It's good to see you. Come on in, leave your shoes in the hallway, we've got fire on the stove preparing lunch for later. In the meantime, browse the bookshelves and plunk down on the sofa with one, or pick out some tunes from the music library or come in to the kitchen to help with the cooking. Our special blend of tea is steeping and will be right up.

Make yourself at home...

Hey folks. Had another good and solid reminder this weekend of why adhering to a policy of wearing political t-shirts in public and plastering one's vehicle with progressive/radical bumperstickers is worthwhile.

Shirts, buttons, and bumperstickers can potentially open up dialogue in any number of directions. It gives one a chance to gauge the degree to which the propaganda is working on the masses and what the current themes/slogans are. As well it's an opportunity to develop some camaraderie with folks who are more than not on our side, but often misguided by the MSM who are falsely framing the issues in presenting to us "the news." And in this particular case it also afforded me a personal opportunity for which I was grateful.

This weekend I was up at an exclusive country club in the Tri-State area with my van. I've probably mentioned that vehicle before. The back doors of it are covered with very Left bumperstickers, which consist of these few and more, "We Are the 99%"/"Don't Trust The Corporate Media"/"Corporate Plan for America: Loot It and Leave It."

It's always a hoot for me to drive into these posh places in such a ride. For there are those who probably tense up at the reminder of their protected upper class status or get temporarily annoyed at the breach of decorum of one wearing his politics on his sleeve, as it were. But there are also those who are either the hired help/performer or invitees who normally wouldn't find themselves in such pampered conditions, who would probably smile to themselves at those acknowledgments and perhaps, even be piqued to approach the person pronouncing such statements, or at least be inclined to talk more freely with another since the political stands have been made right out in the open.

As I was standing next to my vehicle after we just pulled in, a guy in a black suit walked by, then back again. I decided to be jokingly confrontational, "Is there anything you disagree with?" He smiled and said, "my drummer is going to love this; he's a Trump fan." Turns out he was the guitar player in the band and was joking about his drummer. We had a nice friendly chat about politics and music, and when I said I was a fan of his drummer's from way back when, he said he'd introduce me later.

In the meantime, I had noticed that after the cocktail hour, of which we were waiting for to end so we could get to our work, there was a couple who lingered on the veranda after all the others moved on. They were sharp-dressed and could have been bankers or something, but from a distance seemed slightly hipper. Their eyes kept coming back in my direction. Meanwhile, just to give you an idea of the mentality of the people whose party it was: the party planner or organizer said to our guy, "oh, you can park over by the stables; the other area is for the real people." She actually said that, and then caught herself. I don't think anyone here reading this doubts that would be a mild version of what this class of people think of the 99%.

While I was setting up in an adjoining room to the main one where the party was assembled (and incidentally, wearing a black, activist t-shirt that said, "We Will Not be Silent" with the statement written in Arabic underneath), they approached me, making a joke that set me at ease. They wanted to thank me for such bumperstickers and explained that they were there as guests of someone. It was clear up close and once they started to speak that they were artists; the woman was tattooed and the man spoke with what sounded like a French accent. We got into it relaxedly after that. It's important to take public stands, I said, to have these conversations. It was the Dems that gave us Trump, and Hillary was faux feminism, and so forth. The woman nodded along in agreement, smiling. It was heartening, relieving and restored my faith. Those situations can be bleak, and this encounter revived my spirits.

Next, I hear my name being called from that stage, as I'm being invited to meet the celebrated drummer. We have a lively and warm chat about the profession and his amazing career, which now included his touring the world with an internationally famous blues revue band. Tells me he liked the picture of my van. Politically, he was Left, for sure.

But it was soon apparent that his views were within the framework of the MSM. Trump is horrible (yes! but he's a product of the corrupt duopoly system), Hillary lost mostly because men didn't want to vote her (probably cost her some votes, but I don't think it was that. they were both so loathed, and ultimately she didn't speak for any of the disenfranchised and was seen as more of the same) and Bernie was probably too radical (not at all. his platforms polled at 70% and upward with the American people). I said the DNC cheated, that there was lots of evidence they colluded to crush Bernie, and that Bernie would have absolutely destroyed Trump in the election. It was a good reminder that, when given an opportunity to present a view that hasn't been touched by the MSM, one must do so and get people to question where they're getting their news. That led to him admitting that his nephew read more radical publications, which I said I did too, and that there was a difference in the kind of dissent to be found in those views.

Later on as we were about to leave, a young and excitable guy came up and wanted to chat about how easy the party was for him and how it wasn't a bad living, despite working for rich people. He was smoking a cigarette too close to me and seemed only to want to talk about trivial things. After stepping back out of the smoke, I attempted to see if the conversation was worth sticking around for. I laid in something about the clientele and their sense of entitlement. We were off and running then. By the end of the conversation, he was telling me about Seth Rich and the Clintons selling uranium to Russia. I couldn't believe it. To top it off, we talked about the NY State proposals for free college and single payer healthcare, of which he knew specific details. Talk about a 180 degree turnaround. Sometimes just giving someone one more chance reveals the gleaming nugget inside.

I left the place feeling better about the prospect that our comrades are everywhere. We're just not talking with one another as much as we need to be.

I think it's our job to start those conversations wherever we may be.

So, what's going on with you?

Back in the kitchen we're listening to:
Temple of the Dog

(Haven't been able to shake Chris Cornell's death last week. He was a major musical force to me, and I'm still processing the whole thing, but crushed and confounded. At some point I'll get my thoughts together; there's a lot there to traverse for me.
This album was a beautiful, melancholy tribute to his former roommate, Andrew Wood, who was the 24 yr old lead singer of Mother Love Bone who died of an overdose. It was a departure from Soundgarden's dissonant, off-time, thrashing, stomp grooves and was a precursor to what he would accomplish soon after, making Soundgarden a major international band in the mid-90's before they called it quits a few years later, and then reforming fairy recently).

Reading/Browsing List:
"Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge" Mark Yarm
"Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley" David Browne

Hunger Strike

I don't mind stealing bread
From the mouth of decadence.
But I can't feed on the powerless
When my cup's already over-filled.

But it's on the table.
The fire's cooking.
And they're farming babies
While the slaves are all working.
Blood is on the table.
The mouths are choking

And I'm going hungry
I'm going hungry...

- Chris Cornell

Lemongrass Chai Blend

heaping scoop of dried Thai lemongrass
shards of cinnamon bark
a few cardamom pods
a few black peppercorns
A few cloves
fresh chopped ginger