[ berkleebassist ]

Seems like nobody really wants a tea party

Apr 27, ’10 10:24 PM

When they propose cuts in Medicare, means-testing Social Security, a raising of the retirement age and a cut in defense spending, I'll take them seriously and wish them well.
Until then, I'll treat them with the condescending contempt they have thus far deserved.

Those are Andrew Sullivan's final words in a new article, entitled Why I'm Passing On Tea, he published today over at his blog, The Daily Dish, in reference to the protesters of the Tea Party.

Then this amazing article by Tim Wise popped up on my radar. He starts off the article with this:

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white.

He goes on to describe a situation where, instead of angry white folks descending en masse armed with various weaponry, racist placards, and the willingness to threaten elected officials and spit on them, but instead it's angry folks doing all of these things.

We don't really have to wonder what the reaction would be. There are plenty of examples of the double standard of American free speech, but a comment on the article mentioned Ice-T's “Cop Killer” song from 1990. It's a protest song, told from the point of view of an individual so angered by police brutality that he takes the law into his own hands.

The outrage to this song was, to say the least, explosive. Former President Bush Sr. & his wife expressed outrage, as did former Vice President Dan Quayle (who even went so far as to call the song "obscene"), and many others expressed similar sentiments. A store in Greensboro, NC, even had to remove the album from its shelves after local police told management they wouldn't respond to any emergency calls from that location.

All this over a song. Yes, a song that expresses a very hateful, violent way to resolve a problem, but nonetheless, something that should be protected under free speech. And now we see people walking about with signs calling for the lynching of Congressional leaders.

I don't see the difference, but somehow, the level of outrage isn't even close to the same.

(Via @diabola)

Comments (2)

USB cup warmer/cooler? Yes please.

Apr 16, ’10 3:03 PM

And here we find some awesomeness: a Desktop Cup Warmer & Cooler. Seriously, this is probably the most awesome USB accessory I've seen in a long time.

Comments (1)

We could all be neighbors

Mar 24, ’10 10:20 AM

This is a very cool infographic from GOOD's neighborhood infographic contest.

(Via @jontangerine)

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So far, so good…

Mar 19, ’10 12:27 AM

So it's been a few months into 2010. I've made good on my promise to plug back into the music scene; been playing almost every Sunday with Rich Matra's reggae/jazz band Matrajah. My friend JoBeth got me the spot, and Rich has liked my playing so far. The band is definitely a rotating ensemble, with Rich holding down tenor sax & sometimes vocals and myself on bass, but the drum chair & the guitar spot have been different almost every week. This week though, JoBeth returns to the drum throne, and Neal Itzler is on guitar, so that'll be great.

Neal, oddly enough, was my first semester ensemble teacher at Berklee, so it's kinda bizarre to be on the bandstand with him, but he's a killer guitarist, and definitely helps keep things together on the bandstand.

Along with that, my buddy Andy hit me up to start a rock cover band, and, while I was tired of the cover scene a few years ago, I've recharged enough by now to give it a shot. We had some mutual friends lined up for the guitar & drum spots, but they had to pull out after realizing they were over committed. So if anyone out there wants to play some rock music, say the word!

As for work, that's been going well! Still doing things exclusively with Elative Marketing, my friend Kyung Min's company, and that's worked out really well. Money is still tough though, since it comes in spurts (for example, I'm waiting on two big checks this week, which will be my first paychecks since mid-February), so that's a bit hard, but I'm definitely learning greater discipline, which is really good for me. I'll be posting some follow-up posts about some of the sites I've completed recently, and discussing them in greater depth on the Elative blog.

I'm still not fully adjusted back to being single, but then again the last time I was single for more than about a month was in 2005 (Amber & I got together February 2006). I still see her, and there's a part of me that still feels a twinge, and I sometimes find myself wondering "what if it had worked out?" But I made my decision, and as painful as it was, I still think it was the best one for both of us.

The weather has finally turned warm this week (after a monsoon-like three day rainstorm), and that's kinda what prompted this post. A little "spring cleaning" as it were. Oh, and so far, I've made good on my Project 52 commitment, so that's almost one quarter down. We'll see how I do after another few months.

Oh, and those of you lurking, reading my posts, come on now, you can comment you know! I even enabled the ability to log in using your Twitter account if you want to. I'm still working on the Facebook Connect thing, that's a little tougher, but I'll get it.

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