With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
April 28, 2007 - 1:01 p.m.
Sometimes, well actually often, I don't want to write my entries linearly. I want to say many different things at the same time. This is of course not impossible so I'll put one thing after another and probably either forget half the things I wanted to write about or not be able to figure out how to shoehorn it into the entry.
Last night I went to The Outpost in the Burbs to see Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith, and Terri Hendrix. I won the tickets from WFUV. I love the Outpost but it is so hard to get to. I have to travel to New Jersey during rush hour on a Friday night. I always say that I'm going to drive there during the day and take public transportation back to the City, hang out in Manhattan, then go back to to Montclair for the show but I never do. I did try driving a different route last night. I went via the George Washington Bridge instead taking the Midtown and Lincoln Tunnels and going through midtown Manhattan. There really is no good way as the Cross Bronx Expressway, which I take to the bridge was at a standstill as usual. The trip took me an hour and a half instead of the 45 minutes the GPS said it would.
This was the Outposts first show at a new venue, Montclair High School. I know the school because Leah used to go there. You have to like a school that has a brook babbling through the grounds.
When I got there I had to figure out where to park. I stopped to ask one of the volunteers and when she turned around I saw it was a friend from WFUV. It would be nice if I remembered her name but I don't. She of course immediately said, "Hi Gordon." The parking is in a strange place, behind the annex building across the street that is just used for the ninth graders. So the school with students too young to drive has a lot but not the school with students that might actually have cars.
I got there at 7:00 and doors were at 7:30. People always get to the Outpost early so I was not at the front of the line. I actually waited online for a while before I was told I was on the line for people with actual tickets and there was a second line for will call. They never had that at the old locations. I asked another volunteer that I also know from WFUV and whose name I also forgot, what line I should be on if I won tickets from the station. He told me to go inside and they'd have physical tickets for me at the box office. He was right.
When they let us in I headed in the auditorium and tried to find a place to sit in the chaos. The first four rows had papers taped on the backs of the seats saying they were reserved so I headed into the fifth row. As I walked to a seat in the middle I saw that there was an unreserved seat in fourth row so I through my coat down there. I went to grab a snack and when I got back I went over to talk to Jeff in the first row. Jeff is someone I usually just see at Festivals. He lives in the Harrisburg area so Montclair was quite a hike for him, more than 100 miles. Jeff was in the first row and I then saw there was another unreserved seat right in the middle so that is where I ended up sitting. The sound might be better further back but I love having nobody sitting in front of me and all the legroom in the world.
John Platt and his wife were sitting in the front row too. John was the Emcee for the show. I think he's stalking me. I saw him all last week then at Makor on Tuesday then again last night. I really wish I had a working memory. I couldn't remember his wife's name. She is someone I know real well, I always talk to her at shows so I was embarrassed to ask her.
I also ran into Viki and Richard from Acoustic Live and Bill who I know from WFUV. I was doing the social butterfly thing before the show.
When I went back to my seat the couple behind me said hi. Once again I forgot their names. They are big Kennedys fans and the man has the same name as somebody famous but it wouldn't come to me. That didn't stop me from schmoozing of course. I wish everyone would just wear nametags.
The opening act was Terri Hendrix. I never saw her before and wasn't too familiar with her music. She scored immediate points from me when I noticed she was wearing a peace symbol pendant. She scored more points when she said that religious people and spiritual people scare her. She's a West Texas singer/songwriter like Nanci. She was really good and was my discovery of the evening.
Nanci was my rediscovery of the evening. I used to see her every time she played the New York area. The problem is that she started playing in more expensive venues and stopped doing free festival shows in the summer. As soon as I heard her I remembered how good she really is. She is right at the head of the class and I can't let it be years between shows again. She is a brilliant songwriter that also does great covers. I also love the way she integrates her political activism into the show. It is in no way strident or preachy, she just bubbles over with enthusiasm and it becomes part of the entertainment. Joan Baez is the only other performer I know that does it so well. I really find her an inspiration. Perhaps my favorite song of hers is A Hard Life Wherever You Go
I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
The man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, "Now, what chance has that
kid got?"
And I say from the back, "I don't know."
He says, "There's barbed wire at all of these exits . . .
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid
to go."(chorus)
It's a hard life
It's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
then, the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in (Belfast) for
these kids to go
(Chicago)
(This world)
A cafeteria line in Chicago
The fat man in front of me
Is calling black people trash to his children
he's the only trash here I see
And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
in the night when his children should sleep
But, they slip to their window and they see him
And they think that white hood's all they need(repeat chorus)
I was a child in the sixties
dreams could be held through TV
With Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin Luther
Oh, I believed, I believed . . . I BELIEVED
Now, I am the backseat driver from America
I am not at the wheel of control
I am guilty, I am war, . . . I am the root of all evil
Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road(repeat chorus)
I still believe.
Judy Collins was the biggest star and was given the place of honor closing the show. I have never really connected with her. She might be an icon but it always seemed to me that her most famous songs were cover versions of songs where I preferred the original. She was still someone that I felt I needed to see live. Now that I have my opinion hasn't changed. Yes of course I love hearing Clouds and Suzanne but I'd rather hear Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen perform them. She seemed to me to be more in the tradition of Frank Sinatra than Joan Baez. I know that people in the folk world that I respect, respect her, but I just can't make the connection. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy her set. It is just that she was my least favorite performer of the evening. Someone else I was talking to said that he was tempted to leave after Nanci's set but didn't want to hurt the feelings of Richard, the leader of the Outpost. And yes, Stephen Stills was right; she does have beautiful blue eyes.
On the way out I saw that Terri was at the merch table so I went over to say hi. As soon as I got close she saw my Peace Symbol and complimented me on it. She said just what I said, it is important that people wear them and let the world know that we want peace.
I just remembered the name of the man that was sitting behind me, Jeff. So there were two Jeff's there and I didn't remember either of their names till the next day. It is so hard not having a brain.
I decided how I'm going to handle my non-linear thoughts. I'm just going to throw them in with no introduction. OK that's a lie. This is the introduction.
Nanci got me thinking about politics and how things really do tend to get better with time. Yes they get worse sometimes but in the long run they improve. It is just like the waves going in and coming out as the tide ebbs. The water goes back and forth but on average it keeps rising.
One area where we don’t make enough progress is Genocide. Yes the world is against it. We all know it is wrong, but we still allow it to happen. Right now it is going on in Darfur and you hardly even hear about it. When is the last time Bush mentioned it? How about any of the Democratic candidates? No we can't stop it this instant. I'm not going to ask you do march on Washington or the Sudanese embassy and demand action. I am going to ask you to do one simple thing. Just mention in your blog that what happens in Darfur matters to you and suggest that your readers do the same. It isn't enough to be against genocide we must let those in power know it is a priority.
OK now for another total change in direction. I talked to a load of people last night. I know so many people. Yet I ended up with an extra ticket to the show that I couldn't give away. I have many people that I'm friendly with but so few close friends that I can just call up and ask to do something with me. That was getting me down yesterday till the show started. Once the music began I was happy.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile April 28, 2007
