Roy's a Liberal who sings funny songs about conservatives

Roy Zimmerman was born in San Francisco and still lives in the Bay Area. He could dwell forever in this cone of Liberalism. Yet something inside keeps urging him to get out and meet "Real People," those salt-of-the-earth types that conservatives love, in theory.

A bunch of us Real People went out to see Roy in concert Thursday night at the UU Church of Cheyenne. Some of you may not think of Unitarians as real people or UU as a real religion. We rarely hear about the Cheyenne Unitarians waging holy war against, say, the Sunni wing of the Unitarians over in Laramie.

Despite their namby-pamby ways, UU seems to thrive and put on great programs at their midtown church.

Roy Zimmerman's concert was one of those programs.

Roy wanders the country, seeking out pockets of Liberals to sing to. His plan is to play in all 50 states before the 2012 elections. He did the same thing before the 2008 elections, missing only Hawaii (too far away), Alaska (too cold) and New Mexico (didn't know it was in the United States). He won't make the same mistake again. This time, he started in Alaska, came to Wyoming and this weekend is in Colorado. You probably didn't know this, but Colorado Springs has a UU Church and Roy will play there Sunday. The American Taliban which make up most of the religious in Colorado Springs will not be amused.

One of the funniest songs from Thursday's Cheyenne concert was "The Abstinence Song."

"Abstain with me baby
Abstain with me all night long."

He sang it in a strained voice, as if attempting to keep his devilish desires in check. He also sang "The Bible Tells Me So," which recalls all the great marriages in the Old Testament. You know, King Solomon and his 700 wives and 300 concubines.Another great song is "My Conservative Girlfriend." He used to sing this with Anne Coulter in mind. Now he sings it to Michelle Bachmann.

"Moammar Ghaddafi gives us a glimpse of what a Michele Bachmann presidency would be like," he said as a prelude to the song.

Amen.

You can't visit Wyoming without bringing up the specter of Dick Cheney. And lo, he is quite spectrous. And his new book is out so his Satanic Majesty is all over the news.

Roy sang his "Chickenhawk Song," spelling out the litany of all those draft-dodging warmongers (like Cheney) who were only too happy to send your sons and daughters to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Possibly the most touching song of the night was the ballad about being the "Last Man to Die in Afghanistan."

He didn't let Liberals off the hook. There was a satiric song about how hard it is to be a Liberal, and one about the "psychedelic relics" of the sixties. And a touching ballad about how regular people are trying to rise up against the bullshit. He reminded us that "hope" and "change" are powerful words, but there is a third one we need to remember: Struggle.

Three words: hope, struggle and change.

Roy is traveling the U.S. with his Starving Ear tour. This is his answer to the Hungry I in San Francisco, a place that featured outspoken activists of the fiftes and sixties. People like Mort Sahl, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Glenn Yarbrough and a host of others. Hungry I = Starving Ear. I get it.

Look up Roy's stuff at www.royzimmerman.com

Stuck outside of Hogtown with those Shuttle Launch Blues again

Insignia for the first shuttle launch

We were just outside of Hogtown when the first Shuttle went up. Other cars joined us along the side of I-75 to view history. We were disappointed, not with the launch, but with the fact that we weren't on the beach at Daytona. That was our goal when my wife Chris, my brother Dan and I left Denver two days before.

Stuff happens. A batch of bad gas in Mississippi, or maybe just an aging vehicle. We were stalled for several hours at a truck stop on the Florida panhandle. The car still wasn't running right when we pulled off the highway for the launch.

An impressive sight. Heard and felt it, too. After it climbed out of sight, leaving its contrail drifting in the clear Florida sky, we looked at each other and said, "Let's go to the beach."

All three of us had viewed many launches over the years, some from the beach and some from our backyard. My father worked for the space program out of Daytona, for NASA and G.E. Chris's father used to take her and her sister down to the beach to watch the spectacles. I heard "The Eagle has landed" via the car radio as my high school girlfriend and I were parked on the beach during a July thunderstorm (yes, I was paying more attention to the moon landing than to the business at hand).

I'd like to be on the beach today. To watch the launch and to be on the beach, my old haunt. Chris is in Daytona for her high school reunion. She'll see the launch with her sister and old Seabreeze High School "Fighting Sandcrabs" pals. I don't care much for reunions. But I'm miffed that I'm missing the last Shuttle launch.

Some of my progressive colleagues don't see the value of the space program. They contend that it's too expensive. They don't see the value in the scientific research. They don't understand why we have to send actual humans into space when robots can do the work cheaper and with less risk.

But "manned flight" (lots of women in space, too) is important precisely because it's in our genes to explore. One major benefit from the Space Shuttle are the fantastic images captured by the Hubble. They have opened up the wonders and terrors of our universe like nothing else. Colliding galaxies and collapsing stars and black holes and artistically-shaped nebulae and all of that space (what's with that dark matter?). We must go there to see these wonders and to figure out what they are and what they mean.

I grew up reading Tom Swift and then Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Sci-fi fed my imagination. And then came the space program. I had the great good fortune to live at the epicenter of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo.

One closing note: that first shuttle launch happened 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight by the Soviet Union. In 1981, we were still going toe-to-toe with the Reds in space and on the ground (Reagan was newly elected). Now that the U.S is Shuttle-less, guess who we will depend on to get groceries and extra batteries to the space station?

Those darn Russkis. History is a funny thing.

"Freedom Riders" asks: Would you put your life on the line?

An amazing documentary. My wife and I saw it on WY Public TV several weeks ago. Donate to Truthout and get a fee copy. 

Imagine a protest with imaginative signs

My fellow progressive blogger at thepoliticalenvironment in Wisconsin had the following to say about free speech and protest. Pictured above is an example of the of the "angry, distasteful signs" on display at Saturday's rally in Madison.

Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary, on behalf of Gov. Walker, told a Madison judge Tuesday that the display of "angry, disdainful signs" was one reason that protesters should be denied access to the State Capitol.

Mean signs? Really? Should we pull up the Tea Party photo album?

No need - - as Wednesday the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that truly angry, disdainful signs displayed weirdly and offensively by anti-gay protesters at US military soldiers' funerals is legally protected free speech under the US Constitution.

Huebsch picked the wrong day to complain about signs.

Another miscalculation by the Walker Gang, and for now, the Capitol remains open - - though Huebsch and Co., in slowing down the flow of people through the doors, seem to playing fast and loose with the word "open."

Working Words: "You work, Buddy. You work."

Excerpt of a poem by Ohio's Ray McNiece from Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking out the Jams from Coffee House Press:

Grandfather’s Breath (excerpt)

You work. You work, Buddy. You work.
Word of immigrant get-ahead grind I hear
huffing through me, Grandfather’s breath,
when he’d come in from Saturday’s keep-busy chores,
fending up a calloused hand to stop
me from helping him, haggard cheeks puffing
out like t-shirts hung between tenements,
doubled-over under thirty-five years a machine
repairman at the ball-bearing factory, ball-bearings
making everything run smoother -
especially torpedoes. He busted butt
for the war effort, for profiteers, for overtime pay
down-payment on a little box of his own,
himself a refugee from the European economy,
washed ashore after “The War to End All Wars.”
Cheap labour for the winners.

Detroit poet M.L. Liebler, editor of Working Words, will read and perform some of his own poems and those from the book at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Cheyenne's Atlas Theatre. Tix are $5 for adults, $3 for students, military and seniors. He will be on stage with musician Peter Lewis, one of the founding members of Ground-breaking sixties rock group Moby Grape.

Here's how M.L. described the show (from wyomingarts):

"We'll do some of the songs that are sort of more or less poetic, songs we've written together and then Peter will perform acoustically some of the Moby Grape songs from his group, some of his own original pieces. We kind of have a nice little set where we're merging some of what we do together, some of my poetry in music, some of his Moby Grape and some of his original."

M.L. Liebler and Peter Lewis bring music the art of the spoken word to Cheyenne Feb. 26-28

Detroit author and performance poet M.L. Liebler and L.A. musician Peter Lewis, one of the founding members of Moby Grape, will perform at the Historic Atlas Theatre in downtown Cheyenne on Saturday, Feb. 26. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $5, $3 for students, military and seniors. It is understood that some of you "seniors" may still have Moby Grape's "Grape Jam" in the original vinyl. If so, bring it out to be signed.

On Sunday, Feb. 27, Peter and M.L. will conduct a free public workshop at the Laramie County Public Library from 2-4 p.m.

On Monday, Feb. 28, M.L. will serve as one of three judges for the 2011 Wyoming Poetry Out Loud competition. The competition begins at 7 p.m. at the Atlas Theatre. Peter will perform a short performance during intermission. This event is free and open to the public.

These events are all sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council, the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Here is some bio info on M.L. and Peter:

One of our judges for the Poetry Out Loud event will be M.L. Liebler, a mover and shaker in the Detroit poetry scene. He has written several books of poetry including the 2001 Finalist for The Paterson Poetry Prize and was winner of The 2001 Wayne State University Board of Governors’ Award. He has read and worked with Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary & William Burroughs.

In addition, Liebler has recorded his poetry with such musical legends as Al Kooper, Country Joe McDonald, Jorma Kaukonen, Mike Watt, The Magic Poetry Band and many others. Liebler also edited the recently released anthology, Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams (Coffee House Press).

M.L. has worked with the Wyoming Arts Council before – as one of the judges for the FY 2002 creative writing fellowships and as a presenter at one of the last ARTSPEAK conferences, held in Jackson in the fall of 2001. As director of the Detroit YMCA Writer's Voice, he came to Cheyenne in 2002-2003 at the request of the YMCA to conduct poetry and music presentations and workshops with Woodstock legend Country Joe MacDonald.

Peter Lewis is a founding member of the 1960s band Moby Grape. Their debut album was released in 1967, and it is still to this day one of the most revered rock albums of all times according to Rolling Stone magazine and other cultural critics. The band's energetic and hyper-exciting combination of folk, blues, and country was a unique sound to rock & roll. It was a new kind of American roots music but the band's career never took off the way it should have, due to personal tragedies. It took Peter Lewis a long time to shake off the troubled legacy of his band and begin to make his mark again with a stellar singer/songwriting recording career. Don’t miss out on the chance to see this living legend perform.

When M.L. and Peter perform together, they take their audience on a historical, cultural & literary journey from poetry to blues, folk and rock up to original contemporary compositions of both poetry and music. Together they blend words & music with beautiful harmonies, memories and the art of spoken word.