialized audience, the Stones may actually be having fun and I'll check to see if Greg can still get up.