I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!
Will Rogers
This primary, I’m a Democrat. I’m also not a member of an organized political party. After voting in the Texas Democratic primary, my lovely wife and I participated in the primary caucus at the neighborhood elementary school in Austin, Texas. The turnout was astounding. The line went out the door several people deep maybe for a block. After getting through the doors at a local school, our neighbors entered an auditorium, filling it to capacity and then some. The volunteers were overwhelmed by the turnout, and didn’t have enough sign up sheets for everyone who showed up. Plan B was to have people fill blank sheets of paper out by hand. Stations were set up for people to fill out forms, volunteers chosen, and people were called up to the front. First to go were people with disabilities, then parents with small kids, and then University of Texas basketball fans. There was a game on. One Texas A & M alum took umbrage with this clear display of partisan favoritism, and called for people to sign in table by table, to a sincere round of applause. Then the behind the scene organizers got busy. They went to the stations, got the papers and distributed them to people at the tables. At our table, we talked about how someone should write down how to do this. I joked about trying to find the piece of paper with the instructions at the next historic caucus, maybe in 30 years or so. After a brief scramble for pens, the people happily filled in their information, including demographic data and their preference for the presidential nominee. The room cleared out pretty quickly after that, except for the hard-working volunteers left to tally the votes signatures. The Texas Democratic party has a unique nomination process. I’m not even sure how to quantify our participation in the caucus, but there were a lot of people who thought it was important to be there and give their candidate an extra push.
Vampire Weekend played at Emo’s Lounge in Austin, TX. Their songs are bright, tight, pop, intelligent; described as “Upper West Side Soweto”. They’ve released Digital-Restrictions-Management-free mp3s from their E.P.. You can find it at http://digital.othermusic.com/view/5966 or buy a DRM-free lossless CD through their site. Keep an eye on this band!
You know who you are: they’re playing in Portland, Oregon July, 21 2007 at Holocene (1001 SE Morrison).
KUT out of Austin, Texas, U.S.A. is participating in the day of Internet Radio Silence today. It appears to be another misguided attempt by the RIAA to set up a legally-mandated protection racket benefiting major players in the recording industry while, in effect, restricting the spread of American culture to the international public, no matter the intention of the artists the RIAA claims to represent. According to indiepod.com,
the RIAA’s affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. ‘SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free … So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.
The future for independent American musicians who want to get international exposure through internet radio? Take off to the great white north, eh?
More information:
Bluebonnets near McKinney Falls State Park, Austin Texas, U.S.A.
Bands I saw:
We went to see Chingo Bling, but it turned out he was signing CDs and not performing.
The Meat Puppets closed the day show at the Parish Room, bringing tears to the eyes of Marc Tweed of the Hearers. Tita Lima put on an incredible show at Visions.
I saw Julz A in an intimate crowd at the Carousel Lounge. His specialty is “squeeze rock”. He plays an accordion, strikes all the rock star poses, and raps. Think Beck with an accordion. He ended the show with Squeezebox by the Who. He talked with audience members individually afterwards, gave out CDs and was selling shirts that said “Squeeze my box”. Best accordion music I’ve ever heard.
As global climate change threatens life on earth, Governor Perry has fast tracked hearings for eight coal-burning power plants. With conservation and use of some of the best real estate for wind generation, Texas has other options. You can object to the fast track permitting by sending a fax and have your objections be made part of the official record by printing a hard copy of the fax and mailing it to:
Ms. LaDonna Castanuela, Chief Clerk
P.O. Box 13087
MC-105, TCEQ
Austin , Texas 78711-3087
Years ago, when pondering what I could do to live a more sustainable life, I realized I’d need to obtain most of my food locally. Being reared on grocery store food, where everything is in season all of the time, I struggled to imagine not only living without certain fresh foods at certain times of the year, but also living without certain foods altogether. At the time, I lived in a place where subtropical plants wouldn’t grow. As I tried to imagine myself living as sustainably as possible, I couldn’t see myself living without citrus. During most of my childhood, I’d started every day with a glass of orange juice. The smell of torn lemon rind, the tang of a tangerine–it would have been too much to lose. I’d have to move to a warmer climate. Now I’m happy to report that I live in a warmer climate, on the cold northern edge of the subtropics. Agricultural zone 8. Warm enough for citrus, but just barely.
We’ve had a pair of satsuma orange trees in the ground for 8 years. This year was a banner year for one of them. Satsumas are cold tolerant to at least 18 degrees F. or reportedly even lower temperatures for brief periods. Satsumas have a low number of seeds and they are very easy to peel. Their segments separate easily–all in all, a very tidy citrus fruit, great for on the go snacks and for kids.
I don’t water much. The Satsumas have thrived during a hot, droughty year when lesser plants died. If you want to grow citrus outside of the Rio Grande valley in Texas, Satsuma is the variety of choice.
Information on harvesting:
http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/patiocitrus/harvestingtext.html
If you really want to cool down, take a break and head to Barton Springs. Dive into the water, don’t test the water or you may lose the will to chill. Stay in the water as long as you can, preferably until you get goosebumps. Rinse and repeat as needed. I find that I feel comfortable for an hour or more afterwards when biking and for a few hours when not moving much.
I was asked who I was looking forward to seeing this year. While there are many bands I know I like, I’m more excited about the band that I’ve never heard of that blows me away. In years past the bands that have stolen the show for me have been Café Tacuba, Los Amigos Invisibles, and Zap Mama.
More tips here and here.
What I learned to bring today:
- Water with a screw on cap. I brought in a apparently outlawed gallon of water, which the security team must have missed. It had a snap on cap, which snapped off in my backpack, thereby drenching everything I had.
Bands we saw:
- Terri Hendrix
- Gnarls Barkley–a highlight of the day
- Thievery Corporation — eclectic, sitar followed by rap
- Oliver Mtukudzi & Black Spirits — an acclaimed popular singer from Zimbabwe, also an actor. They performed infectious tunes in English. Their dancing imitated motions made when working, digging, hoeing or winnowing grain.
- John Mayer
- Van Morrison — by the time we made it to Van Morrison, we succumbed to gravity, too tired to stand.
The bike ride home reminded me of why I love Austin. As I made my way east, the music from the ACL music festival gave way to music in Fiesta Gardens, and then farther north, I encountered a neighborhood party at a Catholic school.
