Radio Updates and some music too

At left, Occupy the Microphone in progress, yesterday. We interviewed Jasmine Lowrance about her anti-violence program in schools, Inspirational Wisdom. (Photo by Traci Fant.)

Today, we talked about the Michael Skakel verdict being overturned, and interviewed Yolanda Johnson about her local business, REFLECTIONS.




Mary Olsen of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service also joined us to talk about the recent (May of this year) and alarming leak at the Catawba Nuclear Station, which has leaked more than 100 gallons of water with traces of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

Now there is a second leak, reported yesterday. From the Aiken Standard:

LAKE WYLIE (AP) — Water with traces of a radioactive hydrogen isotope has again leaked at a South Carolina nuclear power plant, but the spill hasn’t made nearby drinking water unsafe, according to federal regulators. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, more than 100 gallons of water containing tritium leaked over the weekend during maintenance at the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County. Water was being pumped from the main condenser to a site collection pump, and the water in the pond overflowed, officials said.

Duke Energy's continuing negligence is going to be the ruin of us.

~*~

Currently watching BLACKFISH, the searing (and long-overdue) CNN documentary about the treatment of "killer whales" (orcas) by SEA WORLD. Quite honestly, I am watching intermittently. When it gets to be too much, I switch over to something tolerable.

CNN takes a bit of a risk in showing this, but to make up for it, they give a whole webpage over to allowing SEA WORLD to defend itself, as well as booking a non-official SEA WORLD apologist for Crossfire.

The documentary has sparked a whole new debate about taking kids to animal parks, about which I have always been ambivalent. As an animal rights-advocate, the practice makes me almost hyperventilate. And yet, I know how important it is for children to SEE animals, the better to appreciate the habitats and creatures we want them to preserve, protect, and possibly save from extinction. We want them to love the animals, and we hope this experience will nurture that love.

But... what about the animals?

Please don't miss BLACKFISH, even if you have to skip over the violence/abuse/neglect every ten minutes or so. It is worth knowing and remembering.

~*~

Music Time! This is one of the best instrumentals of the 70s, I was glad to finally locate it.

Black Pit - Steppenwolf (1971)



~*~

George Clinton's Mothership has been acquired by the Smithsonian! That's the best news I've heard in awhile.

Meanwhile, I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the Universe.

Contains sublime guitar work by Eddie Hazel; one the greatest solos ever.

Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971)

Golden Country

I'm pleased so many people enjoyed "Monster" by Steppenwolf. For those who think that sort of hell-raising song was rare or a fluke during the 70s, let me assure you, it wasn't.

Below, a fantastic, must-see video set to still another 70s revolution-oriented staple of FM rock radio, Golden Country, by REO Speedwagon. (Their very popular song Ridin the storm out was probably the first hippie-survivalist rock song, or at least the first to start with an air raid siren.) Golden Country likewise starts off like major gangbusters--I used to leap over furniture to turn up the radio when I heard those first few distinctive wah-wah notes. Kevin Cronin wasn't always the best singer, but what he lacked in talent, he made up for in sheer verve. This song was written by lead guitarist Gary Richrath and originally released in 1972. Richrath's guitar work is blazing and obviously heartfelt.

No, you don't have to listen to all 8:27 of this either. Lyrics below. Various lefties of my acquaintance used to make fun of the line "and your freaks are crying"--but hey, it rhymes with "dying," okay? (And yes, despite the bad rhyme, us freaks were crying, then as now.) We could also argue that a COUNTRY's face can't actually be red, but well, I suppose that's quibbling.

Enjoy, you counterculture maniacs! The visuals on this one are exemplary! (Even the late Iron Eyes Cody makes it into the video!)



Golden country your face is so red
With all of your money your poor can be fed
You strut around and you flirt with disaster
Never really caring just what comes after
Well your blacks are dying but your back is still turned
And your freaks are crying but your back is still turned
You better stop your hiding or your country will burn
The time has come for you, my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
Before we leave we must make a stand

Mortgage people you crawl to your homes
Your security lies in your bed of white foam
You act concerned but then why turn away
When a lady was raped on your doorstep today
Well your red man's dying but your back is still turned
And your freaks are crying but your back is still turned
You better stop your hiding or your country will burn
The time has come for you, my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
Before we leave we must make a stand

Golden country your face is so red
With all of your money your poor can be fed
You strut around and you flirt with disaster
Never really caring just what comes after
Well your blacks are dying but your back is still turned
And your freaks are crying but your back is still turned
You better stop your hiding or your country will burn
Now you don't wanna see it burn

The time has come for you, my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
Before we leave we must make a stand

Oh people, doncha know, we must make a stand

Now it's a monster and will not obey

No, you are NOT expected to listen to all 7 minutes.

Offering this as Exhibit A, in my efforts to prove to people that revolutionary talk was all the rage in 1970, the year Bill and Bernadine were cooking up bombs in Greenwich Village and blew up three of their friends... and for the record, those are the only people they ever killed. Themselves.

As I said in the comments of my post titled the Bradley Effect, everyone got in on the act.

I wrote the following, in that thread, which I am reproducing here:

Did you ever hear the song "Monster" by Steppenwolf? I mention it (as a totally random example) because I first heard it at a redneck* party with a bunch of bikers drinking beer. I thought, WOW, since some of them were enthusiastically singing along with it, even the ones with confederate flag tattoos. And this was Bill Ayers' era.

[Mike commented on the thread]: "but that that class of radicals think different from mainstream America."

Speaking of 2008, you would be right... in fact, any time after Reagan was inaugurated, you would be right. BUT AT THE TIME???? You are dead-ass wrong. As the poet-laureate of the age so memorably sang, "There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air." Hippies, bikers, housewives who frequented the same beauty salon my grandmother did, my neighbors, et. al. talked about revolution as if it might be inevitable, and there was even a revolutionary faction of ex-GIs against the war. Even serial killers (think: the most famous of our time) believed in revolution and made that part of their psychosis. IT WAS VERY DIFFERENT THAN NOW, and even my Republican grandfather from West Virginia thought there could be revolution.

Can I ask how old you are, and if you were there at the time? How old were you in the 70s?

As I wrote [in my Bill Ayers post linked above], I am getting fed up with the rewrites of history by people who have it wrong in countless ways. In addition, you are applying the morality of NOW to the morality of THEN, and as we all know, 20/20 hindsight is perfect.

And I offer the lyrics, also, to "Monster" (below) for those who can't get through the whole song. Musically, starts off like gangbusters alright, great middle-section, then at the end, turns into a sing-along... but again the SING-ALONG aspect was the POINT. Regular people, not Weatherman, but REGULAR PEOPLE bought this album and used to SING ALONG!!! The video I have selected, however, is pretty good. There are several versions, suggesting this song is as much of a landmark in other people's lives, as it was in mine.

This song represents so much. I wondered, as a teenager, if it meant there really might be revolution, which excited me. I was a working class kid from Ohio, and that's what I thought. The concept of revolution was not APART from the masses of mainstream America, at that time... just as now, "ordinary, mainstream America" is suddenly learning the intricacies of Wall Street economics, whether we really want to or not.

Dammit, stop rewriting history!


*one of those words I am allowed to use, but you aren't. :)


~*~

Words and music by John Kay and Jerry Edmonton

(Monster)
Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'

Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching

(America)
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster