I love it while traveling when an HV story comes on the radio. That happened a slew of times this past week (Mtn Gorrillas of Rwanda, Passover poem, Peace Rabbi). The first one I caught crossing the NV desert on NPR Day to Day. It’s another from Jack Chance, international man of trad music mystery…
The Kingdom of Nepal became a democracy this week, holding it’s first elections for representatives who will write the new constitution and are likely to abolish the monarchy. Chance speaks with a young musician in Kathmandu, Rubin Gandharba, whose songs (played on the Nepali sarangi) became a rallying cry for the Nepali Democracy Movement. The call Ruben the “Nepali Bob Dylan” (2:57 mp3):
A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He interacts with Arabs and Jews, and intercedes when he can during Palestinian home demolitions. He looks for common ground amongst the the rubble and rocks, the M-16s and tanks, and the two religions that started as one. (Photos by Jake Warga.)
Aired on PRI The World; by producer Jake Warga, “Rabbi for Human Rights, Israel” (6:57 mp3):
HV doubled down with two pieces on NPR Day to Day, the first— There’s history and politics hidden in the songs of Tibet, which has been under Chinese control for half a century. A music recordist visits during Losar, the Tibetan New Year, looking for traditional music (produced for KGLT-Bozeman), “Song of Tibet” (3:30 mp3):
PRI’s Fair Game asked Andrew W. K. to write a rocker based on words from TV’s shout-fest The McLaughlin Group, “The McLaughlin Groove” (0:47 mp3):
“The next man on the moon will be Chinese.” Who know the pundit was a poet?
Gotta say, tho, Msr. W.K. has fallen mightily in subject-matter, reduced to covering shlock like TV’s punditocracy; especially considering his previous high-culture accomplishments, not least of which is Jackass’s “We Want Fun:”
Check the Fair Game site for host’s Faith Salie’s leadup to the song and intervu w/ W.K. (along with a link to SNL’s McGroup sendup).
This week’s HV cast is for President’s Day-
Excerpts from:
• Calvin Coolidge, Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1925.
(No inaugural recording exists of Herbert Hoover.)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1933.
• Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1949.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1953.
• John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961.
• Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1965.
• Richard M. Nixon, Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 1973.
• Gerald Ford, Remarks On Taking The Oath Of Office, Friday Aug. 9, 1974.
• Jimmy Carter, Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1977.
• Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1985.
• George H. W. Bush, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1989.
• Bill Clinton, First Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1993.
• George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 2001.
In 1963-4 two Atlanta residents collected live recordings at freedom movement events in the deep south, mass meetings, sermons, rallies, interviews. Their collection, now at the Library of Congress, is called “Movement Soul.” This interview is with one of the recordists, David Baker; slideshow sequenced by Max Darham. “Movement Soul: Civil Rights- Live:”
Seattle’s The Stranger columnist Dan Savage on yesterday’s democracy inaction– I mean, in action: “The Cloverfield Caucus:”
Maybe the caucus system works—when precincts have at most 10 people in them and no one gives a fuck about the election. But it’s total pandemonium right now at Stevens Elementary… The gym resembles the Brooklyn Bridge scene in Cloverfield—only without the promise of giant, derivative monster showing up to put Capitol Hill caucus-goers out of our misery. And instead of bloodied hipsters asking each other “What the hell is that?” over and over again, it’s roughly 1500 people wearing tasteful scarfs asking each other, “Where the hell is the line for my precinct table?”
At least monthly friends and I are tromping trails in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. But I never knew much about its namesake, ‘cept he was once Montana’s US Senator — until now.
Turns out our spectacular wilderness area was well-named. Lee Metcalf’s legislative life is detailed in this Center for the Rocky Mountain West essay by Pat Williams (another fmr US congressman): “Montana’s Metcalf blazed his own trail.”
After Metcalf’s US Army service, including the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, he helped design the first free elections in Germany. He introduced Medicare ten years before its passage. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was originally the Murray-Metcalf Bill. The Peace Corps passed Congress under the leadership of Metcalf and Mike Mansfield — another amazing Montana Senator. Sez Williams:
“However, it was as a conservationist — environmentalist — that Metcalf made seminal change for the West and the nation.… From the initial Wilderness Act to landscape restoration, pesticide control to fish and wildlife refuges, Lee Metcalf moved doggedly and with success to preserve the best of the West and in doing so he not only created a whole body of conservation laws for the nation, but he also changed the way we envisioned ourselves on the land.”
Here’s Lava Lake in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, site of a 2004 Hearing Voices high-level meeting (elevation 7106 feet):
Photo: Sam Gardner – USDA Forest Service, Aug 13, 2005 Gallatin National Forest
For Black History Month here’s Rev Dr MLK, Jr, backed with a music mix by rx, one of the best pol cut-up artists out there. “MLK (rise again)” (9:57 mp3):
rx seems also to be a Mike Gravel supporter. Here’s one of his videos, “power to the people vs give peace a chance:”
If you’ve the overwhelming desire to have pretty celebrities tell ya who to vote for, watch this well-done politimusic video Mr Dippy (aka, Black-Eyed Pea’s will.i.am). He calls it “Yes, We Can.” I call it an obama-nation.
“MTV’s Choose or Lose and the John S and James L Knight Foundation present Street Team ’08: 51 state-based citizen journalists covering election ’08 from a youth perspective. Armed with laptops and video cameras, and charged with uncovering the untold political stories that matter most to young people in their states, they will submit weekly reports online and via mobile.”
“We hope to find out whether or not our most important political event — the election of a president —matters to young people, and whether or not if matters more when it comes to them through the lens of their issues and the screen of their cell phone,” said Eric Newton, vice president of journalism at the Knight Foundation. “We also hope to find out what important youth issues are being overlooked by traditional media as the Street Team coverage goes beyond the presidential horse race.”
Closer to home the City of Bozeman has finally had ENOUGH (they became very interested in graffiti after one of their own buildings was damn near wrecked by rattle can vandals)
Tomorrow night (1/28) at their regular meeting the Bozeman City Commission will respond to this:
With this:
*Consider creating and staffing a Vandalism and Graffiti Task Force consisting of one staff liaison, one representative of the Downtown Partnership, one representative of the Bozeman Police Department, one representative of the local business community, one representative of the INC, and one representative of the Bozeman School District to direct and perform public outreach and education, study possible mitigation measures and long-term solutions, and make future recommendations to the City Commission.
In this week’s HV cast we have our own Middle Eastern summit— Students visiting America from across the Arabic-speaking world share their perspectives on the misunderstandings between their home nations and the United States. A story by Barrett Golding (9:11 mp3):
From BBC NEWS | UK chooses most ludicrous laws, the results of a UKTV survey asking which laws were most ridiculous. The top 10 laws on their list of legal lunacies:
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down (7%)
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned(5%)
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet (4%)
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)
The top 10 bizarre foreign laws as voted by those polled:
1. In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk (9%)
2. In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation (8%)
3. A male doctor in Bahrain can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror (7%)
4. In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm (6%)
5. It is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle in Alabama (6%)
6. In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed (6%)
7. Women in Vermont must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth (6%)
8. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits (5%)
9. There is no age of consent in Japan (5%)
10. In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon (4%)
An intervu at NPR pointed to this post by a guy who’s given and received waterboardings, all in the employ of the US.gov, “Waterboarding is Torture… Period.”
The blogger (at Small Wars Journal) is “counterterrorism consultant Malcolm Nance, who has trained hundreds of American service members to be ready for interrogation techniques.” From NPR’s story “Expert Sheds Light on Waterboarding“—
I love it while traveling when an HV story comes on the radio. That happened a slew of times this past week (Mtn Gorrillas of Rwanda, Passover poem, Peace Rabbi). The first one I caught crossing the NV desert on NPR Day to Day. It’s another from Jack Chance, international man of trad music mystery…
A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with 
This week’s 
At least monthly friends and I are tromping trails in the 
In this week’s 
Very nice piece on this past Weekend America by