I've been a fan of Eugene Chadbourne's music for about 15 years now. He recently played in Portland and reminded me that of the 10 or so times I've seen him play he has always been amazing. He had a profound effect on my guitar playing and musical conciousness, and I've always admired the way he was very political while at the same time exploring the outer limits of freely improvised music. His work swings between psychedelic noise-freakouts to hilarious, biting, satiric commentaries on war and politicians. ( a great example of this is his recent song "New New New War War War")

So I was unsurprised but very pleased to see his article in the current issue of Signal to Noise Magazine, which has a cover topic of "The Artist's Role in Waging Peace."

Eugene's written some other great essays with political or social relevance. This one is cool for the perspective he offers as a citizen and artist who is getting on in years, because he looks back on his life and all the presidental candidates who have run in elections and lost or won that he remembers, and who he and his friends and family voted for or against.

Then he says:

I mention all this... to establish the history I have experienced as well as provide a backdrop for stating that I see differences between all these people. I talk to people that don't, though, some of whom are really wondering if they should vote at all. The present compelling arguments to the effect that all politicians, all rulers of all countries, are total motherfuckers. However, as for them convincing me that I should be giving up the act of strolling down to the nearby recreation center and voting for various public offices, from sheriff to president, I'm sorry. Voting is something I would really miss, just like the political side of my music.

[...]

It is a concern, although not really a surprise, when the type of people that read or write for a magazine such as Signal to Noise express skepticism about the process of voting, based on these kinds of issues. Surely there is a difference between John Kerry and George Bush II - surely there is, if we are expected to understand the difference between two guys who both play free jazz on the alto saxophone!

He goes on to talk about Kerry's past as a Vietnam veteran against the war, and says

... the existence of [Vietname Veterans Against the War] was one of the most important developments in turning America against this horrifying war... perhaps Kerry will revisit this important contribution to our society on a grander scale if he gets elected... if not, we are going to need a hell of a lot of musical relief. I'm ready.

Organizing this screening tour of the southwest continues to be a big pain in the ass. There are a host of reasons. Email problems on both sides, lack of equipment, contacts, experience... I'm starting to think it was a mistake to even try. If it comes together, will it even be worth it? I'm even thinking of calling the whole thing off, it's such a mess. Although I know that some people in Arizona and New Mexico have been putting time and effort into helping me out and I would hate to let them down. But I still have zero, that's NO, confirmed shows set up, just a bunch of maybes.

Right now it looks like:

Yesterday was a day of making contact or almost-contact with people, here in San Francisco, across the Bay, and elsewhere. I got a call from someone at the Flagstaff Activist Network, which I've been trying to contact for 2 weeks about doing a show in Flagstaff. Later I met some bay area indymedia people at their cool collective dwelling, which used to be a huge postal station. Then I met some cool people at the Longhaul Infoshop in Berkeley when I went there to watch the documentary "The End of Suburbia" -- which is an amazing and very disturbing look at the fact that the world is running out of oil and we (as in, the "developed world") are going to need to start learning to live very differently. Then I got a call from another bay area indymedia videographer. Then I found out that rabble is in town and wants to meet. And I heard from a friend of a friend who is helping me set up a show in Santa Fe.

So, I feel good, connecting, and seeing connections start to bear fruit.

Well I guess this may be old news, but if you haven't seen it yet it's worth the bandwidth to check out Jon Stewart's brutal exchange with CNN Hosts
of Crossfire. So totally awesome, like something you just dream all your life of seeing someday on national television, where somebody in the media biz somehow slips through the armor and just explodes with the truth. I wonder if he's suffered any career repercussions....

So I'm up early way before my host and I go down the street to the cool caf

Yesterday I flew to San Francisco and immediately found out about a screening of videos by Alex Rivera at Galeria de la Raza, in the Mission. Alex does amazing work that is mostly concerned with immigration and border issues. It's very informative and hard-hitting yet really humorous at the same time.

There was really good discussion afterward, with lots of really informed and thoughtful comments from the audience. It's great to just drop into town and be surrounded by such great people and work.

The last piece was a longer documentary work about Mexicans living in the U.S. who not only send money back to their home towns (remittances) but who organize in order to pool larger amounts of money and do public works in those towns. One group in New Jersey organized and funded the building of a baseball stadium in a little town in the state of Pueblo.

In the discussion afterward Alex said that remittances total about 15 billion dollars, which is second only to oil in Mexico's economy!! My friend Jos

One day to go and I'm off away from home for a month. The planning and the wrapping up stuff here has been driving me crazy, as I think I've already blogged.

Anyway, here is my schedule so far:

October 16 Saturday: fly to San Francisco.
October 17 Sunday: a friend's wedding.
October 21 Thursday: Screening the Bolivia videos at ATA.

Then on the 24th I hook up with the Juarez Caravan:
October 24 San Francisco, CA: 7-9PM, New College of California, Cultural
Center, 766 Valencia St, San Francisco
October 25 Santa Barbara, CA: 6PM, Event at La Casa de la Raza, 601 E.
Montecito, 805/965-8581
October 26 Los Angeles, CA: 6-9 pm, UCLA Public Policy Building, Room #1246,
Parking: Next to Lot 3, contact: ccjohnso@ucla.edu or 310-709-1864
October 27 San Diego, CA: 2PM: Protest at the Mexican Consulate, Downtown
San Diego, India Street.1549 India Street, SD 92101 619-231-8414. 7-10PM:
World Beat Center,2100 Park Blvd, 92101-4752
October 28 Phoenix, AZ: 7PM Phoenix College Theater in central Phoenix, 15th
ave and Thomas Rd, joseph2627@yahoo.com, 602/665-2450
October 29 Tucson, AZ: 6PM, Armory Park Senior Center, 220 S. 5th Ave,
520/770-1373, kat@derechoshumanosaz.net
October 30 Tucson, AZ: 8:30AM, St. John's Church Parking lot to San Xavier
Mission, Caravanistas will participate in Dia de los Muertos Border
Pilgramage with local human rights groups. Caravan then travels to El Paso.

October 31 - November 5 - Delegation to Juarez and Chihuahua City

Then my tour of the Bolivia videos starts:
nov 6 el paso -> santa fe
nov 7 or 8 show in santa fe???
nov 9 show in albuquerque at Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice.
nov 11 flagstaff show ??
nov 13 phoenix show?
nov 14 tucson show ??

Then I think I'll fly back to portland from Tucson. I was thinking about L.A. but decided I don't want to go to L.A. I'll be lucky if I get all these dates figured out.

I don't know why I make my life so hard. Well, no, I do, I just sometimes wish I didn't do it.

I've been spending a crazy amount of time trying to organize this tour of the southwest. calling people over and over and over, emailing, etc etc. this is why bands hire bookers, i guess. i've been thinking about calling off the whole damn thing.

the stress of this and all the other things i'm trying to get done before i leave in 2 days is likely the cause of my feeling sick tonite. like, fever and splitting headache sick. godammit. this always happens when i travel, i get sick either right before i leave or just at the start. it's gotta be because of the stress. i need to relax and get some sleep and just start lowering my ambitions.

For the last few days indyblogs has been down. They had a hard drive failure. It's odd because I sort of felt like people looking at indyblogs were my main audience. I don't know how many people look at this blog but I feel like most of them get here via indyblogs. So, it's weird.

Excellent article about the situation in Ju