God Bless Matt Taibbi

The latest flap regarding Rolling Stone’s printing of General McChrystal’s drunken, professional suicide has engendered several comments from fellow reporters including (and I quote Mr. Taibbi’s 6/28/2010 Blog post): “I thought I'd seen everything when I read David Brooks saying out loud in a New York Times column that reporters should sit on damaging comments to save their sources from their own idiocy. But now we get CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan slamming our own Michael Hastings on CNN's "Reliable Sources" program, agreeing that the Rolling Stone reporter violated an "unspoken agreement" that journalists are not supposed to "embarrass [the troops] by reporting insults and banter."


Mr. Taibbi titled this BLOG posting “Lara Logan, You Suck” (I fucking love this guy!). The whole BLOG post is well worth reading (www.rollingstone.com/politics & click on Matt Taibbi) if you have any love or regard for actual news and the importance of a vigorous, honest public dialog. This whole flap has reminded me of the scene from Cameron Crowe’s movie “Almost Famous” where the music journalist Lester Bangs (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) coaches the young writer about being friends with the rock stars he is writing about; “My advice to you, I know you think those guys are your friends, you wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.”

War in Afghanistan

Please take note of a 6/25/2010 story by Matthew Rosenberg in the WSJ, this is the opening paragraph: “More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad.” Another alarming quote: “One figure often cited by Afghan and Western officials is $10 million a day leaving Afghanistan. That is $3.65 billion a year, more than a quarter of the current GDP.” This is taxpayer money (borrowed from foreign investors no less – but that is another subject) to fight a war for which no reasonable person can even define what “winning” would even be! This report follows a Washington Post piece by Karen DeYoung on 6/22/2010 that begins with the following paragraph: “The U.S. military is funding a massive protection racket in Afghanistan, indirectly paying tens of millions of dollars to warlords, corrupt public officials and the Taliban to ensure safe passage of its supply convoys throughout the country, according to congressional investigators.”


This war effort is Mr. Obama’s greatest mistake. Whatever you think of Health Care and Financial Reform legislation at least there is potential that some American citizens might actually be helped and that is clearly not something you can say about the Afghan war. American’s should be outraged and every wasted life and every wasted dollar lost in this useless, meaningless war – GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!

The problem with Republicans

While anti-Obama sentiments rage around the country fueling the Tea Party movement and anti-incumbency fever is it going to be enough to win the next presidential race? The party has rallied around Mitch McConnell who simply plays the politics of opposition (simple opposition is certainly easier than pursuing actual ideas and legislation). This all may be an effective strategy in the mid-terms but I don’t think it is going to work in a presidential contest. In a presidential race you need to actually have a vision and plan and (at least appear) that you possess the intangible quality of leadership.


While the bloom is certainly off the Obama rose, he will enter the next presidential cycle with some real accomplishments running against a Republican party that appears to pride itself in a “just say no” agenda. Yes, Mr. Obama’s accomplishments are questionable; massive Health Care legislation that institutionalizes future deficit spending and does nothing to control costs and (again) massive Financial Reform legislation that does nothing to ameliorate “to big to fail” and institutionalizes future bail outs while creating a huge new “consumer protection” agency (again fueled by deficit spending). Whatever you think about these 2 accomplishments it is not going to be enough to just rail against them, the next Republican presidential candidate will need to have an actual plan to make our country better, you know, some vision for America. See anybody on the Republican horizon that fits that mold?

4 June Shows, 4 Stories – Dave Rawlings, Alan Toussaint, Jim Hall & Sonny Rollins

On Friday June 4th we ventured to the Portsmouth Music Hall to see the Dave Rawlings Machine, the 4 piece acoustic band lead my husband & wife team Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch. The group was positively effervescent in its joyous delivery and the audience responded in kind for an uproarious concert. The music was mostly taken from the (sadly) less enchanting new CD “The Dave Rawlings Machine.” The set was peppered with some choice covers, notably Robbie Robertson’s “The Weight,” and Dylan’s classic “Queen Jane Approximately.” While fully serviceable (the audience loved them!) these covers suffered a bit as no one in the band is quite up the task of singing these great songs. Gillian performed two of her tunes (including the wonderful “Look at Miss Ohio”) and provided incredibly intuitive backup to Dave both on the guitar and vocals. All in all a great night of roots/country music, Rawlings remains (in this writer’s opinion) one of the best guitarist in the world on his old 1935 Epiphone archtop. To the delight of the audience, after a 3 song encore the group came out for a second encore and walked to the very lip of the stage and Gillian led them in a wonderful acapella version of “Go to Sleep (Little Baby).” www.myspace.com/daverawlingsmachine


The next day, Saturday the 5th we traveled up to Burlington, Vermont to the Discover Jazz Festival to see New Orleans legend Allan Toussaint. I was lured there as the show was titled “The Bright Mississippi” after Toussaint’s recent recording of the same name (from a Thelonius Monk tune). The show was also to feature Don Byron who plays clarinet on that same CD. Toussaint started the show with his regular band and proceeded to perform a set that can only be described as really good lounge music. I have seen Toussaint twice recently and have come away with the same opinion; he is a really charming and superb supper club performer. He sings some of his famous songs, but of course he is no Lee Dorsey (“Workin’ in a Coalmine”) or Ernie K-Doe (“Mother in Law”) so while pleasant, they tend to be shadows of the original versions. Mid-set the bass player switched to an upright bass and Don Byron appeared and the group did indeed do 4 tunes from “The Bright Mississippi” and they were sublime. “The Bright Mississippi” is one of the most nuanced and greatest essays on traditional New Orleans music I have ever encountered, and these live versions did not disappoint. Immediately after this set we were back to the lounge, that included a revolting sing-a-long of “The City of New Orleans,” with its refrain, “good morning American, how are you.” The audience loved all this, and apparently did not miss the fact that Toussaint played virtually no traditional New Orleans piano (in the style of Longhair, Booker, or Washington). This omission is stark as he can do can play in those traditional modes as well as any man alive, he did not even venture into his own early material (the Tousan Sessions) – very disappointing. www.allentoussaint.com

On Friday and Saturday the 11th and the 12th, we were back in Burlington to see the guitarist Jim Hall on Friday and tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins on Saturday. Both of these giants turn 80 this year and they clearly showed the physical ravages of time, both somewhat crippled and stooped with age; that is until they began playing. What a profound testament to the power of music to see these 2 men perform!

Hall, who is the dean of American jazz guitarist, was clearly the most effected by his age, there were more missed notes and difficulty at faster tempos but there were also (as there always is with him) moments of almost transcendental, lyrical beauty and his tone is still singular in the guitar world. The first half of Hall’s set was with some of his orchestrated pieces and featured Vermont area brass players. This set was a mixed bag as some of the players seemed to not be up to the task at hand, perhaps due to experience or lack of rehearsal. The second half was with Hall’s amazing quartet of Scott Colley on bass, Joey Baron on drums and Greg Osby on alto sax. The highlight of the second set had to be a sublime reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge” with great solos from Hall and Osby. Other highlights were a lush reading of standard “All the Things You Are” and 2 Sonny Rollin’s compositions; “Sonnymoon for Two” and “St Thomas.” www.jimhallmusic.com

Sonny Rollin’s was simply staggering, when he walked out on stage I hardly recognized him, with his “Larry Fine” style grey afro, stooped and smaller then I remembered but when he counted off the first tune, a blistering blues he might as well have been 20 years old. On the opening number he soloed for well over 10 minutes calling to mind his friend John Coltrane’s famous live version of “Chasin’ the Trane.” It was an unrelenting barrage of invention, melody and energy that defied both his appearance and age. Rollins played for almost 2 hours without a break, his 5 piece band was fabulous including the recent addition of guitarist Russell Malone and fiery drummer Kobie Watkins. Rollins rarely broke between tunes, counting off directly into the next number like a man possessed, swinging his horn and stomping on the floor for emphasis. Certainly a highlight for jazz fans was the appearance by Jim Hall on 2 tunes near the end of the night: “In a Sentimental Mood” & “If Ever I Would Leave You.” Jazz stalwarts will know that one of Rollins most famous recordings, “The Bridge,” included both Jim Hall and Rollins current bass player Bob Cranshaw as part of that historic quartet. Rollin’s introduced Hall as a “young man” sitting in on guitar as Hall made his way to the stage with his cane. It was truly a “surreal” moment (to quote Guitarist Russell Malone) to see these 3 men together again. www.sonnyrollins.com

The Obama Apologists

There is nothing more pathetic then the current Obama apologists; it generally shows itself in the phrase I have heard several times in the past week or so: “he still has time to turn it around.” The “it” of course is his presidency. These are folks who elected a man with virtually no real political track record, fueled by autobiographies, the promise of “hope and change” and some great speeches. God knows we need a lot of both hope and change, but it is a fool’s quest to elect someone who is both untested and untried and “hope” for “change.” In this scenario what exactly is the basis for being disappointed? President Obama is clearly a very intelligent and thoughtful man which is something you cannot say about our last President, but it is proving to not be good enough as he appears to not have any clear leadership abilities or core vision. He seems to be more of a manager then a leader. His chose of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff signaled that Mr. Obama was going be a good corporate Democrat and do what he was told, with Mr. Emanuel doing the side deals on his behalf to make sure the campaign money kept rolling in.


One of the great ironies of the last presidential election is that it was a race between a largely unknown candidate, Mr. Obama, and one with a substantial track record, Senator McCain, but quick as a wink the “maverick” John McCain morphed into some sad shill of his campaign manager Steve Schmidt. While, no doubt McCain rolled out of the Presidential campaign severely bruised he had the ability to emerge as one of our elder statesmen but that is not to be. John McCain sadly has now fully bought into the obstructionist Mitch McConnell (right) wing of the Republican Party and is now groveling in Arizona, begging to keep his job and even calling on Sarah Palin to campaign for him!

It is hard to know where the Obama presidency with wind up, he has made some severely tarnished attempts at major legislation with health care and financial reform, both pieces of legislation shot full of holes by the intensive lobbying by both the health related industries and Wall Street. These 2 bloated and half-assed pieces of legislation will do little for the American people but I suspect will haunt us for many years. Of course the real downfall of the current administration may end up being the decimation of the Gulf Cost by BP, time will tell. Meanwhile all we can do is “hope” for “change.”