Friday, February 19, 2016

Send In The Clowns


As a former Republican I can not understand how any reasonable, intelligent member of the party can look upon the field of candidates that they have been given to choose from in this election year without feeling, at best, appalled and humiliated. From Trump all the way down to Bush, the party can’t in any way be said to be putting forth its Best and Brightest… indeed, it’s more like “Send in the Clowns.”

Where are the reasonable Republicans? Where are the Barry Goldwaters and Eisenhowers of this generation? None of them seem interested in leading; rather, the tone of the Republican debates has been to inflame, provoke and divide. 

I fail to see how anyone with half a brain (which doesn’t say much about the level of American intelligence) can take any of these ranting Republican cartoon characters seriously as a candidate for the highest office in the country. Even down to Carly Fiorina, who is considerably smarter than some of the others she is running against, although more purely, coldly, calculatingly Evil, we’re looking at a field of characters who belong in an old Warner Brothers cartoon — where Bugs Bunny would promptly make mincemeat out of them. 

As I looked around for a Republican candidate who could be considered without, you know, pointing and laughing, I realized that there is one serious, reasonable Republican candidate out there: 

It’s Hillary Clinton. 

The one percent have got this figured out: turn the Republicans into a party of crackers, weirdos, lunatics and cartoon characters, then turn the Democrats into Moderate Republicans and completely disenfranchise true liberals by marking us as dangerous socialists, by essentially stealing the Democratic Party out from underneath us. 

I must say it’s a brilliant plan, and all the signs are pointing to its success. 

— Frede.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Death Cuts Both Ways -- FINALLY!!


I make no apologies whatever for my belief that the best thing Justice Scalia ever did for this country is to die. Furthermore, I have seen death come to so many good people in the last few years, people that I loved, some of them struck down considerably before their time, that I frankly rejoice: because it's about damn time that it happened to someone who BLOODY WELL DESERVES IT. It is a bitter, cutting thing to see the ones you loved, cared about and admired struck down while the EVIL BASTARDS just go on and on and on, in contrary to what would be the rules of a Just World. Let us hope that "Justice" Scalia is but the first in a long line of villains whose influence is eradicated in this manner.

--Frede.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Why Must They All Move On?



When William Hartnell landed the role of Doctor Who Number One in 1962, he was experienced enough to have learned that when you get a good, steady well-paying gig in an otherwise shaky industry, an industry where more people fail than succeed, you don’t trade that Good Thing in on the vague promise of doing “something different.” It was for this reason that he was so disappointed in his co-star, Carole Anne Ford, when she decided to leave the show at the beginning of its second season. Why throw away a good thing? And he was right. To this day, Carole Anne Ford is remembered for being Susan on Doctor Who, not for anything she did later. Fifty Years down the road, the youngest Doctor ever — Matt Smith — pitched his high-profile, steady, well-paying gig so that he could go off and play bit parts in bad movies that nobody will remember. Young people never seem to learn.

The same thing is true, and perhaps even more true, in the music business: and so I was dismayed, upset, and even hurt earlier this year when musician Marianne Sveen announced that she would be leaving my favorite band, the Nordic all-gal group Katzenjammer, in order to pursue her solo career.

Previous to this, she had already taken time off to work as a producer and as the solo act Dandylion; I bought a few of her solo EPs myself. But did she ever reflect that maybe people were only interested in her solo career because of her association with Katzenjammer? 

I ask the question because it's evident now now that her selfish decision has killed the group. In the wake of Sveen's announcement, fellow band-member Anne Marit Bergheim yesterday posted on Facebook that she is moving on as well: leaving no doubt that my favorite band was an “all for one and one for all” outfit: rather than replace Sveen on tours with a new musician, Katzenjammer has decided to fold the tents for good.

Does Sveen know that her decision to kill Katzenjammer could make her the most reviled woman in rock history outside of Yoko Ono? Does she know that the polite interest in her solo career will probably evaporate now that she’s burned down the only reason that anyone outside of Norway ever even heard of her?

And so the history of Katzenjammer seems now to be written: just another really talented almost was. They never became a household name in the USA, but they could have done. They could have done so much more, together. Ten years, three genius albums that grew in accomplishment from release to release (last year’s Rockland seemed to make the specific statement that the women of Katzenjammer had the substance, the experience, the raw power and the songwriting skills to go toe-to-toe with the best in the business) … all now dissolved, gone the way of that other Fab Four, The Beatles. 

All because Marianne Sveen doesn’t know a god-damn good thing when she sees it, and wants to chuck it all so that she can do “other things.” Specifically, “other things” that will never amount to half of what she has already accomplished working with Anne Marit Bergheim, Turid Jorgensen and Solveig Heilo as part of Katzenjammer.

We didn’t know when David Bowie released his last album that it would be his last album, and the same is true about Katzenjammer and Rockland. It turns out that the lovely title ballad, penned by Anne Marit, didn’t just close out the album: it was the swan song for the band’s entire history. You can listen to it in the video above this post. I don’t suppose that any other group ever said goodbye more beautifully.

— Frede.

Monday, February 1, 2016

One Way Out

I truly Madly Deeply don't

often get political on this blog.

I believe that a person has to pick and choose their fights.
That's why I'm right now getting All Political on you.


As long as we keep electing moderate liberals,
we will keep on moving inevitably to destruction.

Ever since Ronald Reagan sold the Republican party downriver to the bible-thumping, chest-beating right wing, the Republican party has been headed farther and farther into the lunatic fringe, closer and closer to the brink of destruction. Moderate "liberals" have only had the effect of holding the ground we are standing on, or of getting us to the edge of disaster a little bit slower.

Republican candidates get louder and crazier and more insane by the moment -- and somehow we are supposed to fight this by being moderate? Republicans are dragging the whole country in the wrong direction, and Hillary is PART OF THE PROBLEM.

How can we counter Republican extremism by being moderate?
WE CAN'T.

Given the options that we have (and yes of course I wish that there were more real, substantive options... but in the America of today, almost completely 100 percent controlled by the Ruling Class), there is only ONE option. This guy:



This is why I will be caucusing for Bernie Sanders, and this is why I will not vote in the general election if he loses the nomination. If the American people are DETERMINED to throw themselves off a cliff, there's not one goddamned thing I can do about it. Electing Hillary will only delay the inevitable. A vote for her is a vote in favor of the one percent continuing to rape and fuck our country right over.

YOUR CHOICE.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...