Cynthia MacLeod is one of the best Prince Edward Island fiddlers. I’ve seen her many times since seeing her with the incomparable Fiddlers’ Sons when she was 15. Here she is with Jeff Matheson on keyboard. The sound is not wonderful, but one can get a sense of her playing. To find out more go to cynthiamacleod.com:
Add comment May 21st, 2008
Today is the 38th anniversary of the Kent State massacre of four antiwar students by National Guard troops. One seldom hears about those troops, but I suspect that, like the protesting students and their families, they still have nightmares on this day. They should never have been sent to a college campus fully armed. Those who sent them bear the major responsibility for the murders.
[h/t Crooks and Liars.]
Add comment May 5th, 2008
Childsplay Featuring Mark Simos, Lissa Schneckenburger, Aoife O’Donovan, Keith Murphy” perform Tears Of Healing Rain” at The National Heritage Museum
1 comment April 24th, 2008
Two contemporary interpretations of the Phil Ochs classic, one the Ochs version with contemporary video:
And Dick Scary/Jello Biafra take that updates the lyrics and the interpretation. A must watch!
I have to say that Obama gets an undeserved pass here. When he wins will see more satire of his cautious pro-corporate policies, I’m sure.
1 comment April 2nd, 2008
Add comment March 24th, 2008
Mother Jones allows us to get a sense of one of the “interrogation techniques” used in America’s gulags, sensory overload via music. They have the
Torture Playlist
By Justine Sharrock
Music has been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, “prolong capture shock,” disorient detainees during interrogations—and also drown out screams. Based on a leaked interrogation log, news reports, and the accounts of soldiers and detainees, here are some of the songs that guards and interrogators chose.
Imagine these being played for hours on end at the maximum volume that won’t break your eardrums, with you tied up and unable to escape in any way:
No wonder the Society for Ethnomusicology has condemned the use of music in torture. Notice how, unlike the American Psychological Association, which can’t find it within them to mention, much less condemn the use of psychological expertise in US torture, the Ethnomusicologists have no trouble calling a spade a spade. But, then again, the musicologists probably don’t get tens of millions of dollars from the US military-intelligence community:
The SEM is committed to the ethical uses of music to further human understanding and to uphold the highest standards of human rights. The Society is equally committed to drawing critical attention to the abuse of such standards through the unethical uses of music to harm individuals and the societies in which they live. The U.S. government and its military and diplomatic agencies has used music as an instrument of abuse since 2001, particularly through the implementation of programs of torture in both covert and overt detention centers as part of the war on terror. [Emphasis added]
One day the profession of psychology will speak in such simple terms.
Add comment February 27th, 2008
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