HeadCount Blog

Investors have been quietly buying up chunks of fertile African and Indonesian farmland in hopes of turning a tidy profit as the world’s population increases by another 2 billion food consumers over the next forty years to 9.1 billion. German news magazine Der Spiegel, in this eye-opening article translated in Salon, reports that the governments of the Gulf States, Egypt, Korea, and South Africa have been helping conglomerates lease and purchase millions of acres of prime farmland in South Sudan, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cambodia. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that as much as 74 million acres have been leased or purchased by foreign interests.

The positive spin on this is that by modernizing agriculture in weaker and poorer states, corporate technology and capital will help them modernize and stabilize into full-fledged democracies. Investors sweeten the deal by promising to build school and pave roads. In the long run, they might even reduce hunger overall.

The negative impact, however, lies in how this new land grab quite possibly signifies a new colonialism, with richer nations exploiting poorer ones for their own capitalist benefit. Giant corporate farms would inevitably drive small subsistence farmers out of business with the help of heft security forces, such as the 100,000 soldiers Pakistan has already deployed to foreign-owned fields. And what will happen when famine inevitably strikes these new colonies? Will corporations share the wealth with their starving neighbors?

Because more than 50 percent of Africans are small farmers, large-scale land acquisition could be disastrous for the population. Those who lose their fields lose everything. The fact that the large investors can substantially improve harvests with their modern agricultural technology is of little use to Africans who, once they have lost their land and livelihood, cannot afford to buy the new farms’ products.

Speculation in human necessities such as food, water, and energy almost always devolves into scams, exploitation, and graft. Perhaps this latest grovel for resources will force us to rethink why our species continues its inevitable race to scarcity at the rate of 221,760 new people per day.

Yesterday, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted 16-9 in favor of a bill that would eliminate the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The disparity in mandatory sentences has resulted in a disproportionate number of African-Americans being sentenced to lengthy prison stays for crack offenses, despite most cocaine users being white, without the drug’s availability being significantly reduced.

Under current law, five grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine trigger the same five-year sentence. Fifty grams of crack cocaine and five kilograms of powder cocaine trigger the same 10-year sentence. If H.R. 3245 becomes law, crack and powder cocaine mandatory minimums will be equal: 500 grams will require five years and 5 kilos (or 5,000 grams) will require 10 years, no matter what form of cocaine is involved.

On November 21, 2008, Students for Sensible Drug Policy sent more than 200 students to Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives to support equalizing the disparity – proof young people can make a difference!

Hamedah Hasan is an example of someone who has spent the past 16 years in prison due to mandatory-minimum sentencing. She was scheduled to be released last month until her case judge “changed her mind.”

“When we look at bands and artists that foster community (and sometimes endless jams), we can see parallels to the rise of social networks,” writes Phish fan and strategic-communications specialist Josh Sternberg in “What Twitter and Facebook Can Learn From Phish,” an intriguing post for Mashable: The Social Media Guide. Sternberg makes the often repeated – but just as often forgotten – point that these days fans drive brands through the latest social-networking tools at our disposal. “Are Twitter and other social networks destined to niche status or are they so embedded in our lives that they are now an indispensable part of our society?” he asks. After providing a concise history of fandom and recent technology, including the parallel paths of sports and music fandom (note for further research: Grateful Dead and Menudo: Bands Or Teams), he concludes thusly:

Social networks are still new, but they are much more than fads. They will continue to evolve as we become more dependent on them for information – from where we get our news to sending pictures from your honeymoon. User generated content, whether through blogs or microblogs or status updates or whatever, is what shapes a community, and which in turn, shape society. Social networks played a large part in our political game this past cycle in the US and elsewhere, and will also continue to play its role in shaping how companies participate in the conversation and how they can use social networking as a great customer service tool. In short, social networking, like rock and roll, is here to stay.

Last month Bill Clinton urged President Obama not to give in to Republican demands for a weakening of the public option. At the time, it seemed like the only support Obama would have to struggle to gain would be from the right. But now, as budget talks intensify in the Senate and House, there’s clearly less solidarity in the Democratic Party than was originally thought. As the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, fiscally conservative (if only sometimes) Blue Dog Democrats are balking at the public option, which they’d only approve as a backup plan if competition doesn’t lower costs and make insurance universal. The party’s left leaners, however, view the public option as mandatory for any real public-health overhaul, and have become frustrated that Obama seems to have softened his stance. Obama has said he will not sign “a bill that won’t work.” But he has also made it clear that bipartisan support will be crucial, especially now that members of his own party are seemingly backing out on one of what is arguably the bill’s most important features. As Obama seeks support for the new health-care bill (presumably including the public option) over the next month, it will be interesting to see on which side of the fence he ultimately lands. Does he stand by the public option and hope the Blue Dogs come around when it’s time to count the votes? Or does he ease toward the middle and sacrifice one of his plan’s pillars? With a receding approval rating, rising unemployment, and a bill such as this to push through congress, I don’t envy the man’s job.

As you’ve probably heard by now, an apparently grisly death marred last weekend’s Gathering of the Vibes. It was the first time anybody has died at a Vibes since the annual event’s 1996 debut. I attended the festival and can attest that this unpleasantness was in no way representative of the festival as a whole. Vibes was truly a pleasure; great music, great people, and, aside from some drastic weather, it went off without a hitch.

moe. guitarist and HeadCount board member Al Schnier commented on the tragedy, and its relevance to the band’s own upcoming festival, at moe.’s blog:

hi.
I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. I’m sure many of you are aware of the recent incident @ the vibes. a 29 yr. old male was found dead @ the festival. the cause of death is not ‘officially’ determined as of this time; however, many witnesses have claimed that the body was dumped off by a car w. PA plates & that the death was related to the nitrous trade. there are plenty of accounts posted online, but I’m cautious about reprinting anything here that may not be accurate. there does seem to be a lot of evidence suggesting foul play on the part of the nitrous mafia.

I know this must be extremely difficult for the friends & family for all involved, & I share my condolences & compassion for them.

secondly, I need to make it known that nitrous is not welcome @ moe.down. the nitrous mafia is not welcome @ moe.down. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Shapiro has been a linchpin of the East Coast live-music scene since 1996, when he purchased Manhattan’s Wetlands Preserve from Larry Bloch. He began producing the Jammy Awards in 2000 and in May led a group of investors in relaunching Relix magazine. During the past few years he produced the films U2 3D, Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub, and the HBO live presentation, “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.” He’s also been on HeadCount’s board of directors since its inception.

One of our favorite enlightened entrepreneurs, Pete discusses his most recent project, Brooklyn Bowl, which opened this summer in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.

Richard Gehr: How did you get into the club business?

Peter Shapiro: I was a film student at Northwestern University, where I made two films about Deadhead culture. I directed A Mile to Go and produced Tie-Dyed. Then during the summer of ’95 I made a film called American Road, where I went to every state country and made a 7 minute film of imagery from my road trip with Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself” as the soundtrack. After I graduated, I became an intern at New Line Cinema.

Then I heard that Wetlands was for sale and that the owner was going to close the club unless he could find someone who would continue the club’s mission. I was 23 and knew nothing about clubs, nothing about the live-music business. But I was interested in being involved with Wetlands. I didn’t have the money, really, or the background, but I raised my hand. Larry structured the deal so I could pay him over time. That was in 1996. I was a little idealistic and naïve. He was looking for someone who was single because his family life was destroyed by the club. I had a background with the Dead, had spent time with [writer Ken] Kesey, I was from New York, I had been on tour, knew some things about music, had my shit on pretty straight, and I was dumb or smart enough to say to him, “What’s the rent? It’s a world-famous rock club, let’s see if we can make it work.” I was single, living in a small one-bedroom apartment, and I didn’t need much of a profit because I was so young. And there wasn’t much. And that’s why it worked for me. Also, the lease was only for seven years. They weren’t going to renew the lease, they were going to sell the building for condos after that, so the big players didn’t want to get involved. I said, “Let’s go, where do I sign up?”

RG: I imagine your decision to start Brooklyn Bowl was a little less spontaneous.

PS: I was involved in another club called the Slipper Room, but it wasn’t the same as having your own place and doing live music, so I wanted to come back and do it again. Read the rest of this entry »

Located after John Dean’s intro. Dig those crazy bongos.

At least in part because you’re reading this instead of one of them, music magazines have been dropping and downsizing like mad over the past several months. Blender and Vibe are history, and both Rolling Stone and Spin have trimmed their staffs considerably in response to diminishing readership and ad pages. In today’s Slate, former Blender staffer Jonah Weiner lays out what he believes are the three biggest reasons for the “music-mag death march”:

1. There are fewer superstars, and the same musicians show up on every magazine cover….
2. Music mags have less to offer music lovers, and music lovers need them less than ever anyway….
3. Music magazines were an early version of social networking. But now there’s this thing called “social networking”…

The upshot, for Weiner, is that the one thing music magazines often provided that you can’t find online (yet) was in-depth feature writing such as this David Peisner feature in Spin about using music as torture. That music magazines can no longer afford that sort of reporting is clearly a shame.

Meanwhile, and, I’m guessing, coincidentally, venerable rock-pop journalist Robert Christgau yesterday waxed cautiously optimistic about the fate of music mags in another of his lively posts for the blog of the National Arts Journalism Program (talk about teaching an old dog new tricks; Christgau’s posts have contained some of his most loose-limbed and personal writing in decades). Declaring that “not one, not two, but three music magazines are rising in their respective ways from the dead. On paper,” Christgau praises (with only faint damnation) the new business models of Paste, JazzTimes, and, Relix, of which he says:

The least moribund of these is Relix, initially a Deadhead magazine, then a jam-band magazine, and now clearly trying to define for itself a market share not altogether dissimilar from that of Mojo in the U.K. Purchased from Zenbu Media Group May 4 by the newly formed Relix Media Group, all of whose members are described as “veterans of the magazine,” it’s now put out three issues under new management. Among the cover topics: Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Wilco. Generationally, these choices are completely sane–Iggy is 62, and even Wilco is getting on. But the jam-band world is a tight little island, and to assume that people over 30 who are interested in attending live music share so much common ground is damn near visionary for the American music-mag business.

Eric, HeadCount’s pesky yet courageous Man on the Lot, is back at it again. He recently spoke about sustainability and conservation with fans of The Fray at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Deborah Solomon had this interesting exchange with folksinger Arlo Guthrie in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine:

Where are you politically these days?

I became a registered Republican about five or six years ago because to have a successful democracy you have to have at least two parties, and one of them was failing miserably. We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition.