Music
Propagandhi has a new CD coming out on October 18th. An mp3 for track 6 (Die Jugend Marschiert) is available here. And track 10 (Name And Address Withheld) is here.
Damn.
Damn.
| Permalink | 
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
New Orleans
Music can have far reaching and at times utterly bizarre impacts on the human mind. Songs are often times some of the strongest touchstones for many people, experiences that can magically transform a horrible day into a few minutes of peace that was unimaginable only moments before. In similar fashion certain songs can smash even the most well constructed facade of strength in the face of horror that is utterly beyond human conception.
One such song for me is Left and Leaving, the title track to former punk rock guitarist par excellence John Samson's Canadian rock band The Weakerthans' 2000 LP. This song will always remind me of the day I went with friends to see Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. Driving home afterwards I had to park the car for close to half and hour and attempt to process the flood of emotion the movie's ending and this song had forced into the open. A good friend of mine had just been raped, and I hadn't given my feelings on the matter anything close to enough attention. The whole time I sat there I could not stop myself from listening to that song over and over agian.
Following 9/11 I read several blog posts that cited lyrics from that very song and couldn't help feeling the power of its painfully simple cords and lyrics. As I sit here at work trying to think of anything but the crime against humanity that was allowed to happen in southern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, this song comes ringing from my office computer, unexpected and as emotionally powerful as any picture of flood waters, children chanting "help" or the seething hatred I feel every time Bush has another goddamn press conference has been. In an eerie way, its words and sounds explain my feelings of loss and sorrow for a city I've never visited and a people that this government has proven without a shadow of a doubt that due to class and white privilege I have never been in full communion with.
Demands for self-determination for this Black-belt nation ring truer now than at any point in my short lifetime. I can't hope to make it through the day and be abe to provide any analysis more robust than this right now. There are plenty of good pieces out there, one I would point folks at is Stan Goff's full piece of the devastation available here on his blog.
One such song for me is Left and Leaving, the title track to former punk rock guitarist par excellence John Samson's Canadian rock band The Weakerthans' 2000 LP. This song will always remind me of the day I went with friends to see Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. Driving home afterwards I had to park the car for close to half and hour and attempt to process the flood of emotion the movie's ending and this song had forced into the open. A good friend of mine had just been raped, and I hadn't given my feelings on the matter anything close to enough attention. The whole time I sat there I could not stop myself from listening to that song over and over agian.
Following 9/11 I read several blog posts that cited lyrics from that very song and couldn't help feeling the power of its painfully simple cords and lyrics. As I sit here at work trying to think of anything but the crime against humanity that was allowed to happen in southern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, this song comes ringing from my office computer, unexpected and as emotionally powerful as any picture of flood waters, children chanting "help" or the seething hatred I feel every time Bush has another goddamn press conference has been. In an eerie way, its words and sounds explain my feelings of loss and sorrow for a city I've never visited and a people that this government has proven without a shadow of a doubt that due to class and white privilege I have never been in full communion with.
Demands for self-determination for this Black-belt nation ring truer now than at any point in my short lifetime. I can't hope to make it through the day and be abe to provide any analysis more robust than this right now. There are plenty of good pieces out there, one I would point folks at is Stan Goff's full piece of the devastation available here on his blog.
| Permalink |
About Me
- Nelson Hawkins From Tennessee
1/15/07 Blog Against White Supremacy Roll-Call
- Jesse @ Levine and his Flying Machine
- Yolanda Carrington @ The Primary Contradiction
- Haisanlu @ Seek the Truth Serve the People Blog
- Jimmy Higgins @ Fire on the Mountain
- CelticFire @ Portland Maoist
- LeftSpot @ LeftSpot Blog
- LeftyHenry @ Word of the Left
- Ajamu @ Sankofa Meets the Future
- Lauren @ Present Progressive Mood
- Red Bolivarian @ Black and Brown Power
- John @ It's No Accident
- EightOneUnderRedStar @ The Bronx Bolsheviks
- Modern Pitung @ All Out for the Fight
- AradhanaD @ Leftist Looney Lunchbox
Recent Comments
Last posts
- You got that, Asshole: Standing in solidarity with...
- Sign the Iraq Moratorium Pledge!
- Chris Hannah: Worst Canadian!!!
- "We're fuckin' AFSCME"
- Sinn Féin Cheers Trade Union Leader
- Repost: Take Five--Points Toward a Summation of th...
- Fighting to Lose What White Folks Have
- Blog Against White Supremacy, a General Call
- Arnold as America's Tommy Douglas ?
- United Campus Workers - CWA local 3865's Holiday B...
Compañer@s // Other Blogs
Current Books // Articles
- POWER: Towards Work, Land and Power
- Forrest Perry: Why Hipsters Arenât All That Hip
- Maria Mies: Patriarchy and Accumulation On A World Scale
- Eduardo H. Galeano: The Open Viens of Latin America
Links
- AFL-CIO
- Alternet
- Black Commentator
- Black Radical Congress
- Bring Them Home Now!
- Center for Labor Renewal
- ColorLines
- Communications Workers of America
- CounterPunch
- East Tennessee Progressive Network
- FRSO / OSCL (El Camino)
- International Nepal Solidarity Network
- Iraq Veterans Against the War
- Jobs with Justice
- Knoxville News-Sentinel
- Labor Notes
- Leftist Parties of the World
- Literary Vato Loco
- Mass Line.InFo
- Marx 2 Mao
- Marxists Internet Archive
- Monthly Review
- MR Zine
- People's Hurricane Relief Fund
- People Organized to Win Employment Rights
- Propagandhi's Homepage
- Tenants & Workers United
- TransAfrica Forum
- United Campus Workers - CWA local 3865
- United for a Fair Economy
- United for Peace and Justice
- United Students Against Sweatshops
- UTK's Progressive Student Alliance
- War Times (back-issues)
Archives
- August 2004
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- March 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
