Interview: The Greening Of Rothbury
By Richard Gehr As the Rothbury Festival cranks up for its second year at the JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan, this weekend, festival founders Jeremy Stein and Don Strasburg discuss how Rothbury represents the cutting edge of large-event environmentalism, and what this can mean for society as a whole. How is Rothbury greener than any…
Mr. Franken Goes To Washington – Seven Months Later
By Josh Gelfand The Democrats now have the filibuster-proof majority they’ve been hoping for, at least on paper. Today the Minnesota Supreme Court decided unanimously to declare Al Franken the winner of the long-contested Senate seat. The Court determined that incumbent Norm Coleman did not have the grounds to dispute the election, and they recommended…
Persepolis 2.0: History, Comics Repeat Themselves in Iran
By Richard Gehr In 2004, Marjane Satrapi published Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, a graphic autobiography about her family’s experience during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the Shah of Iran was overthrown (with the help of the US government). The new regime turned out to be even more repressive than the previous one, so…
Oregon Passes Hemp Bill
By Josh Gelfand Leave it to those crazy Oregonians to step up and pass a definitive industrial-hemp legalization bill. Yesterday the Oregon House passed SB 676 by a vote of 46-11. It will allow production and possession of industrial hemp along with trade in industrial hemp commodities and products. Oregon is now the ninth state to…
Krugman: Climate-Change Deniers Committing ‘Treason’
By Josh Gelfand Leave it to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to speak truth to power, even if the power in question lost narrowly in the House last week. Krugman’s Monday New York Times column called out the 212 dissenting voters of the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill: “A handful of these no votes came from representatives who…
Headbanger Politics in Malaysia
I’m not an expert on Malaysian politics. But I was fascinated by this Malaysian Insider article about the voting inclinations of young underground metal, punk, and ska musicians who play their music – and express their views – in this country of 10 million Muslims (about 50 percent of the population). Khairuddin Aziz, a guitarist…
Dave Matthews Band Fosters Sustainability
In the July issue of Relix magazine, Dave Matthews explained the lyrics to “Dive In,” an apocalyptic warning from the band’s month-old Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King: “It’s talking about the future of our planet, but in a very lilting, light hearted way,” Matthews said. “The gravity of the topic sort of sneaks up…
Michael Jackson 1958-2009
Other than the occasional rumor about Phish performing Thriller some Halloween or other, the late Michael Jackson never made much of an impact on the improv-rock scene. His tightly knit arrangements and intricately choreographed stage presence never quite fit improv-rock’s looser and bluesier bent. But, man, could that cat – and his four brothers –…
Jimmy Buffet’s Politics for Parrotheads
I’ve never been the world’s biggest (or smallest) Jimmy Buffett fan. But I certainly respect his respect for his fans as well as his unabashedly hedonistic outlook. Surprisingly, Buffett comes out swinging against the powers that be on “A Lot to Drink About,” an unrecorded new song he did not perform at Bonnaroo last week…
The Talibanned Sounds of Young Pakistan
In November 2001, the sounds of rubabs, dutars, and other musical instruments were heard in the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, for the first time since the Taliban’s draconian regulations were installed in 1996. The Taliban, through its Ministry of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, had been arresting musicians, destroying instruments, shredding tapes, smashing VCRs, and…