"Words are only words but we turn them into gifts... then we seem confused as their meaning slowly shifts"

3/27/12

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." 
                                                                                ~ Albert Camus

I did indeed love the 60s...the music, the progress, the sense that the world was headed (albeit sometimes slowly) in a better direction. Some of it panned out and some of it didn't. I have said before that I feel like the 2010s (which we are now two years into) will be much like the 1960s. We seem to be refighting some of the old moral and social battles thanks to a regressive Republican party and what are hopefully the death sighs of the Old White Religious Right.

Maybe it's oddly fitting that today I begin my 60s.

Of all the quotes I could find - sad, funny and profound - I liked the one from Camus the best. I do, at this late stage of my life, feel renewed creativity, interest and passion bubbling up from somewhere. I have a feeling I'll need it all to be 60 in the new 60s.

 

How tricky the truth is!

So, an aide to Mitt Romney slips up and tells the truth...that his candidate would wipe the slate clean of all his fake ultra right-wing conservatism should he find himself the chosen one to go against President Obama this November. The analogy he used (a very damaging one it turns out) was the famous old toy the Etch-A-Sketch. Draw one thing...a quick shake...and the screen is clear for your next creation. The old image (or in this case Romney's words and stance on key issues) forgotten as quickly as they were created.

I'm sure the aide in question has had his backside well and truly kicked for this error of political strategy. One thing is certain, it was not a lie.

But here's what really pissses me off. Santorum and Gingrich were as quick as anyone to jump on this mistake, both brandished newly purchased Etch-A-Sketch toys at speeches.

But we all know that this inadvertent telling of the truth applies to all the Republican candidates. Both Gingrich and Santorum would have to moderate their positions and language to stand any chance whatsoever of connecting with enough of the American public to be elected in November. As the Republican battle has become a case of seeing who can out-conservative the others, the positions of these men have become more and more extreme and less and less connected to the reality in which most Americans live. Why the Republicans have chosen to decide their candidate in this ridiculous way escapes me. But I'll say again...

...we all know that this inadvertent telling of the truth applies to all the Republican candidates.

Same toy...different human being. 

 

Wise Words

A very good friend of mine just returned from spending several weeks in Thailand. In exchanging emails on his return he happened to say...

"Getting out of the US and looking back, taking the cultural blinders off, always an important 'wake-up' call."

This seemingly simple statement stopped me in my tracks. "Cultural blinders" - what a phrase. Let's all stop and examine for a moment if we are wearing them.

I'm sure, as we spend untold hours of news time and our own time going over issues we thought were history, like birth control and a woman's right to choose, many parts of the world must be laughing at us. But for two very different reasons. Some laugh at how backward the most developed country in the world can sometimes be, digging up advances made in the past and now trying to undo them. And others laugh that we would give up hard-fought freedoms they can only wish they had. Either way we look rather stupid. The country based on freedoms frantically trying to take personal choices away. Ridiculous to all except those in the middle of the political fray who have their cultural blinders firmly (and it would seem permanently) glued in place.

Cultural blinders. If only more Americans would a) travel and b) be willing to take off those cultural blinders when they do. The world might not be a better place because America is no longer anywhere near as important in world affairs as it once was, but America would be a better place, more able to occupy its proper place in world affairs with an electorate making smarter choices leading to progress rather than regression.

It has been established that even 98% of American Catholic women (the only religion that specifically is anti birth control) use some form of "artificial" contraception (ie something other than the old, and seriously flawed, rhythm method). So what the hell is the GOP trying to achieve? If it wants to operate outside the American mainstream it is well on its way to fulfilling its dreams. But will lose all political credibility en route.

Behind "a flagless moon" - #3 in a series

From time to time I will post pieces like this that will examine the ideas and motivations behind the songs on my new album beneath a flagless moon.

HARVESTING LIGHT

Not a complicated song but one of my personal favorites on beneath a flagless moon.

The foundation of this tune is the realization that we are in charge of our own lives. We can choose to go through life harvesting light – collecting and valuing the good things along the way. Or we can do the opposite. I’ve met many people in my time who prided themselves on being tough – from the bullies at school to the corporate bullies of the workplace. Incidentally, they are no different from each other and both are just as despicable.

Bullies thrive on creating fear. And I’ve worked for bosses who managed through fear – men and women old enough and experienced enough to know better but lacking the inner strength to do better. My advice to young people? If you find a boss who is less concerned with protecting his or own job or reputation and more concerned with helping, training and encouraging you, stay with them. You will learn some priceless lessons.

But back to the song. Once the notion of going through life harvesting light had leapt into my mind, the rest just flowed.

Starting from the recognition that there is indeed “darkness all around” which we must not be sucked into, it led naturally to “looking for the moments when the light comes breaking through.” That phrase, looking for the moments, then became the core of each of the four verses.

The first verse says of the light that “sometimes it’s from another heart, sometimes it's from you.” Yes, love is a light and if you find it you are well ahead in the game of life. But sometimes the light is more personal, more inside out that outside in. This is the light of personal character. This is the light of having faith in yourself while retaining humility. Too strong an inner light or ego and, no surprise, you're back in the darkness.

The second verse describes the light in another way…”the tiny spark of living learned from those who died.” Too much of life today, it seems to me, is lived in isolation. It’s all about now. It has been said that those who do not know and understand history are doomed to repeat it. There are days I feel this applies to the entire human race!

In the third verse “the light of reason briefly shines upon our humdrum fears”…another kind of light that keeps us from darkness. I think this is an extension of the idea I just mentioned…the fact that the world (or I should say American culture) is so focused on rather fake celebration of the individual. People can indeed be very special but they become so by rising above the every day fears that all humans share. Let’s face it; anything you share with every other member of your species is not really special. But the way American culture does not allow for failure…you're a winner just for turning up…does not encourage us to do extraordinary things. Our fears, whatever they may be, are indeed humdrum. Meaningless. It is the positive things those fears…and the positive flipside, our passions…drive us to accomplish that matter.

In verse four there seems to be a contradiction to verse two when “the fog of history’s traded for the simple present tense.” Didn't I just say history was important? Well, it is. But learning from history – not dates and boring stuff like that, but the collective knowledge of humankind – should lead to progress. And so often, especially in the case of religious beliefs, a fixation on the past leads to stagnation of thought. This leads to the final hope of the song….that one day “the holy and the godless give up all pretense.”

Pretense? Yes, that’s my choice of words. Those who adamantly believe in god and those who just as adamantly do not are pretending. They are pretending to know what we do not know.

That is not to say we are not free to have our beliefs…make our choices…no, the pretense I would like them all to give up is the belief of being right and, in particular, the propensity to decry others as wrong. If we can make a better job of living alongside people with different beliefs we will all benefit. Christianity is not better than Islam…just slightly different. Atheists are not inherently evil just as Christians are not all inherently good. We need to give up this pretense that we know something others do not…and accept that beliefs are only one source of light in this life. And when they become dogmatic they are part of the darkness.

Sharon Gilchrist’s mandolin playing on this track is so beautifully understated. When we were recording it she was convinced she had not delivered…not “done enough”. But I already knew she’d given the song just enough light from her mandolin to counter the darkness of my guitar. Which is why Deborah Domanski’s uplifting voice comes in only on the words harvesting light. Every time her voice joins with mine I feel like I want to do more searching for that illusive light. And am happy that I have known more than my fair share already.

 

 

Goldman Sachs=Lehman Brothers

It was my misfortune some years ago to be part of a team that was hired to write advertising for Lehman Brothers. Of course, we quickly discovered the firm didn't actually want any advertising. The senior bankers turned their noses up at the idea in much the same way as a Gourmand would if offered KFC.

It turned out they simply needed someone to produce what were known as the "Tombstone ads" they ran at the conclusion of every financial year. These ads simply listed, in little tombstone shaped boxes, hence the name, all the major "deals" the bank had been involved in during the previous year. 

We thought they might let us advertise their philanthropic efforts - maybe use that to give the bank a more likeable public face. But no. They did not want to draw attention to how much they gave away each year because people might then realize how much they were making! You know, conversations like, "Well, if they can donate 20 million dollars, that means 20 million is nothing to them."

Well, as I was reading Greg Smith's incendiary resignation letter in the New York Times yesterday in which he lists his reasons for leaving Goldman Sachs after twelve years, I was reminded of my brush with the investment banking industry and also of a book I was encouraged to read at that time. The book was published years earlier and explained the internal battle that almost ripped Lehman apart years before its eventual demise. 

When I read Smith's comment that Goldman Sachs should “Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist" I realized nothing has changed.

The duality that challenged Lehman all those years ago is still causing untold damage. And it has survived even the financial crisis and the bail-out of the banks by the American taxpayers.

What is that duality? Well, as Ken Auletta's great book explains, deregulation allowed these banks to do what they had always done - advise their clients on financial matters such as mergers, acquisitions etc. - but also to trade - buy and sell stocks in their own name with their own money. But there's the rub. These banks quickly realized they could make much more money trading than acting as financial counsellors. And often they were trading with their clients money, not "theirs" in the true sense. 

This is what Greg Smith meant when he encouraged his now ex-employer to refocus on guiding its clients rather than seeing clients as "Muppets" who simply buy whatever crap the bank is selling - the proceeds of which fuel the bank's own trading, where the real money is made.

Greed is destroying the financial foundation of this nation. And it's time to reinstate regulations that make giving financial advice and trading two quite seperate businesses that cannot co-exist in the same bank. Anyone is free to gamble on the stock market but it should never be with other people's money or with the proceeds of tricky financial deals like the selling of mortgage based derivatives and the like.

Margin Call, the movie, does a pretty good job of explaining the fall of Lehman. But if you want a clearer image of the ego trips and internal battles that are still raging in our financial system I suggest you go back to this book, published in 1985. You'll see how little has changed since then - and how badly change is needed RIGHT NOW. Greg Smith has his critics - almost predictably being accused of biting the hand that has fed him (and no doubt made him quite wealthy) for the past 12 years. But I admire what he has done. Truth from the inside will always trump any third party investigation. And I do believe he is telling the truth.

Read his full piece here.

Unbelievable...oh sorry it's the GOP...of course it's believable

"...his plan to cut marginal individual tax rates by 20 percent won't increase the deficit because he would limit deductions and exemptions for the wealthy."

"...also said he would consider changing a provision of the tax code that has benefited high-earning investment fund managers, including himself."

So, let me get this straight. These are terrible ideas when President Obama wants to enact them but brilliant ideas when Mitt Romney proposes them? The quotes above are talking about Romney's tax plan, the effects of which, he also adds, "cannot be measured" until AFTER he's in office. Good grief! Catch 22 anyone?

I cannot blame any of the current GOP presidential candidates for running for office - nature abhors a vacuum so just about anyone can step in. No, I blame the Americans who are taken in by the pathetic tricks of these dangerous men. There is not - to repeat myself - anything presidential about any of them. 

This November any caring, empathetic, patriotic, thinking Republican has only two good choices: stay home or vote Democratic.

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It's night time in the Big City

Every episode of "Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan" started with these words, which in turn started an almost haiku-style poem, such as:

It’s night time in the Big City 
A local band packs their gear into a van
It’s easier to buy a gun than cold medicine.

If you didn't catch Bob's amazing stint as DJ or want to revisit these little gems of poetry they are all gathered in one place: here.

Behind "a flagless moon" - #2 in a series

From time to time I will post pieces like this that will examine the ideas and motivations behind the songs on my new album beneath a flagless moon.

SEE WHAT TIME HAS DONE (for Dennis Hopper)

“We are the ones…”

Those words are repeated frequently in this song, so a sensible place to start would be to explain who “we” are.

The reason this is dedicated to Dennis Hopper is because I wrote it when I heard of his death. This song is my not-always-flattering tribute to the “children of the 60s”.

I have vivid memories of going alone to a small, now demolished cinema in Nottingham, England to see Easy Rider. I knew little about the movie, had no expectations other than I knew there was a lot of great music in it and that was enough for me.

The numbing effect of the years since then have probably rendered the movie a harmless piece of historical fiction. But as the end credits rolled I sat there totally stunned. I remember being the very last person to leave. I toyed with the idea of sitting through it again (you could get away with that in those days!) but decided I couldn’t take it.

I was shocked that in America (or anywhere for that matter) you could be killed for looking a certain way, behaving a certain way, growing your hair a certain way and liking a certain kind of music – the kind the movie score was full of. Or wanting to live a certain kind of life.

Our own battle to change the culture, in quiet little England, was fought on smaller battlefields. The constant harassment from teachers and parents to “get your hair cut” or “turn that music down” or the comment we actually welcomed, “I just don’t understand you!”

“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don’t criticize what you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command…”

From The Times They Are A’Changin’ – by Bob Dylan

No wonder Dylan took off like a rocket. He nailed the feeling of the time. He did speak for a generation (or part of one) even though he would spend the next 50 years getting out from under that monstrous burden.

So, when Dennis Hopper died it made me wonder, What happened to all that energy? What happened to the wonderful feeling that the world was being put right? Civil Rights were being won, freedoms won and expressed both social and sexual, and music was the engine at the heart of much of the change.

Well, it didn’t work out quite the way we wanted.

For many different reasons, not least of which was those freedom loving children of the 60s growing older and having kids of their own, the dream did not last. And those who did try to purpetuate it became a target of ridicule. "My Generation" became the "Me Generation."

Changes happened that’s for sure and many of them were good changes. But one evening in front of the TV in America today will tell that racism is alive and well and wearing a Judge’s robes or posing as a leader in the Senate or House of Representatives.

You’ll see that women are still fighting for basic freedoms – the freedom to have government leave their bodies alone. The freedom to have the children they want and no more.

You’ll see that the rich have found a new way – or rather resorted to an old way – to stay powerful: prevent the poor from voting.

No, “We are the ones who now sometimes look like fools” for the naïve optimism we had back in the 60s. We truly thought the battles we were fighting and winning would stay won. But time does strange things …”See what time has done.”

I couldn’t find a way to put it in the song but the saddest thing of all, to me, is the fact that some of the worst offenders today claimed to be on our side back then. There are Wall Street bankers today who were singing “All you need is love” as loud as anyone back then.

What happened to you?

 

I hope so.