In the week leading up to our CD release, Make An Animal Noise, Grubstake has had some fun!

This past Sunday, we played a live set and had an interview with Jake Rabid and John Viteese from Y-Rock.  I’m working on getting an MP3 of the show up soon.  Grubstake also played live on Sunjay’s Brekky Shift Monday afternoon radio show on WKDU.

I put the lay out for the CD to bed around 4am this morning.  It is a pure pleasure, working for myself and setting my own schedule.

Pat also alerted me to a write-up for our CD Release show this Saturday in Philadelphia:

Grubstake

Sat., Aug. 2, 10pm. Free. With Dr. Tommy Thunder. Fergie’s, 1214 Sansom St. 215.928.8118. www.fergies.com Named for an arcane mining term, Grubstake have been hammering out mud-caked guitar-drum blues for about a decade now. Patrick McHugh led the band in Boston for much of that time before returning to his old stomping grounds in Philly and nabbing drummer/engineer Steve Bozzone to make a fifth album, Make an Animal Noise. It’s another gritty, ground-down outing, with McHugh hollering about TV dinners and other mundane miseries on “Delaware” and trafficking heavily in spite on “Sophisticated Whore.” Most garage-rock duos putter out when they cease to mix things up musically, but McHugh’s been around long enough to know when to throw a wrench into the works. (Doug Wallen) - Philadelphia Weekly

Grubstake has been a great experience, it’s been a good time working with Pat McHugh, playing random shows in Pittsburgh, Boston, Providence, NYC and Philly on weekends and putting together a CD.  Come catch my last show with the grubbers this Saturday at Fergies!

After for working in Camden, NJ for the past year, I’ve had the experience of visiting an impoverished, third-world country right across the Delaware river.  It is hard to describe it’s condition, but two recent local media pieces have tried:

From a recent Philadelphia City Paper article:

Most of Camden looks like the deadly Badlands of North Philadelphia during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and early ’90s — if not worse. While signs of rebirth sprout along the waterfront, whole swaths of North and South Camden are urban disasters reminiscent of Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Kingston. Countless open-air drug markets occupy rubble-ravaged corners like bargain circuses, the blaze-eyed dealers momentarily turning their heads toward the sky and scratching their goatees whenever a police cruiser drives past. Newly organized gangs furiously murder off independent drug dealers in a battle for limited turf. And then there are the more mundane, but equally deadly, street operas, like the one involving Jason Santos, which play out almost nightly. - Who Will Pray for Camden?

And from local filmmakers, Camden advocates, and friends Sean Dougherty and Father Michael Doyle:

Poet of Poverty

John Leslie writes:

This is close to Jena, and also is the close to the area where Marquee Haspeth was ’shot 48 times’ by cops a few years ago (you can read about that here. )

CNN reports: Man dies after cop hits him with Taser 9 times

WINNFIELD, Louisiana (CNN) — A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron “Scooter” Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge.

He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner’s report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.

Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes’ January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.

Speaking of Tasers being deadly:

A Statesville man died after being shocked multiple times by Tasers at the Iredell County jail over the weekend, sources say.

Anthony Davidson, 29, was unresponsive when he was taken to Iredell Memorial Hospital Saturday afternoon. He was put on life support and died late Sunday night, police said.

His death is the second Taser-related death this year in the Charlotte area. In March, 17-year-old Darryl Wayne Turner, died after Charlotte-Mecklenburg police used a Taser on him at a Food Lion store in Charlotte. - Suspect Dies After Taser Hits In Jail - Charlotte Observer

And to further wrap up our coverage of criminal acts by our men and women in blue, from the recent Philadelphia City Paper:

Daniel “Scotch” Williams was pacing around his living room, alternately distraught and despondent. Several of his friends were present, seated in a circle; they were not officially in vigil, but might as well have been. The following morning, the group was headed to a funeral. Just four days prior, their good friend Butter had been shot dead by police — shot at 85 times, hit about 20.

The other thing Scotch couldn’t understand was how the police could shoot at a man 85 times and call it justice. After the shooting, he’d gone to a community meeting where the police commissioner had, in essence, defended the cops. Eighty-five shots!  Read the entire story.

Further reading: Stunning Revelations: The untold story of Taser-related deaths - In These Times

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After spending time in Portland and London, I’m convinced Critical Mass is unproductive and reduces respect for bicyclists on the streets.  HOWEVER, the type of state-sponsored violence depicted in this video, is completely unnecessary. It offers further proof the NYPD, and police agencies around the United States, are a modern day hit-squad.

As we bicyclists continue to violate the rules of the road, we contribute to the criminalization and elitism of bike culture.  As Alina Josan put it yesterday, “I’d give up reading red lights and stop signs tomorrow, for respect.”  Philadelphia, while touted as a bike-friendly city, is still a stressful place to ride a bike.  The same can be said for New York City.  Once we double and triple the number of riders in the streets and on mass transit, we can start to enjoy more livable cities.

Guess I’ll be stopping at reds, a hard habit to break!

Lawrence Lessig defends Barack Obama’s vote to support WARANTLESS WIRETAPPING and RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FOR CORPORATIONS WHO FAIL TO DEFEND THE PRIVACY OF U.S. CITIZENS:

1. Obama is no (in the 1970s sense) “liberal”
2. Obama has not shifted in his opposition to immunity for telcos:
3. Obama’s shift was in his promise, as relayed by a member of his staff, to filibuster any bill with telco immunity
4. Unless, of course, it was good politics
5. But assume you reject #4 completely. Then one more thought: Isn’t it time for Obama to resign from the Senate?
6. Finally, and 2bc: please, fellow liberals, or leftists, or progressives, get off your high horse(s).

I edited for simplicity, read his entire reaction, “The Immunity Hysteria“.

Meanwhile, two critically important organizations, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, have taken action:

The ACLU is suing on behalf of journalist and human rights groups, asking the court put a halt to Congress’s legalization of Bush’s formerly secret warrantless wiretapping program. The ACLU contends (.pdf) the expanded spying power violates the Constitution’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.

In passing the FISA Amendments Act, Congress gave the executive branch the power to order Google, AT&T and Yahoo to forward to the government all e-mails, phone calls and text messages where one party to the conversation is thought to be overseas.

“We are also preparing a new case against the government for its warrantless wiretapping, past, present and future,” said EFF senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston, who said the details were being withheld to keep the element of surprise.

“But suffice to say it will be quite different from the other cases against the government that have been filed so far,” Bankston said. “Like with our case against AT&T, however, the ultimate goal will be the same: to halt the mass interception of Americans’ communications and to dismantle the dragnet spying network that was first exposed by our witness, AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.”

You don’t have to be a liberal to believe this far-reaching power to spy on Americans without judicial oversight is a complete disaster.   But let’s be honest with ourselves: this type of work has been going on for a long time.  It was a secret program which journalists uncovered, and now we’ve missed our opportunity to actually disable illegal wiretapping programs and enable accountability for politicians who violate our trust.  And by the way, Barack Obama voted in support of this, along with both of Pennsylvania’s Senators.

I have remained optimistic about Obama as president, but I have not supported him or any major party candidate this far.  Lessig jabs a bit at folks who are “fair weather” liberals, who surge when Obama does something cool, otherwise bashing him for not being liberal enough.  I voted Democrat in 2006, with the expectation that we would see a swift end to funding of the occupation of Iraq, and impeachment proceedings would move forward against George Bush and Dick Cheney.  What we received was a session of complete mediocrity, which has done it’s part to continue the current administration’s abuse of powers.

This election, third-party candidates Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader remain alluring.  Obama is a far better candidate than his major-party contender John McCain, especially considering what he might be able to do for this country.  What I have learned however, is we must consider a peaceful revolution the United States, in order to properly heal our wounds and move our world forward.  Until we put people before profits, a position Democrats and Republicans have not supported, our cities and farms will remain oppressed by the people who profit from our silence and imprisonment.

From Collateral News, Dennis Kucinich’s 35 articles of impeachment:

From Mother Jones photo essay, Unembedded in Iraq

BAGHDAD, September 12, 2004
A young Iraqi civilian lies dead in Haifa Street as a US armored personnel carrier burns in the background. Twenty-two Iraqi civilians were killed and forty-eight injured when US helicopters opened fire on crowds celebrating around the burning vehicle, which was disabled by an insurgent attack. No American soldiers were killed in the fighting. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad)

How powerful an impact this photo has, without even considering the caption.  It gives a sense of experience, of time and place.

These photographers are real change agents.  Traveling into Mahdi Army strongholds with no guides or US/Iraqi protection, they broke a deadly silence.  Their photos have also provoked my interest in this September 2004 massacre of Iraqi citizens by American forces.  Sad to say, but this style of mass-murder, conducted and facilitated by our elected officials, continues today.

The Mother Jones photo essays are a great resource. I particularly liked The Hidden Half, The Dying Newsroom and Phone Sex Operators.  I hope we can continue to support photojournalists, who remain critical to an informed citizenry.

I’ve been a big fan of graffiti and street art, since my time spent living in the Bronx.  What impressed me the most were street installations that spoke to the masses. Often, they were laced with commentary on current struggles in our world.  This is especially present in Europe, where political graffiti had remained notorious, even before the American style of throw-ups and production pieces became popular. These pieces ask us to consider our complicity in broken systems.

I met Swoon at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and Bowling Green — she faciliated a workshop on stencilling and wheatpasting — it continues to be a personal reference on the realness of AMC. I didn’t find Swoon’s work to be explicitly political, until I had seen Portrait of Silvia Elena.

Swoon recently produced an installation regarding the ongoing mass rape and murder of women in Juarez, Mexico. It is located in a basement crawlspace, only accessible through a hole in the floor at Honeyspace, a radical arts space located in Chelsea, New York City.

The band At The Drive-In produced a music video based on the femicides in 2001.

I am a big proponent of using music and art for the process of healing, learning and justice. It is great when artists like Swoon and At The Drive-In have the ability to expose this injustice to the world. For emerging artists, art and music laden with political messages can be perceived as self-righteous, or a commercializaton of a ‘political rebel’ image.

In my own solo recordings, I try to explore themes I feel consciously while living in Philadelphia: murder, poverty, prisons and unending war. As an activist and artist, it is easy to become conflicted about where to put one’s energy. How does one focus in such a cluttered and broken world?

Murder in Philadelphia was my most serious concern for a time. The solutions are complex and involve attacking root causes of urban violence, which means we are a long way from relief. This is why folks in neighborhoods most affected by violent crime are looking for quick-fix solutions: police surveillance cameras and more arrests. These tools help one thing: catching criminals. This doesn’t change the mindset which causes someone to blow someone away over petty arguments. It is not preventative, it is not curative.

And it’s not drugs. Drugs do not beget violence as we’ve been programmed to believe. It is a symptom of the problem. Ihe drug economy is another resources for jobs, education, and mental relief when such resources are not provided otherwise. The ’straight path’ provided by our broken schools and a severe lack of jobs do not cut it. Are we supposed to be surprised?

It is complicated. It is the perfect energy for creative voices.

How can a song prevent a teenager from catching a bullet during a basketball game? If you believe in “Each-one-Teach-one”, then our collective understanding is developed by changing one mind at a time. Then the question of audience. If I’m only reaching folks who already feel safe in their neighborhoods, who don’t live in Philadelphia — does it really matter? It feels like parachute activism. We can write letters, send donation checks, have a conversation over breakfast — somehow it all feels too passive.

Perhaps we are best involved in local struggles, where we can listen to and actually touch each other. Issues we can identify with. This is troubling for middle-class activists, or those who are labeled as such, based on skin color or other orientation.

I learned this often when working street-level in North Philly. There is increased hostility and skepticism towards someone with white skin says they want to help — and this cynicism is justified. There are many complex and deeply embedded reasons for this which are for another day. What I have experienced in my work in Philly and Camden has been powerful. The more open, innovative and sustained an effort is, the more it establishes its credibility. To be clear, it is not simply a race thing, it is a perception issue based on class, intent and historical context.

As a friend recently said, you have to avoid leading the charge, and find your role in how to best support a community concern. I have found a role facilitating youth and adults in this creative process, and feel blessed. I consider this to be central to much of my work; to give a voice to the voiceless. Onward.