Sorry about the long wait, but work comes first.  Anyway, I am getting back in the swing of things for a little while.

Science News in Brief

The Large Haldron Collider has resumed operation and set a new world record for energy.  Its particle beams were accelerated at over one trillion volts.  This was just a precursor to the Collider’s primary scientific tests set for the year 2010.

Still No Black Hole: Just to give you a sense of the energy involved here: a lightning strike hits with about 1 billion volts.

A cross-disciplinary team of researchers from universities across America have released a study which indicates that climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan African countries by as much as 50% in the by 2050.  These wars would be fueled by decreased water supplies, fewer food sources, and increased poverty rates.

Talking World War III Blues: Already, 5.4 million people have died from civil war the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the deadliest conflict since World War II.

Scientists seem to have discovered the reason for the hammerhead shark’s strange head shape.  The shape allows sharks to see almost in 360 degrees in binocular vision.

Weird Animal Fact: The mantis shrimp has the best eyesight in the animal world.  It is the only animal to to have hyperspectral colour vision.  That is, it can see across the electromagnetic spectrum.  We can only see visible light.

Cool Creature

I already covered the kakapo, but I have been dying to post this video.

Feature Story: Remember Me

Are some animal species more important than others?  A recent study which examined 222 carnivore species around the world points to the fact that certain carnivores should be more protected than others due to their ecological importance and individuality.

Even though carnivores are probably the most studied animal group, their taxonomic connections are not well understood.  Thanks to genetic testing, scientists are now able to construct much more accurate taxonomic maps.

The study supports the theory that describes the split of carnivores into two main evolutionary groups: dog-like carnivores (Caniforms) and cat-like carnivores (Heliforms).  The same study also revealed some so-called Confused carnivores which do not fit neatly into the aforementioned classification.

Researchers performing the study also isolated a number of carnivores which are unique in the ecological services they perform and the way they evolved.  They suggest that these species, including monk seals, red pandas, and walruses, should be more protected than others because they are so unique.  Because they are evolutionarily distinct, they have genes and evolutionary history not found in any other species.  This makes it important with regards to biodiversity: by increasing genetic variability.

The Cosmic Perspective

All people value equality: the right to be treated with equal respect and dignity as any other human being.  Those who value the environment tend to extend that to the animal world.  We do not like to show preferential treatment to certain animals just because they are cute and cuddly.  So, this study which claims that certain animals are more important from an evolutionary perspective comes as a bit of a shock.  Why should a walrus be more important than a snow leopard?

I look at this from two points of view: that of a scientist and that of an environmentalist, because I consider myself to be both.  As a scientist, I definitely see the merit of protecting certain species.  Different animals perform different tasks in an ecosystem.  Certain animals’ roles are more critical to the functioning of the system as a whole than others.  It is a principle of network systems thinking that  nodes (animals) in a system (ecosystem) can be ranked based on the number of nodes which connect to them and the importance of those nodes.  So, the more important connections an animal has, the more important it is in an ecosystem.  However, even a few important links can prove to elevate a species to a higher status than one with many relatively commonplace connections.

That being said, all animals play an important role in biodiversity.  Biodiversity provides for the astounding variety of different organisms, genes, ecosystems in which they exist, and biological services these organisms provide for life to adapt to changing environmental conditions throughout history.  It would be foolish not to save as much as we can of the already dwindling amount of biological diversity we have on this planet.  We often do not know how important something is before it is gone altogether.

I spent much of the long holiday weekend in a sickly, weakened state on my couch, remote in hand, weeping at sappy movies. Honestly, between the two monsters — viral and hormonal — battling for evil dominion inside me, I was a sniffly, sobbing mess for a solid four days. Good flocking times.

And, of course, much of my weeping was prompted by music. It began on Wednesday night, with “Glee.” Much of the episode drove me bonkers, as it centered around the increasingly prominent and deeply irritating Quinn, but then there was a stunning musical piece: a deaf choir performing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Oh my goodness. I am probably (definitely) just a sucker, but something about the signing, as well as singing, of that song — already an emotional tune — just killed me. I’m getting teary again just typing about it.

On Thanksgiving morning, one of my local radio stations played “Alice’s Restaurant” around noontime, just as one of my local radio stations growing up had done. This made me grin, remembering countless Thanksgiving treks to my aunt and uncle’s house, with my younger siblings hollering at my parents to change the station so they didn’t have to listen to old Arlo ramble on any longer. And then this made me sad, missing my family on Thanksgiving day.

Then, over the course of the weekend, I watched quite a few holiday movies, in whole or in part, and many of them broke me right down again. I mean, I cried at Elf. Elf! Should one really cry at Will Ferrell movies? (Oh wait, I totally cried at Stranger than Fiction too.) But when Zooey Deschanel starts singing? And the crowd sings with her? And they all are filled with Christmas spirit? Oh my goodness. Waterworks.

Also I saw The Family Stone, which I have to say: possibly one of my favorite movies. I mean, come on: Dermot Mulroney! Diane Keaton! Luke Wilson! Claire Danes! Sarah Jessica Parker! Paul Schneider! Rachel McAdams! Craig T. Nelson! What is not to like? Also it has the lovely Elizabeth Reaser, who at one point watches one of my absolute favorite movies, Meet Me in St. Louis, and weeps when Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” And who wouldn’t? Oh so sad. So there I am, weeping at a movie within a movie, getting all caught up in the Christmas spirit — or at least its maudlin stepsister — before Thanksgiving was even fully over.

Today I am, alas, back at work, and operating at about 80% of normal health. I heard nothing worth commenting on during my commute this morning — but my head is full of the weekend’s tear-inducing tunes.

Could be worse.

Artist: Arlo Guthrie
Album: Alice’s Restaurant
Released: 1967

I kinda missed the boat on this one, since it’s generally meant to be played on Thanksgiving Day, but better late than never, I suppose. I don’t have much of anything to say on this album, seeings how it was meant for the day off I took Thursday. But I suppose if you missed this musical Thanksgiving tradition the same way I did, you could enjoy the song below and partake in much the same way I am right now.

Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant Massacre [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==

the full version…

Unfortunately, my family is unable to gather en masse for Thanksgiving this year. However, along with millions of other people  around the world, we have established a back-up plan just in case we find ourselves in this very situation. We maintain a standing reservation at the same restaurant, you may have heard of it, it’s owned by a lady named Alice.

Every year at precisely noon on Thanksgiving Day, as a matter of near religious devotion, classic rock stations (a rare and dying breed) around the country play the 18 minute and 34 second Arlo Guthrie classic Alice’s Restaurant. This 18 minutes and change is sacred to me, and I’d never miss it. No matter what the circumstances, whether traffic on the Turnpike, delays at the airport, or even physical limitations due to health or distance, I know that, at exactly noon EST, my family is sitting around the same table, sharing the same laughs and enjoying each other’s company…even if hundreds of miles apart.

So this morning, as I sat prepared with coffee on my couch, radio tuned in early, Facebook open and ready for the knowing quote exchange that was sure to ensue the song’s airing, and listening to the end of WZLX’s pre Alice Steve Miller Band “Threefer,” the clock struck noon. And then it struck 12:01…and no Alice, no Arlo.

My blood pressure rocketed as I stared at the speakers hoping the middle finger I was aggressively throwing at them would somehow make there way through the wires and hit the DJ square in the mouth. It surpasses my comprehension that the main rock station, in the very home state of the very events that transpired in 1965 to inspire this hymn, with a professional DJ at the controls, could possibly fumble the execution of pressing play at the globally accepted, understood and expected time. And for fuck’s sake, to finish off a Steve Miller “Threefer”?!?! No disrespect to Mr. Miller, but the world could have certainly lived without the 100,000,000th playing of “The Joker.” In fact, the world could live with it never being played again, especially in the way of, or to cause disturbance of a true classic.

I know, it sounds pretty ridiculous, maybe a bit strong and overstated, but it’s not. The importance of noon for this tradition cannot be understated.

When families gathers to eat at a certain time for Thanksgiving dinner, you want to be there on time and for all of the courses. You want to get a taste of each dish, you want to hear the funny new stories that you missed, and re-tell all of the stories about the people you all miss. If you start dinner 15 minutes after everyone else, you’re likely to get shafted out of the white meat, maybe even get the shitty side of the green bean casserole, and no one wants that. Even when they’re the same dishes every year, even when the stories repeat 90% of their content, it sucks to be left out or miss even a minute of it. And for me, my dad and brother, and the millions of others eagerly waiting for that clock to hit high noon that one specific day of the year that opens that special table where we’re all together for that few minutes, Alice is still providing that meal.

So while it may seem strong, maybe a tad extreme to be this upset by a radio station being slack in it’s attention to detail, it’s not to me. I want to be singing along with everyone else at the same time, I want to be messing up the lyrics with everyone at the same time, and I want to be yelling “Kill! Kill! Kill!” and “Father Rapers” with everyone, everywhere, at the same exact time.

Can I press play on my ipod at noon? Sure.

Is the world going to end because I’m laughing a few measures behind my family? no.

But does knowing that somehow, at this exact moment there’s millions of people that have agreed to be somewhere at some specific time to enjoy a very special moment just once a year make it more special? Hell yes it does. And to tell you the truth, I think that group togetherness that this song was born from, and inspires still, really was the point in the first place when Arlo shared it with the world.

I’ll be on the Group W bench next year at noon, and I’m hoping that the radio stations that have supported and helped keep this tradition alive for so many years find a way to respect the importance of noon.

Happy Thanksgiving.

(PhotO By AnNie LeibovItz)

Part One

Part Two

Firstly, Thank You Arlo Guthrie For This Great ToOl For HapPinesS & Simply AlL Around Great Tune. This has becomE a tradiTIonAl thing for me & (some) of mine (hopefulLy more to folLOw). As far aS givIng thanks goes & having fun at it, this is the way to go…..for me atleAsT. You eithEr get it or Ya don’t. I hope Ya do. Dang, This is so GOOD!!!!!
Now Bring On The VegGiE MeatloAf!!!!!

“Alice’s Restaurant” is a song written by Arlo Guthrie that was made into a hippie flick that came out in 1969. Listening to this tune has been a family tradition going back as far as I can remember. That and the Thanksgiving Day parade and Dallas Cowboys football. Oh, and pie – always pumpkin. We be simple people.

This is an eight minute clip from the movie, one of my favorite scenes.

A little history on the song for those uninitiated to Arlo Guthrie, the song, or not having been raised in any form of “hippie” environment. This is Arlo Guthrie’s (son of Woodie Guthrie) most prominent work; it’s actually a musical story about a true event in the life of Arlo that occurred on Thanksgiving Day in 1965. The song lead to a movie which I’ve seen multiple times, usually on Thanksgiving Day, that was filmed in 1969.

In an interview for All Things Considered, Guthrie explained the song was, as should be obvious, written as satire to showcase the ironic guidelines established by the U.S. government in selecting men and women for military draft. The song created as a protest at the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The fact that a person could be deemed unworthy to serve in this war simply by perhaps being arrested for such a minor infraction as littering, the epitamy exemplifying the idiocy and obtusity so often evident in the world of bureaucracy.

Growing up a long-haired hippie child it was instilled within me, especially considering my Pops had served a few tours of duty ‘in-country’, the evils and unwarranted cruelties that humanity is capable of afflictiing upon one other. He related to me stories of how, when riding even through the Air Force bases in jeeps or trucks someone had to ride in the back. Reason for that, anyone, even some of the locals who worked on the base, could lob a grenade into the vehicle. Once, a local woman who did laundry for some of the guys, riding by on her bicycle with a basket on the front pitched a grenade into the truck he was on; he happened to be riding the truckbed that day, had to kick it out the back – they always rode tailgate down for that reason.

Now Pops wasn’t in the front line or even on the lines at that time, he was a radio operator in the towers for flight traffic control. He told me situations like that when even kids would or could be carrying grenades or hidden weapons came to shape the insane brutality and gory progress that the Vietnam War spiralled into.

The reason I bring up this story on a day like today, when Pop was finally provided stateside orders and was able to return it was around Thanksgiving. Apparently the whole Arlo Guthrie story and song appealed to him considering what he’d seen during his time there, so the birth of a holiday tradition was born.

Considering the world today, listening to or watching the movie on a day we set aside to give thanks helps me see the irony behind some of the government rules, regulations, the madness that humanity can inflict upon itself and each other. In today’s world we don’t have a war on-going with defined enemies. The battle instead being waged by smoke curl ghosts wafting up from deep dark depths defined by religious fervor and misunderstanding. Perhaps we’re even witnessing a version of what some consider as Hell; or a statement or study of how a civilization sequestered might tend to breed a people whose radicalism born of insanity creates a monstrous thought process and a bastardization of a religion known for celebrating peace.

I’m thankful my Pops did not get destroyed by a random grenade in Vietnam. I’m thankful that there has not been another 9-11 in our country. I’m thankful for the love of my family and kin. I’m thankful to be here to celebrate my relatively safe and comfortable lifestyle. I’m thankful for the ability to carry on with those day-in day-out mundane activities such as going to the grocer’s or ferrying my kiddo back and forth to school in an environment where no threat of guns or bombs need be considered on an average day.

I’m thankful Arlo Guthrie wrote “Alice’s Restaurant” and that I had someone to make me listen to the song even times I did not especially want to – traditions are psychologically powerful no matter in what form they may take. What this tune represents to our familial group, it’s a look at a serious situation with a very large grain of humor. I’m thankful for having a guy like Pops who raised me always with a smile and sometimes a silly joke and an appreciation for a nice dry, wry sense of humor.

The full version of the song for your listening enjoyment, come on give it a listen, even if you don’t want to:

An added bonus, footage shot at Tipitinas – “Shit Makes the Flowers Grow”. Inspires me to seriously want to take up the Ukelele:

Now Happy Thanksgiving, I have pumpkin pies and a nice nutty pumpkin bread to prepare.

Peace.

(everyone, now – ) …at Alice’s Restaurant!

Nothing says it like music. THIS music. Happy Thanksgiving!

I wrote about Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant last year. So doing it a second year in a row qualifies it as a tradition of this blog now.

Why is Alice’s Restaurant associated with Thanksgiving? From Wikipedia:

“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” [sic] (commonly referred to simply as “Alice’s Restaurant“) is one of singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie’s most prominent works, a musical monologue based on a true story that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie of the same name. In an interview for All Things Considered, Guthrie said the song points out that any American citizen who was convicted of a crime, no matter how minor (in his case, it was littering), could avoid being conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War.

Radio stations around the United states seem to play it around 12:00 noon every Thanksgiving. The song is a rollicking 18:33 journey through Arlo Guthrie’s classic guitar and great storytelling.

Below is a screenshot of the video. Embedding of the video has been disabled by request. Click the picture, and you’ll be taken to the video on YouTube.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No commentary needed, but if you want context, here also is a clip from the 1969 film (when gas was 33-9/10 cents a gallon).

Tune in to mvyradio this Thanksgiving…we’ll have the original, classic, “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon, and then at 9PM I’ll be featuring an hour-long performance from Arlo Guthrie at Newport Folk 50 this past summer. You’ll hear him do “The Motorcycle Song”, “Me And My Goose”, and “City Of New Orleans” as well as some covers of tunes from Leadbelly, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. He’ll also crack you up with some great stories and jokes. Don’t miss Arlo Guthrie’s performance from Newport Folk…Thanksgiving night at 9 o’clock. And if you can’t go a year without hearing “Alice’s Restaurant”, we’ll have that for you at noon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

mvyradio.com
Arlo Guthrie

…which can only mean one thing:  it’s high time to break out the ol’ Arlo Guthrie CDs and play “Alice’s Restaurant” over and over again until I start screaming “Kill!  Kill!” in my sleep.  I don’t know about you guys, but “Alice’s Restaurant” is a family tradition in my household.  Not only do we listen to the song more times a day than any person reasonably should (considering that you can only fit about three plays of the song into one hour, you can imagine what a huge chunk that takes out of one’s day), we also watch the movie based on the song.  But this year, we’re actually doing ourselves one better:  we’re going to see Arlo Guthrie IN CONCERT around Thanksgiving.  So, yeah, Arlo’s a pretty big deal in my family, especially this time of year.  For those of you who’ve never had the pleasure to hear “Alice’s Restaurant”, or if you’re just hankerin’ to hear the song again (sheesh, I’m starting to talk like Arlo now I’m so jazzed about this song), I’ve included here a video of a live performance of the song from a few years back.  Also includes footage from the film.  And one more thing for you “Alice’s Restaurant” virgins out there:  don’t be dismayed by the 18-and-a-half-minute length of the song.  You’ll stay amused the whole time.  Trust me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Earlier this evening I popped into Libertys with my friends Steve & Sue from Sanecommunications, and Matt Dawson and family, to have a listen to the sounds of The Super Imposers. I really enjoyed there upbeat mellow sounds, kind off a new folk acid jazz asthetic. They reminded me of Arlo Guthrie in Alices Resturant. If you want to find out more take a look at WONDERFULSOUND online.

I’m all ranted out for now, so I shall bring this series to a close.  I have hinted at a number of things we, the average consumer, can do to improve the system.  So, to finish off the series, I am posting a list created by a professor of Environmental Studies, Dr. Richard Andrus, which I think is completely reasonable to attain.

For personal health-

1. Eat more whole foods and avoid processed sugars & starch.
2. Avoid factory farmed meat, dairy & eggs wherever possible.
3. Eat modest amounts of grass-fed meat.

For the environment-

1. Avoid factory farmed meat.  They cause massive pollution issues from concentration of nitrates and massive erosion from corn & soybean production for animal feed.
2. Buy local. This cuts back of food miles and helps reduce CO2 emissions.
3. Buy unprocessed food, as processing takes huge amounts of fossil fuels.
4. Avoid any processed drinks that come in a non-reusable container. The only reusable containers available currently are glass beer bottles from Canada. Recyclable does NOT mean reusable. Most recycled containers end up in the landfill.
5. Buy organic, as long as it’s unprocessed.
6. Grow, cook and brew your own.

For everything!

1. Purchase as little food as possible that results in profits for corporations. There are two reasons. One is that by law they are bound to maximize profits for shareholders, which means they are bound to take advantage of human weaknesses that attract us to unhealthy foods. The second reason is that a prime way to increase profits is do whatever you can legally do to externalize the costs of your activities. This results in pollution from agricultural fields, abuse of farm workers. contamination from factory farms, abuse of farm animals,and  huge production of packaging solid waste.

Andrus, Richard, PhD. Some Simple Dietary Suggestions. Binghamton University. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

Forty years ago this week, Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre, in which hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers. Hersh later was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, but he may have been scooped – not by another journalist, but by a then 20-year-old singer/songwriter named Arlo Guthrie.

Two years before Americans learned about civilian casualties from Hersh, Guthrie addressed the issue in “Alice’s Restaurant,” an 18-minute musical narrative that begins with his arrest for littering and ends at the Draft Board, where a Sergeant notes the arrest on young Arlo’s record and asks him if he has rehabilitated himself. Arlo replies with a mixture of anger and sarcasm: “Sergeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself. You want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after being a litterbug.”

During the 1960s, young Arlo was not the only singer/songwriter running ahead of mainstream media outlets. Protest music actually functioned as alternative media during the Vietnam War era, regularly asking questions and raising issues that were absent from the mainstream media.

To support this argument, I recently authored a chapter on protest music for War and the Media: Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture, a book published by McFarland & Company this fall. In my essay, I point to songs such as “Alice’s Restaurant” to demonstrate that protest music offered the public information about the Vietnam War that was not being provided on a regular basis by mainstream media.

For example, during the early stages of the war when it was U.S. policy to deny that American military personnel were engaged in active combat in Vietnam (and most media reports described the situation this way), Phil Ochs suggested that American military involvement was being described as a “training mission” in order to avoid embarrassment should the U.S. lose the war: “Well training is the word we use, nice word to have in case we lose,” he sang in the opening verse of “Talking Vietnam.”

Later in the song, Ochs expresses mock chagrin that the enemy in Vietnam fails to recognize the (false) claim that Americans are only offering assistance and not engaging in combat:

Well the sergeant said it’s time to train

So I climbed aboard my helicopter plane.

We flew above the battle ground

A sniper tried to shoot us down.

He must have forgotten, we’re only trainees.

The chapter I authored includes similar mentions of songs written by Country Joe McDonald, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger – all of whom wrote lyrics that addressed issues that were absent from the mainstream media. In many ways the essay provided an opportunity to synthesize the work I have conducted over my career as a music critic, as a political reporter and as a media studies doctoral student. I especially enjoyed tracking down some of the influential singer/songwriters from the 1960s, most of whom were happy to talk about their work and lend support to my theory about the role protest music played during the Vietnam War era. Paxton agreed that it filled a void left by mainstream media. Buffy St. Marie called protest music “an alternative news outlet” and noted that she wrote the song “Universal Soldier” at a time when most news reports did not even acknowledge that there was a war in Vietnam.

Some people familiar with my research on this issue have suggested that bloggers are playing a similar role today by driving mainstream media outlets, much as they did when they raised questions about the accuracy of Dan Rather’s reporting on former President Bush’s military records. This is an interesting theory that will require much additional research before it can be proven right or wrong, but I did make a similar observation when I was exploring the work of Bruce Springsteen for an academic symposium at Monmouth University earlier this fall.

My goal was to learn how Springsteen has kept in touch with his working class New Jersey roots while becoming a multi-millionaire and international superstar. I began by searching for connections between Springsteen’s music and the major news stories that have taken place in New Jersey during his career.

When I found none, I realized I was looking in the wrong place. I was looking at the major stories the New Jersey news media had reported, but I didn’t take into account the possibility that the items the news media deemed most important to cover might not be the same as the issues on the minds of working class New Jersey families – and that these working-class New Jersey families have more in common with the messages of Bruce Springsteen’s songs than they do with the news that makes headlines.

A number of media scholars have suggested that there is a gap between the type of news that is reported and what is actually of importance and interest to the citizenry. Much like protest music did in the 1960s, Springsteen’s music fills this gap. For example, people may gain a better understanding of the dire economy from the characters and the stories in Springsteen’s songs than they do from news reports filled with numbers, percentages and statistics.

Regardless of whether it is Bruce Springsteen in 2009 or protest singers in the 1960s, music has always had the potential to be just as powerful and influential as a news report. As Buffy St. Marie explained when I asked about the impact of protest music: “A good song is immediate, small, easy to remember, makes a point quickly and strategically, and is portable, flexible, replicable, transferable to other people and other languages, and can last for generations. A song never goes out of print.”

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