Well, I’ve decided to make it official – at least inasmuch as anything on this blog is “official” – and replace the link to my YouTube channel with a link to my Vimeo site. I’ve been contemplating this for the better part of a year, after the YouTube Music Nazis gave me a ration of shit about using The Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” in my Egyptian Embassy solidarity demo piece in January of last year, and they stripped the audio track out of it, leaving my video silent, as if I was engaged in some nefarious scheme to mass-produce DVDs of that protest video and sell them out of the back of a friend’s van without paying royalties to The Bangles’ record label. So, the very day YouTube pulled that bullshit on me, I set up my Vimeo account, and posted the Egyptian Embassy piece there unmolested.
As many of you who follow my video work might have noticed, I’ve been using obscure mid ’60s garage-rock instrumentals for background music in a lot of my work lately – partially because I’ve kind of gotten into mid ’60s garage these days, but mostly because almost all those tracks are long forgotten, released by long-forgotten bands on long-forgotten regional labels, available only on old 45s, never reissued on CD, and so damned obscure and under-the-radar that I can avoid being jerked around by the YouTube Music Nazis.
Still, on general principle, I’ve switched my main video link to Vimeo, not only because they don’t have Music Nazis harassing people left and right, but also because you can find some pretty good quality work there without having to fight through all the footage of cats falling off tabletops, people throwing slabs of dry ice into swimming pools, and plane-crash porn. In fact, I’ve accelerated the process of re-posting a lot of my old work on Vimeo as lately I’ve been pestered a lot by YouTube about music I used in pieces I posted as much as five or six years ago with no problems (at least at the time).
I’m still leaving my YouTube channel active – for those of you linking/embedding my stuff from YouTube – and I’ll still be posting pieces there as well, but from here on in, Vimeo will get first priority. Between their cluttered new interface that pushes “featured” and “promoted” videos and other bullshit I’m not interested in, and their Amazon pop-up ads for the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls under my NYC 9/11 Anniversary piece which used “Shattered” (without giving me a share of the ad revenue), and their pestering me about music I used in a piece I posted six years ago, my attitude is pretty much “screw YouTube”.
Continue reading "Hey, gang, check out my new Vimeo channel!" »
Who’s More Progressive?
This piece was inspired by a blog post by Owen Paine, one of my favorite contributors to one of my favorite Leftie blogs, Stop Me Before I Vote Again. He quotes some interesting passages from President Nixon’s 1971 State Of The Union Address in which he mentions the “expansionary” budget he was about to submit to Congress, a “full employment budget”. Here’s The Tricky One’s own words from back in ’71:
“By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment”
Now, mind you, I’ve never been a Nixon revisionist, and I wasn’t one of those bonehead Liberals who spent the entirety of the Dubya Administration wishing they had Nixon back, but, still… full-employment budget? Then, I started thinking back some more… EPA? Detente with the Soviets? Healthcare program compromise with Ted Kennedy? Christalmighty, I thought, was Nixon, on balance, more progressive than Barack Obama?
Yeah, sure, Nixon dragged out a pointless war that hardly anybody wanted, bombed civilians at the drop of a hat, surveilled and harassed dissident activists, and sponsored coups and assassinations all over the world, but hasn’t Obama also done these?
Jeeeeeezus… full-employment budget.
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Romney’s Dog vs. Obama’s Dog
It’s no surprise that the Liberal punditocracy has grabbed hold of the story of Mitt Romney making his dog ride on the roof of his car and jumped on it like… well, like a big dog. Likewise, it’s also no surprise that the same big-shot Liberal pundits have softpedaled the reports of the Obama campaign allowing the formation of a big-money SuperPAC on its behalf — basically condoning the same kind of corporate election-buying that it condemned during the ’08 campaign.
Granted, Mitt Romney making his dog ride on the roof of his car while the rest of the family rode comfortably inside is a crassly insensitive act — but it’s even more crass and insensitive that the allegedly “progressive” Barack Obama continues to give the cushy ride to bankers and corporate interests while The 99% are forced to ride on the metaphorical roof of Obama’s metaphorical car.
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Occupy CPAC!
The Liberty Lamp reports:
The streets outside the Marriot Wardman Park hotel in Washington DC were alive on Friday, February 10th, 2011, as protestors affiliated with Occupy DC, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO and a host of allied organizations descended on the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC. Participants traveled from as far away as Pittsburgh and New York City to demonstrate against money in politics, income inequality and a profusion of crimes and abuses perpetrated against the poor, working and middle classes.
CPAC does little to hide the fact that it is a product of and for the elite rich, with a full pass to the conferences costing 200 dollars, a one day pass at 75 dollars and media passes only awarded to a select few that have passed a rigorous background check that would make the FBI jealous…
OCCUPY CPAC! from Wespennest on Vimeo.
…and here’s our coverage of the scene, shot by the Town Hell Posse (including yours truly).
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