It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.



Wednesday, April 02, 2003
 

Check out www.protest-records.com. We know Clear Channel, MTV and
VH-1 are censoring music perceived to have an anti-war message (including
music by the "B-52s." For goodness sake, the band's name is a
reference to a hairdo, not a plane. Perhaps they thought the song's name
was "Iraq Lobster"?).

In an effort to make an end run around the corporate music blacklist,
Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) has set up www.protest-records.com to
distribute FREE mp3s of contemporary anti-war songs. No
charge -- the only restriction is that nobody tries to sell them in
turn. Last time I checked, there were over thirty, organized by volume.

Listening to these songs won't do anything to halt the snuffing of military
(scores of Americans, uncounted thousands of Iraqis) or civilian
(anywhere from 560-720, as compiled at www.iraqbodycount.net) lives,
but if we listen and spread the word at least the veneer of stifling unanimity
about this all might be punctured just a bit.

As the old song said, Die Gedanken sind Frei!

Posted by James Cook at 10:38 AM. # (permalink)



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