Let’s remove everybody’s chains…
Cheers and tears to MLK and President Barack Obama!!!
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Check out this amazing portrait of our next President! It was made by Kev Moore’s partner, French artist, Miki. It really shows the worldwide respect that our country has gained by taking a step in the right direction by electing Obama. Maybe it takes the U.S. hitting rock bottom to spur our citizenry off of their couches and into realizing that many of the ways we do things need to be changed.
Below the portrait are some words about the piece from the artist, Miki, herself. Cheers, Miki! Very well done!
(Based on a photo by Bill Burke, pageonephoto.com)
So, my first Barack Obama portrait is finished.
I think it is quite different from the portraits I have seen from him on the net. On most of them the artists emphasize only one aspect of his personality.
This is not what I wanted.
I wanted to paint Obama as a human being, with all his facets:
his humanity, his leadership, his honesty, his hopes, his decisiveness…
Of course I never met him personally, so it can only be the Barack Obama I perceive through the TV and the photos I have seen from him. And I saw all of these qualities on his face.
I can only hope that I have caught a little bit of his soul…
And if you are wondering what he is counting…. words of course:
“Yes We Can!”
Things are going our way, everyone…
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Now let’s see those sweet results roll in!!!
…and he’s got some things to say to counteract the douchebaggery of Mr. Lawless a couple posts below. Seems David is sans bloody saw blade codpiece…
*photo courtesy of Chris Buck
Pardon the bulk mailing. I Can’t Vote. I am an immigrant with a Green Card and, therefore, I am not eligible to vote in a federal election. FYI – I can get drafted (luckily, Daniel Berrigan burned my draft board’s records) and I pay taxes, yet I cannot vote for President. On Election Day, I see my neighbors heading to the nearby elementary school to cast their ballots. The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.
But most of you can vote. What can I say? The Republicans have made us less safe than before 9/11, bankrupted this economy, started an illegal war they can’t – and don’t intend to – finish, removed what sympathy (after 9/11) and respect the world had for the US, and have robbed US citizens of many of their basic rights. Global warming? What’s that? Science and education? Investment in our future? No, thanks – we’ll stick with a good ‘ole hockey mom. Ignorant, and fucking proud of it, as is always the case.
Although it looks like a shoo-in, it ain’t over ’til Florida. And there are plenty of racists in this country who will vote against their own best interests. So please, get to your local elementary school, post office, town hall, or whatever, and cast your vote and make this a country we can all be proud of. We can get out of this mess, and life can be better than it is.
David Byrne
NYC
We want to hear from all of you out there, whatever country you may be in, who you think is the right guy to become the next U.S. President. Let us know why below in comments. This is a big moment in world history…not just U.S. history.
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Everyone has been on the edge of their seats, not sure of who to vote for up till now. It is now that we can all breathe a sigh of relief; now that the political guru and musical icon who is known to “F*ck Like A Beast” with his rotary sawblade crotch, and who is known to the world over as the amazing…the one…the only…Blackie Lawless, of course of W.A.S.P. mega-fame, has finally laid down all the wisdom that we will need in order to step into the voting booths on Tuesday! Thank you for doing the thinking for us, Blackie…why can’t you be President instead?!
Click through for the Lawless Manifesto…
I’ve never been a big Everclear fan, but Bob Lefsetz just turned me on to their new song, “Jesus Was A Democrat”, which the band is giving away on their website…absolutely no strings attached (no email address, no pop-up ads, no nothin’). Here it is on their website. Grab it, take a listen, and conitnue reading. Why are they making it free? Lefsetz says it best:
…America is pissed.
America is pissed about so much. And feels too often that politicians don’t care about them. And there’s scads of ignorance, purveyed by biased talk show hosts and bloviating, supposedly neutral, TV talking heads. And everybody’s afraid. You get people saying Sarah Palin won the Vice Presidential debate and you wonder if you watched the same show. When I didn’t answer the questions in school, I flunked. And suddenly, by going to school, working damn hard, studying to get good grades to get into a good college, I’m an elitist, my opinion is to be discounted. I shouldn’t have gone to public school, I should have gone to a parochial institution, to be indoctrinated in viewpoints that don’t square with reality. Worse yet, be home schooled. That’s code for “Christian Right Education”.
Hate me all you want. Tell me you can get infections hanging with the underprivileged in regular high schools, that you can teach your kids better than those underpaid teachers. But what about socialization, what about opposing viewpoints? How can there be a dialogue when there’s not another side?
And that’s what we have in America today, only one side. Everybody’s on his own side, only speaking to himself, like-minded people. Who’s going to change the equation? Certainly not politicians, elected officials. Obama’s got to say he’s for drilling to get elected, because the person paying four bucks a gallon doesn’t know that it’ll take eons for said oil to reach the pump. We’ve got the businessmen raping and pillaging, the politicians lying, at best being expedient, and the only people we can count on to speak the truth have abdicated their power, their duty, their role. That’s what the job of the artist is. To question authority, challenge convention, speak the unpopular, if it’s the truth. And that’s what Art Alexakis and Everclear have done in “Jesus Was A Democrat”.
That is a large quote from Lefsetz’s argument but you should also read the rest here, because it’s pretty damn brilliant. He’s right, America is pissed, and I’ve never been more pissed about the ignorant thinking of some of my fellow Americans than right now….after seeing the McCain campaign chose Palin as a running mate (pure bullshit right-wing strategy that even Sarah Palin should be offended by), the lies that McCain’s campaign is spewing about Barack Obama (which Obama’s campaign is brilliantly taking the ‘stay positive’ moral high-road on), the bullshit emails from right-wing relatives in the sticks claiming that Bill Clinton is responsible for all the disasters of the past eight years (c’mon!), the scary YouTube videos of folks outside the McCain rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania yelling that Obama is a terrorist (and somehow believing that), and all the other complete idiocy that bull-headed Republicans have to make themselves believe in order to stick with their party…which has now become more important than the well-being of other fellow Americans who live under different circumstances then they do.
(Click through for more…)
(Anyone get the ‘pickin’ pockets’ reference?)
Well, yesterday was Brooklyn’s famous Atlantic Antic street festival, the absolute best of all the New York street festivals because it’s massive, it’s the last gasp of organized outdoor fun before the cold weather kicks in, there’s live music, the food is amazing, there are plenty of adult beverages to enjoy, and it’s in Brooklyn! And, for me, it’s right outside my apartment door.
I didn’t get out there till about 3:30 because I was nursing a pretty hefty hangover from a late Saturday night, but quickly grabbed myself a bloody mary and a yummy Vietnamese sandwich and was on the up and up. I met up with a couple friends and ran into some others, but mainly spent the next couple of hours first with Red David and then just with my hazy hangover-headed self.
It was really nice to see all the Obama frenzy at the Antic this year. Everywhere I looked were people of different races, colors, religions, sexes, sexual preferences, musical tastes, and ice cream flavor preferences banding together in support of positivity, hope, and America’s future. You could get your picture taken with a life-size cutout of Barack, you could order an organic Obama burger, and even order Biden gelato. It reminded me of New Yorkers inate ability to see through bullshit, and it’s easy for us to see that there is only one presidential campaign right now which is running on truth and honesty…and it ain’t McCain/Palin.
Another highlight was walking by at the right time to watch a fantastic country rock band from west Jersey playing outside of Hank’s Saloon. I found that the band was called Citizens Band Radio, and these guys (and gal) know how to jam! It was cool seeing all types of people smiling and dancing to CBR’s music. Cheers to the band if they happen to stumble on this post!!! Keep up the good stuff!
And another highlight for me was scoring some new cheap vinyl! I got all of these for $1 each! And they’re all perfectly listenable. I’m listening to Fleetwood Mac’s cover of the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” right now. Mystery To Me is a great album…I don’t think I even knew that the amazing song “Hypnotized” was done by the Mac. Here’s the full haul that I got for a total of $11…
I also, while I had the camera and records out, took some pics of the last couple vinyl scores I had over the last couple months. Click on through to see the others…
Well, speaking for the workaday people in this country, first we saw Rednecks for Obama and now we have Bluegrass legend (and friend of Jesus, mind you), Ralph Stanley endorsing our Barack Obama! This utterly amazing ad is running in southwest Virginia and is another ray of light on the horizon that real people are seeing through all the bullshit and recognizing the candidate who can bring positivity, heart, and compassion back to American politics. Go Ralph! And Go Obama!
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