Dear Elon: Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. And so on. Fuck your need to put your personal brand on everything.
Hey, kids! It's your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don't want you to read.
If Brett Kavanaugh votes to overturn Roe, please remember that Susan Collins was a crucial vote in his confirmation. He said Roe was “settled law,” and she believed him.
Here's hoping our long national nightmare ends this year...
I've read a number of people over the past few days who have noted that 2019 was a miserable year. I get it--Australia is literally on fire and climate change keeps getting the short shrift from republicans; fascism is becoming the norm in India, Hungary, Poland, and Brazil; North Korea continues to make a fool of Donald Trump and is a whisker away from a nuclear catastrophe; every study released this year concerning the Trump tax cuts shows that the only thing it accomplished was making rich people richer; the media continues to be a dead man walking when it comes to exposing how abnormal Donald Trump is vis a vis the Presidency (and just about everything else); and perhaps worst of all--and something I never thought I'd live to see--the greatest experiment in democracy in mankind's history is on the verge of being destroyed because one of the political parties in our home country is much more concerned with appeasing the wealthy and coddling racists than with securing the blessings of liberty that made America the grandest dream mankind ever dreamed.
Despite all that (and plenty more that I'm sure I didn't mention) I will guarantee you that 2019 was a very good year--because despite all the bad news, despite the republican party becoming the Junior Nazi party, despite insurmountable odds...we're still fighting for what is right. We impeached Donald Trump. Though we still have far to go, we continue to make strides in civil rights for women, minorities, and the LGBTQ community. The minimum wage will raise tomorrow in numerous states. We have actionable plans for addressing climate change. The candidates we have who are sparring to see who gets to challenge Donald Trump next November are all light years better than he (well, except maybe Tulsi Gabbard), and might be the most impressive group of candidates in our nation's history. Every single day there is some American somewhere in this crazy land that is standing up to republicans' creeping fascination with fascism and saying, "Nope, not on my watch."
And as long as we're still fighting for what is right, there is hope...and as Stephen King once noted in The Shawshank Redemption, "...(H)ope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
Another week, another artist favorite brought to you (and me) by my daughter...
The career of Josh Ritter could honestly be one big Fun Fact. Ritter began his love affair with music in Idaho after hearing Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's version of "Girl from the North Country" (and it's one hell of a song to have as an inspiration). He bought his first guitar at K-mart, originally went to college to study neuroscience (I'd be willing to bet the number of pop stars who started out as neuroscience majors can probably be counted on one finger), changed and created his major of "American History through Narrative Folk Music" (which seriously sounds like a fantastic major), self-released his first album at the age of 21 while still in college, continued working on his craft at open mic nights, became somewhat of a sensation in Ireland (a #2 album on the Irish charts--so many cool kids in Ireland), and eventually was able to ply his trade as a full time job. Over the last twenty years, Ritter has released nine studio albums, five live albums (he's developed a solid reputation for his live performances), seven EP's, and twenty singles. While Ritter has only had a modicum of commercial success, his list of fans include Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, and Cameron Crowe, and he's managed, as have numerous FNJ faves befiore him, to carve out a fine career doing what he loves.
Released on his EP Bringing in the Darlings (which I believe is the first here on FNJ to not have a Wikipedia entry) in 2012, "Love Is Making Its Way Back Home" was not released as a single, and thus once again we have no shout outs for Billboard magazine. The EP, however, did chart, scaling as high as #122 (most assuredly with a bullet!), and reaching #5 on the Folk Chart, which probably explains why an old fart folkie like me found it so entertaining.
I have no doubt that Josh Ritter has written better songs ("Girl in the War" comes immediately to mind), but for someone like me whose musical education began with the pop, drop, and roll of Top 40 radio, it's not surprising in the least that I would become so easily attached to this song--the first time I heard it I knew it was going to be a song I loved for the rest of my life. But the thing I didn't realize until I began listening to it in preparation for this post was what a subtle masterpiece it was. Ritter takes a subject most of us are familiar with (the ups and downs of love in a long term relationship, and how, in the good ones, love does eventually make its way back), and manages to turn it into a song where you almost don't notice the message because the music is so goddamned catchy. Ritter's vocals are smooth and soothing (he reminds me at times of one of my first musical heroes, James Taylor--and here my daughter and her husband stick their fingers down their throats and make gagging noises), and the melody is what I suppose every pop song made in the afterworld sounds like. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "ooh-oohs" that make up the background vocals from virtually beginning to end, and how Ritter can sing "keep on, keep on" over and over again and it never turns stale. Just a marvelous little ditty, and one that reminds me every time I hear it that devoting so much of my life to pop music has been worth every second of it.
Liner Notes: "Dark pines the moonlit road/Winter time the crunch of snow/I wonder will your smile show/That love is making its way back home..."
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
