Friday, August 19, 2005

Community roundup

"Kat, where's the Mama Cass review?" Jordan e-mails. It's done. I finished it Thursday evening.

I hadn't checked my e-mail Wednesday or before finishing my review Thursday. I called C.I. later to ask about posting because Thursday nights are Indymedia roundup and I also know C.I. really likes that stuff up in the morning when possible. C.I.'s thinking is that people will be more likely to scroll down to the beginning of a day than to the night before. Also, if C.I.'s tired (or sick in the morning) it does help when one of us has an entry that can go up that morning.

C.I. says, "You didn't check your e-mails?" Nope. Ruth participated in the Cindy Sheehan vigil Wednesday in her area. Because of that and because of that and other things, C.I. had told Ruth to take the week off. Then Isaiah and I both got e-mails but I didn't read mine.

So it will go up next week. Probably Monday morning, I think.

What am I listening to right now, Jordan wondered. Besides Cass Elliot's The Complete Cass Elliot Solo Collection 1968-71 I'm also listening to the new Black Eyed Peas which Cedric recommended. And if I can recommend something to you, I'd recommend you read what Cedric's been writing about the time he's spending visiting four men at the retirement home. I'm really impressed with not just the time he's volunteering but with the way he writes about it.

I told Mike that I'd grab from everyone's blogs today and do a heads up so let me do that. I'd steer you to Elaine's post "Kevin Benderman" from Thursday. Elaine's done a great job filling in for Rebecca (at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude). And the story of Kevin Benderman is something she's addressed multiple times. It's been one of her big issues. I spoke to Rebecca Wednesday before I went to the vigil for Cindy Sheehan in my area and we spent most of the time on the phone talking about what a great job Elaine's doing. She really is doing a wonderful job. Rebecca said she knew Elaine would do a good job but she had no idea she would do this great of a job. Elaine's so funny because she always asks, when we're all together on Saturdays working on The Third Estate Sunday Review, "You really thought that was good?" Yes, everyone thinks it was good. Actually, we all think it's great.

Betty's working on a post tonight that will pick up where her last one (other than "Found in the paper") left off. "Thomas Friedman Is On Vacation" made me laugh and I'm looking forward to reading the follow up which Betty says continues the vacation and she hopes to have up tonight.

I really love Mike's site as well. I like how he offers advice when people e-mail him with questions but he never presents himself as an expert (or a gatekeeper) and just notes instead something that worked for him or worked for a friend or his family. It's really common sense based and the sort of common sense that the new "Abby" and "Ann Landers" don't seem to possess. I especially enjoyed his interview with Dona (of The Third Estate Sunday Review).

It's difficult for me to pick one thing from The Third Estate Sunday Review's latest edition. I'll go with Ava and C.I.'s review "Peter Jennings Reporter leaves a bad taste" because (a) it's great writing and (b) I didn't help with that piece.

Which brings me to The Common Ills and that's a hard thing to pick from because C.I. packs a lot of information and important things into each entry over there. I think I can narrow it down to two things though. "Scattered Jottings" is about the need for us to stand strong and be vocal and I loved that. "Cindy Sheehan's message is 'Bring the Troops Home Now' (though some seem confused by her message)" is really strong and one of those "for the record" posts. Like Mike, I don't feel that those who wrote that Cindy Sheehan wasn't in favor of bringing the troops home now were mistaken, I feel they were lying. I think that was disrespectful and insulting and when the right's already lying, people on the left shouldn't be putting out misinformation (especially if it was to serve their own agendas).

That's really all I have to say tonight. I will put in a personal message: MAGGIE, RETURN MY JUDY COLLINS CD ALREADY!

And I'll close with what I've been closing with a lot lately because I want to be sure people know about this CD set:

Cass Elliot The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 (heads up to new double CD collection)
Ava and Jess here and we're doing this entry together. Last week, we received an e-mail about an upcoming Cass Elliot collection and would have been happy to link to it but it's only come out this week.It's entitled The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 and it's a double disc set ($39.98) offered by Hip-O Select. There are 5,000 copies so if you're interested, you should consider checking it out.
"Different" is one of the songs on the collection and that's the song that C.I. noted in a "Five CDs, Five Minutes." That's not been on a CD before. In addition the collection contains "three tracks that had never been released in any form: Cass' cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Sisotowbell Lane,' a version of John Sebastian's 'Darling Be Home Soon,' and the Cashman, Pistilli & West tune 'For As Long As You Need Me.' They are revolutionary, and stand proudly with anything Cass released."
The first disc contains twenty-three tracks and the second disc contains fifteen. If you've bought a Cass collection (and Jess has many), you don't have a collection like this. You get "Dream A Little Dream of Me," "California Earthquake," "Make Your Own Kind of Music," "I Can Dream, Can't I," "The Good Times Are Coming," and all the rest you know from other collections. But you also get tracks that aren't available in the CD format elsewhere.
There are no live tracks. The set focuses on Cass' singles from 1968 to 1971.The Mamas and the Papas and Cass, herself, are very popular with community members so we wanted to do a heads up. And if there's a visitor who stumbles upon this entry and wonders, "What does music have to do with anything?" you're at the wrong site. Music is very important to the community. (And here's but one example of Cass and the Mamas & Papas popping up in an earlier entry.)
We'd asked C.I. if it was okay to note the set here when it came out because The Third Estate Sunday Review only publishes on Sunday and were given permission (actually, what we got was, "Why are you even asking? Of course."). So that's your heads up.
If you're interested and can afford it, great. If you're interested but might need to save up (understandable), hopefully this gives you some time to do that. If you're a Cass fan or a Mamas and Papas fan you'll probably get a kick out of checking out the album online even if you're not planning to purchase it.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Burn Your Hatred

I've had my say and now I'm through
I've just got to get myself away from you
You've twisted and you've turned my mind
Because of all the dark I find inside of you
Side of you
Burn your hatred out on someone else

I'm listening to The Complete Cass Elliot Solo Collection 1968-71 and that songs comes to mind especially tonight. Why especially tonight?

Elaine called me to ask if she could read a post she was composing over the phone to me. Of course. She's reading it and I have to keep stopping her to ask, "____ wrote that?"

"Burn Your Hatred" is dedicated to that mind-set. A mind-set that distorts a woman like Cindy Sheehan who's been brave and spoken with passion and truth only to find herself distorted by someone who's supposed to be on "our side."

You know all these soft-bellied types didn't leave a legacy. All the people (writers, politicians, musicians . . .) who stayed on the sidelines trying to look reasonable didn't leave a legacy. People know Jane Fonda, they know Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell, they know Cass Elliot and the Beatles, they know Norman Mailer. The softies? They rarely leave a mark.

So, like Elaine, call me anti-war. I'm for peace and proudly for peace. I'm against the invasion/occupation. I was against it at the outset and I don't see a damn thing that's proven me wrong. The Joey Bidens and Hilly Clintons and DLCers demonstrate that when it's time to stand and be counted they've just dashed out of the room. Present and accounted for, that's me.

If you haven't gotten the Cass collection, let me note Jess and Ava's thing from The Common Ills one more time:

Cass Elliot The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 (heads up to new double CD collection)
Ava and Jess here and we're doing this entry together. Last week, we received an e-mail about an upcoming Cass Elliot collection and would have been happy to link to it but it's only come out this week.
It's entitled The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 and it's a double disc set ($39.98) offered by Hip-O Select. There are 5,000 copies so if you're interested, you should consider checking it out.
"Different" is one of the songs on the collection and that's the song that C.I. noted in a "Five CDs, Five Minutes." That's not been on a CD before. In addition the collection contains "three tracks that had never been released in any form: Cass' cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Sisotowbell Lane,' a version of John Sebastian's 'Darling Be Home Soon,' and the Cashman, Pistilli & West tune 'For As Long As You Need Me.' They are revolutionary, and stand proudly with anything Cass released."
The first disc contains twenty-three tracks and the second disc contains fifteen. If you've bought a Cass collection (and Jess has many), you don't have a collection like this. You get "Dream A Little Dream of Me," "California Earthquake," "Make Your Own Kind of Music," "I Can Dream, Can't I," "The Good Times Are Coming," and all the rest you know from other collections. But you also get tracks that aren't available in the CD format elsewhere.There are no live tracks. The set focuses on Cass' singles from 1968 to 1971.
The Mamas and the Papas and Cass, herself, are very popular with community members so we wanted to do a heads up. And if there's a visitor who stumbles upon this entry and wonders, "What does music have to do with anything?" you're at the wrong site. Music is very important to the community. (And here's but one example of Cass and the Mamas & Papas popping up in an earlier entry.)
We'd asked C.I. if it was okay to note the set here when it came out because The Third Estate Sunday Review only publishes on Sunday and were given permission (actually, what we got was, "Why are you even asking? Of course."). So that's your heads up.
If you're interested and can afford it, great. If you're interested but might need to save up (understandable), hopefully this gives you some time to do that. If you're a Cass fan or a Mamas and Papas fan you'll probably get a kick out of checking out the album online even if you're not planning to purchase it.

I know The Third Estate Sunday Review gang and feel comfortable saying they're "anti-war" as well. (And I did check with Jess and Ty to make sure that it was okay to include that.) Call Mike "anti-war" too. I called Betty and Cedric and they both said to put them down as "anti-war" as well. Of course C.I.'s "anti-war." The Common Ills has never faltered in opposition to the war. Operation Happy Talk was a term C.I. coined long before the The Common Ills to describe the people who push war propaganda.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Working on a review

Where are you? What are you doing?

That's the type of e-mail I get lately. Well yesterday I was working with The Third Estate Sunday Review on their edition and you should get your butt over there and read it.

And remember this?

Cass Elliot The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 (heads up to new double CD collection)
Ava and Jess here and we're doing this entry together. Last week, we received an e-mail about an upcoming Cass Elliot collection and would have been happy to link to it but it's only come out this week.
It's entitled The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 and it's a double disc set ($39.98) offered by Hip-O Select. There are 5,000 copies so if you're interested, you should consider checking it out.
"Different" is one of the songs on the collection and that's the song that C.I. noted in a "Five CDs, Five Minutes." That's not been on a CD before. In addition the collection contains "three tracks that had never been released in any form: Cass' cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Sisotowbell Lane,' a version of John Sebastian's 'Darling Be Home Soon,' and the Cashman, Pistilli & West tune 'For As Long As You Need Me.' They are revolutionary, and stand proudly with anything Cass released."
The first disc contains twenty-three tracks and the second disc contains fifteen. If you've bought a Cass collection (and Jess has many), you don't have a collection like this. You get "Dream A Little Dream of Me," "California Earthquake," "Make Your Own Kind of Music," "I Can Dream, Can't I," "The Good Times Are Coming," and all the rest you know from other collections. But you also get tracks that aren't available in the CD format elsewhere.
There are no live tracks. The set focuses on Cass' singles from 1968 to 1971.
The Mamas and the Papas and Cass, herself, are very popular with community members so we wanted to do a heads up. And if there's a visitor who stumbles upon this entry and wonders, "What does music have to do with anything?" you're at the wrong site. Music is very important to the community. (And here's but one example of Cass and the Mamas & Papas popping up in an earlier entry.)
We'd asked C.I. if it was okay to note the set here when it came out because The Third Estate Sunday Review only publishes on Sunday and were given permission (actually, what we got was, "Why are you even asking? Of course."). So that's your heads up.If you're interested and can afford it, great. If you're interested but might need to save up (understandable), hopefully this gives you some time to do that. If you're a Cass fan or a Mamas and Papas fan you'll probably get a kick out of checking out the album online even if you're not planning to purchase it.

Well I've been listening to The Solo Sessions and toying with a review. I really enjoy the album but I'm not sure if there's a review in it or not. So I've been working on that. If you haven't checked it out, use the link and listen to some samples. It's an album worth having and worth listening to. Hopefully, if I can get a review going, I'll have a little more to say about it than just that. I want to give some music and other news so I'll just steal from the thing I helped The Third Estate Sunday Review with:


Kat: If I could, I'd actually like to start with news on John H. Johnson. B.E.T. will have a tribute to Johnson: "Don't miss BET's Mon., Aug. 15 special on the life and legacy of John H. Johnson, 10 p.m. (ET/PT)." They already have a page at their web site offering tributes in video format and text and, to tie this in to music, Nelson George is one of people offering reflections in the video you can watch online. As has been widely reported, the Rolling Stones have a new song on their forthcoming album entitled "Sweet Neocon." Mick Jagger has made a point to note that it's not a song about the Bully Boy. The NFL has said that with all the songs in the Stones catalogue, there's no reason for the Stones to perform it at the NFL "Opening Kickoff" event.Added to the list of performers are Green Day, Santana, Kanye West.VH1 reports that Jewel's nearly completed her latest album and that some songs on it have been tested on the road during her summer tour. Singer Marc Cohen, of "Walking in Memphis" fame and married to ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas, was shot in the head during an attempted car jacking in Colorado. Cohen was released from the hospital. Spin reports that Ryan Adams has cancelled his US tour. And to follow up on an item I noted last week, Martha Reevers, formerly of Motown's Martha & the Vandellas, faced the Tuesday primary election for Detroit City Council and is now one of 17, out of 120 candidates, standing. The general election takes place in November. I opened with TV, so I'll go out with a TV item. A reunion special, where the actors offer remeberances of a show, that type of thing, has been filmed for Knots Landing. Participants included Joan Van Ark, Donna Mills, Michelle Lee, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Dobson. Why are we noting it? Because also participating is Michelle Phillips, of the Mamas and the Papas, who played Anne Mathison on the series.

I want to make sure that if you get BET that you know about the special for John H. Johnson.
Cedric, Mike, Elaine, C.I. and The Third Estate Sunday Review. have worked hard pointing out that another journalist passed away last week (besides Peter Jennings). You should know about John H. Johnson so check out the BET special.