Racing In The Street

Whatever your position on the current immigration policies being discussed in the U.S. Senate and the bill passed in the House, you can’t help but be impressed by the massive outpouring of protestors in several US cities over the past two weeks. Los Angeles had between 500,000 to 1 million people out in the streets at a massive rally/march last Sunday. The next day, over 15,000 L.A. high school students walked out of classes to attend several different protests.

As an organizer, I was impressed by the use of media--both old and new--to get these protests off the ground. As for the rally, many folks are pointing to the unprecedented cooperation of Latino DJ’s on commercial radio stations to promote the event.

As for the high school rallies, more tech savvy kids used
forums like MySpace.com to organize this action--mostly over one weekend.

Matthew Sweet is the kind of rocker that you always tell your friends about, and are surprised when they've never heard of him. In a just world, he'd be a huge star. I created a whole new genre designation on my iTunes program, largely when confronted by his music (although Ben Folds and Better Than Ezra fit nicely there, as well): Alt.Pop

Sweet's music is pop, but not saccharine and with a distinct rock kick. Pick up albums like Girlfriend or 100% Fun and find out for yourself.

Why the shout-out? His new album is coming out soon, working with Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles on covers of great 60's pop.

"Songs such as Fairport Convention's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" sit comfortably alongside a nicely sloppy bash at the Who's "The Kids Are Alright." A letter-perfect, feedback-stoked version of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" segues naturally into Love's flamenco-dusted ballad, "Alone Again Or."

Laugh of the week: a web-only comic called Minimum Security. It's slogan is Resistance Through Ridicule. A strip lampooned South Dakota state Senator Bill Napoli who helped push through the recent state law banning all abortions. A woman in the strip opines that since Napoli believes woman can't make decisions for themselves, she will call him whenever she needs to make a decision: say choosing between vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing. The laugh comes from the fact that she includes Mr. Napoli's home and office phone numbers in the strip. Call now, phone lines are open!

The American Sociological Association has created a list of "essential" protest songs.

Among the selections:
“We Shall Overcome,”
“The Times They Are A-Changin’”--Bob Dylan
“Which Side Are You On?”--1930's union anthem
“Fight the Power”--Public Enemy.
“Respect”--Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin
“Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” --James Brown.
“I Ain’t Marching Anymore”--Phil Ochs.
“Strange Fruit”--Abel Meeropol
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”--lyrics by James Weldon Johnson; music by J. Rosamond Johnson.

I agree with Bob Dylan (who wrote so many brilliant protest songs it's hard to limit him to one), Public Enemy and James Brown. I don't think any of the others would make my Protest! mix tape.

Jason Zengerle wrote a good piece in the New Republic on why there's no good protest music anymore. Iraq War protest music was terrible--preachy, whiny and about as literary as a Democratic National Committee leaflet. He laments the lack of artists like Dylan:

" . . .A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" which Dylan wrote during the Cuban missile crisis--never specifically mentions war. Instead, it uses apocalyptic imagery--'I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests, I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans. ... I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin', I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'--to convey the horrors of war and, in the process, transcends its topic."

Here's my mix tape:

The Times They Are A-Changin'--Bob Dylan
Fight The Power--Public Enemy
Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)--James Brown
This Land Is Your Land--Woodie Guthrie (Bruce Springsteen live version!)
Open Letter To A Landlord--Living Color
My City Was Gone--The Pretenders
White Riot--the Clash
Things Goin' On--Lynyrd Skynyrd
Inner City Blues--Marvin Gaye
Living For The City--Stevie Wonder
Atomic Power--Louvin Brothers (Uncle Tupelo version)
Biko--Peter Gabriel
Talking 'Bout A Revolution--Tracy Chapman
Burnin' & Lootin'--Bob Marley
There Is Power In A Union--Billy Bragg
Born In The U.S.A.--Bruce Springsteen
Bullet The Blue Sky--U2 (live version)
Fight For Your Right (To Party)--Beastie Boys

. . .well, maybe not that last one

Check out the movie "Junebug" on DVD. The performance of Amy Adams was so good in this movie that she was nominated for an Academy Award, even though hardly anyone saw the small-budget film. The best line--her retort to her self-absorbed, immature husband --"God loves you just the way you are. . .but he loves you too much to let you stay that way."

Why did the public meeting on the potential demolition of Rt. 81 through the city of Syracuse start with 45 minutes of blathering by Van Robinson about all his work on the city's comprehensive plan? Was this actually the first event in the Robinson '09 mayoral campaign?

The Boston Red Sox have two of the best names in pro sports: Coco Crisp and now. . .Wily Mo Pena . You can't make this stuff up.

Why did the city end the tradition of making Opening Day for the local AAA baseball team a half day--so employees could take in the traditional afternoon game? The city, county and private businesses should pick that back up, at least one game would be well attended.

Best St. Patrick's Day Parade celebration--The Ukrainian Home on Tipp Hill and their feast of pyrohy, holubchi and kielbasa. Hey, it's still cabbage, potatoes and prepared meat!

According to a recently released study by The Center for Housing Policy, working families with children are less likely to own their homes now than thery were twenty-five years ago. The report studies data on homeownership and housing costs between the years 1978 and 2003.

The national homeownership rate in 1978 for all families was 65% and increased to 68% in 2003. However, homeownership rates for working families with children decreased from 63% to 60% during this same time period. Families surveyed were working and had incomes from minimum wage up to 120% of the area median family income.

The gap in homeownership between minority working class families and their white counterparts also widened during this time period. Minority families with childrensaw their homeownership rates remain at 45% for this time period. White working class families with children actually saw an increase in homeownership--from 69% to 71%.

The report speculates on some of the demographics behind this decline:

1) Working families with children are twice as likely to be single-parent homes in 2003, as they were in 1978.

2) Housing costs (mortgage, insurance, utilities and taxes) increased 30% more than incomes during this period.

The city won a phyrric court case about its residency requirement. The state courts have ruled that the city can require its workforce to live in the city or lose their jobs. The city can do this even if 80% of its workforce is exempted by state laws from the residency requirements. The remaining 20% are not being unlawfully discriminated against.

Well, it's a start. Now we need to go after the state to roll back the exemptions for police, fire and sanitation workers. (That last one is a doozy--it means that the trash haulers can live wherver they want, but snowplow operators must live in the city. A department divided amongst itself.)

Union folks hate residency requirements and fight it incessantly, BUT THEY MUST BE MANDATORY AND APPLY TO ALL! The city can no longer afford to pay union-scale wages and benefits to folks who do not contribute to the city's tax base. Unions must realize that they are killing the goose that lays the unionized-plenty-of-overtime- mandated-benefits eggs. The Syracuse city budget is facing a multi-million dollar deficit because it is spending twice the amount annually it brings in through tax revenue. We cannot continue a system that pays Syracuse police more overtime than Rochester and Buffalo combined. Over 30 police officers earned over $100,000 last year.

So motor on home to Clay and B'ville and Manlius, you suburban-dwellers. But don't be so sure that your city job will be awaiting you at the end of your morning commute.

Todd Rundgren, now with the New Cars, is more than just a great musician. For years he has been at the cutting edge of computer technology and music downloads. And not in a "Metallica-screw-the-fans" way either. For loyal fans he set up a subscription service giving fans access to not only his old music, but also works in progress.

Here's an excerpt from an essay Todd Rundgren wrote on the relationship between musicians and their audience--and how its being threatened by the "dumb asses" of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA):

"It's time to let the monolith of commoditized music collapse like the Berlin Wall. Musicians can make records if they feel like it, or not. Wide open pipes are ready to transport us, mainstream and fringe alike, into the ears of an eager audience who appreciates us and is more than willing to financially support us. Get out of the way if you can't lend a hand because ... you know the rest by heart."

I've held off writing about Gerry McNamara for awhile, but now that S.U's season is finished the time seems right to unload. I'm not alone in wondering why the public has gone through such a fuss about McNamara. See the poll of assistant Big East coaches naming Gerry the conference's most overrated player or this article on Slate.com linking Gerry to the legion of "AWG"'s (Annoying White Guys) that many fans love to hate.

I agree with Sean Kirst's comments in the Post Standard that the Orange run through the Big East tournament brought the entire region together. McNamara was incandescent during all four games at Madison Square Garden and all Orange fans should remember this conference championship as one of our team 's most glorious achievements.

That being said, why all the fuss about a point guard that will not go on to the NBA, was often inconsistent as a shooting guard and forced to play out of position as a point guard? His farewell Dome game against Villanova was more elaborate than the send-offs accorded much more celebrated athletes who also stayed for four years and graduated, including last year's graduating senior Hakim Warrick (you remember, the guy who saved our National Championship with THE BLOCK!).

The answer to that question is one of both race and class. The letters to the editor that talk about his being a "clean-cut, All-American guy" is a not so subtle hint about what's going on here. The overwhelmingly white fan base is hungry for a star that they can relate to, in a way that they cannot with the equally clean-cut, polite, and soft-spoken Hakim Warrick. In this town, it also certainly doesn't hurt to have an "Mc" beginning to your surname.

But McNamara is different from the legion of "AWG's" discussed in the aforementioned Slate article. The premise of that article is the the AWG's are from relatively affluent backgrounds. They are suburban types that aren't complete players, lionized in the press, but disparaged by true basketball fans as much for their cocky attitudes as for their uni-dimensional games. McNamara isn't a spoiled suburban kid, but from a blue-collar family in one of the archetypical fading rust-belt towns of America: Scranton, Pa. That plays well in a town like Syracuse. We may be larger and a bit more economically diverse than Scranton, but we're also struggling and unsure of our future. Gerry is our hometown guy by proxy, even more so than someone like Lazarus Sims, an actual hometown player.

An interesting rock 'n'roll revival--The Cars, replacing singer/songwriter/leader Ric Ocasek with, wait for it. . . TODD RUNDGREN!Now called The New Cars, the band ripped through a nice performance on the Tonight Show of the Cars hit "Good Times Roll".

I'm very much into this development. From the Nazz to Utopia and his solo career, Rundgren is a much more accomplished writer and performer than the icy Ocasek. New album and tour in May!

Joanie Mahoney, the recent Republican candidate for Mayor of the City of Syracuse, has decided to move out of the city. The decision has already been framed in political terms, by both the Driscoll and Mahoney camps.:

“She wasn’t really into the election, she was a stalking horse for the Mayor’s opponents.” Vs.
“The policies of Mayor Driscoll are driving families out of the city.”

They’re both wrong. I’ve seen firsthand the effort that Ms. Mahoney put into her work as an assistant District Attorney and a Common Councilor. You cannot fake that kind of commitment to your community. However, I don’t buy the cop-out rationale that Matt Driscoll made her move out of the city. I accept Joanie’s statement that the move is for her family, they need a larger house and the Catholic school their children are all attending is closing. However, these are choices that she made and could have been made differently.

There are no larger houses in the city of Syracuse? Matt Driscoll closed down St. James? Let’s face it, the suburbs have bigger yards, bigger houses and better schools. If that’s what you want, fine. Not everyone can live in the city. At least be honest about your motivations. You want to be a suburban hausfrau.

As more well-heeled families take their tax dollars out of the city, the day will soon come when we start finding alternative means to tax those who use our city for work and recreation, without contributing to the public coffer.

Hey Joanie: don’t let the screen door hit you in the ass on your way out!

Here are some e-mails being flashed around by our neighborhood association:

“...several coyote spottings on Alden Street and behind St. Andrew's Church. This coyote seems to come out during the early morning hours and I saw him just yesterday on a neighbor's front lawn and then in the church parking lot at 5:00 p.m. when there were plenty of people and cars around.”

“I see the coyote(s) and a fox all the time in our backyard on Thurber. I chased the fox out of our yard when we got home from work at 6 pm last week “

From Vincent Street across from the park: “There have been coyotes in our back yard just a few days ago.  Our cats spotted them around 9:30pm.”
 
“dog walker friends of mine who live in the neighborhood were walking their dogs (large dogs) on leash early in the morning and were tailed closely by a coyote for several blocks.  He eventually turned into the cemetery as they were approaching my house on Jamesville Ave.”

Our 3 dogs are medium sized (40-50 lbs) and are outside in our fenced backyard as a pack, but I’m still freaked out. We don’t let them run in the back by themselves anymore, we’re hanging on the porch with our coffee in the morning and huddled in our jackets and pajamas before bedtime.

Doing some research, I came across an interesting article in the Smithsonian magazine about urban coyotes titled City Slinkers. Apparently, we are in the midst of an unprecedented coyote boom and coyotes have moved into every nook and cranny of the country--big cities and suburbs included. Coyotes thrive because they are nimble, smart and eat ANYTHING. Lots of good eatin’ in city garbage cans, bird feeders and small pets. We're not alone!

“it’s been a long, long drought baby/but tonight the rain’s pouring down on our roof.”

First the CD version of the 1975 Hammersmith Odeon concert was released in February. Now the announcement of an April 25th release of a collection of traditional folk songs entitled We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

The collection features Bruce’s covers of spirited, socially aware folk songs, in the vein of singer and activist Pete Seeger. The band is not the E-Streeters, although Soozie Tyrell plays fiddle and Patti Scialfa sings background harmony.

The band, playing acoustic/traditional instruments, will also go out on tour. Will Syracuse (skipped over for the last two E-Street tours and the recent Devils & Dust solo acoustic tour) see its first Bruce concert since the 1996 Ghost of Tom Joad solo acoustic tour? I’m hoping that an album that contains the song “Erie Canal” will help convince Bruce to come back to Syracuse.