PUSSY RIOT (see the nearby photo I took at the protest outside the Russian embassy last week) was not
the first time music was entangled with MOSCOW politics! NOR THE LAST!
Monday, Aug. 27 (8pm)
in the MUCHMORE’s performance space
at 2 Havemeyer St. at N. 9th St. (just three blocks east of the Bedford Ave. L
stop in Williamsburg):
“The Communist Menace
in Folk Music: The Story of Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers”
Come hear MATT
BRANDENBURGH, a filmmaker and folk music enthusiast from Brooklyn, describe
the history of one of America’s most beloved folk musicians – PETE SEEGER – and the complex love-hate
relationship Seeger and his fellow ALMANAC
SINGERS had with one of history’s greatest butchers: JOSEPH STALIN!
Brandenburgh will also perform selections from the Almanac
Singers’ impressive repertoire (tell all the folk fans and disheveled bearded
men you know).
I, Todd Seavey, will
also lead a brief discussion (and viewing) of SEN. RAND PAUL’s speech at that night’s Republican National
Convention, for political contrast and as a nod to the “Bluegrass” State [UPDATE: Rand Paul speech reportedly delayed to Wednesday night; Monday Dionysium unstoppable]. And there are craft beers.
And now on to ten strange music items of interest:
1. As we would not want to create the impression that all
folk music is communist, here is Carson Robison’s fantastic 1950s song “I’m No Communist” (h/t Kyle Kidwell).
2. The Dionysium notes a bittersweet turning point,
inevitable in the natural life cycle of the hipster: The Muchmore’s manager and
band-booker, Bonnie Wong, is moving from Williamsburg to Montreal to study
music production. It is natural as
bearded men migrating to Austin, TX in winter, and we wish her luck.
3. Speaking of people who’ve moved from Williamsburg to
Montreal, I’ll be seeing Metric perform (here) in one month and one day. In the meantime, perhaps we should use this
coming Monday’s Dionysium in part to discuss the politics of today’s indie
hipster music. The antifolk people still
seem an odd mix of commie and traditionalist – but what of the New Wave-like
bands? We must get to the bottom of
this.
4. One sign that Chick-Fil-A was not exactly going to be
driven out of business by outrage over its CEO’s stance on gay marriage was the
very very gay and black rapper who did “Bed Intruder” recording a video saying
that while people say all kinds of dumb things he disagrees with, he’s not
going to let that stop him from eating at Chick-Fil-A. Advantage: commerce.
5. On a less political hiphop note, Connor Thurston notes this truly lovely (and
subtle!) performance that may represent a genuine quantum leap in breakdancing,
and that’s not exactly something you hear me say often.
6. My own tastes lean more to the New Wave, indie, and
punk-influenced, plainly, but I may be at risk of writing a memoir like the one
in the joke photo above pointed out by Jeffrey Wendt.
7. It may not be quite a music note, but the protests over
Pussy Riot being sentenced to two years by Russia remind me of Julian Assange
being trapped
in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by the legal pincers of the
UK, Sweden, and the U.S. – and the Ecuadorians deserve extra praise given
reports that a colleague of Assange who had him as an unwanted houseguest for a
time complained later that Assange taunted his cat, Herr Schmitt, who has been
rendered “psychotic” by the episode (and that Assange never flushes the
toilet).
8. It may not be quite as heroic to go topless and cut a
large, beautiful wooden crucifix down with a chainsaw, but one pro-Pussy
Riot protester did just that. Can’t
blame her – but stay focused on the excesses of the state, people. The vaguer clash between feminism and
religion is not one that will be resolved in any court or with anything as
crude as a chainsaw.
9. But perhaps the purely-secular End Times are upon us
anyway. That you can find out tonight (Wed.)
at 7:15 at ol’ Lolita Bar as the Empiricist League (run by Dionysium ally Lefty
Leibowitz) hosts talks on real-life doomsday scenarios in an evening dubbed
“Beyond Thunderdome!” I’ll attend. And this is as good an excuse as any to post
once more my unusual choice of favorite Tina Turner song
(no, not “We Don’t Need Another Hero” – the other
one from Thunderdome). She did a song with the Fixx, too, you
know.
Speaking of disasters, (A) I see Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo is playing pompous, weasel-like
science institute director Dr. Stadler (a fiend out of the worst nightmares of
my old ACSH colleagues) in October’s Atlas
Shrugged Part II: Either/Or, for whatever that’s worth, (B) this totally boss five-minute
compilation of near-fatal crashes exists, and (C) libertarian science
writer Matt Ridley says doomsday fears are completely overblown. We’ll see how he feels in four months when the
Aztec gods fight the Sumerian reptile men for control of the shadow
government.
10. On a lighter and
definitely more musical note, today also brings sixtieth-anniversary screenings
in many cities of Singin’ in the Rain,
but if you don’t have time for the real film, here’s Paddington Bear’s
version.
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