“Saying No to the Status Quo”
Written Jan. 21, 2016…
I will not accept the status quo any longer in this country, and neither will millions of other people. Hence, movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump doing so well in the polls. People who follow Trump are completely misguided and ridiculous, of course, but it shows how disillusioned with the Republican Party conservatives have become. On the Democratic side, Sanders has surged in the polls due to millions of liberals being fed up with the liberal establishment and the DNC.
People say Bernie is “pie in the sky.” I disagree. Bernie has been in politics for over forty years. He is not some wide-eyed kid just starting out. He has been through a lot and fought for a lot, including getting arrested for marching for civil rights in the early ‘60s. That took guts for a white person back then. He has been fighting against the establishment status quo all his life, voting for things that were considered career suicide, but he did it because it was the right thing to do. He didn’t give into cynicism or what was politically expedient at the moment.
There are a lot of people out there who mean well, and probably consider themselves liberal, but who don’t seem to want to see the boat get rocked too much. Maybe they simply like the idea of liberalism more than the actual reality. Or maybe they have too many scars from fighting for what was right over the years and have just become too cynical and disillusioned, and just want a more simple life now and are okay with the status quo… but I’m not. And neither is Bernie. Or millions of others. I’m a cynical person by nature but the passion that he and fellow supporters have shown have me excited again, and believing that something great is actually within grasp… if we allow it to happen and don’t give in to the fear and the cynicism. I want to see the good things that happened under President Obama be taken to a much greater level with the next president.
I have met some Bernie supporters who are about the most passionate people I have ever seen in my life, and it’s been a real eye-opener. It makes me realize we have been swallowing lies and garbage for too long in this country and we need to stop doing that. We were going in the right direction back in the ‘60s and then took some horrible turn along the way, and we’ve never gotten back on track. We have allowed greed and cynicism and money to control us as a nation. We have allowed racism to become perfectly acceptable again. We have allowed sexism to become normal again. And here we are having to re-fight all the same old battles again.
I’m sure there were plenty of black people, not to mention whites, who told Dr. Martin Luther King to just accept what little gains he had made and not try, or even hope, for anything better. That could get you killed. It was hard enough just to get to this point… don’t try to go any further. But he kept fighting for a better life for black people, as well as all people. It cost him his life but he never showed fear. It makes me wonder what more could have been achieved if his life hadn’t been cut short with a bullet. Bernie is one person who is trying to carry on his work and yet some people just think he is delusional, naive, angry, etc. They are perfectly willing to accept what little gains have been made and not hope for anything better. Well, I will gladly follow the candidate who is trying to fight the status quo establishment. I will back the candidate who wants to see super PACs gone from elections. No more big money politics, no more Wall Street ass-kissing, no more taking money from billionaires and Big Pharma and the insurance companies. No more special interests and shady deals in back rooms. No more Wall Street CEOs getting away with murder. If you are a politician you cannot take huge amounts of money from Goldman Sachs and others like them, and then claim you will be tough on them. If you believe that, then that is “pie in the sky” thinking and delusional.
When I hear Hillary supporters say that Bernie is “too angry,” all I can think is: Why aren’t you as angry as he is? Why is every person in this country not angry as hell? Are you okay with the 1% getting richer and richer, and the rest of us getting poorer? Are you okay with your rights slowly being taken away, little by little? Are you okay with politicians who make tons of promises and never come through on them? Are you okay with a Congress that gets paid big money to do absolutely nothing? Are you okay with Democrats doing things that you would never tolerate from any Republican? Shouldn’t you be holding your own candidates to a higher standard? If not, then why? Democrats have voted for horrible things like the TPP and the Patriot Act. They have voted in favor of the Iraq War, which was one of the biggest foreign policy blunders and embarrassments in our history. They have voted against gay marriage and gays in the military. They have voted for NAFTA. Well, Bernie Sanders didn’t vote for any of these horrible things. That should count for something. It certainly does for me. It’s not just where you are now on the issues, but where you have been in the past as well. Voting for the right thing is very easy when it’s politically expedient to do so. But where were they when it was not politically expedient? And believe me, if Bernie gets into office and keeps none of his promises, then he will be held accountable just like anyone else. He knows we will not let him off the hook or give him a free pass. But I also hope that Bernie supporters don’t turn on him the first time he has to make a compromise that we don’t agree with. No president is going to do everything that we like. And no president is infallible. I don’t expect him to be the Second Coming. That would be naïve. But obviously he needs better people in positions of power to help him with his plans, or it will be all for nothing. He also needs all of us to get more involved in the political process. As he always says, it’s not “when I become President” but “when WE become President.” We need to start throwing out all these establishment career politicians (regardless of what party they belong to) and start voting in people who actually want to make a real change.
I want a candidate who is looking out for the 99%… not the 1%. Voting for Democrats who are only slightly better than Republicans is not going to do us any good and not change a damn thing for the better. All you are doing is just trying to keep things from getting any worse. Is that really what you want??? Are you okay with settling for so little? Isn’t that what we have already been doing for decades? And how has that worked out for any of us?
We need to stop fooling ourselves and suffering from cognitive dissonance, thinking that the Democrats are all that different than Republicans. They sadly are not much better. The Democratic Party has been moving steadily more to the right over the years, and only seem “progressive” because the Republicans have gone completely batshit crazy into the extreme zone. But we need to start holding the Democrats to higher standards and stop accepting the status quo and mediocrity. We need to stop accepting the “lesser of 2 evils” and start demanding better.
I find it very interesting that establishment Democrats are all of a sudden coming out of the woodwork to go on TV and bash Bernie, in favor of Hillary. It reeks of desperation and pure cynicism, if you ask me. Look at her poll numbers and tell me that she isn’t growing more worried with each passing day. Tell me that some of these politicians aren’t hoping for Hillary to win, because they know it will be good for their own careers. And tell me also that Bernie can’t beat her when the same thing happened in 2008 with an unknown black senator that nobody thought stood a chance. Everyone said he would lose, he couldn’t possibly beat her, he would lose the general election, he couldn’t beat a war hero, etc. We all know how that turned out. And yet here we are, once again, hearing the same exact garbage from the same exact “experts.” But less and less people are swallowing it.
When people say that Bernie can’t win, I say bullshit. He is surging in the polls more and more each day. And now the attacks are starting on him. The man who is about the most respected politician in the country. The man who has never once ran a dirty campaign. But yet they are comparing him to communism and Trump and all kinds of ridiculous nonsense that is total garbage. They also say that he can’t possibly win a general election. They say that he is unelectable. Who says this? The so-called “political experts” who have gotten almost every single prediction wrong so far. Every poll shows Bernie doing better against Trump and other Republicans. Every poll shows him doing better with independents. And he has accomplished this with zero support from the media and the establishment. And yet they still keep pushing the lie that he can never win. Don’t believe it. They said Trump would be gone by now. He isn’t. They said Bernie would never beat Hillary, yet he has overtaken her in the polls in some states. He draws bigger crowds than anyone, and he has the most passionate, loyal supporters.
If you are perfectly okay with the status quo and mediocrity, then keep voting for the same corporate-loving, big money hacks. But not me. I have never voted for the “lesser of 2 evils” and I damn sure am not going to start now. Do I think Hillary would be a better president than Trump or Cruz? Of course I do. But I don’t think we should be voting for someone simply out of pure fear. I want better for America. And so should you. If not now, then when?
Jay Mucci
David Bowie – “Blackstar” (2016)
Written Jan. 11, 2016…
Avant-garde provocateur, glam rock messiah, plastic soul man, mainstream pop star, hard rock bandleader, actor, painter, producer. David Bowie was all of these things in his career and yet none of them. He was innovative, groundbreaking, pretentious, inscrutable, chameleonic, strange, mercurial, baffling, brilliant, a wizard and a true star. He was rock’s quick-change artist, unafraid to explore new vistas of sound and style the moment he grew bored with his current surroundings. He was always hard to pin down, always moving forward. The word genius gets thrown around far too often, but in the case of Bowie it was absolutely appropriate. The musical landscape of the past fifty years would have been a far different, far lesser place without the man born David Robert Jones in the south London district of Brixton on January 8, 1947.
I, along with millions of other Bowie fans, woke up this morning, though, with the tragic, shocking news that the Thin White Duke had passed in his sleep, after a long battle with cancer and heart problems. And so here we are, collectively grieving for a man that only a lucky few knew well, but all of us loved deeply. I would have liked to have been able to say that Blackstar (stylized as ★), an album he released only 3 short days ago (on his 69th birthday) was an exciting new direction for him instead of a final destination.
I was fortunate enough to listen to it a couple of times over the weekend, before hearing the tragic news, thinking that it was simply his latest album, rather than his last, so I can objectively say that it is a brilliant, forward-looking piece of work. But now I have no choice but to listen to it forevermore from a bittersweet vantage point, knowing there will be no follow-up, no more worlds to conquer – knowing that this was his final statement to the world. But what a statement it is.
The adventurous Blackstar is an amalgam of jazz, electronica, rock, and even a bit of pop and hip hop thrown in, but yet it’s none of those things. It’s Bowie at his experimental best, but yet it’s accessible enough as not to be off-putting. Working with electronics and a small jazz combo, the album starts off with its most challenging song, the ten-minute, two-part title track (which most resembles “Station to Station,” the title track to his 1976 cocaine psychosis masterwork, in structure if not in sound) and steadily moves closer to more normal song structures. It ends with the song “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” which most resembles something from his 80s pop era – albeit shot through with effects and Donny McCaslin’s excellent sax playing. It ends the album, and his career, on a high note.
Two songs are remakes: “Sue (or in a Season of Crime),” which was released as a single in its previous, jazzier incarnation (taken from his 2014 compilation, Nothing Has Changed) and its B-side, “’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore,” titled after John Ford’s seventeenth-century play that dealt with incest.
There are several references to mortality in the lyrics, but it may be too tempting to scrutinize every word, looking for clues predicting his death. Longtime producer Tony Visconti stated today that this album was David’s way of saying goodbye to his fans. It would be a shame, though, if this album was looked at as nothing more than the last will and testament of a dying man. It has far too much life and forward-looking motion for that. Still, certain lyrics jump out:
“Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried…
I’m a blackstar… I’m a blackstar”
(“Blackstar”)
and:
“Look up here, I’m in heaven
I’ve got scars that can’t be seen”
(“Lazarus”)
Even if you choose to ignore the lyrics, though, there is much to admire in David’s singing and the music itself. David channels one of his oldest influences on the first half of the title track: Scott Walker, from his influential Nite Flights period, or perhaps even from some of his more recent, dissonant material. It also slightly resembles Elvis Costello’s 2013 album with The Roots (Wise Up Ghost) in its sound and malevolent atmosphere. This is an album for late-night listening, full of darkness, desolation and shadows. But it never gives into despair. At only seven songs, the album might have you wishing for more, but this is a perfect album just the way it is. Blackstar will surely make many “best of 2016” lists come year’s end.
Bowie never really fit into the rock ‘n’ roll world nor the pop world – he just existed in his own beautiful, strange orbit. He could make the weird seem normal and the normal seem weird. He made countless others feel that they could also be weird and it was perfectly okay.
I can’t even begin to state just how much of a loss to the music world Bowie’s passing truly is. But he went out at the top of his game, and how many artists can you say that about? Especially fifty years into their career. He left us with more brilliant music than we had any right to expect. Some artists have one or two great albums in them and then disappear. Bowie had an endless supply of them. He also had a few mediocre ones along the way. It was all part of his restless spirit though. He wasn’t afraid of falling flat on his face. Most of the time he soared high – as high as any artist ever has. It was a fifty year tightrope walk, and he went out in a blaze of glory. He was one of the greatest rock stars this planet has ever known. He will be forever missed, and we shall never see anyone like him again.
Goodbye Major Tom.
Jay Mucci
David Bowie (1947-2016)
I just found this out and I am in complete shock. I bought his new album this past Friday and was amazed at how brilliant it is. I don’t know what else to say except… damn! A brilliant artist, gone. This is a sad day.
R.I.P.
David Bowie – “Blackstar” (2016)
David Fricke’s recent Rolling Stone review (from the Jan. 14, 2016 issue) of David Bowie’s brilliant new album, released yesterday…
Bowie Stares Deep Into the Void
The arty, unsettling Blackstar is Bowie’s best anti-pop masterpiece since the Seventies.
Three years ago, with little warning, David Bowie ended a decade-long break from studio releases with The Next Day. The second album he’s released since that unexpected return to the limelight is an even greater surprise: one of the most aggressively experimental records the singer has ever made. Produced with longtime collaborator Tony Visconti and cut with a small combo of New York-based jazz musicians whose sound is wreathed in arctic electronics, Blackstar (★) is a ricochet of textural eccentricity and pictorial-shrapnel writing. It’s confounding on first impact: the firm swing and giddy vulgarity of “‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore”; Bowie’s croons and groans, like a doo-wop Kraftwerk, in the sexual dystopia of “Girl Loves Me”; the spare beaten-spirit soul of “Dollar Days.” But the mounting effect is wickedly compelling. This album represents Bowie’s most fulfilling spin away from glam-legend pop charm since 1977’s Low. Blackstar is that strange, and that good.
The longest reach is up front, in the episodic, ceremonial noir of the title track. Bowie’s gauzy vocal prayer and wordless spectral harmonies hover over drum seizures; saxophonist Donny McCaslin laces the stutter and chill like Andy Mackay in early-Seventies Roxy Music. The song drops to a blues-ballad stroll, but it is an eerie calm with unsettling allusions to violent sacrifice, especially given recent events. (No who or why is specified, but McCaslin has said the song is “about ISIS.”) “Something happened on the day he died/Spirit rose a meter, then stepped aside,” Bowie sings with what sounds like numbed grace. “Somebody else took his place and bravely cried: I’m a blackstar.” His use of an ideogram for the album’s title makes sense here – there is no light at the end of this tale.
The album includes a dynamic honing of Bowie’s 2014 single “Sue (or in a Season of Crime)” with less brass and more malevolent programming; the title song from his current off-Broadway musical production, Lazarus (that’s Bowie firing those grunting blasts of guitar); and a blunt honesty at the finish. Bowie turns 69 on January 8th, the day Blackstar comes out. In “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” he states his case for the dignity of distance – his refusal to tour (so far) and engage with the media circus – against guitarist Ben Monder’s lacerating soprano-fuzz guitar, a sly evocation of Robert Fripp’s iconic soloing in 1977’s “Heroes.” “This is all I ever meant/That’s the message that I sent,” Bowie sings in a voice largely free of effects – clear, elegant and emphatic. This is a rock star who gives when he’s ready – and still gives to extremes. (RS RS 1252)
David Fricke
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/david-bowie-blackstar-20151223
The Beat Patrol 