08-16-09 LA CA: 1148 hrs. I am listening to AM 608, Live Frying: Spykes. Sounds like my place is being leveled, so all is well.
Last night was my last Saturday on KCRW’s pledge drive. We raised a lot of money, much more than last week. I am very happy about that and hope that we met our goals. It’s an interesting thing asking people for funds but that’s what it’s all about. It’s subscriber supported radio and without the listeners chipping in, there’s no radio station. I would rather depend on the listeners than a corporation any time and last night, the listeners came through big time. I really like working at that station. I never know how long I will be there but for now, things seem to be going ok.
I have started working on next week’s radio show, it will be good to be able to get back to that. Two weeks away from regular programming feels much longer. Last night, as the Saturday before, the place was packed with people, our great volunteers, staffers, etc. Next week, it will be back to no one in the halls and business as usual.
I don’t know about you but for me, the summer has flown by. It only occurred to me that soon it will be September. Last year, I was all over the place, doing shows and other stuff and the days were harder to get through and were much more memorable. Being off the road, the time goes by more unnoticed. One of the things I didn’t get a chance to do was check out some albums that I like to visit in the hotter months of the year. Perhaps I will get a chance in the next week or so to do a concentrated listening session and get a few of those listened to before the palm fronds turn a paler shade of green. That’s about all the noticeable seasonal change you get in Los Angeles.
I was listening to a man from the Southern Poverty Law Center, I believe it was Mark Potok, talk on the radio a few days ago about the upward spike in militia movement in America. This is distressing news. When the going gets rough, a certain slice of Americans lock and load. Whatever their feelings are, I am sure are as sincere as anything anyone has ever felt but it’s too bad that arming up and amplifying the fear is their coping mechanism. If you want to read more on all of this, you can go to their site:
http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp and read their reports on the situation as they see it. The part of all this that is the most upsetting to me is that this time around, there’s a lot of intense racial overtones thrown into the mix. A nonwhite president and concern over immigrant/healthcare issues are making some people come to some less than good conclusions as to how to handle things. There’s an informative report with Olbermann and Potok on the site if you want to get a brief overview of the thing.
One of the more dismal parts of all of this is that in my experience at least, nothing changes the minds of these people. Someone who thinks that president Obama is not an American citizen for instance, that’s their story and they’re sticking to it. There’s no paperwork you could show one of these people that will change their mind. They need something to push against. Think of pro-life politicians and how bad it would be for them if abortions were outlawed in every state. They need abortion to be legal so they can get campaign contributions. The idea of the phantom enemy expressed in The Power Of Nightmares documentaries comes to mind. I have watched that one twice, very interesting. http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares takes you there to watch for free.
This stuff is all so depressing and it leads to nothing but more negativity, a profound lack of forward movement and a country still stuck in the mud of its own creation. Shame on the pundits and politicians who play to these obviously upset people. There’s so much real work to be done and to be going round and round with this kind of thing is very frustrating.
I have to go. I am doing some vocals on a soundtrack that Inger Lorre is putting together for a film. I said I would help and so I am going into ruin a song with her in about an hour. I have voice over work, acting stuff and a lot of other things coming up this week so there should be some interesting things to talk about by the time I write you again. I am looking forward to checking out The Flaming Lips show tomorrow night at the Greek, should be a great one.
Thanks for reading this. Henry