Journal Entries
Coooool!
Posted Oct 28, 2003
This is a terrific time-waster. No talent needed.
http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
Discuss this Journal entry [9]
Latest reply: Oct 28, 2003
Some musings about Phil Ochs, The Chicago Seven, and Freedom of Speech
Posted Sep 26, 2003
Being a teen and young adult in the late 60s and early 70s was a heady experience. I suppose because I grew up Unitarian, I was exposed to a rather more liberal view of the world than many of my peers.
Although I live(d) in Canada, were were accutely aware of the turmoil in the US over Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and the social revolution. Canada was sanctuary for draft-dodgers and Canadians engaged in almost as vigrous debate about what was going on in the US as Americans did.
I attended my share of protest rallies, sit-ins, and strikes. I was about as passionate about Peace, freedom, and human rights at age 15, 16, 17.... as I am at nearly age 50 (crikey....nearly 50!?). I listened to a LOT of folk and protest music, and frequented Le Hibou, the local coffee house that had seen Bob Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, Leonard Cohen, and Joan Baez at various times in its day.
One of the voices I listened to was Phill Ochs. While I can't claim to have seen him in person, I certainly was aware of him and his music. He was one of the movers and shakers in the world of protest and protest music.
This week, a friend loaned me a copy of the 3-CD set "Farewells and Fantasies". All week, I have been listening over and over to familliar and unfamilliar tunes of protest. http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/collection.html
What particularily stuck me was how timely a lot of the songs are, given the present circumstances with Iraq and the attitudes of some Americans to not only the criticism from other countries, but criticism from coming fellow Americans of American foreign policy, Iraq, and a multitude of other related issues.
Ochs' songs fall into a number of catagories, some of them several catagories at once. Anti-War and Peace, anti-intervention, Civil Rights, Anti-poverty, Anti-pollution (what we now term "environmental issues"), and Women's Liberation and equality are some of the major groupings.
Some of my favorites are "Cops of the World" which is particularily timely. Freedom whether you want it or not....
"When we butchered your son, boys
When we butchered your son
Have a stick of our gum, boys
Have a stick of our bubble-gum
We own half the world, oh say can you see
The name for our profits is democracy
So, like it or not, you will have to be free
'Cause we're the Cops of the World, boys
We're the Cops of the World"
"The Power and the Glory" expresses his love for America, but his how the beauty and power of America is nothing if its people aren't free.
"Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of her poor
Only as free as the padlocked prison door
Only as strong as our love for this land
Only as tall as we stand
(extra verse supplied by Sonny Ochs [Phil's sister])
But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom & they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry
We can stop them if we try"
"The Sad and Silent Song of a Soldier": Whether the cause was right or wrong, a dead soldier is just as dead...
"Now a moment of silence for the broken man,
While the president proudly crows "we'll never bend",
And cheers their replacements marching off again,
That's the sad and silent song of a soldier.
And the flag draped coffins are a sailin' home,
And the waves are a watchin' as the engines drone,
As the ship draws near, hear the bugle moan
The sad and silent song of a soldier."
Ochs' arrest in Chicago with those who would later be called thee "Chicago Seven" was the likely inspiration for the following song about arrest and torture at the hands of the police.
"There's nothing as cold as the freeze in your soul at the moment when you are arrested.
There's nothing as real as the iron and steel on the handcuffs when you protested.
You race through the night in the prison of fright as you head for the quicksand of questions.
And children unborn will see you in scorn if ever you make a confession."
"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is about the NIMBY Liberal who is all for integration except in his schools, and free-speech unless he disagrees with it.
"I vote for the democtratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal."
And this song about the loss of words (during the last years of his life, Phil Ochs suffered from writer's block), his own disillusionment, and the complacency of society.
"Once I knew a sage/saint(?)
who sang upon the stage
He told about the world,
His lover.
A ghost without a name,
Stands ragged in the rain.
And it seems that there are no more songs.....
Hello, hello, hello
Is there anybody home?
I've only called to say
I'm sorry.
The drums are in the dawn,
and all the voices gone.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
It seems that there are no more songs.
It seems that there are no more songs."
As mentioned earlier, Phil arrested with the "Chicago Seven" -- Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden (Mr. Jane Fonda), John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. He was one of the founders of the Youth International Party, better known as the Yippies.
Ochs was called to testify during the trials. A transcript of his testimony can be found here. Be sure to read about the pig... http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/ochs.html
ABBIE HOFFMAN: Are you asking if I had those thoughts or if I wrote that I had those thoughts? There's a difference.
RICHARD G. SCHULTZ, THE ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: It's a convenient difference, isn't it Mr. Hoffman?
ABBIE HOFFMAN: I don't know what you mean. I've never been on trial for my thoughts before.
""Conspiracy? Hell, we couldn't agree on lunch." -- Abbie Hoffman"
""Gentlemen, let's get something straight. The police aren't in the streets to create disorder; they are in the streets to preserve disorder." -- Mayor Richard Daley"
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/chicago7.html
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Sep 26, 2003
Gummy Bears...
Posted Sep 9, 2003
Just 'cause....
I made this memorial cocktail for my Dad after he died. Not that he liked Gummy Bear, but I think he would have been amused by the sheer grossness of the concept. I can hear him go "Eeeuuuckkkkkkk!!". He would have been thrilled that I thought so highly of him.
The Gummy Cocktail
1 glass of Beer
Gummy Bears
Into 1 glass of beer add a selection of Gummy Bears.
The Gummy Bears will rise and fall as the carbon dioxide bubbles attach themselves to the bear, and then burst.
Make your own Gummy Bears (or worms)...
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=112829
Gummy Bear Eggs... Sounds pretty gross!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,191,138179-224203,00.html
However, these sound good... Gummy Bear cookies:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,161,159188-240194,00.html
Chili Gummies: http://thecandybaron.com/detail.html?6005
http://www.bewarethecheese.com/reviews.htm
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Sep 9, 2003
Update on the state of my ex's impending nuptuals....
Posted Sep 2, 2003
It seems that my ex and his future bride have decisded to buy a house. How interesting! Especially considering they have been seeing each other for a year and for the entire time we were married we were "too broke to move into a larger place" let alone buy a house.
Considering how put out he was about having to part with "his" money (in actual fact, my half of "our" money) when we divorced, I cannot help but invision his consternation when (not if) this relationship goes pear-shaped and they have to sell "his" house.
Recently, I got a bil for an extra $2700.00 on my taxes for 2001 when I was reassessed. Apparently, I was given incorrect advice as to whether I had to pay tax on my spousal support. Apparently, I did.
After being rather indignant and put-out, I realized that I had forgotten to declare the money I had received.
As he is notoriously paranoid about the "revenooers" and more than a little "cautious" with his hard earned gold, my ire at his getting a tax deduction for having to help me financially for 9 months, only mildly tempered my glee at the thought of his having to toddle off down all his receipts to Revenue Canada to sweat out his 'splanation about why he had claimed the deduction.
I can only hope that the demand from Revenue Canada came on a Friday night so that he had a whole weekend to enhance his ulcer over it.
I'm not bitter, I swear!
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Sep 2, 2003
Mudhooks: ,,, busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest...
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