Concert Review: House Of Lightning

 

House Of Lightning played second on the bill. This was Torche drummer Rick Smith's other band, playing with Henry Wilson and Eric Hernandez.

Wilson has also played with Torche's Steve Brooks in Floor, and this was the band where the sound was most similar to Torche. I have seen House Of Lightning listed as Art Metal, but I believe fans of classic rock would enjoy them. They remind me at times of Led Zeppelin, especially on "Downbeat Situation".

There is a level of detail in the guitar playing that almost belies the aggression of the beat. You could bang your head to it, and the crowd was largely keeping time with their heads and feet. Check out "Wheels I-II-III" for a sense of that.

Perhaps because the members are involved in other projects it explains the lack of a strong online presence. While I have multiple links, the Bandcamp site is for the label, there is only one tweet (a re-tweet), and the links they have to the MySpace site just take you to the main page, though you can find content with some searching. (Plus, it's MySpace.) 

The Facebook page is probably the best source of information at this time. I put up what I could find.

Check them out if you get a chance.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/House-of-Lightning/196769132312

https://myspace.com/lightningof/music/songs

https://fairwarningrecords.bandcamp.com/track/house-of-lightning-more-lights-more-trails

https://twitter.com/Lightning0001

Concert Review: Nasalrod

Nasalrod is a Portland rock band, and opened the show at Dante's.

They played a solid rock show, with an air of not taking it too seriously. Lead vocalist Chairman did many jumps and kicks - actually more than seemed necessary - but it looked like they were having a good time, and we were too. Later, listening to both a regular recording and a live recording, there is definitely more energy in the live shows, and their performing style is probably a part of that. Perhaps it frees up the others to concentrate on playing, which they did well.

Initially I was aware of only a 2012 EP, Steward, and then a Live In PDX 2.3.15 CD that I picked up at the show. Since the two have some overlapping songs, it was easy to compare. I have since also found another EP, On A Trainset, available via Bandcamp. It comes from 2011, and I would probably have to say it's weirder, but I liked it.

There is a good selection of music available online via different sites. "Hype" may be the most noteworthy song, not only referring to the concept of hype, but also invoking it with the tempo changes and effects. However, I think my favorites were probably "Hello Ello" and "What D'ya Say?".

The band shows several dates scheduled in August, and is worth seeing live.

http://www.nasalrod.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nasalrod

http://nasalrod.bandcamp.com/

https://www.reverbnation.com/NASALROD

https://soundcloud.com/nasalrod

https://twitter.com/nasalrod

More on being a woman in comics

As long as I'm putting stuff out here, I was also irritated about that Jeremy Renner/Chris Evans interview, and then Renner's follow-up:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/5/8552979/avengers-black-widow-slut-shaming-jeremy-renner

There are many internet articles out there about it, but one thing I like about this one is that it specifies that the movies don't show Natasha being involved with anyone. There are flirtations, and there are fans of certain pairings, but there is no sex.

Renner's refusal to take it back focuses on sex, but it's non-existent. If any team member should be called "slut", it's Tony. It speaks to the double-standard that Natasha would be judged differently than Tony for the same behavior, but there isn't even equivalent behavior. So let's go back to the first interview.

The interviewer mentions the fans being invested in Natasha being with either Steve or Clint, and now the movie seemed to be pairing her with Bruce, and asked about that.

Renner: "She's a slut."

(Big laughter from Evans)

Evans: Or something along that line. Complete whore.

Renner: Tramp, man.

Evans: Slut.

The interviewer then said that whatever happens in the films, she will always be the sidekick, and they said something about leading them on, and then they moved on, because it wasn't important. Renner's defense has partially been that this is a fictional character so it's stupid to get mad over it. Well, I think there might be a few points.

First of all, they are not calling Natasha a slut for sleeping with her team members, but for not sleeping with them. That happens in real life. Guys call women they want and don't get sluts. Girls label other girls sluts when they are mad at them, regardless of sexual activity levels. It is a word used to keep social controls in place, which is reason enough not to use it. I am aware that some women adopt the word in order to fight it, like with slut walks, but how the word gets used is reason enough for any man to consider striking it from his vocabulary because there is a really strong probability that any time he uses it he is being an ass.

The interesting thing to me was that there appeared to be a feeling that if Natasha flirted with them, then she should be committed to more. I detected a sense of ownership. Again, this is something that happens in the real world. Fictional characters can show us things about the world, both within the context of their stories and in our reactions to them, so I don't think it should be dismissed so lightly.

However, it's going to take a pretty ugly turn that I will save for Monday. For now, let's leave with some words from another fictional character.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it? Well if you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut. It's a trap. You want to but you can't, and when you do you wish you didn't, right? Or are you a tease?"

- Allison Reynolds, The Breakfast Club

Being a woman in comics

I follow a lot of people in comics, so this last week was pretty exciting as people tweeted from San Diego Comic Con.

The announcement that I found the most intriguing was actually a misunderstanding. There are new Blade and Squirrel Girl comics coming out, but separately. I wasn't sure how that team-up would work.

What has been sticking with me more is the question of diversity. There are starting to be more diverse characters, but they are still overwhelmingly being written by white men, especially with the bigger publishing houses.

There are many white male writers that I love, and I am glad they get work (though it doesn't really apply to any of the titles I have been reading about). I am actually not even going to focus as much on writers of color here, though there are points that can be made.

There are two things that are reinforced by the announcements. One is that it doesn't look like there is much effort being made in terms of recruiting a broader base of writers, which means that very talented people who are having a hard time breaking in will probably continue to struggle.

The other thought is how badly they get it wrong sometimes. A good writer should be able to write all types of different characters - I believe that - but then they shouldn't be getting it so wrong.

This comes partly from an article posted on a discussion board, and the discussion that followed:

http://io9.com/why-do-we-care-so-much-about-what-female-superheroes-we-1573674640

There is some good information there, and good links. I love the story about Kamala Khan adjusting her costume, and it's pertinent. First I want to go to one of the comments in the discussion group. She (a woman, yes, but one who posted a lot of criticism of feminists) said that it was a practical thing for the women to wear sexy costumes because it would distract the bad guys and give them an edge. Another poster indicated that this reasoning was used in a book, possibly by Power Girl.

I have seen this argument too, somewhere else, over fifteen years ago. There was this guy who wrote Wonder Woman fan fiction. "Fan" may be an overstatement, because every single story had her being raped. Before that she would enjoy turning guys on, after that she might want to act it out, but in the middle she was raped. (Unless he wrote about her sister, Wonder Girl - then she would be raped instead.) That writer also had Wonder Woman reason that she had to wear skimpy clothes to distract the bad guys.

I think one reason he liked that is because then it made her kind of conniving. It went along with her being so slutty - because she may not have liked the rape but she sure did like it rough, and doing it in play.

I didn't think much of him, so I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about his reasoning, but I have a few thoughts now.

One of them is that I think you'll find that most rape victims would not find playing games about it sexy. That he could write that indicates that he didn't know much about it.

I have thought more about the costumes now, and this is where we come back to Kamala's story - those costumes are impractical. Hopefully you wouldn't want a teenage girl to be that sexy anyway, but outfits that are going to ride up or slip down are really annoying. A woman planning her crime-fighting outfit would think about that.

One problem with the other justification is that her thoughts are centered on her enemies instead of herself. Another is the assumption that she'll be fighting straight men. It's a bad strategy, and one that seems a lot more likely coming from a man. It disrespects the fact that she already has super strength or training or some trait that is her edge.

Maybe the biggest problem is that it sounds fake and stupid, almost as if that were not the reason at all, but a belated attempt to justify objectification.

I'm still not saying a man can't write women, but if he was at least working with more women, he might have a better idea of what they would do and wear. If you hired more women and more people of color, including women of color, that could raise everyone's game.

And maybe a story about a woman could actually be about her, instead of a projection centered on men.

Here are some excellent posts about racial diversity aspects:

http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2015/07/08/the-white-privilege-white-audacity-and-white-priorities-of-strange-fruit-1/

http://comicstheblog.com/2015/07/10/on-1872-1/

Just for nostalgia:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/04/not-only-about-misogyny-in-comics.html

Quick update

I've been trying to build my way to a point with these last few posts, but there are always other things going on and I am really distracted, so I should probably get those out of the way.

1. I am writing more books.

2. I am printing my books.

I am especially distracted by it now because the print proofs are here.

I knew that there were printing options available for self-publishing, but I thought it was something where I would have to pre-order a quantity, with some cost outlay. I don't have the budget for that, and it's hard to believe that it would be a wise move regardless. I finally checked it out though, and they do print on demand. When the books are ready, you will be able to order a single copy for a reasonable price.

This is kind of amazing from a technology standpoint, but it is also helpful because I really wanted my mother to read the books, which was never going to happen online. Printing three manuscripts on a home printer didn't sound like a great idea, but print shops charged way more than was justifiable. Without any fancy options it was still coming out between $60-80 per manuscript. The proofs are between $2 and 3 each, so this is better.

The process, through https://www.createspace.com/ is pretty easy. The cover options available for the electronic versions - through https://kdp.amazon.com/ - are better, but CreateSpace packages services like professional cover help, so you can go that route, but it will cost you. (Budget issues already covered.)

Right now, just glancing at them, Cara looks pretty good, Family Ghosts should be a little darker but is okay, and Family Blood looks terrible. I need to see what I can do about that. I am technically still in my slow learning stage. The next area of investigation will be recording the books as a sound file. I suspect there are different cost levels there as well.

I am also writing more books.

When I published Cara, I didn't think it would go far, but it gave me a chance to learn the ropes and I liked that the book could have a chance again after all these years. Cara has been the best seller by a long shot.

I'm not sure why that is -  maybe the vampire market has been saturated and LDS fiction is not - but it reminded me of something. Before the rejection letters came, I'd had other books planned. There were at least four pretty well plotted out, with another possible two, all taking place between the singles wards in Portland and Eugene.

These are not direct sequels like the Family Blood series. Actually, Cara herself will be a minor character in Morgan. If you remember Brian, he is more central to this one. Elaine is Morgan's sister, but even so, those are both standalone stories. And for the other one set in Portland, I'm not even sure that there would be any connections to the Eugene crew, but there could be. It is not uncommon for students in Eugene to graduate and move, and Portland is a place that they sometimes end up.

I was worried before about the age of the book, because so much has changed since I wrote it. I'm embracing that now. I can look back at the songs and the movies I had in mind, and I realized when they are set. So while it was never mentioned in the book, Cara met Ben in 1993. Morgan will start in 1992, but most of the action will take place in 1996. People will start getting cell phones and using e-mail more, going at the pace I remember.

So this may be the time to call me a sell-out, as I am making a decision on what to write at least partially due to sales figures. They were still stories that were important to me; they just went dormant for a while.

And I'm not leaving behind Sarah and the band. Family Reunion is on the way too.

I'm not sure what to do with Claudia yet, but I will figure it out.

Concert Review: Torche

I have finally seen Torche live. It was on the list.

For full disclosure, although I listen to Torche I am not really visually familiar with them, and I had no prior knowledge of the other bands. Dante's is not a large venue, so  I saw some members and was pretty sure it was them, but I also wasn't sure what order the bands were playing in. Therefore, as Torche took the stage I was still not certain they were Torche. Then they started playing.

The music hit me, setting off vibrations down my throat and into my gut, and yeah, that's them.

It was still revelatory to see them play.

Watching bassist Jonathan Nuñez waiting to go on, he reminded me a little of Tom Morello - a little bit for physical resemblance but much more for the sense of pent up energy below the surface.

That feeling remained when he took center stage, but it was then surprising when he began to play with so much fluidity. His arms and neck were loose! Taking in the whole scene I saw that guitarists Andrew Elstner and Steve Brooks also had similar playing styles. There is a tightness and hardness to the sound that was not visible. The wall of rock still blasts you audibly, but you see much more flow than you would expect of sludge. And I didn't expect that, but amazing me is what they always do anyway, so it fit.

I did not have a good view of drummer Rick Smith for most of their set, but I have a picture of him from the House of Lighting set immediately before. I need to give him credit for that. The only other musician I have known to tour with himself is Steve Perry when he does both White Hot Odyssey and Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

It was a really good show all around, so I would be glad I was there anyway, but it was Torche I'd been waiting for and they did not disappoint.

Seeing them is a thrill.

http://www.torchemusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/torcheofficial

https://www.youtube.com/user/RelapseRecords

https://twitter.com/torcheband

Previous review:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/02/band-review-torche.html

Concert Review: Melt-Banana

Seeing Melt-Banana perform is like nothing else.

Though they have played with four members in the past, there are only two now: Yasuko Onuki performing vocals with Ichirou Agata on guitar. There are pre-recorded sounds and effects to fill the music out, which Yako controls via a remote.

That sounds practical, but the way she wields the brightly colored remote - thrusting it down, then up in a victory stance, or out at the audience - makes it seem an even more integral part of the show. It is Yako's conductor's baton, or weapon, or at least a prop.

http://www.numark.com/images/ozone/melt_banana.jpg

I did have my camera at the show, and took many of my usual poorly-focused shots of the other bands, but between my lack of skill, the lighting for the Melt-Banana set (pretty dark with bright flashes), and the frenetic speed at which the band moved, there was no chance of anything ever coming out.

Many people classify Melt-Banana as noise rock, but their songs do not ignore musical elements the way many noise rock bands do. The tempo and ferocity with which they attack the songs feels punk, but the bright lights and high pitch feels more pop. Pop punk is a thing, but what that term is used for is not what they are doing. On Facebook they simply call themselves a rock band based in Tokyo, and I think that's the most sensible approach.

Probably none of that makes it easy to know if you will like the music, because there is no easy basis for comparison. They do have a large catalog though, so it should be pretty easy to figure out.

I can recommend two starting points. Fetch from 2013 is their most recent new material, and from what I have seen was well-received by long-term fans as feeling both new and right, a balance that is difficult for many bands to achieve.

In addition, the album I purchased, Return of 13 Hedgehogs (Mxbx Singles 2000-2009), gives a wide variety of songs covering a decade, and was recommended by Yako herself. "Tintarella Di Luna" was my favorite track from there, bringing in some almost surf rock sounds and covering a lot more ground than you could expect in the 2:04 minutes it takes.

The other recommendation that I will make is that even if you are not sure about the music, but you still have a chance to see a show, the experience might be worth it anyway. There really is no one else like them.

http://www.geocities.jp/azaplink/mb/mxbx.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melt-Banana/192954987398661

https://www.youtube.com/user/xxxMELTBANANAxxx

https://twitter.com/melt_banana/

It's us

Periodically people will ask why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Sometimes it is in anguish, knowing that there is suffering that is undeserved. Sometimes it is used as a way of proving that there is no God, or that God isn't worth much. That is completely missing the point.

I am a religious person, and a key point of my religion is that God has given us the power to choose. If you believe free will is an illusion, today's post may not hold much for you. For everyone else, I know that I make mistakes and mess up on a regular basis, but I do value that power to choose, and I don't want to give it up. I know that sometimes other people make ignorant or mean-spirited choices that negatively affect me, but still, I don't want to give up my power to choose, and everyone else having that power comes with it.

There are people who know that, but still think about at a fairly low level: what I do affects my outcome. Those may be the easiest cause and effect cases to observe, but there's more going on.

Think of it this way. If I smoke, that obviously increases my odds of developing lung cancer. Less obvious but still pretty well understood, it also increases the lung cancer likelihood for those around me, especially with prolonged exposure.

Cancer is a cause of huge heartbreak, and there might be a feeling that a longtime smoker who gets it was asking for it, as well as some anger toward smokers on behalf of those who get cancer from second-hand smoke.

What about the cancer in Detroit?  Some people had their houses bought out, but only after prolonged exposure. Some would like to move, but they can't afford to without being bought out. Their health is being directly impaired by exposure to toxins. Questions of legal liability are important, but not what I'm talking about here. Someone decided that the profit was more important than the environment or the people living in it, but it's more than that.

If we are collectively allowing weak environmental protections, because we don't believe the indicators until things have already gotten irreparably bad, or if we do believe the indicators but know that realistically they will affect poor brown people more than us, or we have decided that government is bad and only gets in the way of progress, or we voted for people who give into corporations because they tugged on our heartstrings about abortion and played on our fears about race, we have a responsibility there too.

If a farm bill that was supposed to help farming families and ensure that there was always a food supply in America gets twisted so that it now puts money into the pockets of corporations that used their superior financial resources to buy up the family farms, and for profitability they end up growing crops that are inedible without extensive processing, and then the subsidized additive you have is high-fructose corn syrup which they say is fine in moderation but it's hard to eat something in moderation when it's in everything, including things that aren't particularly sweet, and the entire cycle is hard on the soil, farming families, and human bodies, and still doesn't guarantee a good food supply, but we keep on mindlessly buying the additive-laden food, enriching the corporations and manufacturers and voting in the same politicians, that's on us.

If the desire for lower taxes means that we keep taking money out of schools, so gym and music and recess is cut, and classes are over-sized so children don't get much individual attention, and a lot of the better-off ones end up using online schools which are free because that money just comes from the general educational budget, but it's not an option for families who can't afford to keep an adult at home, and then in the public schools the most important thing is passing standardized tests, so the education goes downhill, and now there is less possibility of them finding the stress relief of exercise and the joy of creativity, because really, the corporations only want drones, and school funding comes from those corporations sponsoring the curriculum or the cafeteria, that's on us.

If eating the artificial food has a worse effect on some bodies, and combined with stress, poor diet, and a lack of activity, they gain weight, but there is no profit in improving the food and activity, so they get referred to pills and surgery and gym memberships and supplements and programs that have a lot of profit potential in them, and many fail and get depressed, and others start experiencing disorders where they no longer even see their bodies accurately, and that is worsened by the media showing false images and criticism from others, because we have been taught that it is all about the personal accountability so if you can't conform that is on you, that is on us.

And if the scariest thing in the antebellum US was that the slaves would rise up, and so modern police forces were based on the slave patrols, and years of extending slavery, economic manipulation, destruction of property, murder, and redlining have enforced extreme inequality, and unequal prosecution of crimes fills the prisons with black men (and there are people making a profit on that) that's on us. If we try and justify it, and if we get mad at protesters because they block traffic or make you uncomfortable when they are trying to establish safety, let alone comfort, that's on us.

God allows it (for now) because we do.

The price of oil

There was an episode of "The Munsters" where Grandpa invented a pill for turning water into gas. He also accidentally put insomniac Marilyn into an enchanted sleep, so it was fortunate that the representative from the petroleum company was a handsome young man with the last name Prince.

One of the plot twists was that the company wanted to pay Grandpa to keep the pill off the market. They had no intention of stopping their petroleum production, and they didn't want the competition that the pill would provide. Does that sound far-fetched?

Extracting oil from tar sands releases three times the CO2 as regular oil production. It involves strip mining and is also water-intensive, requiring as many as five barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced. A large project is slated in the Amazon Rainforest Basin, which makes the CO2 production especially unfortunate.

The process has some similarities to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking". Fracking is also very water intensive, but instead of releasing extra CO2 into the air, it is more likely to contaminate the groundwater. It release carcinogens into the environment, largely because there are so many chemical in the fracking fluid. Of the up to 600 chemicals involved, ingredients can include lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde.

Those sound pretty awful. With record-breaking high temperatures, increased release of CO2 sounds really irresponsible. With drought spreading, processes that require intensive water use should be weighed very carefully.

Do we need to pursue oil quite this rigorously? Probably not. Currently oil inventory is increasing, because production exceeds consumption.

http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/global_oil.cfm

You could really stimulate the economy (as well as help the planet) developing green technologies, but the oil companies don't want to do that, because oil is what they do. That's what they're used to. They don't want to change.

Remember 13 In The Hole? http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12686/13-In-The-Hole

(Incidentally, one of the polluters there is an oil recycling plant.)

One of the scenes that stayed with me is a woman talking about her mother investing in that home. She bought it and improved it and hung on to it because she wanted there to be somewhere for her family to go. That is a heartwarming sentiment, and home ownership is economically responsible, but that home is not a safe place now. Every home in that neighborhood has someone who has died of cancer.

That is a lot of human suffering. There is illness and death, discomfort from the smell, and economic hardship involved. The water is unsafe, but has still been subject to manipulation by the water company.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/20/detroit-water-un.html

The Supreme Court just ruled that regulators have to consider the financial impact on a business when they are regulating it. Were these companies required to consider the health impact of their polluting? The economic impact of making these homes - the primary assets of the residents - unsalable?

So my question is why do we keep putting the needs of companies ahead of people? It's not because they are morally superior, or a force for good. You can call them job creators, but are these good jobs? Would they provide better jobs if they weren't allowed to wreak havoc?

It shows up over and over again. It's not always obvious, but when you drill down into human suffering, there is usually someone making a profit on it.

Comics and confederates

Last Saturday I was listening to Rep. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin talk about March Book Two, the second volume recounting Lewis' participation in the Civil Rights Movement.

There were two things that came up that went along with some thoughts I've been having, and that ultimately relate to the big picture.

One was that Aydin expressed his hope that the book would inspire more activism, and that one area of focus would be student loans and education costs.

For the other, one of the audience questions was about how comics culture is not always a welcoming space. She and Aydin had some back and forth on that topic. You do need to be the change you want to see, which is hard, and certainly one way of doing that is voting with your dollars, but as a woman you only have seven tenths as many dollars available for voting, (which could easily be even less that that if you factor in some culturally necessitated differences in the cost of living).

To her I would mention that I have always felt welcome at Things From Another World (multiple locations) and Floating Planet. They are helpful and kind and glad to see you. So if in the Portland Metro Area you are finding a comic book shop or clientele that is not treating you right, keep looking - there are options. Most of my comic-related socializing happens on-line, and there are great options there too.

That probably seems like a digression, but not as much as you think.

In October I wrote a little about how the groups that frequently acted as agents of change have been weakened. At the time I focused on unions, students, and working-class women:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/10/scary-and-dangerous.html

Since then I have become more aware of how it filters through. You can add non-profit workers to the list. Sure, really luxurious wages would seem inappropriate, but living wages, good health plans, and 401K plans go out the window too. It's similar to way we treat teachers, and add college professors to that list, because without tenure they are treated as completely disposable. The end result is that anyone with any self-interest has to leave, or they are constantly being torn before guilt or fear. If they do make the choice that shows the most commitment to the social good, their end result may very well be dying under a bridge.

I see it in my own accounting. In January I file my taxes and in February I get a refund. In February and March I make contributions to tip jars and crowdfunding. I buy more music and comics, supporting artists. Then that bump is gone. I still see just as many needs, and they would be good things to support, but I can't. There is a general constriction tightening around the good we can do.

Hearts are good. There are a lot of people out there who want to help each other, and would if they could. With very small resources some amazing things still happen, but it is nothing compared to what would happen if we didn't have that glut at the top.

That completely relates to whether a woman or a young girl or a person of color can head into a comic book shop or convention and feel welcome. The comic gatekeepers are pretty similar to the Gamergaters with their aversion to Social Justice Warriors. They're not that different from people clinging to the Confederate flag and calling it heritage. They think they're aggrieved, and if they can just keep someone else below them that at least they will have that, so they help maintain a social order that breaks people in the service of consolidating power. It's stupid and ugly and shows a complete lack of understanding about how everything works.

Sometimes it can be worth taking it on headfirst, and sometimes you really need a rest. Sometimes the people who should be the ones supporting you have their own less overt issues and that can be frustrating.

I still know that there are pockets of calm and support, and that working for it helps those oases spread.

I believe it's worth fighting for.

Band Review: Derek Bishop

Derek Bishop was disappointing.

There was something in his pictures that showed not only a sense of style, but also indicated energy and edge - maybe it's the way he's balanced on the tire on the cover of Bicycling in Quicksand.

It led me to expect something fun and unpredictable. Instead the music was strangely subdued, like I was listening with the volume too low, but turning it up didn't do anything.

There's nothing wrong with his voice, which I really like, or his skill in performing music. It's not grating; it's just disappointing. It makes me think he might be overproduced. Having a chance to listen to multiple remixes of "Baggage", they all had the same issue.

That being said, "Baggage" was probably my favorite track. "Pack up your baggage from my brain" - who can't relate to that? However, I think "The Last Word" shows the most potential, with rolling piano that felt like it was getting somewhere.

In the music videos, there is more energy, making it possible that his live performances are more interesting, or his performances with other people, which he does sometimes. I can't write him off.

I see many positive reviews posted on his site, so it may just be a matter of taste. Bishop lists his genre as extra-catchy eclecto piano pop.

http://www.derekbishop.net/

https://www.facebook.com/DerekBishopMusic

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bicycling-in-quicksand/id963256008

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8WrQ-OR_vR9i0ycRSTaD2g

https://derekbishopmusic.bandcamp.com/album/bicycling-in-quicksand

https://soundcloud.com/derekbishop

https://twitter.com/MrDerekBishop

Band Review: Love Brooklyn

Love Brooklyn is a band from Corinth, Mississippi. Their Facebook page lists Cartel, The Dangerous Summer, Fall Out Boy, Boys Like Girls, and All Time Low as their influences.

I think they sound most similar to Boys Like Girls and All Time Low. I hear less of a punk influence in their music, which is softer in general. At the same time, a strong sincerity comes through, and enough energy that the music does not feel at all weak. In addition, the chorus work on "All The Way" has a feeling of reaching out to the universe, making me believe that the band can be epic if they need to.

The band currently has five tracks available on Soundcloud, and plans to record an album this summer. As much as "All The Way" impressed me, "Where We Stand" is probably the most important track to hear.

Definitely worth checking out. Let's wish them well.

http://www.lovebrooklynmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/lovebrooklynband

https://soundcloud.com/lovebrooklynmusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/lovebrooklynmusic

https://twitter.com/HeyLoveBrooklyn

When the lies get believed

Circling back to last week, I wrote that all of the other prides beyond "white pride" were reactions against the abuse.

"Black is beautiful" was necessary because it was such a given that black was ugly. Black little girls would find black dolls ugly. Little girls at a Disney event told a black girl dressed as Elsa that "black is ugly" this year. Donald Trump just called Mexicans rapists, and while lots of people find him vile, Amy Schumer just told a "joke" that said the same thing. Racist jokes are made all the time, and then if you complain about it people say you're too sensitive.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/samara-is-the-real-queen

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jun/28/amy-schumer-comedys-viral-queen

With most of the groups that have some sort of pride events or initiative, you can find a history of abuse. There may have been some improvement, but there is still a long way to go. Also, the improvement didn't happen magically, but was fought for, and pride was a part of it.

White pride does not have the history of abuse, but it adopts it.

"You rape our women and you're taking over our country."

That's what Dylan Roof told his victims.

Setting aside the "our" for now, white women are most likely to be raped by white men. That is one more area where crime tends to stay within race. Not only that, but violent sex offenders in prison are more likely to be white. Without specifying violent, the sex offenders in prison are 75% white. When you take into consideration not only how low the rate of conviction resulting in imprisonment is, and the way prosecution happens so disproportionately to minorities, at least with other crimes, that's kind of amazing.

Taking over? Black people are about 37 percent of the population, but only 10 percent of elected officials, and that's counting local government. There are two black senators out of one hundred, and 49 out of 535 representatives. That's not even parity.

Affirmative action is keeping you out of jobs? No, it's not. A recent study showed that white applicants with a felony conviction were as or more likely to be called back for a job interview than a black applicant with a clean record. Without the felony, the white applicant was twice as likely to be called back as a black applicant. Again, remember which race is more likely to be pursued for drug crimes.

One big area of resistance to accepting the existence of systemic racism for white people is that life is hard. If we have all of this privilege, why am I barely getting by? There are reasons for that, and I believe we'll spend some time unpacking that next week.

For now, you may know that the Dominican Republic is cracking down on Haitian immigrants, except that many of those immigrants will turn out to be third-generation Dominicans who neither know anyone in Haiti nor speak the language, but they do have darker skin.

http://www.ryot.org/5-things-know-cleaning-haitians-dominican-republic/935183

The government's request for large buses and the rumors of camps being set up along the border sound ominous, and a little reminiscent of Nazi Germany, but we don't quite know how it will go yet.

Here's the thing I'm pretty sure about. It can be really easy to decide that economic problems or employment problems or crime problems are the fault of one group, but that isn't the real story. If they truly do go out and round up people with darker skins and send them out of the country, they will succeed in causing a lot of human suffering, but I'm pretty sure that they'll find out that the country's problems remain pretty much the same. What do you do then?

When the police lie

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." - Benjamin Franklin

The police lie. That can be viewed as an inflammatory statement, but it's a bigger problem that it's true.

"It's because of the lack of black fathers" and "Where's the outrage over black-on-black crime?" are not the only scripts. There is also a whole set of scripts to blame the victim in every incident of police brutality.

"Why was he running?"

"You need to comply with police orders immediately!"

"The officer feared for his life."

Except we have video of Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott in the back, and then planting the weapon that he would say was stolen. We have video of how quickly Tamir Rice and John Crawford were shot, with no chance to understand and comply. And there are a lot more examples than Freddie Gray of why being taken into custody can be terrifying.

It appears to be part of a long tradition. As I was reading the screenplay for Call Northside 777, they were wrapping up the reparations hearings for torture victims of Richard Burge, former Chicago police commander. Part of that was learning about various black sites where detained people would disappear for a while, the most notorious being Homan Square.

That was a horrible story, but it stuck out because one of the key plot points in the movie was that one of the framed men was taken to multiple locations without being officially booked. At one of these locations the witness who falsely testified against him was able to see him for identification purposes. The events that movie was based on took place in Chicago in 1932.

Shortly after that I watched a documentary about the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia in 1985. There is footage of an unarmed man crawling out of the building, and police officers kicking and beating him, which they said was because he was armed and dangerous. Confronted with the lie, one of the men said that if you knew what kind of a guy this was, and responsible for the death of a really good man (though there are some ballistic details that would call that into question), you'd want to beat him too. Burge has said he can't believe the government is going to pay reparations to vermin. Well, some of the "vermin" are confessed criminals, but they only confessed because of the torture.

I hate writing this. I am thinking about various law enforcement officers that I care about, most of whom I believe to be good men, but their profession has a wide potential for corruption.

I remember discussing police work with one of them. This was a while back, but he was talking about how people see "The Shield" and think it's like that, but that was based on just one department that went bad.

I wish the Rampart scandal was the only incident of police corruption. Just recently I have been reading about Philadelphia, and Albuquerque (huge scandal that eventually went away with only the whistle-blowers punished) and Miami Gardens, and yes, in Chicago they were so skilled at torturing people that one of them went to work at Guantanamo. A Baltimore whistle-blower had to move to Florida.

Sometimes members of marginalized groups are pressured to speak out against other members of their group, like Muslims need to speak out against every act done by ISIS, even when done against other Muslims.

I guess the way you can tell that the police are not marginalized is that they do not get this pressure. They are more likely to circle the wagons in a show of support. They will gently talk down a fellow officer and then hug him while his wife bleeds to death in the car and their 7 year old daughter watches. They will make T-shirts and wristbands to show their support.

"I am Chris Humphries."

"I am Darren Wilson"

You are not thinking hard enough about the company you keep.

It is a horrible thing to not be able to trust the keepers of the public safety and peace, but that's where we are. Too many have shown themselves to be trigger-happy, especially with their romantic partners, especially with the mentally ill, especially with people of color, and especially if they're black.

We cannot automatically accept what they say about anything.