This is an article by Ben Jervey from www.itsyournature.org. They've got a great blog at their myspace page. Ben's a great writer and I just haven't quite gotten my fix of heaping compliments on the world's best band. Enjoy.
OK Polluters: Radiohead, a band that gets global warming
by Ben Jervey
Radiohead's an easy band to love. Not just because their the best rock band on the planet (IM-not so-HO), but because they take serious issues seriously, and talk about them with candor, intelligence, and thought. Like global warming.
Consider these tidbits:
--For their upcoming US/European tour, they're partnering with the Oxford-based company Best Foot Forward to reduce the ecological footprint of the band's tour--right down to the collective impact of fan's travel. From a Treehugger post:
After gathering lots of information about their own environmental impact, Radiohead wanted to include their fans' footprint too. Best Foot Forward has analysed the two different types of tours Radiohead recently did in Amercia; the big gigs held out of town versus the smaller ones in city centres. This way they could find out which type of touring has the lowest impact 'per person entertained' as bassist Colin explains on their web site, based on transportation, food consumption and waste left behind by the fans.
Because the transport mode of the fans makes a big difference when it comes to carbon emissions and environmental impact, Radiohead encourages people to use public transport to get to their shows. They therefore have decided to play as many gigs as they can in cities because those provide better transport possibilities and don't require private cars to get to the event.
--Or Thom Yorke's conversation in Wired with David Byrne, during which they touch upon these same touring concerns:
Yorke: ... [At] the moment we make money principally from touring. Which is hard for me to reconcile because I don't like all the energy consumption, the travel. It's an ecological disaster, traveling, touring.
Byrne: Well, there are the biodiesel buses and all that.
Yorke: Yeah, it depends where you get your biodiesel from. There are ways to minimize it. We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows.
Byrne: Oh, you mean the audience.
Yorke: Yeah. Especially in the U.S. Everybody drives. So how the hell are we going to address that? The idea is that we play in municipal places with some transport system alternative to cars. And minimize flying equipment, shipping everything. We can't be shipped though.
--Or, more metaphorically, Yorke's comments about "sustainable urban planning" through the lens of record contracts:
Signing a new major-label contract "would have killed us straight off," he added. "Money makes you numb, as M.I.A. wrote. I mean, it's tempting to have someone say to you, 'You will never have to worry about money ever again,' but no matter how much money someone gives you -- what, you're not going to spend it? You're not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It's like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.
--And let's not forget Yorke's 2006 solo effort, The Eraser, which was entirely inspired by global warming. Or, actually, on the lack of political action to address it. As he told the LA Times:
In the paper one day, [Friends of the Earth activist] Jonathan Porritt was basically dismissing any commitment that the working government has toward addressing global warming, saying that their gestures were like King Canute trying to stop the tide. And that just went "kaching" in my head. It's not political, but that's what I feel is happening. We're all King Canutes, holding our hands out, saying, "It'll go away. I can make it stop." No, you can't.
IYN is no stranger to bands that back up their beliefs with action, and we're pretty fired up to see that one of the most influential and (to be blunt) awesome bands of our era is so hip to the real issues of our times. Maybe we'll catch them at All Points West. It is, after all, just a short train ride from IYN's NYC HQ.
2.04.2008
2.02.2008
canvas bags... the rock opera
i found this video on youtube and discovered a really awesome musician/comedian. the guy's name is Tim Minchin and you should check out some of his other performances on the net. they're not to be missed.
i love this video because it's such a great way to talk about an important but really boring issue- using canvas bags instead of plastic. at itsyournature.org, we're always trying to make people aware, but it's hard to get folks to remember the basics and make being green a part of their day to day lives. maybe we just need to write more pop songs. this track is so damn catchy that anyone who hears it will find themselves humming "take your canvas bags to the supermarket" over and over again.
and that's gotta count for something. watch and laugh. (give it a good minute... wait for it.)
i love this video because it's such a great way to talk about an important but really boring issue- using canvas bags instead of plastic. at itsyournature.org, we're always trying to make people aware, but it's hard to get folks to remember the basics and make being green a part of their day to day lives. maybe we just need to write more pop songs. this track is so damn catchy that anyone who hears it will find themselves humming "take your canvas bags to the supermarket" over and over again.
and that's gotta count for something. watch and laugh. (give it a good minute... wait for it.)
taking heads
There was an odd exchange on CNN the other day.
CNN "Open House" host Gerri Willis was discussing the economy and joked with anchor Kyra Phillips that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off to an island, prompting Phillips' co-anchor, Don Lemon, to ask not to be left out of the girls' getaway. This resulted in the following exchange:
Gerri: Alright Don, you come too.
Kyra: We could bring him along with the girls.
Gerri: Come on!
Kyra: He's paying! Thanks, Gerri.
Don: A little sandwich!
Kyra: Ooh!
Gerri: Whoa, I have to go now!
Kyra: Yeah, good time. You don't want to talk about the reverse oreo!
Willis was obviously embarrassed by Phillips' joke, though Lemon seemed to enjoy it, laughing out loud and announcing, "Oh, she said it! I'm glad she said it."
No one seemed particularly angered by the joke. Actually, everyone involved quite enjoyed it. Now, I hate to come off like some kind of Puritan, but my question is: Was it appropriate? This is the news (yeah... "news") and I can't help but feel like the people delivering it should have some sense of decorum when it comes to interacting with each other.
I remember in the early nineties watching CNN and feeling like I was really watching journalists at work. Even the anchors seemed somewhat invested in what they were saying, occasionally reviewing their notes and spontaneously changing up the way they imparted information (This could be seen most obviously by anchors on Headline News who had to recite the same loop every ten minutes.) Now, they just stare at that damn TelePrompTer and say the exact same thing over and over again. Watching Headline News for too long is like a bad acid trip. It's just impossible that these people aren't robots. I think "How can they be reading this text and saying these words yet again with such precision blandness?"
Watch CNN midmorning and you'll experience the saccharine coma of Christi Paul- a bobbing blonde head styled to within an inch of her life. Whether it's a fatal car crash or a feel-good story about found puppies, her tone never really changes. If you watch her for long enough, you begin to go numb. And just when you start to take her seriously, she'll say something like "Welcome back friends. I am so happy y'all are spending the morning with me." AAAAHHHHH. Shut up and tell me about Obama and Britney already. She does to me Mary Hart did to Kramer on that hilarious episode of Seinfeld.
Here she is in a silk blouse that has apparently been glued to the undersides of her breasts.
Watch CNN in the evening and prepare yourself for the fresh hell of Glenn Beck. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a man who's own opinion of his sense of humor is at such odds with the reality of how genuinely boring he is. The only compelling thing about him is shady sense of humor. He occasionally makes jokes that get you thinking he might have a naked girl trapped in a well beneath his basement. This guy is like your best friend from high school's creepy new stepdad who just can't stop trying so hard to be accepted.
What has happened to the televised news industry? Is it just me or does every anchor seem like a failed actress or male model from a J.C. Penney catalog? Who are these castrated automatons? How can so many bloated egos lack any distinguishing character definition? Where do these people come from? Do they have broadcasting backgrounds? And...
Why do any of them think it's okay to refer a fellow black coanchor as part of an Oreo?
CNN "Open House" host Gerri Willis was discussing the economy and joked with anchor Kyra Phillips that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off to an island, prompting Phillips' co-anchor, Don Lemon, to ask not to be left out of the girls' getaway. This resulted in the following exchange:
Gerri: Alright Don, you come too.
Kyra: We could bring him along with the girls.
Gerri: Come on!
Kyra: He's paying! Thanks, Gerri.
Don: A little sandwich!
Kyra: Ooh!
Gerri: Whoa, I have to go now!
Kyra: Yeah, good time. You don't want to talk about the reverse oreo!
Willis was obviously embarrassed by Phillips' joke, though Lemon seemed to enjoy it, laughing out loud and announcing, "Oh, she said it! I'm glad she said it."
No one seemed particularly angered by the joke. Actually, everyone involved quite enjoyed it. Now, I hate to come off like some kind of Puritan, but my question is: Was it appropriate? This is the news (yeah... "news") and I can't help but feel like the people delivering it should have some sense of decorum when it comes to interacting with each other.
I remember in the early nineties watching CNN and feeling like I was really watching journalists at work. Even the anchors seemed somewhat invested in what they were saying, occasionally reviewing their notes and spontaneously changing up the way they imparted information (This could be seen most obviously by anchors on Headline News who had to recite the same loop every ten minutes.) Now, they just stare at that damn TelePrompTer and say the exact same thing over and over again. Watching Headline News for too long is like a bad acid trip. It's just impossible that these people aren't robots. I think "How can they be reading this text and saying these words yet again with such precision blandness?"
Watch CNN midmorning and you'll experience the saccharine coma of Christi Paul- a bobbing blonde head styled to within an inch of her life. Whether it's a fatal car crash or a feel-good story about found puppies, her tone never really changes. If you watch her for long enough, you begin to go numb. And just when you start to take her seriously, she'll say something like "Welcome back friends. I am so happy y'all are spending the morning with me." AAAAHHHHH. Shut up and tell me about Obama and Britney already. She does to me Mary Hart did to Kramer on that hilarious episode of Seinfeld.
Here she is in a silk blouse that has apparently been glued to the undersides of her breasts.
Watch CNN in the evening and prepare yourself for the fresh hell of Glenn Beck. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a man who's own opinion of his sense of humor is at such odds with the reality of how genuinely boring he is. The only compelling thing about him is shady sense of humor. He occasionally makes jokes that get you thinking he might have a naked girl trapped in a well beneath his basement. This guy is like your best friend from high school's creepy new stepdad who just can't stop trying so hard to be accepted.
What has happened to the televised news industry? Is it just me or does every anchor seem like a failed actress or male model from a J.C. Penney catalog? Who are these castrated automatons? How can so many bloated egos lack any distinguishing character definition? Where do these people come from? Do they have broadcasting backgrounds? And...
Why do any of them think it's okay to refer a fellow black coanchor as part of an Oreo?
2.01.2008
Oh wow.
I could go on about this article and racism, but I'll let Alec Baldwin do it instead. The original story scans below aren't that great, so please click on the pic to enlarge the image and read the story.
Reprinted from the huffington post
The Ascendancy of Barack Obama in Small Town America
by Alec Baldwin
For those of you wondering how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America, I offer you this column from the Independent, a weekly newspaper published on the East End of Long Island by Jerry Della Femina, the former advertising executive turned restaurateur and columnist. This particular piece was written by Rick Murphy under his weekly "Low Tidings" column. Murphy is also credited as a publisher of the Independent.
This article has caused quite a stir in East Hampton and beyond. So much so that the paper has pulled it from their website and Murphy, a regular antagonist of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, and the Clintons in particular, has replaced it with a brief apology. The Independent is considered the more right-leaning and Republican-endorsing paper of the East End community. Della Femina himself is regarded as one of the great Hillary-Haters in all of the world.
On the heels of Barack Obama being endorsed for the presidency by the normally close-to-the-vest Caroline Kennedy, whose invocation of her father's enduring legacy carries, in some people's hearts and minds, more weight than any ten such endorsements by others, please read what the local Republicans in my home town are thinking, and publishing, about Senator Obama. This is, quite clearly, not to be believed.
Reprinted from the huffington post
The Ascendancy of Barack Obama in Small Town America
by Alec Baldwin
For those of you wondering how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America, I offer you this column from the Independent, a weekly newspaper published on the East End of Long Island by Jerry Della Femina, the former advertising executive turned restaurateur and columnist. This particular piece was written by Rick Murphy under his weekly "Low Tidings" column. Murphy is also credited as a publisher of the Independent.
This article has caused quite a stir in East Hampton and beyond. So much so that the paper has pulled it from their website and Murphy, a regular antagonist of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, and the Clintons in particular, has replaced it with a brief apology. The Independent is considered the more right-leaning and Republican-endorsing paper of the East End community. Della Femina himself is regarded as one of the great Hillary-Haters in all of the world.
On the heels of Barack Obama being endorsed for the presidency by the normally close-to-the-vest Caroline Kennedy, whose invocation of her father's enduring legacy carries, in some people's hearts and minds, more weight than any ten such endorsements by others, please read what the local Republicans in my home town are thinking, and publishing, about Senator Obama. This is, quite clearly, not to be believed.
1.28.2008
my january 2008 hero of the month
this is the most awesome beatboxer in the world, maybe better than Rahzel of the Roots. this is a clip of him performing on the French "Idol" show. he was one of the finalists.
1.23.2008
This is what you get for shopping at the Wal-mart "bakery."
Read the cake first:
Customer: "On the cake I would like written: "Best Wishes Suzanne." And underneath that "We will miss you".
Wal-Mart store by Ruskin, FL
Sad but true. This actually happened.
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