For over two decades a right-wing packed US Supreme Court has undemocratically decided the politics of our nation, and thus the world. In December 2000, the Bush v Gore decision to intervene and halt the counting of tens-of-thousands of uncounted ballots in heavily Democratic-voting Miami-area districts, and therefore hand the election to Bush/Cheney, when Al Gore would have won (as every TV news network had projected) if all the votes had been counted.
I lived in Central Florida before, during, and long after this, so I know the story. Americans mostly “know” the official narrative of Election 2000, because nothing like it had happened before (at least since 1876), and the truth was too shocking to admit. Historically speaking, the stolen Election of 2000 was a harbinger for 9/11.
The lesson from Election 2000 is that the ruling class always defers to the right. It meant that, according to the Supreme Court, since the Electoral College decides the Election, your vote doesn’t count. It means reactionary Republicans always win in the end, even when they’re dead wrong & everyone knows it. That’s why Donald Trump isn’t in prison for his January 6, 2021 coup attempt, but instead waits in exile at his luxurious Mar-a Lago compound in South Florida.
Ron DeSantis is running for re-election as Florida Governor, which is seen by Donald Trump as a springboard for DeSantis making a play for the 2024 Republican party nomination. There is a significant constituency of die-hard Republicans who: 1) hate Donald Trump; and 2) don’t believe Trump can beat Joe Biden. That’s a serious split, and it can’t be papered over because Trump has overwhelming grassroots support among the fascists.
There is a faction of the Republican party that wants Ron DeSantis to lose this podunk 2022 governor’s race, and it’s called Donald Trump. It will never happen as long as the Republicans control the state machinery, which they have since 1998. It’s going to take something significantly more than a Democratic party manufactured “rising star” or Trump’s meddling, to take the political machinery out of the hands of good ‘ol boy Republicans in Florida.
Trump & Ron DeSantis used to be political allies & fake friends, but when the Republican party was finally forced to concede that Trump had lost the 2020 election (sometime that weekend) by over 7 million votes nationally and decisively in the Electoral College, Trump responded by splitting the Republicans.
Trump has still never conceded that he lost the 2020 election. In fact, it’s the central tenet of his current campaign. Hence we get conspiracy theories from everyone right-wing hack getting amplified in the fake media, ad nauseam.
Like Adolph Hitler, whom he admires & studies, Trump demands unwavering obedience from his supporters. Only his inner circle of family & trusted advisors have direct access to his insanity. These people lie, by reflex.
Führers are weak-minded & unstable demagogues. They crave idolatry & praise from the masses, whom they simultaneously despise. They fear truth, art & beauty, because it exposes their evil ugliness, which is why they seek to exterminate artists & leftists. Both these historical madman, Hitler & Trump, thrived at unstable periods of global capitalist development. Fascism is a world-wide ruling class ideology held as a final resort in its perpetual war against the working masses.
This Roe v Wade media leak has caught EVERYONE off-guard. For instance, what the HELL is the MeToo campaign supposed to do with this? What about the Democrats in the White House? Nancy Pelosi, etc…?
The person who leaked this memo is to be exiled from the legal community for telling the people of America the truth. It’s the Julian Assange principle for elitists.
Since the stolen election of 2000, the SCOTUS has been packed with reactionaries by Republican Presidents and its complaint Congresses. These right-wing “Justices” have a strong majority (6-3, at least) and have insulated themselves from the VAST majority of society to the point where this overturning of Roe v Wade was supposed to be a fait accompli.
Well over 60% of Americans support a woman’s right to a safe abortion if she chooses. These numbers have held steady for a long time, and will only increase as people become more enlightened. Overturning a women’s right to a safe abortion, if she chooses, is the latest ruling class attack on democratic rights.
Both Democrats & Republicans are responsible for cuts in education which have debased the best efforts of teachers & concerned parents interested in having kids learn in a safe & constructive environment. Since the Columbine High School mass shooting & attempted bombing on April 20, 1999, things have only gotten worse for our schools. Today it’s COVID-19 in the classroom, which kids, teachers & parents are supposed to “live with.” Politicians on both sides of the aisle, along with the union leaders acting as workforce police, have failed to protect our kids and therefore must be removed from power and replaced with workers committees.
Science says these teachers & kids will only continue to get sick & die until we taken a Zero-COVID strategy globally. We can end this pandemic forever in 2-3 months. That’s the science. The problem is capitalism, as Wall Street & the banks universally agree there can be no more lockdowns, or any other public health measures or mandates that save lives & prevent the spread of disease, because that impedes their profits. Basically, the billionaires can no longer be allowed to call the shots. Politically it’s either revolution, or WW3 ending with nukes, as the US-NATO provoked crisis in the Ukraine is revealing to the world.
We the People have an arch-reactionary US President who is brain-dead & hell-bent on War, which coincides with the interests of all those who hold close to the levels of power. It is We the People who must directly confront these puppets of power AND the puppet-masters who pull their strings. It is this parasitic social layer that must be smashed to bits in war. Nothing can remain for billionaires except prison chains and the public expropriation of their ill-gotten wealth.
Historical courts are already cataloging their crimes, and this research will only accelerate as more facts see the light of public scrutiny. That is when there will be a reckoning and true justice will prevail.
All solutions must be global in perspective. That means we do what is best for the planet and everything on it. We value life in all forms. We understand the necessity to use science as the guiding force in all medical, health & technological areas. Politically, socialists must be guided by an atheist position on religion. Philosophically, Marxism means dialectical materialism, which particularly studies changes in matter and its revolutionary implications.
Trotskyists tell the world’s workers & youth these truths, which is why we are so virulently attacked in the mainstream media of every country. Corporate broadcasts have now universally earned their moniker as fake news. Television, even sports, is now unwatchable. As is Hollywood, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney…
Every once in awhile something like House of Cards, or the Beatles’ documentary Get Back comes along so you find a way to see it. But most working people have tuned-out when it comes to TV anymore. Ratings are down across the board, which confirms this diagnosis: there isn’t nearly enough interesting content in the mainstream.
There are material reasons for this. The MeToo campaign has taken out quite a bit of talent, especially straight men in film, TV & music. Anyone who attempts to defend an artist against the MeToo campaign will find themselves accused, tried by the media, and blacklisted. That’s the CIA Democrats in action. Do you see why I don’t like the entertainment industry?
Television Awards shows (it’s been the season) are political theater in gender politics, contrived & unreal, where no deviation is allowed. Most people skip past this anymore, and if there’s some STUPID shit like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, we watch the YouTube clip a few times, maybe get some background, and then make up our own mind.
As a side note, the women’s fashion at these awards shows can largely be described as outrageously bad. There are a few who know how to look good, and that’s what people talk about the next day at work, not who won a trophy that everyone knows is fake.
All this “pop culture” is accessible with a mobile device which everyone over age-12 owns anymore. The problem for the ruling class is that young adults & kids don’t believe the fake media anymore. These kids & workers are starting to realize they are actually smarter than their authority figures. That portends a mass shift in social consciousness to the left in the near future.
I’m an underground musical artist on hiatus. No more songs to give and certainly no money or gigs. So when something like COVID-19 comes along, and it just isn’t going your way, you give it up before it consumes you to death. It’s called listening to that inner voice that’s telling you, “Listen to your mother.” So now I’m just a music fan again, which means I can catch up on what’s been going on for the last 25 years or so in popular music.
When you become an artist you commit yourself to the process and believe 100% in who you are and what you are doing. You must have this approach because no one else will believe in you. You rely on yourself because only you know what is in your head & heart. This is why I haven’t paid much attention to what’s been happening in the popular music realm these past two decades plus.
What I did musically (& with this blog) can be defined as underground. This is the realm of revolution. I always look at making a record as trying to set a standard that’s hard to beat. When you seriously listen to AC/DC’s Powerage (1978), or any of their other great records, you finish shaking your head & saying to yourself, “That’s hard to beat.”
That’s what inspired me over the years. I was always trying to make that song, EP, or LP/CD that was hard to beat. You have to know it’s going to be great before you record a note. Every great record you’ve ever heard in every genre had that. They all knew they were about to do something great, and then they did it. It’s a great feeling when it’s done. You know it’s going to be a classic because it’s hard to beat.
It’s harder than ever today to make a great record. It starts with great songs which have become scarce. A dirty truth of the music industry is that their popular music stars rely heavily on professional songwriters. These manufactured stars just don’t have much to say, and I get bored with that. I know I’m not the only one.
Songwriting is also a dividing line for those such as myself with punk ethics. Underground music in 100% organic, meaning it is not using professional songwriters, but instead creating its own material. Most of it isn’t very interesting, but there are genuine artists in every genre at all times, you just need to know how to find them. They’re all more interesting than Diane Warren & Max Martin.
For decades, you had to be a fan to know who the major artists were, especially in more esoteric genres such as electronic, dance, etc… Today, AllMusic & YouTube provide any eager listener with everything they need to decide who they really like. The basic rule for going into unfamiliar genres is to do early research and figure out who the major artists are– past & present. How long has the genre been around? Who started the genre, and who is the best artist today? Work your way forwards & backwards from there and you won’t get too lost. Lost means you don’t know and buy too much junk.
Let’s take country music as an example, as I’m not the biggest country music fan in the world. I lived in central Florida for over 25 years, and I’ve been around a lot of country music fans so I understand how they feel about it, but generally their contemporary stars don’t move me. I love Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie, Waylon & Jessi. But contemporary country largely doesn’t catch my ear. George Strait, Reba McEntire & Garth Brooks were the best & biggest country music artists through the early-1990’s, which is where I left it, so I’m looking for the best since then up to the present.
As you may have guessed, I’m more interested in songwriters & story tellers, especially in the country music genre. Contemporary country largely has the same problem that pop & rap absolutely have; there’s so few vital voices/performers who are their own songwriter anymore. The last time there was an “excess of originality” in songwriting was when indie grunge & hip-hop turned major label artists from John Mellencamp to Winger into has-beens overnight, when Nirvana hit with Nevermind in September 1991.
The mafia which runs the corrupt music industry machinery weathered this crisis and adapted by buying-up all the indie labels & college radio stations. U2, REM, Metallica, Soundgarden, etc, were then canonized into classic rock. 1980’s indie label bands such as the Minutemen, Husker Du, the Pixies, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, etc, never reached mainstream radio. They had too much VU & Andy Warhol in them. The mafia that owns & runs the music industry hates its artists because they can’t control them. They hate artists for devaluing all of their mediocrities & posers which they throw stupid money at to promote. If the kids only knew…
Artists take everything seriously which means they must develop a razor-sharp sense of humor with ironic sensibilities in order to get along. You can’t be serious & on-point forever, especially without money, as it will burn you out and/or kill you. You have to be able to let it go & adapt.
I celebrated Record Store day during the few weeks leading up to it, as well as the day itself. It was April 23 this year, the day after Earth Day. The truth is every day is Earth Day and I wrote that long before it became a meme.
Vinyl costs a lot for a good reason. Its expensive & dirty to produce. New CD’s now list for roughly half the cost of vinyl on new releases. It is my professional record collecting opinion that records have gotten too expensive in every sense, therefore I go for what I only absolutely need on vinyl, otherwise I go for CD. I’ve always been like that in building my music collection: whenever the market is zigging, I zag.
That’s how you find the best deals and stay on budget. Records now cost ~$25 apiece. If you want 1000 records in your new collection that’s $25,000 cost. The used record bins have all been scoured at this point, and there are very few bargains remaining, with too much to hunt through to get to them. That’s my feeling on record buying at this point.
I’m not so much about the format anymore as I am about having the music itself. CD’s & records let you play what you want, without an app tracking you & sending you messages. Put mp3’s on an external Ipod and connect it into an auxiliary input on your stereo. That’s how you have a rocking music collection that doesn’t need to be online.
Until my recent record store binging, I hadn’t considered 21st-century artists very seriously for the reasons stated above. When I began my artist journey it was Alanis Morrisette, Brittany Spears & American Idol coming online. That didn’t impress me much. But Shania Twain did, so I bought all her classic stuff that she made with her then-husband, the famous rock producer who did so many records I love. Shania Twain is perfect pop, with irresistible hooks & a beautiful voice. She translates best to CD in terms of top sound quality and typical album length which exceeds the LP format.
Compact discs are perfect masters which means they can be ripped onto a computer & pirated, which is what happens everywhere. CD’s have wav files of the songs with all the metadata. When Napster came along, kids who had ripped their CD’s shared them online as compressed audio files known as mp3’s. YouTube is mp4, an audio & video file. Compression means some loss of fidelity. The gain is smaller files which are easier to share. I review all this basic stuff because this is how you look for & buy music today. You research & listen online. After you figure out what you really like, go to the record/CD store and buy what you love.
Vinyl is the original format of rock & roll. It was 45’s when Elvis Presley hit in 1955. Black artists such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard & Bo Diddley became huge stars. Jim Crow racism had kept black artists down, but when rock & rock was unleashed it was irresistible to the kids. After Elvis hit, rock & roll became bigger than Jesus, and young Presley was vilified for it along with all the rest.
Scandals & tragedy took most of them down, except for Fats Domino. It wasn’t until Elvis first became a GI and then returned as a teen idol, hopelessly behind-the-times that he became mainstream with adults. He still produced hits, but when the Beatles arrived in 1964, Elvis & the rest went into the oldies bin. AM radio formats this “golden hits era” as oldies, as compared to the FM dial’s classic rock. It’s the difference between mono & stereo.
Rock in 1955 was 45’s in a jukebox format. Kids would meet wherever there was a jukebox and room to dance. 45’s are different than albums which are 33.3 RPM. 45’s are singles, so you’re always looking for that GREAT song that grabbed you from the first time you heard it. If the artist who made that song never made another one, then get that single on 45 or mp3. Most flip-sides of 45’s aren’t good songs, but occasionally there will be a gem.
When vinyl (33’s & 45’s) was deleted by 1990, the singles format disappeared, as CD’s don’t work as singles or as EP’s. This was a creative problem for nearly a decade until mp3 sharing came about, because there are many, many more artists who can make a great song or two, versus those who can make a great album. Those who can make multiple great albums are the major artists.
The advantage of CD’s (over records) is their ability to hold up to 80 minutes of length. A vinyl record sounds best if the album can be split into two 22+ minute sides. Anything at or over 23 minutes/side degrades the sound quality significantly, meaning you must either make it a double album or else go to CD.
My advice for young artists is to make great CD’s. The CD revolution was not only a quantum leap in audio fidelity, but also creativity. If you’ve got 75 minutes of great music you can put it online & onto CD. Then people like me will want to hear it. Once you impress enough people and become a huge success, then you can sell that album as a double LP on vinyl.
Making records involves the use of toxic petrochemicals which degrade our Earth’s ecosystem. Therefore my rules on vinyl are these. Reissue only great & very good records. No more Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, Yes, ELO, etc, re-issues. These such albums sat unclaimed in used bins I looked through for years, so why is the industry still pumping out fresh copies of this mediocre, industry-produced fodder? It’s the great rock records of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Mott the Hoople, along with the groove of P-funk & David Bowie that represent the best of 1970’s rock. Punk, reggae, funk & disco are what people covet most from the 1970’s.
Releases from 1990 onward are universally considered CD’s. Genres like pop, rap, country & rock are all recorded digitally with in-studio multi-tracking. Songs are constructed over hours, days, weeks & months on computers with the musicians, engineers & producers. This allows the sound geeks to get the best (loudest) sounds.
This has led to the “loudness wars” an industry term extensively discussed by serious sound professionals in online forums. Basically everyone in pop, rock & rap wants the loudest records, so we’ve reached the point where there is so much compression on all the tracks (guitars, bass, vocals, drum kit, etc) that the music lacks heart & soul. It’s sounds too slick & digitized because it is.
No popular artist in any of these genres does live-performance studio recordings on their albums. It’s kinda been that way since the Beatles did Sgt. Pepper’s in 1967. You can always make it cleaner & louder if you multi-track, because it allows sound separations and treatments (reverb, compression, etc) of each individual track.
So which format (record/CD/mp3) is best? Here’s my rule, if it has great songs and performances it will sound great on any format. Pre-1990, everything was released as a vinyl record. Pre-Beatles was 45’s, except for Bob Dylan who was always an album artist. Note that these are guides and that when you are record shopping you have to adapt to what is actually there. Don’t go insisting on a certain format when it’s unavailable or too pricey everywhere. The best deals today are on used CD’s. Major artists past & present in every genre populate the “used CD’s” bins, so find them.
Good stuff can be hard to find, and when it’s a good deal you should jump on it. If it moves you and has great songs from start to finish it will sound great in ANY format. The exception is cassette tapes, which degrade over time no matter what you do. Cassette tapes always have hiss, and are susceptible to getting eaten by vehicle tape decks & boom boxes.
It was always considered smarter to buy vinyl, and then record it onto a blank 45/90 cassette tape, than to buy pre-recorded cassettes. That way you got two albums per tape and if it got eaten or lost, just record another. Turntables were considered a nuisance by most as the 1980’s progressed, as CD players changed the music market.
VCR’s had revolutionized television watching habits and opened up new avenues in home recording. MTV hit in 1981 and popular music was never the same. From MTV on, you had to look good in front of the camera, otherwise you had no chance with the kids. Before MTV, oldies bands & performers could hide & hang-on as “rockers”. MTV immediately assigned REO Speedwagon, CSN, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, etc, to “classic rock” & “adult contemporary” status.
Of all of the classic rockers, it was Tom Petty who best survived the 80’s into the 1990’s when grunge & hip-hop exploded. By then Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Michael Jackson, etc, no longer had the kids attention, and were then considered legacy artists along with Billy Joel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, etc.
Grunge proved that kids liked bands influenced by the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart & the Stooges better than those championed by the classic rock dogmatists. The music industry canonized classic rock in the 1970’s under the institution of Rolling Stone magazine in which a few ex-musician hangers-on anointed themselves as the preeminent critics on rock, country & pop music.
Since the grunge wave of the early 1990’s, Rolling Stone has lost much of its credibility as the unassailable critics of music & pop culture. The more one learns of this institution, the more it can be seen for what it is: a tool of the music industry which employs its legion of hack writers, fake journalists & unserious critics to prop up the latest project the music industry deems important. These industry creations will always get a positive review in Rolling Stone; and depending on their industry clout, they may also get anything from a quick (positive) write-up, to a cover with full interview. That’s mainstream popular music in all genres. It’s totally a business, and that’s why it sucks so hard.
Divas are the explosive phenomenon in popular music in the last 25 years. The last divas I loved were Gloria Estefan & Madonna back in the day. Before them, Deborah Harry (Blondie) & Pat Benatar were my original favorites. MTV & the internet made divas more possible. The original modern diva in pop culture was Marilyn Monroe. In rock music it was Nico with the Velvet Underground & Warhol. Nico was the original bad girl, and a fascinating study in the ephemeral character of divas. They all want to be considered as artists.
The previously mentioned Shania Twain was first American pop music diva of the 21st century. Just to define the term, divas have to be beautiful, stylized & talented. Divas are coveted by all straight men, so they set the standard for women. Country music never really had a diva before Shania Twain. The original female country star was Patsy Cline. For a long time Dolly Parton was the closest thing to a country music diva in a genre dominated by wholesome-image female artists.
Country music since the 1970’s (at least) can be classified into two distinct styles: Nashville sound & outlaw. It must be understood that all country records are recorded in Nashville, TN, but there is a difference in style. Outlaw is rootsier and appeals to purists, while Nashville sound is slicker and more pop oriented. Contemporary country has been profoundly changed by pop, rock & rap. I listen to country songs that have a singer with a twangy voice, but if it’s a fast song, it’s rock music. Maybe they throw-in a harmonica & steel pedal guitar track to countrify it, but it’s basically rock. All the country ballads are basically pop & rap production.
In contemporary country music, the biggest pop diva has been Carrie Underwood since she won Season 3 of American Idol. Her first CD Some Hearts (2005) had the entire music industry behind it, so it was going to be a success no matter what, kinda like Titanic (1997). My listening of her first few albums is that they are highly polished, with some good singles, but also with too much well-constructed filler. Carrie Underwood has an amazing voice, but I never much cared for Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, etc, and that’s her style. It’s too much syrupy pop for my taste, which leans towards rock. My best chance of finding something I like in country music was in the outlaw style that takes Waylon & Willie as its roots.
The biggest star in country music for the past 15+ years has been Miranda Lambert. Like Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert also came from reality TV, and released her debut album Kerosene in 2005. Reading both these album credits today provides definitive clues in advance as to who would be the enduring artist in country music.
Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts has only one song that she wrote, “I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore,” while Miranda Lambert wrote (or co-wrote) every song on Kerosene except one. Both their follow-ups are they same way, and so on…
Miranda Lambert does use professional songwriters, but I get a sense that she really gets to pick the songs she likes. She also collaborates with these songwriters much more, in order to get them right for the album. Carrie Underwood had the material handed to her, and if Max Martin insisted that his song be on her CD, it got done. Carrie Underwood does the best she can, but too much of her material isn’t very inspired.
The songs that Miranda Lambert writes have more depth, heart & soul. These are songs of a restless artist who has the songwriter gift. I have nothing but respect & admiration for that because I know how hard it is. Carrie Underwood is more of a true diva, where Miranda Lambert is more of a Woodie Guthrie folk singer. They’re both country singers and both divas. Miranda Lambert is the true artist.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine is reactionary, has no progressive content, and is condemned by all socialists. And so are the provocations by US/NATO imperialism led by Joe Biden & Antony Blinken.
The war crisis in the Ukraine has been fueled by the Biden administration arming neo-Nazi terrorists, such as the Right Sector, Svoboda & Azov Battalion, with the purpose of making them proxies in their never-ending war against Russia. It’s an extension of the 2014 CIA-backed coup, misnamed the “Maiden revolution” by Western propagandists.
All this because the US ruling class has no answers for the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, social inequality, etc; so Joe Biden needs to project himself as a wartime president. It echoes Wag the Dog (1997), but on the most serious scale. The working people of the Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and United States must oppose this maniacal drive to World War 3. The war we need to fight & win is the war to eliminate COVID-19, to which capitalism has surrendered.
To understand the origins of this current crisis, it helps to know some history. Ukraine has historically been part of Russia, and was part of the USSR until its dissolution in 1989-91. Russia & the EU formed out of this liquidation of the remnants of the October 1917 Revolution, beginning with the carve-up of Yugoslavia (and the rest of the Balkans) by US/NATO imperialists. The eastward expansion of NATO since, onto Russia’s doorstep now takes the form of the US-led provocations in Ukraine.
The endless anti-Russia propaganda in the media reflects desperation. It is full of lies and absent of supporting facts. Those politically disoriented supporters of the Democratic Party’s attempt to start a shooting war with nuclear-armed Russia are victims of historical ignorance. It is this nationalistic, red state vs. blue state mentality, that has led the world to the brink of an abyss.
Not a single prominent Democrat opposes this reckless war drive. Bernie Sanders has spoken in support of Biden’s saber-rattling with Russia, while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has remained silent. This constitutes the “liberal left” wing of the Democratic Party, which is actually a party of Wall Street & war. Any opposition to WW3 must come from an internationally united working class.
Trump supporters have remained notably silent on these events, while they organize more fascist convoys (pic above) disguised as mass protests. The fact that white supremacists & neo-Nazis in the Ukraine are being armed by the Democrats, proves that their essential function is to provide support & political cover for right-wing fascists. That’s why the Democrats have refused to prosecute Donald Trump & his cronies for their January 6, 2021 coup attempt. It’s also why the Democrats support Al-Qaeda as proxies in Syria, as well as neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. Of course, none of these inconvenient facts ever get discussed in the fake media.
Let’s recall that Donald Trump was twice impeached by the US House of Representatives, the first time for holding up arms shipments to Ukrainian far-right paramilitaries. This interfered with the CIA/Pentagon policy of always provoking Russia with a Cold War mentality. This was all part of the Trump-as-an-agent-of-Putin narrative the Democrats used (and re-used, etc, ad nauseum) for four years after Hillary blew it in 2016. Then Trump was impeached for leading the January 6, 2021 coup attempt. Both times he was acquitted in the Senate.
These outdated Cold Warriors of the last century will never stop fighting the Russians, in the name of rabid anti-communism, despite the fact that Russia under Vladimir Putin (and the Stalinists that preceded him) have nothing to do with socialism. It’s an ideological class war that is being fought, with the working people of the Ukraine, Russia & US who are being made to pay the cost. That is the political logic behind this homicidal madness. Working people everywhere must resist this reaction, with a program of socialism in the name of historical truth.
It was just over a year ago that Neil Young sold 50% of his worldwide copyright & income interests in his 1,180 song catalog to some UK capitalist whale. Now Neil Young has started this ‘boycott Spotify’ campaign over some reactionary podcast that promotes COVID misinformation, when it’s mass media misinformation EVERYWHERE.
I respect Neil Young the musician as I have many of his records & CD’s, but it just feels like all the wrong people are making money for all the wrong causes and nothing ever gets better under this existing set-up. I respect Neil Young’s & other artists’ right to use their political clout, so I hope they respect my right to say it’s self serving and a political dead end.
Spotify basically doesn’t pay the artists, especially indies. The reason our music is still on their platform is because it’s “new radio,” meaning free distribution through the internet. The music goes online through a major label (or the likes of CD Baby), which places it on every streaming site: iTunes, Spotify, etc, and you don’t get to pick & choose. The problem for indies (besides not getting paid) is that all their algorithms work against us, so relatively few listeners can find us. It’s like that with all the corporate platforms.
The original streaming service was Napster (1999-2002), which was destroyed by the RIAA, when its well-heeled shills (Metallica & Dr. Dre) did their dirty work for them. Their claim was artists needed to get paid. Napster offered to work out an artist payment model, but they wouldn’t listen or negotiate, only the destruction of Napster would suffice.
This opened the way for Apple iTunes & venture capitalism (Spotify, Pandora, etc) to monopolize the mp3 market. This is why 99+% of all mp3 downloads are “illegal” today. We need a revolution, not reformism, because these elitist bloodsuckers will never willingly give up control.
I just watched Get Back (2021) and it’s amazing! Get Back is directed & produced by Peter Jackson, who takes the vast film footage & audio material originally captured for Let It Be (1970) a documentary of the album by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, whose 16mm cinematography is stunning. Get Back seamlessly transports you back in time, while the digital editing & titles give it a clean modern look. Pushing eight hours in length, it never gets dull. It was all filmed & recorded in January 1969, and then finally put together just recently, but everything about this Beatles documentary is timeless.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg was a pioneer in music film production, who makes his face seen & voice heard in Get Back. For instance, there’s a debate among the band over 35mm vs 16mm for filming. Paul insists it should be 35mm, or else it won’t look right. Michael Lindsay-Hogg then interjects that 16mm will be fine, and that’s it. Watching in early 2022, it looks like Get Back was shot a few months ago, and put together quickly. Of course it was all shot 53 years ago, and took 4 years to produce. There are no flaws in the moving images, and the camera framing is exquisite, giving Get Back an authentic appeal.
This is mostly a testament to how well the original film crew & Michael Lindsay-Hogg did their jobs. This made the digital transfer much easier, and the result is one of the great rock documentaries ever, maybe THE best. And to think, it sat “in the can,” wasted & unused for decades. In many ways it compares to the Netflix release of Orson Welles’ famous unfinished film, The Other Side of the Wind in 2018.
Get Back is Disney property, which maintains strict monopoly distribution of its content. I’ve got friends who have pirated it, because that what happens when you try to “own” something that really should be public domain. Everyone has the right to see this film, as the Beatles are part of the fabric of our popular culture. I know it’s being called a TV series by Disney, but really it’s a 3-part movie that runs 468 minutes total. That’s too long of a film for most people, so it’s marketed as a TV-series.
This definitive Beatles documentary of their early break-up phase has an unending cast of interesting characters; Mal Evans, Peter Sellers [!] & (of course) Billy Preston are a few of my favorites. There’s plenty to choose from as each of the Fab Four comes to life under constant camera & microphone recording, which (in retrospect) was their recording of Let It Be, released in May 1970; after Abbey Road (September 1969), and after their break-up was officially announced by Paul in April. Paul is the one who tries the hardest to prevent their inevitable break-up, because he profits the most from working with John. Everyone loves Ringo, so it’s George that’s made the target of Paul’s frustrations.
The real war in Get Back is between Paul & John for band leadership. John had always been the leader of the Beatles, but increasingly Paul feels he is more than qualified to lead. The disagreements are creative, as well as financial. Linda Eastman makes her first appearance on the scene during filming, and becomes another of the cast of characters fans will come to know better in time. There’s a scene featuring Paul working out a song on piano, with Linda & Yoko talking in the background so we can’t hear them. As far as popular music & human interest goes, it hard to get much more fascinating than that.
Paul always had a tough time with Yoko, which meant a conflict with John. This is early tabloid era, where you just needed to refer to them by their first names. Nothing ever again approached 1960’s Beatlemania, not even K-pop. The Beatles separate oldies & doo wop from classic rock. The Beatles flipped the switch, and music went from AM to FM; from mono to stereo. John sings “Revolution” in different ways, single vs. album. The Beatles changed cover art & lyric writing. The Beatles led the counter-culture & anti-war movements. In a word, they forever changed everything in popular culture.
As a diehard Velvet Underground fan, I take the Beatles as the pop standard no one can match. The Velvets did their underground Factory multi-media show with Andy Warhol & Nico in 1966. The Beatles were attempting to put on some kind of TV show in Get Back, but mostly it’s bad ideas, and then the drama of George leaving the band for a few days over Paul’s harassment. Artistically, the Velvets were far ahead of the Beatles in many important ways, but they were both broken-up (around the same time) by the same industry forces.
George was always the weakest link in the Beatles, and not coincidentally he’s the one who was most taken-in by Allen Klein in his post-Beatles career. George has a weakness for mysticism and is most-influenced by John, whom he idolizes for his songwriting & emulates in his singing style. George also is in awe of Paul for his prolific songwriting, musicianship & sweet singing voice; and thus covets his respect & approval.
Allen Klein is introduced to John & Yoko on the evening of January 26, 1969, and it’s referenced, but not filmed in Get Back. It helps if you know your Beatle-ology here, as Allen Klein is one the most notorious & prolific conmen in music business history. Allen Klein made a career for himself by ripping-off artists such as Sam Cooke, and then the Rolling Stones with his ABKCO Records, but his ultimate ambition was to manage the Beatles. Eventually he would, over Paul & Linda’s strenuous objections. It was definitely one of those times in Beatles’ history where Paul was right. Allowing Allen Klein to manage Apple Records for just a few years, led to bad personnel decisions, millions in lost royalties & endless lawsuits.
In Get Back, Paul has ideas for his new songs, that George can’t get to. It’s a truth of the Beatles that John is their best guitar player. George offers little when it comes to being a “lead guitarist,” and that’s why in his early solo career he worked with Eric Clapton so much. By 1969, George is a rhythm guitarist & aspiring songwriter, who is of little use to Paul. This is why Billy Preston is the key to making the Get Back sessions work, as the “Fifth Beatle.” As Paul acknowledges, “Billy Preston solves a lot of problems,” meaning his musicianship helps Paul realize his songs more fully, which eases George back into the band and relieves the pressure, which was immense.
Most Harrisongs aren’t Lennon-McCartney quality, but any attempt at songwriting is always welcome in any serious band. John encourages it, while Paul mostly dismisses George’s new ideas. The hardest thing to do is produce good new material. The Beatles did this for a dozen albums, all classics, due to an amazing songwriting team in Lennon-McCartney, which gave them a freshness & unique sound that always put them at the cutting edge, from mop-top sensations, to rock pioneers of studio recording.
A lot of people like to slag Paul, but I’ll take him in my band any day. Bass players are hard to find, and prolific songwriters are even rarer. That’s why John latched onto him when they were the Quarrymen. To have talent means you recognize it in others. The hard truth was that most of George’s new songs weren’t that good, but he had colleagues (outside the band) who were telling him they were, so egos start flying.
One can argue that it was George Harrison who broke up the Beatles, as he wanted to do a solo album of songs that Paul wouldn’t do, and John wasn’t crazy about. Or you could just Let It Be. For those who don’t know, writing songs is serious business, and the true artists who can do it don’t hand out free passes just because you’re a bandmate with ambition. You have to deliver, repeatedly, at a high level. These lessons in collaborative creativity & artistic standards remain relevant today.
The confusion that permeates their first rehearsal location, as well as the Apple Records studio are brought into focus when George Martin finally arrives, and promises the band in his assured & professional style that he will get all the sound issues straightened-out by the next day. The band finally breathes a sigh of relief as they leave. This is how it was.
The Beatles never really had a manager who could handle everything, because nothing like the Beatles had ever happened before. Brian Epstein had their best interests at heart and guided them to stardom, but he wasn’t tough, and he died in August 1967. Apple Records was established in January 1968, with no leadership, which meant the Beatles financial issues wouldn’t start to get resolved until the mid 1970’s.
But they always had a great producer in George Martin, and that’s more important, because if you don’t make great records then no one cares. Great records start with great songs, which means the producer has to recognize it, and then record an inspired performance. Then it can be produced. Get Back proves once again that no matter how gifted you are creatively & musically, you need a producer with a clear head.
The legends of decadence & excess at Apple Records are confirmed in Get Back, with all kinds of stoned employees, gay groupies & other hangers-on, etc, occupying the studio. Who are these fucking people? Answer: It was the 1960’s. Many appear well-meaning, but too many are wasted and none can handle the Mafiosos constantly in the background, rubbing their hands over how much money they were going to make. It should be noted in retrospect that it’s this lack of attention to security that ultimately got John killed.
Perhaps the best part of Get Back is when the Apple employees handle the bobbies, as the Beatles are playing their final concert unannounced on the rooftop of Apple Records in London. “It’s making quite a bit of racket… We’ve had over 30 complaints already,” claims the UK cop immortalized in the footage. Apple Records receptionist Debbie, and Beatles road manager, Mal are priceless here. So much love went into this music created by John, Paul, George, Ringo & Billy with their ever-producer, George Martin, and yet it’s the businessmen who are raking. That’s how it is when you’re an artist, and it’s all in the film.
It’s best to follow in your footsteps, particularly in the snow. It’s my first Wisconsin winter since 1993-94 and it’s cold, but not as sustained cold as it used to get. The summers are milder too and that’s the global warming I’ve noticed in Milwaukee, WI. In Central Florida the summers have become guaranteed scorchers which start in May and last through hurricane season which keeps getting longer & more intense.
What is proven by Hurricanes Charley-Francis-Ivan-Jeanne (2004), Sandy (2012) and then Irma in 2017, is that you can not sustain a direct hit from the eye, and the storm surge is now HUGE on both sides of the Florida peninsula. The panhandle and the Keys are the most dangerous places because they are exposed and too often in a hurricane’s path. Something needs to be done, but nothing is.
In 2019 Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Bahamas for 48 hours with a wind forces that exceeded the Saffir–Simpson scale in which a Category 5 starts at 157 MPH. The rating scale starts at 74-96 MPH for Cat 1, with ranges in the mid-to-high twenties of sustained MPH through Category 4 at 130-156 MPH. Sustained winds for Dorian were over 180 MPH, with gusts of 200+ MPH. Dorian was a Cat 6, and I was relieved it didn’t hit where I was, but my relief is someone else’s misery.
I have a simple rule for establishing residency in Florida: Have you ever been in the eye of a hurricane? It will teach you to be ready in EVERY way. With that said, I’ve met a lot of great snowbirds and have no prejudice against them for going back North during the Florida summer. Everyday people are great everywhere is what I have learned.
I really feel for loved ones, colleagues & friends who still live in Florida. It’s an amazing place with so many great people… but it’s been fucked-up by elites who don’t care about anything except profit for themselves. Anyone who has lived there will tell you that it’s a good ol’ boys network and if you ain’t from the Sunshine State (or relatively close) then you’re not-so-welcome by the people who own it. They’ll take your money and get you to work for them, but they don’t like you. Many of them are still fighting the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. You have to beat them at their own unfair game, which I did. Then they really hate you.
That’s what I ran up against from the start in Central Florida. Now, Florida is run by Donald Trump from his Mar-a-Lago compound though his puppet Ron DeSantis in the governor’s mansion. For me it’s like that April Wine song “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” where you better see the red flags and MOVE.
On April 17, 2021, directly upstairs to my Sanford apartment, I witnessed my angry neighbors bringing in at least 3 assault rifles in hardshell cases around dusk on a clear Saturday. I had seen what looked like cases of ammo when they were unloading their U-haul trailer, shortly after they had moved-in months earlier. These haters never smiled, and always tried to provoke & intimidate everyone. That upstairs armament incident happened the weekend Drivin N’ Cryin played in Sanford. They were great, but the local music scene has become so toxic that it’s impossible for me. No respect from the gatekeepers, with too many jealous wanna-be’s, manipulative hangers-on, etc. I’m a pariah for being a revolutionary. All this told me it was time to go.
There’s no regrets on leaving Florida, and no complaints about the good people I worked with across all the professions. I met & worked with some amazing dental specialists, world-class practitioners; along with amazing hygienists, assistants, office staff, lab specialists, etc. I’m a humble bread-and-butter dentist, but with musical talent. Everyone who was there knows. Since I’m grateful to escape, my policy now is what happened in Florida stays in Florida. That’s the kind of state it is, and if you respect that you can get by, but you always have to be ready for the rough & mean.
I also worked with some serious musicians, all of whom I didn’t always see eye-to-eye with. Being a professional is about doing a first-class job whenever you are hired, no matter how you feel about that person, the material, etc. Music for me has been about finding my collaborative soul mate, as I’m deficient in certain key areas. Everyone knows that Tom Pearce is my musical partner. You need a producer.
Tom is the older brother I never had as a kid, so we disagree about stuff… but it’s the love & respect that carries us through. It certainly wasn’t about the money because there wasn’t any for what I did. We just wanted to be free and make music. Today, Tom has many side projects and has benefited tremendously from our collaboration. It’s the only way I can pay him anymore. We’d love to re-master everything onto a multi-disc CD anthology with a booklet and all that, but there needs to be money & distribution. Tommy Mottola & Co. have it all locked up. The music business is a mafia.
Friends who helped in music & dentistry have moved on and are pursing their lives, hopes & dreams. I hope they understand life is a journey as well as a conscious choice. I gave it my best, but there’s no money or prospects for me, so I had to move on. That’s my attitude and it’s rational, but it’s also hard to concisely explain. Concision is such a virtue.
So whenever you’re going somewhere you’ve never been, learn to follow your footsteps. It covers your tracks and keeps you warm, clean & dry. It gives you something that is your own to follow & believe in. It marks & remarks where you’ve been, in a silent way. You can live to cover many miles by following your footsteps.
Preface:Omicron isn’t mild. That’s a political lie meant to numb you to the dangers of letting the virus rip, which has been the US government’s policy from the start, first with Trump, and then continued under Biden/Harris. We need a Zero COVID strategy, globally, to end the pandemic.
The Novak Djokovic ruling in Australia reinforces an anti-scientific & eugenics stench among the capitalist governments. For those not up-to-date on the situation, tennis star Novak Djokovic who is unvaccinated, has been allowed entry into Australia, despite strict entry requirements– which Novax doesn’t meet. He was allowed to work a deal with the Australian Open organizers and government officials, despite the protestations of the VAST majority of Australians who have been living under some of the toughest COVID mandates in the world. It’s been widely seen for what it is: another generous exception granted to the privileged, while the rest of us have to “live with it.”
Last week, Novax arrogantly posted on Instagram that he had obtained a visa to travel to Australia and would be participating in the Open. This incited a firestorm of opposition among the people of Australia, who have been living under stringent COVID mandates on vaccination, travel, masking, etc, for months in an effort to contain Delta & Omicron. It was this mass eruption of democracy that forced the Australian government to temporarily rescind Novax’s visa when he arrived.
The fake media keeps writing it up as if there was a “mix-up” or some government confusion over their visa policy, etc. The toiling masses can’t be given credit for preventing a corrupt anti-vaxxer from buying (& lying) his way into their country and being allowed to do whatever he pleases because he’s privileged. That’s not a narrative the fake media is interested in, but it’s what happened. The reactionary court ruling to allow Novax entry, overturns the will of the Australian people.
What it confirms is that if left up to the courts, a right-wing agenda will always be validated– from Julian Assange to Kyle Rittenhouse. This can be traced all the way back to Bush v Gore in December 2000. Anti-vaxxers are free to spread COVID as an ideological pillar of class rule. Vaccines, lockdowns, masks, testing, and science in general, are vilified as violations of “individual rights,” while the social rights of the VAST majority are dismissed. Novax is the $220 million martyr for the anti-vaxxers. Oh how they pity him & his suffering! The hypocrisy is staggering.
This situation was turned into a nationalist issue for reactionary purposes. Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic wrote last week, “Our bodies are doing everything to see that the harassment of the world’s best tennis player is brought to an end, immediately.” Novax’s father, Srdjan Djokovic lashed out at the Australian authorities, claiming his son is a martyr comparable to Jesus Christ, “Our Novak, our pride. Novak is Serbia and Serbia is Novak… They are trampling over Serbia and by doing that, they are trampling on the Serbian people… The leader of that faraway land, Scott Morrison … dared to attack Novak and expel him before he had reached their country. They had wanted to throw him to his knees, and not just him, but our beautiful Serbia… We Serbs are a proud European people. Throughout history, we have never attacked anyone, we only defended ourselves.” Djokovic’s mother Dijana claims her son is a “revolutionary” who was “changing the world.” All this because Novax won’t get vaccinated.
Anti-vax Nazis compared Novax to Julian Assange during this drama, which was ludicrous. Assange is a hero for telling the world the truth about imperialism. Assange is suffering in a real prison for that. Novax is just another entitled reactionary, grandstanding for himself, a symbol of hope for the hopelessly ignorant. Anti-vaxxers all claim “natural immunity” as their defense. If natural immunity was enough to stop COVID, then the pandemic would be over already. But it isn’t.
The anti-vaxxers uncritically accepted Novax’s claim that he had ‘natural immunity’ from COVID, by testing positive on December 16, 2021. It’s now very likely that his ‘positive test’ claim was a lie to get Novax around the vaccine requirements for a visa. The timing couldn’t have been better for an unvaccinated individual wanting to participate in the Australian Open.
A fake positive test can be obtained the same way a fake vaccine passport can be manufactured. If ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Antonio Brown tried it, then why not Novax? One of the requirements for a visa is that you don’t bring danger or harm to any of citizens of the country you are entering. The Australian government wasn’t interested in any of this, or asking Novax about not masking/isolating after his supposed positive test. Those facts & questions would be very inconvenient.
Novax has now been confirmed as unvaccinated by the government of Australia. If he was actually COVID positive on Dec 16th (which is highly questionable), he refused to wear a mask or quarantine himself, as required by Serbian mandates. That’s not a national hero or a martyr, but a selfish & ignorant elitist. Anti-vaxxers & COVID denialists are the political equivalent of flat-Earthers & holocaust deniers. That’s why the vast majority must reject them and their Malthusian ideology.
The bigger issue is that this AO event shouldn’t even be held, until we’ve eliminated COVID. To all the people attending indoor public places & outdoor super-spreader events without a mask, I must insist that you just don’t get it. I’m talking about the BIG picture. This isn’t coming from jealousy or any other form of hatred, but from science. You’re too wrapped up in your personal interests, and this is what is perpetuating & worsening the pandemic.
I am the first person to publicly call this pandemic what it will be known as in history: the Coronavirus War.It’s the war to prevent WWIII. Please step back and look at the big picture, which starts with how WE are going to end this pandemic. It can’t be just a few of us, it has to be the VAST majority of people who have ethics & respect science, along with all those willing to sacrifice for a better world. Join the fight on the good side of the Force, because WE deserve better than 2021.
Fri 14 Jan 2022 09:22 AM CST
Breaking update: Novax’s visa was cancelled a few hours ago, for a second time on the basis that his presence could “excite anti-vaccination sentiment”. His legal team is appealing the decision of Alex Hawke, the Australian immigration minister. Novax will soon be interviewed by Australian immigration officials, with a full hearing to take place on Sunday morning (Melbourne time), the day before the Australian Open begins. The chances of the immigration minister’s ruling being overturned are remote according to legal experts.
The sick Djoke presented false information on his visa form, saying he hadn’t traveled outside Serbia for the 14 days before flying to Australia, but social media has photos of him in Marbella, Spain over the holidays. As a rule of visa law, no one gets away with that. That’s not a “minor oversite” or “mistake” in filling out a visa form, but a false declaration to gain admittance. The political pressure this situation has created for the Australian government has been enormous.
On Monday (Jan 10), Der Spiegel claimed that when it scanned the QR code belonging to Djokovic’s PCR test at 1.19pm German time on December 16, it said: “Test result Negative.” However an hour later, after another scan, it said: “Positive.” Several others – including New York Times journalist Ben Rothenberg – reported the same findings, with Rothenberg also posting a photo of the two different results. When anyone tried on Tuesday it returned universally positive results. It’s now clear that Novax’s ‘positive’ COVID test is surely a fake, as many of us suspected from the start.
Novax always has a convenient excuse for his lies & blatant disregard for the health of others. It gets to the point where no one believes him anymore, just like the little boy who repeatedly cries wolf. If Novax keeps trying to press his luck with his legal appeals, staging fake protests, etc, Australia may decide to ban him for 3 years. Most foreigners would have already received this ban, if they tried to pull what he did. The Australian government doesn’t want to do this, but this sick Djoke was never very good at reading the political situation.
Fri 14 Jan 2022 4:034 PM CST
There’s a lot to digest from all this, and since the verdict is now assured with only a few footnotes to be added, I’ll make my final comments & sign off.
What offends the most from start-to-finish are several things. First is the fanaticism masquerading as seriousness in discussion by the anti-science crowd. Everything is right-wing talking points, junk science & attacks from the anti-vax mob. They don’t want any kind of rational discussion of the facts, they just want to rant & then fight. In a word, they are impossible. These Stalinists & Nazis are working together as the Axis around US/UK imperialism in the Coronavirus War.
My second irritation is with Novax, as all-around this was a shoddy production from him. Sloppy, lazy, ill-conceived & poorly planned. It’s execution could only end in failure & ignominy, with Novak Djokovic being played as a political pawn. From the side of science & democracy, we made an example out of Novax. Didn’t want to do it, felt we owed it to him… He thought because he’s such a great tennis player that he could transcend international politics by doing whatever he wants during a pandemic and get away with it. The people of Australia said, “Fuck you” to that, and Novax will soon be on a plane back to Serbia.
His family back home have been shameless conspirators in this fraud Novax tried to pull off in obtaining a visa. Right-wing nationalist elements all rallied around Novax & his lying family. All of them were in on this conspiracy to obtain an Australian visa by fraud because they all knew Novax was unvaccinated. All the anti-vaxxers supported every Novax legal argument, document & positive test as facts. If I’m the Australian PM, it’s a 3-year ban as stated by law. These transgressions warrant it, as (scientifically speaking) this was an attack on your border.
It’s the smugness that rubs raw with Novax. He expected to get away with it, so he didn’t make sure his COVID test indicated “positive” instead of the actual negative result. Anyone can (& will) check that QR code, and SCREENSHOTS will be the proof. Lazy & stupid people helping this sick Djoke in his camp & at the highest levels of the Serbian government. All because he won’t get vaccinated and can’t admit it. Marxists call that political cowardice. For all the anti-vaxxers reading this, I ask, “At what level does the hypocrisy get so ridiculous that you bail on him?” Intelligence & the far right have a preconceived limit on when to stop talking and start fighting, but they don’t want to admit it or identify where it is.
If your strategy to get into the Australian Open is to falsify documents & a COVID test, then at least do it right. Since your consider yourself a professional, and clearly have the money, then have a serious plan that can succeed or else don’t try. Don’t go out in public maskless after the proclaimed positive date. Stay isolated as mandated, and no one can dispute your story. Don’t travel to foreign countries within 14 days if the rules stipulate against it. For the respect of the Australian people whom you expect to welcome you into their country, it’s not asking too much. It insults EVERYONE’S intelligence when you disrespect people like that.
Once these documents in question were released to the media, it was too easy to investigate and expose all the inconsistencies & lies. It took like half a day, which begs the questions, “Why didn’t the government of Australia figure this stuff out since is wasn’t that hard? Don’t they have people who know how to investigate & handle this stuff at their borders?”
The best explanation here is that this was a backroom pay-off deal Novax set-up with the Australian Open & government officials, that went bad. Cinematically speaking, it compared to the end of La Femme Nikita (1990), except no Anne Parillaud & no style from Novax, who never spoke directly to the media nor answered their questions during this murky affair in which everyone got bloody. It was his lawyers, family and right-wing extremists that spoke for Novax, and they were never believable. That’s why it ends like this.
It’s an election year Down Under, so the 9-time AO champion has to leave in order to soothe the discontent of the Australian voters. A warning lesson from all this is that if Novax hadn’t been so careless & stupid, he could have easily gotten away with it, but it was the power of the people speaking their voices that sent Novax home before the Happy Slam begins.
This blog does not tolerate violence, harassment, or hate speech; yet it can’t be called a safe space for certain readers. That’s because there is too much content that is upsetting to snowflakes, and it doesn’t contain the requisite trigger warnings. There is nothing more hysterical & shrill than a snowflake who has been set-off, due to lack of trigger warnings.
This blog discusses many forms of art including music. But for me to identify with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, etc, is considered unacceptable cultural appropriation by the snowflakes– particularly the black racialists. This will lead to media attacks, censorship, de-platforming & blacklisting. Liberal racialists insist on separation, much like the racist Alabama Governor George Wallace (pic below) meant when he insisted on “separate but equal” institutions in the 1960’s. Black racialism is the flipside of the white racist coin.
Critical Race Theory, is a re-working of the post-modernist school of Critical Theory, which insists that everything is subjective. This means there is no historical truth, no such thing as facts, and that idealist narratives can replace rational thought in all things. Lazy liberals gravitate towards this ideology because they never really learned anything, as this post-modernist construct elevates them, while hiding their ignorance. In short, liberal ideology has become right-wing reaction, peddled as progressive thought.
In America, this nonsense is funded by the Democratic Party & corporate elitists, who seek to divide & dumb-down the working masses & youth with dead-end identity politics. These aren’t genuine grassroots movements, but instead are well-funded astroturf campaigns.
For example, intersectionality is considered inherently progressive, because women are always to be believed, and black people are always the victims of racism. This means that Jay-Z & Beyonce, despite their fabulous wealth & celebrity power, are oppressed by the white colonialist patriarchy that is in our DNA.
If you disagree with the above statements, then you are a class reductionist, which automatically means you are racist, misogynist and/or homophobic. This is the state of the American media today. This is why movies, television & music suck so hard. It’s also why there is no discussion outside of these “safe space” boundaries in academia, pop culture, or politics.
So in answering the title, “Is it safe?” one reminisces Dustin Hoffman about to be tortured in The Marathon Man (1976), with Laurence Olivier playing the Nazi by asking a question that can’t be answered–“Is it safe?”
A healthy response is to shout down this woke mob, and all their witch-hunting, book-burning fake politics. To those philistines who want to cancel Shakespeare, etc, we contemptuously ask, “What have you done?” Seriously, what the fuck have you done?
Here’s my Page Overview, which says I have 1,485 followers, and that in the last 28 days I’ve had 28 reaches on all my posts– combined. That’s called being in Facebook prison.
I’m censored because I’m too good. Mark Zuckerberg hates Ric Size. He’s been taught that by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, etc. Those are the people who run the Democratic Party. For these elitists, 99.9% control isn’t enough.
That’s why I keep getting these notices, shown above.
Since less than 0.1% of my audience is being reached due to Facebook censorship, I don’t get too upset when they threaten to delete me for violating their “Community Standards.”
Above: Ric Size Facebook demographics on gender & leading urban markets
Censorship of this social media page began immediately when it was established in 2012. There was a qualitative increase in online repression in the summer of 2016, as this blog became more widely read. The DNC email Wikileaks were severely damaging, and demanded a strict censorship response from the political establishment. When Donald Trump won the Electoral College in November 2016, the World Socialist Web Site, Julian Assange, and myself were their top targets.
The #MeToo & BLM campaigns have also targeted this site for blacklisting, de-ranking, de-platforming, etc. This has occurred on all platforms, including Google, YouTube, Amazon & Disqus.
Extended Play 2019-21 has undergone many permeations, as “Millennial Whoop”, “The Road Rage Song” and “Patch Me Up Doc” have been released. This EP originally had 4 songs, and was to be finished by the end of 2019. But “Primary Colors” was never properly done, and then the coronavirus pandemic struck, causing further delays in production & release. When it finally came time to try again on that song, and then again, I had written more new tunes, which I’m calling “bonus tracks” for clarity on this sprawling 7-song EP which took two years to complete.
Tom Pearce & I got recordings of two brand new songs, “(It’s a) Steamy Jungle” & “When You’re Out There,” so it was a nice session on December 2, 2020 in Sanford FL. Minimalist studio recording is the only safe way to deliver meaningful new music during this coronavirus pandemic. That’s the idea here.
Tom brought a somewhat different recording rig this time. He still uses a Mac flatscreen installed with Studio One software. But now he’s using a router to connect wirelessly to a Behringer rack pre-amp, which he likes. This rack pre-amplifier rests solidly on a milk crate which carried the cables, etc. The vocal & guitar microphones were wired to the pre-amp, as well as a line-in from the guitar through a DI-box, for crystal clean three-track live recording.
I’m the one who insists on the guitar line-in, as it gives the producer another track to fatten the sound, if needed. I play an acoustic-electric so I can get both sounds. The two live mics have “sound spillage” due to their proximity, so lining-in gives the producer a clean track to boost the guitar sound without affecting the vocals. It’s called double tracking the guitar, and I know I didn’t invent it.
As you can see in these images, Tom used folding microphone stands to drape blankets & create sound screens which envelop me. This significantly cuts down on the guitar & vocal reverberation in the room, giving Tom a cleaner acoustic recording.
My vintage Tech 21 Trademark 60 guitar amplifier never got plugged in, again, instead it made a comfortable seat with a sofa cushion in-between. It really helps when taking pictures, I think. We also had a different headphone monitoring set-up, with me getting a small wireless dedicated unit, while Tom was headphone monitoring through his computer jack. This performer monitoring unit can rest on a flat surface, or be clipped to the microphone stand.
Tom’s always explaining this stuff to me as he’s setting up. I’m listening until it gets too technical, and it’s time for me to check my lyric sheet one last time, or whatever. Lots of nervous energy being exchanged. He goes on until he finishes and then says to me, “Got all that?” I reply, “No. But as long as you like it, I’m good.” Then he says, “I think you’ll like it.” And I respond, “Alright, let’s rock.”
And then we do it. And when it’s over, we get photos. As an artist, if you do this well here, it’s so much easier to get everything done & online. Good images help with visualization & concretizing of abstract ideas into forms people can recognize & relate to. If the song is strong & well-performed, then artwork is the final piece that the artist must give to the producer to help him finish.
When the song is mastered, what I need from my producer is a jacketed mp3 & the cover art image jpeg. With that I can make a thumbnail video, which allows me to promote & distribute the song across all platforms. This is everything necessary to promote a song, with minimal resources spent. A website with a running blog, a YouTube channel, and a social media presence is your ‘press release’ department. You have to wear a lot of hats, and stay on top of things as best you can to succeed against these industry odds.
Live streaming is now a valid artist delivery method. It works better as a revenue stream if you are a ‘name performer,’ otherwise you are better off streaming for free, and soliciting donations. Live streams are the now & future, so prepare for it, while understanding there’s a limited amount of excitement that an artist can create with a live streaming performance. Live streams are better for interviews, discussions, comedy, etc. Making new music is the most effective way to reach fans during this pandemic.
The next step is pressing CD’s & vinyl, but that takes money & connections, so be sure you have a deal that pays you (the record & publishing company) upfront, otherwise stick mostly to the low-budget DIY model. If you’re insistent on selling CDs, do it right. Keep the publishing & copyrights updated, the website & social media running with consistent fresh content, and the domain name locked up.
“When You’re Out There” was written in August 2020 after I listened to a LOT of Sun Ra on YouTube. With COVID-19 killing the live music scene, it was a good opportunity for me to finally hear many of his records which were never really available during the vinyl era, and were overpriced during the CD era.
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth was always a champion of Sun Ra, and was the one who introduced this unheralded genius jazz composer & virtuoso to me. Sun Ra’s music is timeless, with depth, and a spirit of fierce independence. He’s out there, and that’s what inspired this song.
The other bonus track we recorded during this session was “(It’s a) Steamy Jungle,” an acoustic reggae song I came up with in October 2020.
Tom took all the pictures of me, and I took the set-up shots. He ripped mp3’s of all the recorded songs during playback, and put them on my thumbdrive. The mp3’s are uploaded onto my computer and checked (skimmed before parting) for audio fidelity & length, meaning all songs are clear, and none are cut-off short. That is what an artist expects & needs from a producer after recording.
These mp3’s are “prints,” meaning raw stereo recordings with no processing. This is what the artist listens to and determines if there is a song that can be produced, or if it needs more work, re-recording, etc. Pictures are shared & reviewed, and we discuss the ones we like, and how they are to be used. Cover art is a collaborative effort, where we both share thoughts & ideas, and then I let Tom do it. Meanwhile, these liner notes are written [12-2-20], while everything is still fresh in the mind.
“Primary Colors” & “Bitter to Better” were recorded on March 1, 2021 in Sanford, FL. Pics by Tom. In total there were 5 recording sessions in Sanford, from August 2019 to March 2021, to get 7 songs. The coronavirus pandemic was the primary reason for the long process in making & releasing this EP. Tom recorded the electronic beats & drums to “Millennial Whoop” & “Patch Me Up Doc” at his home in Tavares, FL sometime in 2020. Ask him for details on that.
As an artist, stay connected with your producer during mixing & mastering, and LISTEN. Production is not your domain, otherwise you would be doing it, so the producer gets the final call on sound. The producer has the song(s), and how long it takes depends on: 1) how good are the recordings, 2) how good is the producer, and 3) how much it costs? Choose wisely.
These are hard truths. As an artist, transition your efforts into online marketing by publishing videos, pictures, press releases to encourage discussion among fans, friends, etc. Use friendly forums, your website, preferred platforms, etc. This is how to generate content & promote– DIY.
Below in bold type is the template I now use for releasing songs as singles on my site. It can be as brief or as long as needed, rearranged, etc, but this is a professional press release. This is your first chance to promote your new song, so do it right.
“Song title”
jacketed mp3
liner notes & discussion
cover image
lyrics image
video
tags: album title (year), official mp3 release
Once all the singles to this EP are online, I then publish these liner notes as a post, and create a permanent Media page for the album on my site. I also update my Free Music Downloads page by adding the new mp3’s as they are released. Every song is released onto Spotify, iTunes, and all the rest of the streaming services for maximum distribution, along with the thumbnail videos on YouTube. That’s all you can do when you’re blacklisted.
Everyone says “organic is best” for promotion, but the rub is that it’s a lot of work, and there’s a lot of censorship, with nefarious spamming, hacking & de-platforming across the internet. The world goes on 24/7/365, and no one can be there for all of it. So be smart about putting up media that keeps working for you. Pick your spots to be active, and engage in real debate on serious issues, when it matters most. That will attract people on all sides, because EVERYBODY is sick of the pablum from the fake media. Everything you see, hear & read here is an alternative to MSM.
The message is that we have a choice in deciding on what the future of music will be. It’s the artists who create the culture and it’s the cool young kids that are hip to it who promote it. That is who this music is for and why it was created. Tom & I hope you enjoy it.
