G-20 war songs
2009-10-09 / 12:10 / dave
In the run-up to the G-20 I was surprised at how many people I knew expressed completely leotarded opinions. They drastically over-simplified the issues: “Capitalism is poison!”, “Protesters should be shot!”, “Cops evil!”. At the time I felt like should write a blog post and set the record straight. It was going to both point out that global capitalism helped drag the world from the stagnation of feudalism as well as question the assumption that wealth disparity is always a problem. It was to remind people that constitutional rights are meant to protect unpopular opinions and that these rights are eroded quietly, relying on the complicity of a quiet populace. It was to reinforce that we are all flawed people with flawed opinions and that the principle of charity also applies IRL.
Instead I did nothing.
So now I present my views in three words:
Shit is complicated
That’s actually the edited version. The director’s cut is twice as long.
Shit is complicated.
And you’re dumb.
The G-20 itself is nicely summarized in this image (a Failblog’ed version of ccbarr’s photo)
If you actually want to learn more, you can check out some actual reporting:
- Oakland’s Long Night
- What Happened at Pitt?
- DA won’t charge some arrested at G-20 protests
- Men arrested for G-20 Twittering say it’s free speech
War Songs
I was reminded of the G-20 when I saw Mother Courage at Duquesne. Not bad, though in the age of movies I question a three hour play. It did make me run home and listen to one of my favorite “found in a used bin for $6″ CD’s: Let No One Deceive You: The Songs of Bertolt Brecht
Frankie Armstrong – Lullabies I, II, III-To My Countrymen-Lullaby IV
Dave Van Ronk – The Legend of the Dead Soldier
The arrangements are sparse, relying on the voices & Brecht’s lyrics.
Then I listened to all the Crass albums.
Crass – Yes Sir, I Will Track 7 (buy)
Crass – Shaved Women (buy)
The Yes Sir, I Will track is 20 minutes of abstract ranting, I think the entire B-side of the original record. Yes Sir is my favorite Crass album because of it’s insanity.
Shaved Women isn’t about war, but it is amazing: Eve Libertine’s wailing, the train samples, the “screaming babies” chant, the sparse main guitar… It’s hard to imagine that people’s heads didn’t explode in 1979, especially when you consider that Reality Asylum [Youtube] was the A-side.
PS
And if you’re looking for something to read, I recommend Joe Sacco’s Palestine. The first 8/9th’s are amazing. The last chapter probably is too, I just haven’t read it yet.
Was that really on Failblog? I didn’t catch it, and I even have their feed in my RSS reader. The day that fence went up I was trying to describe the ironicality of it to my coworkers, so I drew the image on the white board outside my cell^H^H^H^Hcubicle. I think it’s still there, but I don’t feel like checking because it’s like four feet away and on the other side of the partition.
You know, I never saw the image actually on failblog. I got the link from the Bike-PGH message board. Eh, who knows.