Tag: Bad Brains
The Hope of Audacity
by Sean Murphy on Jan.29, 2010, under Politics
Question: How many GOP staffers are looking for new jobs after agreeing to let the cameras roll during Obama’s smackdown at the Republican Retreat Q&A today?
(Answer: hopefully, none; if by some miracle that embarrassment was deemed in any way a success by the simpletons running the show in the not-so-big GOP tent, we should look forward to many more of these, like twice a day if possible.)
First off, let’s pause and consider something: can you imagine, under any circumstances, not only Bush alone (ha) but even if he had, say, Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove with him, ever appearing before cameras to answer direct questions in an unequivocally partisan environment? Please. And don’t get me wrong: I’m not wishing he had; dude humiliated himself just reading off of cue cards (or having answers directly piped to him during debates). Can you fathom the further levels of disgrace he would have brought upon the nation while endeavoring, under the hot lights and flashing digi-cams, to address unscreened queries from a hostile crowd? Of course I kid myself: he probably would have repelled into the auditorium sporting a flight suit and right-wing radio/Fox News masters of unreality would have declared it a TKO.
The fact that Obama would do it is beyond impressive; the fact that he can do it (and win, convincingly) is remarkable, illustrative and should give Democrats hope. We did not elect an idiot; we did not elect an empty suit. To watch him, in real time, wrangling with them, and (a la the undramatic eviscerations of McCain in the debates) calmly, methodically defusing them, without raising his voice, breaking a sweat or personally attacking, is to remember why people were overcome with the H-word (Hope) a year or so ago. It is like Reagan with Carter’s intelligence. Or Clinton without the smarm. Only more so.
This addresses the one tactical error I’ve complained about since last spring (!): Obama needed to be doing exactly this, then. About health care, about jobs, about any and everything, since at least early summer. That he’s only doing it now, after extreme circumstances, is unfortunate –and he and the party have paid a considerable price for it. But better late than never. Literally. And hopefully the feckless, spineless and mostly useless Democratic senate can take notes and learn a lesson or two. Their inertia has been worse than unacceptable (it has not done nothing; it has enervated and resucitated the braindead and tone-deaf Republican party), but to be fair, Obama’s virtual disappearing act from the public stage has not helped matters. Obama’s performance today is hopefully the salt spray required to move those slugs out from under their stones. Speaking of stones, maybe more than a few of them can grow some.
More of this, much more of this needs to occur as often and visibly as possible, effective immediately. Unfortunately, I don’t suspect the Republicans will make the same mistake a second time. That is, being seen in real time on camera trying to engage with Obama, and being shown –in color and without spin– having their collective asses handed to them on intellectual, moral and factual grounds. It is exhilarating, if lamentably overdue. And it’s up to the people with the majority (the majority of votes, the majority of ideas, and the majority of consent) to at long last begin bringing the fight to the party whose only goal is to accomplish nothing.
Ten Songs To Celebrate The Fall of the Wall
by Sean Murphy on Nov.09, 2009, under Music, Ruminations in Real Time
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, 1st Movement
Grant Green, “Exodus”
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, “Balm in Gilead”
John Coltrane, “Psalm”
Philip Glass, “String Quartet No. 5”
Jimi Hendrix, “Beginnings”
Bob Marley, “Revolution”
Bad Brains, “Leaving Babylon”
Living Colour, “Wall”
Antibalas, “NESTA (Never Ever Submit To Authority)”
Time for Reignition
by Sean Murphy on Aug.31, 2009, under Politics
Tom Motherfucking Toles.
What they said.
Vacation is over Obama. Get busy.
Bad Brains Before Bad Brains?
by Sean Murphy on Mar.16, 2009, under Music
This is the reason you always remain humble, if not entirely content in the knowledge of how little you actually know. Not only about all the great art we know is out there, but can’t get around to acquiring all of, but the great art that is not out there, obscure, undiscovered, without a champion. Without a story.
Huge hat tip to Hersko for making sure I saw this piece in yesterday’s NYT.
Wow. This is Bad Brains before Bad Brains, Ramones before Ramones. Punk before punk, as Mike Rubin opines in his excellent NYT article.
It is enough of a commentary to even name-check Bad Brains without embarassment (I say this as an intrepid advocate for that band), because their debut album inspired a whole slew of styles and imitation, sprouting like weeds through concrete. It is almost beyond belief that Bad Brains did what they did in the early ’80s; to think that Death (three brothers, literally and figuratively, from Detroit) was making proto-punk like this in the mid-’70s in almost utter obscurity is staggering, to say the least.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
But it does: if the legend is true, rock impresario Clive Davis dug what he heard, but couldn’t get past the band’s name. Change it, and I’ll back you, he said. Fuck that, Death said. And the rest is, until now, three decades and change of unwritten (and almost unrecorded) history.
It gets better, still: this would be a wonderful story, a readymade movie even, regardless of the actual quality of the music. But check it out: the music is astonishing. As I say, to invoke Bad Brains would be ballsy, even gratuitous. Here’s the incredible thing: their song “Politicians In My Eyes” can stand alongside any of Bad Brains’ seminal early ’80s output. How is this possible? Don’t listen to me, listen to your ears: the ears never lie.
Here’s hoping Death lives in 2009, and cashes in some heavy and overdue karma to become the best story of the year: 1975 and now. Do what you have to do.
Tar and Feather Time, Redux
by Sean Murphy on Feb.12, 2009, under Politics
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 11, 2009; 10:18 AM
WASHINGTON — Internal e-mails indicate the owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella.
The company e-mails obtained by a House committee show Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales.
Parnell was ordered to appear before Congress today to discuss the outbreak that has led to 600 illnesses and eight deaths blamed on his Georgia plant.
Predictably, Parnell pleaded the 5th.
Look, I know one of the crucial things that distinguishes us from animals is the rule of law, at least in ostensibly democratic nations. Arguably the paramount condition, aside from religion, that prevents us from degenerating into savages is the safety accorded all individuals by due process (unless, of course, you are a suspected terrorist, but that is another story). And that is, without question, an irrefutable and cherished signal of progress for us as human beings.
However. What about the people amongst us who already act like savages? The people who understand the law, who benefit and profit from the law, and nevertheless use their positions of privilege to undercut the law? If this mendacity occurred in a vacuum, it would almost be excusable (or at least negligible); but when other people are affected, it’s unconscionable. And other people are always affected. We’re not talking about the Wall Street bookies who helped run their clients (and, in some welcome cases, themselves) into the financial tar pit, because at various levels, the people who got hoodwinked were accomplices in the crime. At the very least, they condoned or accepted that they were, in effect, gambling their assets. Greed begets greed, and when comeuppance comes, it’s hard to pity those crying the loudest about how the system screwed them. The system only becomes sordid for these types of folks once it stops working to their advantage.
So how about it? What about these fuckers, for whom accountability usually amounts to a forfeit of only the obscene profits that have been accrued, above and beyond their already exorbitant annual salaries? The white collar criminals for whom bankruptcy and jail time are about as likely as meaningful health care reform. Think Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Dennis Kozlowski, Mark Swartz, Bernie Ebbers, et cetera.
But the real bottom of this barrel are the bosses who knowingly push harmful policies, or products, purely for profit. Even pointing these people out seems hysterical, until you read the irrefutable (and sickening) evidence of e-mails like the ones we see from Stewart Parnell. Even if he is appropriately sued for every penny he has; even if he spends the rest of his life behind bars (as he should), what do you tell the eight people who are dead because of his decisions? (Again, we’re not talking about incompetence or the always questionable morality of market-driven business acumens; at least in those instances, people can–however spuriously–claim they were unaware of the consequences their actions would produce. Here, we’re talking about black and white degeneracy: this is a rich man who knew his product might seriously harm or kill people, and sent out his product, anway, for the sake of becoming richer. That’s it.) Our outrage is acceptable, even imperative. But what does a civilized society do to reprobates of this sort? How to simultaneously punish and make an example to help prevent imitation of this behavior? Obviously if we start cutting off hands of thieves we immediately enter totalitarian territory. We certainly should not devolve and imitate the worst brutalities of dictatorships simply to instill fear. But what we currently have is obviously not doing the trick. So, what do we do to shame the types of people who have no shame? The types of people who thrive principally because they have no shame? How about introducing shame back into the equation? It’s been suggested, in manners both cynical and serious, to resuscitate the stocks. Being drawn and quartered is, perhaps, a bit too barbaric, but what about tarring and feathering? Would anyone protest to see “Stu” Parnell covered in hot tar? Or better yet, how about peanut butter? Give him a PB&J with his own tainted brand, strap him on a donkey and parade his freshly feathered ass all around town. All the way to prison. Wait, perhaps that is a tad too cruel. No need to involve an innocent donkey.
